Our group brings together scientists excited about electrochemistry, electron transfer, materials synthesis and characterization, and classical inorganic chemistry to bring fundamental insight and bottom-up design principles to heterogeneous electrocatalysis.

What we’re working on:

  • Designing new electrode materials for energy conversion through controlled surface modification

  • Discovering bottom-up design principles for the design of new electrocatalysts for energy conversion reactions

  • Controlling selectivity in electrocatalytic reactions important in fuel cells, including oxygen reduction to water or hydrogen peroxide and carbon dioxide reduction to fuel

  • Uncovering fundamental descriptors of interfacial proton transfer and electron transfer that can guide the interpretation of electrocatalytic data in a wide range of reactions essential to energy storage and utilization

  • Constructing and testing new Li battery electrode materials.

Techniques we use:

Atomic force microscopy image and scanning electrochemical cell microscopy video of nanosheet edge

  • Electrochemical techniques

  • Surface characterization techniques, including scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, electrostatic force microscopy, kelvin probe force microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, scanning electrochemical cell microscopy, X-ray photoelectron microscopy, Auger spectroscopy, and X-ray absorption spectroscopy

  • Electrode fabrication techniques, including electron-beam evaporation, sputtering, and atomic layer deposition

  • Glove box and schlenk techniques for air-free synthesis and electrochemistry

  • And more!

Facilities we use:

  • The Chapel Hill Analytical and Nanofabrication Laboratory (CHANL)

  • The Chemical Research and Core Labs (CRITCL), which house the Electronics Core Lab, the Mass Spectrometry Core Lab, the X-ray Core Lab, the NMR Core Lab, and an on-site glass shop

  • The Center for Hybrid Approaches to Solar Energy to Liquid Fuels (CHASE) Solar Fuels Product Analysis and Spectroscopy Facility

  • The Be a Maker (BeAM) maker space

  • Battery Creativity Hub