Catalysis

Building Energizing Connections: Front Range Researchers Unite

Daniel Morton — Wed, 10 Sep 2025 16:33:38 +0000

Building Energizing Connections: Front Range Researchers Unite Daniel Morton Wed, 09/10/2025 - 10:33

Daniel Morton

This August (18-19, 2025), the Front Range came alive with scientific collaboration as the 2025 Front Range Electrochemistry Workshop (FREW) brought together over 100 researchers from across the region. Hosted at ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ's Sustainability, Energy, and Environment Community (SEEC) building, this two-day gathering showcased the power of regional partnership in tackling some of our most pressing energy challenges. The workshop was funded by NSF’s Institute for Data Driven Dynamical Design.

Find out more about the workshop

Front Range Electrochemistry Workshop

ChBE Highlight

What is Electrochemistry and Why Does It Matter?

Electrochemistry might sound complex, but it's essentially the science of using electricity to drive chemical reactions—and it's at the heart of our clean energy future. Think of the battery in your phone or car, the fuel cells powering some buses, or emerging technologies that can capture carbon dioxide from the air and turn it into useful materials. All of these rely on electrochemical processes that researchers are working to improve and expand.

Regional Collaboration

The Front Range is developing as a hub for this critical research. This workshop exemplified that spirit, bringing together researchers from Colorado School of Mines, ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ, Colorado State University, the University of Wyoming, and several National Laboratories to share ideas, forge new partnerships, and identify opportunities for joint research.

"It was a really great meeting, with participants bringing an excited and motivated attitude that made for a really fantastic atmosphere," noted RASEI Fellow Mike Toney, who served on the organizing committee. The participants generated a great atmosphere at the workshop as researchers moved between presentations, interactive poster sessions, and innovative "collaboration pitch" sessions designed specifically to spark new partnerships, especially among graduate students. “The poster session was a great experience. I really enjoyed sharing my sodium-ion battery research and was exposed to a lot of fresh ideas across the electrochemistry space from other students and speakers” explained Loren Andrews, a Graduate Student at ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ.

Tackling Real-World Challenges Together

The workshop covered a diverse range of applications that could transform how we store and use energy:

Advanced Battery Technologies: Improving today's lithium-ion batteries and developing next-generation alternatives, including solid-state batteries that could be safer and more efficient
Grid-Scale Energy Storage: Exploring redox flow batteries that could store renewable energy for entire communities
Clean Transportation: Advancing fuel cell technology for cars, trucks, and other applications
Sustainable Chemical Manufacturing: Developing electrochemical processes to catalyze chemical transformations
AI-Powered Discovery: Using machine learning to accelerate the development of new materials and processes

Using Interactive Approaches to Develop Connections

What made this workshop particularly engaging was the opportunity to connect across different institutes along the Front Range region. The interactive format encouraged researchers to step out of their individual labs and think collectively about connected strengths and opportunities. Rather than just have lecture style presentations, the organizers developed a mixed schedule. The poster sessions weren't just about presenting results, they were also networking opportunities. The pitch sessions weren't just about sharing ideas, they were also about identifying concrete ways to work together.

To incentivize participation and develop some friendly competition in th poster and collaborative pitch sessions the organizers were able to offer a prize structure. For the poster session Abby Cardoza (Colorado School of Mines) won first place and Loren Andrews & Peter Romero (��ý�Ļ��Ʒ) won second place. For the Pitches a team with Cindy Wong (��ý�Ļ��Ʒ), Colby Evans (NIST), Emily Hansen (Colorado School of Mines), and Olajide Aijbade (University of Wyoming) took first place, and second place went to a team including Rebecca Beswick (��ý�Ļ��Ʒ), Peter Romero (��ý�Ļ��Ʒ), Bryce Rives (��ý�Ļ��Ʒ) Chris Sedmak (Colorado School of Mines), Matt Hammel (Colorado School of Mines). Congratulations to everyone!

The success of this workshop provides an opportunity for the regional electrochemistry community. Future gatherings will help to strengthen these collaborative connections and accelerate research

In a time where large scientific challenges are increasingly complex, events like this demonstrate how regional collaboration can be a powerful catalyst for innovation—bringing together diverse expertise, building new partnerships, and fostering new ideas.

August 2025

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Tuning transition metal nanoparticles on a non-traditional support via experimental design

Daniel Morton — Fri, 01 Aug 2025 20:11:16 +0000

Tuning transition metal nanoparticles on a non-traditional support via experimental design Daniel Morton Fri, 08/01/2025 - 14:11

APPLIED CATALYSIS A: GENERAL, 2025, 706, 120464

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Pre-steady-state kinetics of nanocrystal:molybdenum nitrogenase biohybrids reveals hole-scavenging efficiency is critical to N2 reduction

Daniel Morton — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 19:59:40 +0000

Pre-steady-state kinetics of nanocrystal:molybdenum nitrogenase biohybrids reveals hole-scavenging efficiency is critical to N2 reduction Daniel Morton Wed, 07/30/2025 - 13:59

CELL REPORTS PHYSICAL SCIENCE, 2025, 102732

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Electrolyte Immersion Increases Photoconductivity in a Model Polymer Photocathode

Daniel Morton — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 19:41:39 +0000

Electrolyte Immersion Increases Photoconductivity in a Model Polymer Photocathode Daniel Morton Mon, 07/28/2025 - 13:41

ACS ENERGY LETTERS, 2025, 10, 4019-4026

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Surface Acidity of Oxygen Evolution Intermediates by Excited State Optical Spectroscopy

Daniel Morton — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 19:37:57 +0000

Surface Acidity of Oxygen Evolution Intermediates by Excited State Optical Spectroscopy Daniel Morton Mon, 07/28/2025 - 13:37

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY, 2025, 147, 31, 28474-28483

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Using Pore Window Size to Control Selectivity for Acetylene Hydrogenation on Pd@LTA Zeolite Catalysts

Daniel Morton — Mon, 14 Jul 2025 19:24:36 +0000

Using Pore Window Size to Control Selectivity for Acetylene Hydrogenation on Pd@LTA Zeolite Catalysts Daniel Morton Mon, 07/14/2025 - 13:24

ACS CATALYSIS, 2025, 12816-12821

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Photolytic activation of Ni(II)X2L explains how Ni-mediated cross coupling begins

Daniel Morton — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 17:11:39 +0000

Photolytic activation of Ni(II)X2L explains how Ni-mediated cross coupling begins Daniel Morton Tue, 07/01/2025 - 11:11

NATURE COMMUNICATIONS, 2025, 16, 5530

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Light-powered reactions could make the chemical manufacturing industry more energy-efficient

Daniel Morton — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 22:25:34 +0000

Light-powered reactions could make the chemical manufacturing industry more energy-efficient Daniel Morton Thu, 06/26/2025 - 16:25

Daniel Morton

Show me more!

The Conversation Highlight

SuPRCat

Research Article

Chemistry World Highlight

Colorado Arts & Sciences Magazine Highlight

A recent collaborative report, published in Science, including RASEI Fellow Niels Damrauer, addresses a key issue for light-driven chemistry, potentially opening up possibilities for future energy-efficient chemical manufacturing.

Chemical reactions typically require an input of energy to proceed, this can be through heating, or introduction of chemical energy in the form of reactive chemicals. Recently, light-driven chemistry has emerged as a more energy efficient alternative. The principle is to use energy from light, which is absorbed by a catalyst. Excited by the light energy the catalyst can then donate an electron to the chemicals undergoing the desired chemical transformation.

This sounds great – light-driven reactions? One of the key issues in this class of chemistry is back transfer of the electron. This means that after the catalyst donates the electron to the reagents, instead of doing the desired reaction, the reagent gives the electron back to the catalyst. This can significantly slow down the desired reaction, even sometimes shutting it down.

This report details a new type of catalyst that can overcome this back transfer of electrons. Through rationale design of the catalyst the new system uses a chemical reaction as a catch, preventing the back transfer from the reagent and strongly favoring the desired reaction.

To highlight the impact of this work, which was completed as part of the NSF Center for Chemical Innovation Center for Sustainable Photoredox Catalysis (SuPRCat), ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ student Arindam Sau, a member of the Damrauer group, teamed up with a graduate student and postdoc from Colorado State University to put together a review and summary of this work that was recently published in The Conversation. Check out the highlight to get a full picture of the impact of this work.

June 2025

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Cooperative effects associated with high electrolyte concentrations in driving the conversion of CO2 to C2H4 on copper

Daniel Morton — Thu, 19 Jun 2025 19:22:57 +0000

Cooperative effects associated with high electrolyte concentrations in driving the conversion of CO2 to C2H4 on copper Daniel Morton Thu, 06/19/2025 - 13:22

CHEM CATALYSIS, 2025, 5, 6, 101338

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Efficient super-reducing organic photoredox catalysis with proton-coupled electron transfer mitigated back electron transfer

Daniel Morton — Thu, 19 Jun 2025 17:38:42 +0000

Efficient super-reducing organic photoredox catalysis with proton-coupled electron transfer mitigated back electron transfer Daniel Morton Thu, 06/19/2025 - 11:38

SCIENCE, 2025, 388, 6753, 1294-1300

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