Event interval: Single day event
Campus location: Bagley Hall (BAG)
Campus room: BAG 260
Accessibility Contact: chem59x@uw.edu
Event Types: Lectures/Seminars
Link: https://ren.cm.utexas.edu/

Learning from the Heterogeneity at the Nanoscale Electrochemical Interfaces

Assistant Professor Hang Ren – Department of Chemistry, University of Texas at Austin
Host: Bo Zhang

Electrochemical interfaces are vital in energy conversion, storage, and corrosion mitigation. However, the interfacial structures are complex and dynamic, making it challenging to elucidate the interfacial structure-activity relationship. In this presentation, I will discuss the study of the interfacial heterogeneity at the electrochemical interface with application in electrocatalysis, materials synthesis and corrosion mitigation. New information and knowledge is obtained thanks to the development and use of nanoelectrochemistry tools, especially scanning electrochemical probe microscopy. In the first example, the heterogeneity of the electrocatalytic activity at the single-electrocatalyst level will be revealed, which provides new information about the structure-activity relationship in oxygen evolution reaction (OER) on hematite nanorods. I will then talk about the study of electrochemistry at single grain boundaries, which allows us to reveal the structure origin of enhanced activity in metal dissolution reactions. The approach of multi-microscopy at the nanoscale allows the discovery of hidden structure-activity relationships from complex electrochemical interfaces.