CAREER: CAS-Climate: Molecular Physical Electrochemistry at Interfaces - Visualizing and Modeling Charge Transfer at the Anode and Cathode

With the support of the Chemical Structure, Dynamics, and Mechanisms-A (CSDM-A) Program in the Division of Chemistry, Dr. Lydia Kisley of Case Western Reserve University is using microscopy and modeling methods to investigate the movement of negatively charged electrons and positively charged metal ions at metal surfaces. These reactions are relevant to battery and solar energy technologies, energy-efficient catalytic reactions, and the corrosion of infrastructure.

Dr. Kisley is developing microscopic methods that detect when and where individual electrons and ions undergo reaction at small length scales. In parallel, computational modeling methods are being undertaken to facilitate the understanding of these experimental data.

Dr. Kisley will lead community events at the Cleveland Cultural Gardens to connect individuals, including those from underrepresented groups in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), to historic stories of scientists in their culture to make science more personably relatable. In addition, she will be mentoring high school girls in research.

The research under this CAREER award in the Kisley lab at Case Western Reserve University aims to develop a molecular scale understanding of how individual electrons and metal ions undergo reaction, diffusion, and/or dissolution at electrode surfaces as a function of space and time. Single-molecule experimental and statistical methods are being developed that reveal detailed energetic and physical relationships between anodic and cathodic reactions at metal/liquid interfaces.

In situ charge transfer will be observed using super-resolution analysis of fluorescent dyes that turn on after receiving an electron or metal ion. Advances in experimental single-molecule techniques should allow for the characterization of both charge transfer by metal ions and electrons by applying dyes to metallic surfaces. The dyes will then be used at iron and iron alloy surfaces under variable solvent dielectric environments.

A stochastic model that includes fluorescent and non-fluorescent reactions is being developed to better understand the mechanisms of the anodic and cathodic experimental reactions.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.