February 3, 2025

Abstract

Synthesis driven by renewable electricity offers a sustainable, scalable, decentralized, and energy-efficient route to furnish value-added products – from fuels to complex molecules. Maximizing reaction efficiency and durability requires immobilized catalytic active sites on electrodes, resulting in dispersed and non-uniform sites. This heterogeneity challenges iterative optimization of reactivity through traditional catalyst modifications, which rely on uniform, singular active sites. This lecture will focus on our research developing synthetic tools and concepts to predictively control interfacial structures at heterogeneous and reusable electrodes at the molecular level. Surface-sensitive techniques and mechanisms will be highlighted throughout the talk. Applications of our interfacial designs in enabling selective chemical syntheses and durable energy conversion systems will be discussed.

Bio

Anna Wuttig is a Neubauer Family Assistant Professor in the Chemistry Department at the University of Chicago. She joined the faculty in 2021. She holds a A.B. in Chemistry from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from MIT. She was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Berkeley. Her research group develops electricity-driven chemical reactions to synthesize products across the chemical value chain by drawing on physical and synthetic inorganic and organic tools to advance the underlying science gating chemical reactivity at electrified interfaces.