Professor Anna Wuttig (University of Chicago)

Title: Designing for Disorder: Electrocatalytic Synthesis with Interfacial Control

Abstract: 

Chemical synthesis driven by electricity offers a 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.

Biography: 

Anna Wuttig is a Neubauer Family Assistant Professor in the Chemistry Department at the University of Chicago. Her research interests center on the development of electricity-driven chemical reactions, with an emphasis on embracing the inherent structural disorder in heterogeneous electrocatalysis and developing interdisciplinary concepts to understand and manipulate it. She joined the faculty in July 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 in the laboratory of Prof. F. Dean Toste at UC Berkeley. Her group's work has been recognized by a Sloan Research Fellowship, Bayer Early Excellence in Science Award in Chemistry, NSF CAREER, among others.