1) Heterogeneous catalysis. One of our primary focus areas is the complex chemistry of biomass conversion to hydrogen and to liquid fuels on metal surfaces; in particular, we seek to develop accelerated strategies for modeling these reaction networks with first principles calculations. An additional interest is in determining how the interactions between nanoparticle catalysts and oxide supports can, in some cases, lead to novel reactivity patterns that are not observable on either the nanoparticle or the support in isolation.
2) Electrocatalysis. We apply surface science-based techniques, which have been extensively studied at gas-solid interfaces, to probe the fundamental mechanistic details electrocatalytic processes that occur in fuel cells and electrolyzers. We also focus on developing models of the stability of metal/liquid interfaces in electrocatalytic environments; our goal, in this work, is to determine the durability of fuel cells during extended periods of operation.
3) Energy storage in batteries. Although battery technology has been deployed commercially for many years, the fundamental science and engineering of electrode/electrolyte interfaces in batteries is still poorly understood. Our work in this area focuses on the study of lithiation of next-generation anode materials for lithium ion batteries, with an ultimate goal of both predicting higher capacity battery materials and understanding the processes that degrade these materials over long cycle periods.
