“Electrifying Manufacturing for Sustainable Materials”, Asst. Prof. Paul Kempler, Chemistry
Wind and solar electricity are now among the cheapest and cleanest forms of energy that have ever been available to humans. The electric power sector is rapidly transitioning to clean sources of electricity, but fossil fuels are still required to produce many chemicals and materials used by modern civilizations. Electrochemistry is the science of driving chemical reactions with electric potentials and is well poised to address these “difficult to decarbonize” reactions within the manufacturing sector. Our lab is specifically interested in electrochemical processes involved in the production of hydrogen, reduction of iron ores, and long duration energy storage.
Our REU student will use solution-phase chemistry to prepare metal oxide precursors for electrocatalysis and energy storage. They will characterize the properties of these metal oxides using x-ray diffraction, dynamic light scattering, and gas sorption and correlate with electrochemical reactivity.