Jane successfully presented and defended her PhD thesis work entitled, “Probing Material Dynamics of Iridium-Based Oxygen Evolution Reaction Catalysts for Acidic Water Electrolysis.” She is the third PhD student to graduate from the Seitz Lab. A heartfelt congratulations, Jane!!
After completing her research at Northwestern, Jane will join AbbVie as a Senior Scientist in the R&D Reaction Engineering Group to develop novel (electrochemical) pathways to products of interest!
Linsey was selected as the recipient of the 2024 Early Career Award in Catalysis. This award recognizes and encourages accomplishments and innovation of unusual merit by an individual in early stages of their career, emphasizing independence and creativity. See the ChBE Departmental news story here.
Prof. Seitz’s accomplishments will be celebrated during an awards symposium to be held as part of the Fall 2024 American Chemical Society National Meeting, Denver, Colorado, August 18 – 22, 2024. We hope to see you there!
Ruihan’s paper describes a unique catalyst that contains no precious or platinum-group metals, as is most common for water oxidation in acid. Instead, Ruihan tunes the activity and stability of earth-abundant manganese oxides by incorporating chlorine to result in a heteroanionic material that exhibits excellent activity and stability for acidic oxygen evolution. Her work takes a deep dive into the structural and activity evolution, using a combination of ex situ and in situ surface and bulk-sensitive X-ray spectroscopy analyses. This study provides insights into the fundamental relationships between the chemical, electronic, and geometric properties of the catalysts and their electrocatalytic outcomes. Congratulations Ruihan!
AJ’s paper introduces and demonstrates use of a novel liquid diffusion electrode reactor design that enables the electrooxidation of pure cyclohexene, using water as the oxygen source. This design allows for the reaction of two immiscible liquids at an engineered electrode interface, forgoing the need for cosolvents that are necessary in single phase electroorganic reactions, as well as facilitating opportunities for enhanced product separation. Overall, this work demonstrates and characterizes the capabilities of a liquid diffusion electrode reactor that is applicable for a wide range of organic oxidation reactions, enabling a new paradigm of organic electrocatalysis. Congratulations AJ!
This publication was submitted in response to an invitation for inclusion in the ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering Emerging Investigators Special Issue!
Matt successfully presented and defended his PhD thesis work entitled, “Support Materials and Anion Composition as Stimuli for Understanding the Structures, Properties, and Behavior of Electrocatalysts.” Matt is the second PhD student to graduate from the Seitz Lab. A heartfelt congratulations, Matt!!
After wrapping up his research at Northwestern, Matt will start as a postdoctoral researcher in the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Materials Group of Deborah Myers at Argonne National Lab.
Brianna’s paper describes her work investigating and optimizing a rotating ring-disk electrode coupled with a pH-sensing probe to track changes in proton concentration near electrocatalyst surfaces under well-defined mass transport conditions. This manuscript examines the limitations and describes methods for improving the robustness of this experimental platform which enables critical insights into relationships between local reaction environment conditions and catalytic performance. Congratulations on this nice work, Brianna!
This paper is published as part of The Journal of Physical Chemistry virtual special issue “Early-Career and Emerging Researchers in Physical Chemistry Volume 2!”
Brianna successfully presented and defended her PhD thesis work entitled, “Investigating Catalyst and Reaction Microenvironments for the Electrosynthesis of Hydrogen Peroxide via Two-Electron Oxygen Reduction Reaction.” Brianna was co-advised by Professor Justin Notestein and Professor Linsey Seitz. She is the first PhD student to graduate from the Seitz Lab. A heartfelt congratulations, Brianna!!
After wrapping up her research at Northwestern, Brianna will start at Shell as an Electrochemistry Researcher Project Lead!
Ruihan received the CATL-ChemCatBio Graduate Student Travel award from the Catalysis Science and Technology Division. At ACS, she will present her work on stabilizing and characterizing manganese‐based oxychloride catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction in acid.
Congratulations!!
Ruihan’s paper presents a holistic picture of catalyst electronic and geometric structure evolution under various applied potentials by probing electrochemically active surface area, metal dissolution, Ir valence, and surface morphology. Using a combination of electrochemical and spectroscopic tools, we provide fundamental insights to these material degradation processes to enable future catalyst design with balanced activity and long-term stability. Congratulations on this nice work, Ruihan!
This publication was submitted in response to a nomination and invitation for inclusion in the ACS Energy and Fuels Rising Star Issue!
NSF ERC CISTAR hosted a Research Experience for Teachers (RET) Program at Northwestern this summer where teachers were paired with faculty mentors and graduate students to gain hands-on research experience, develop new curriculum for their classrooms, and participate in personal/professional development workshops and seminars. Heidi Park from Mather High School (Chicago Public Schools) joined the Seitz lab this summer and worked with several students in the group to learn about electrocatalytic technologies and techniques for analyzing new catalyst materials. We enjoyed having Heidi join us for the summer and look forward to hearing about and participating in her newly developed modules for her chemistry course this year!
Thanks Heidi!