"Addressing the Limiting Interfacial Processes that Govern Electrocatalyst Performance"

The growth and viability of deep decarbonization through the hydrogen economy is dependent upon scientific advances that will address the existing political, regulatory, and technological barriers that currently hinder electrochemical energy technologies. The strong correlation between device-level performance and catalytic electrode activity/durability highlights the criticality of identifying the limiting processes and developing strategies to address these limitations. The goal of our group is to use fundamental insight derived from the study of well-defined systems to develop unique mitigation strategies, aimed at improving device-level performance, that go beyond simply varying electrocatalyst material properties. Specifically, we focus on identifying the limiting processes, governing the balance between activity and durability, at the electrocatalyst/electrolyte interface and propose methods to remove those limitations. In this seminar presentation I will highlight our group’s work on using interfacial modifiers for limiting morphological evolution in topologically complex electrocatalysts, enhancing oxygen reduction reaction activity with ionic liquids and polymerized ionic liquid ionomers, and bridging the pH-dependent activity disparity for the reversible hydrogen reaction.

Registration required.