Research Thrust Area 2: Interface Control for Electrocatalytic Reactivity

Thrust Leader: Karen Mulfort
Thrust Deputy Leader: Paul Fenter
Principal Investigators: Chibueze Amanchukwu, Giulia Galli, Alex Martinson, Pietro Papa Lopes, Andrei Tokmakoff, Nick Lewis 

While efforts to identify efficient and effective processes for splitting water using sunlight as an energy source are ongoing, there are opportunities to exploit the advances in catalytic science gained in those studies to create new (electro)catalytic materials and reaction pathways for the direct decomposition of pollutants - as well as to create reactive species in water with potential use in remediation.

In Thrust 2, we aim to understand the materials design principles required for effective and selective chemical transformations relevant to water remediation by:

1. Predicting and synthesizing catalysts that are resilient under electro-active aqueous environments.
2. Identifying new mechanisms to drive selective electrocatalysis in complex aqueous mixtures.

We propose that mapping defect sites on the surfaces of single crystals and thin films of electrode materials and determining how the defect configurations evolve with applied bias over time will provide an understanding of the pathways required to create self-healing electrocatalyst materials through the control of defect concentration and identity. Tunable nanoporous MOx membranes will be used to probe the structural properties of physical microenvironments, specifically targeting pore diameters approaching confinement where the interfacial effects dominate the water and solute properties, and how this influences the electrocatalytic degradation of aqueous contaminants.