Using Gradients in Structural Disorder to Refine Our Understanding of Electrocatalysts

Biography

Rodney Smith is an Associate Professor at the University of Waterloo, where he began his independent career in 2017. His PhD research in the field of chemical modification of electrodes was conducted with Prof. Peter Pickup at Memorial University of Newfoundland. He began his postdoctoral training under the joint supervision of Profs. Curtis Berlinguette and Simon Trudel at the University of Calgary, and then continued at the University of British Columbia with Prof. Berlinguette. His research on the synthesis and electrochemical properties of amorphous metal oxide electrocatalysts during these four years was successful beyond the academic lab, laying the foundation for a startup company that remains in operation today. Funding from an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship then supported a move to Berlin to work with Prof. Holger Dau in the Physics Department at the Freie Universität Berlin. This opportunity afforded Smith with extensive access to synchrotron facilities necessary to pursue his independent research ideas. The experience provided invaluable skills and a refined perspective on how to analyze solid-state structures that are sufficiently disordered that they render conventional analysis techniques useless. Smith’s research at Waterloo seeks to develop experimental strategies and tools to assist in better understanding how defects in solid state materials alter chemical reactivity of catalysts.