Paul Kempler

@pakempler.bsky.social

Electrochemist at the University of Oregon and Director of the Electrochemistry Masters Internship Program. Leading a team researching electrochemical solutions for deep decarbonization. kempler.uoregon.edu | electrochemistry.uoregon.edu/

Last week we hosted the 5th Annual Conference of the Oregon Center for Electrochemistry in conjunction with the Electrochemical Society Pacific Northwest Section Fall Meeting! Great way to kick off the fall quarter with a new cohort of electrochemistry students here at Oregon.

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Congratulations to the newly minted Dr. Thurman and the first Ph.D. from the Kempler group! Kira taught us about the influence of solvent and electrolyte on copper corrosion and deposition kinetics.

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SMASH Engineering REU (Soft Materials for Applications in Sustainability and Healthcare Engineering Research Experience for Undergraduates) site program is accepting applications for summer 2025! Please share this opportunity!! mse.nd.edu/research/sma...

SMASH Engineering REU

Notre Dame Materials Science and Engineering aims to promote the interdisciplinary understanding of materials through collaborative research to advance knowledge and promote the greater good.

mse.nd.edu

New findings from the OCE on the design of energy-efficient alkaline electrolysis cells led by Manasa Rajeev! pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.... Here, Manasa used methods pioneered by the @boettcherlab.bsky.social to rigorously control dissolved iron in a zero-gap alkaline electrolysis cell.

Impacts of Dissolved Iron on Alkaline Water Electrolysis Cells

Dissolved iron (Fe) species are prerequisites for the most active catalyst sites for the oxygen evolution reaction in alkaline electrolytes, but the overall effects of dissolved Fe on energy-efficient advanced alkaline water electrolysis cells remain unclear. Here, we systematically control the concentration of Fe in a model zero-gap alkaline water electrolyzer to understand the interactions between Fe and high surface area catalyst coatings. Cells employing a platinum-group-metal-containing cathode and a high surface area, mixed-metal-oxide anode yielded an optimum voltage efficiency at elevated temperatures and in the presence of 6 ppm Fe, which reduced the cell voltage by ∼100 mV compared to rigorously Fe-free electrolytes. Increasing concentrations of Fe led to a systematic increase in anode activity toward the oxygen evolution reaction and a reduction in the electrochemically active surface area at both the anode and cathode. Metallic Fe was not observed to electrodeposit at cathodes which operate at overpotentials ≤120 mV, but dissolved Fe does reduce the apparent number density of sites available for hydride adsorption. These findings suggest that the energy efficiency of advanced alkaline water electrolysis systems can be improved by managing the Fe concentration in recirculating KOH electrolytes.

pubs.acs.org

Hi 🦋 chemsky! I'm an assistant prof teaching/researching electrochemistry at the University of Oregon. Currently curious about conversion reactions between metals/metal oxides... particularly for green steel, aqueous batteries, and electrolyzers powered by intermittent power ⚡

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