Welcome to the Electrochemistry Lab at UCSB!
Electrochemistry is experiencing a "renaissance" in recent years in the fields of organic electrosynthesis, battery engineering, and "single-entity electrochemistry." Using a set of electrodes, we can probe reduction or oxidation reactions of species in solution or in the form of immobilized films on conductive surface. Using state-of-the-art potentiostatic and galvanostatic modes, we can learn about the thermodynamics of the reaction and the kinetics of charge transfer. In lab, we are exploring charge transfer phenomena both at the macroscopic level and at the individual molecule level. Some of the main interests are:
In our lab, we use electrochemistry to investigate how reactant confinement into biological droplets, called coacervates, alters the thermodynamics of a reaction. Liquid-liquid phase separation, or coacervation, is a general phenomenon that can occur in biological systems in response to stimuli such as heightened stress levels or small-molecule substrate concentrations like ATP. The second “coacervate” phase is often formed by the association of poly-cationic and -anionic molecules and exhibits altered properties from the bulk (e.g. a change in pH, small-molecule enrichment or exclusion, depletion of water) in order to facilitate a response. An aspect of particular interest is the enabling or acceleration of chemical transformations by coacervates, thus posing the hypothesis that the first proto-enzymes were coacervate droplets.
Single-entity electrochemistry
We are interested in understanding how electrocatalysis occurs at the molecular level and compare this to the "classical" ensemble reaction. We are specifically interested in nano-scale phenomena that are related to sustainable energy production (.e.g. hydrogen evolution, ammonia oxidation, polymer charging).
Shifting from using inorganic molecules to organic biological molecules as the source of reducing agent for nanoparticle synthesis is in demand. However, control of the isze and shape of the nanoparticles using biological reducing agents is thus-far limited. Our lab is focusing on expanding the scope of biomolecules that can be used for nanoparticle synthesis, with our main interest lying in both the mechanisms for nanoparticle formation and in the applications that may arise.
Liquid-cell TEM coupled to electrocatalysis
One of the main efforts in electrocatalysis is to couple between structure and catalytic efficiency. With state of the art microscopy, we are now able to probe reactions in solution with nanometer resolution. Coupling low-noise electrochemical set-ups to this high-resolution technique enables us to correlate between the two, satisfying both advanced imaging capabilities and cutting-edge femtoampere detection of heterogeneous charge injection.
Miscellaneous
Photo albums
