Publications

MoS₂ HER stability is allotrope-dependent: lamellar MoS₂ degrades under open circuit conditions, while amorphous MoS₃ₓ loses sulfur during HER, generating undercoordinated Mo sites. Simultaneous ICP-MS and EC-MS monitoring of dissolution products underpins revised stability metrics and a proposed HER mechanism accounting for both Mo and S dissolution pathways.

Heads up — this abstract doesn't match the title. The title references acetaldehyde detection in CO reduction on Cu, but the abstract is about a TAS additive for zinc metal batteries. Could you check and paste the correct one?

A tetraalkylsulfonamide (TAS) additive displaces water from the Zn²⁺ solvation shell, suppressing HER by an order of magnitude and eliminating dendrite and passivation layer formation. EC-MS confirms real-time HER suppression during Zn electrodeposition, translating to a ~25-fold cycle life improvement — from ~100 h to over 2500 h.

Size-selected Au nanoparticles peak in CO selectivity at ~3 nm, reaching 60% faradaic efficiency at low overpotentials. HRTEM identifies multiply twinned particles as the favourable morphology, with 8-fold coordinated surface sites at twin boundaries pinpointed as the key structural feature — offering a rational design target for CO₂-to-CO catalysts.

In-situ EC-MS quantifies hydrogen evolution during Zn electrodeposition with high precision — finding that just 0.3% of charge goes to HER at 1.5 mA cm⁻², yet correlating this with porous morphology, trapped H₂, and corrosion that cumulatively threaten long-term cycling. The method establishes a platform for accurately benchmarking electrolyte additives and electrode modifications in aqueous Zn batteries.

On-chip EC-MS enables fully quantified, time-resolved detection of gases from operating lithium-ion batteries — revealing oxygen evolution from NMC cathodes, SEI formation across electrolytes, and the first direct evidence of CO₂ reduction to ethylene. The technique decouples parasitic reactions that drive capacity fade, providing a tool to validate and guide battery lifetime models.

EC-MS combined with XPS accelerated degradation tests identifies sp2 carbon content and carboxyl group concentration as the key durability levers for carbon supports in Pt alloy fuel cell catalysts. Increasing sp2 content and reducing carboxyl groups yields the greatest stability gains — providing actionable guidelines for carbon support design toward DOE lifetime targets.

DFT calculations and experimentation across analogous chemistries (Na, Mg, Ca) confirm lithium's uniqueness for electrochemical nitrogen fixation — combining a stable nitride that decomposes readily to ammonia with an ideal solid electrolyte interphase. Proposed descriptors based on formation energies and HSAB principles provide a framework for identifying viable beyond-Li systems.

EC-MS reveals that methane adsorption on Pt peaks at 0.3 V vs. RHE and produces *CO as the dominant surface intermediate regardless of adsorption potential — explaining Pt's poor performance for partial methane oxidation and pointing toward the catalyst properties needed for selective electrochemical methane valorisation.

Dissolved ion concentration in confined electrolyte volumes creates a Nernst shift that artificially inflates measured RuO₂ stability — a systematic bias that distorts comparisons across cell types and underlies many claims of excellent non-noble catalyst stability. Correcting for this reveals RuO₂ to be 2 orders of magnitude less stable than IrO₂, though 10× more active, with noble catalysts outperforming non-noble alternatives on both metrics.

Tuning water activity in concentrated salt electrolytes from 0.97 to 0.47 controls C–C coupling vs. C1 product formation on Cu, achieving ~73% faradaic efficiency toward C2+ at −110 mA cm⁻² at modest overpotentials. Lower H₂O activity raises CO surface coverage and shifts C2+/C1 ratios up to 20-fold — establishing thermodynamic water activity as a practical selectivity lever for CO₂ reduction.

A hematite/NiOOH photoelectrode paired with an AgCl cathode selectively oxidises urea over chloride under LED illumination alone — no external bias required. MS confirms N₂ as the primary nitrogen product with no ammonia or nitrate, and extrapolation suggests 0.5 m² of electrode area could clear a day's urea load within 24 hours, enabling a viable wearable artificial kidney concept.

NiFeOxHy water oxidation nanoparticle size and lattice oxygen studied by operando EC-MS shows OER in 1M KOH is surface-limited at a record 6.2 s-1.

BDD electrodes decarboxylate acetic acid at 90% faradaic efficiency without competing OER, forming methanol and methyl acetate via hydroxyl radical reactions. Pt-modified BDD shifts selectivity toward ethane (Kolbe product), with thin Pt layers achieving >70% FE — offering a practical route for electrochemical acidity reduction in pyrolysis oil upgrading.

NiFeOxHy water oxidation nanoparticle size and lattice oxygen studied by operando EC-MS shows OER in 1M KOH is surface-limited at a record 6.2 s-1.