Kempler Group – electrochemical engineering for deep decarbonization

Research

Deep decarbonization is necessary to avoid the most severe effects of climate change. Electrochemistry is positioned to play a significant role in many aspects of decarbonization. We are broadly interested in electrochemical devices for grid-scale energy storage used to support intermittent wind and solar energy and electrified manufacturing for building materials and commodity chemicals. Specifically, we are interested in electrochemical production of iron metal for steelmaking and the behavior of low-cost metal/metal oxide anodes used in aqueous batteries for long duration energy storage. Motivated by these applications of electrochemistry, we research how ions interact with interfaces, how interfaces interact with electrochemical stacks, and how stacks interact with energy networks.

Ion transfer reactions are a fundamental step to fuel forming electrochemical reactions, electroplating for manufacturing and energy storage, and corrosion reactions that limit the durability of devices. We prepare micro- and nanoscale electrodes that act as differential reactors, allowing the direct study ion transfer kinetics. Model systems of interest include metal adatoms at single-crystal surface, dissolution and reduction at individual nanoparticles, and ion transfer across liquid-liquid interfaces.

Research on the materials and design of electrochemical stacks is essential for realizing low-cost industrial electrochemical processes. We study advanced meshes and bipolar plates that lower stack costs, improve mass transport via controlled gas evolution, and allow continuous harvesting of metals produced via electrowinning.

Noble, B.B., Konovalova, A., Moutarlier, L.J., Brogden, V. & Kempler, P.A. (2024) Electrochemical chlor-iron process for iron production from iron oxide and salt water. Joule (in press)

Kempler, P. A., Coridan, R. H., & Lewis, N. S.* (2020). Effects of bubbles on the electrochemical behavior of hydrogen-evolving Si microwire arrays oriented against gravity. Energy & Environmental Science, 13(6), 1808-1817.

Energy networks and economics control the commercial viability of electrochemical processes for energy storage, transportation, and manufacturing. We use data on transmission networks for electricity, fuels, and transportation to understand how electrochemistry can be used to balance future electricity grids.

Kempler, P. A.,* Slack J., & Baker, A. M. (2022). Electrochemical research priorities for affordable seasonal energy storage using electrolyzers and fuel cells. Joule. In press. (featured in pv magazine international )

Funding

We are grateful for support from the U.S. Department of Energy Basic Energy Sciences program and the Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy.

People

Prof. Paul Kempler

Research Assistant Professor, University of Oregon

Director of the Electrochemistry Masters Internship Program

Associate Director, Oregon Center for Electrochemistry

email, linkedin, twitter, google scholar, office: LISB 430

Curriculum Vitae

Paul Kempler is a Research Assistant Professor in Chemistry and the Associate Director of the Oregon Center for Electrochemistry. A Portland native, he moved to Nashville to double major in Chemical Engineering and Chemistry at Vanderbilt University under the supervision of Prof. Paul Laibinis and Prof. Kane Jennings. He completed his Ph.D. with Prof. Nathan Lewis at the California Institute of Technology in 2020 in Chemical Engineering, studying solar fuels devices converting water, sunlight, and CO₂ into hydrogen and hydrocarbons. His thesis investigated high-aspect-ratio features in light-absorbing semiconductors and electrocatalysts opportunities to improve solar fuels device performance. At Oregon, he has developed electrochemical technology laboratory courses integrating advanced experiments with coding in Python as part of the first industrially-focused Master’s program in electrochemistry in the United States. His research interests are broadly described by a desire to (1) understand the fundamentals of electrochemical reactions controlled by ion-transfer and (2) use new electrochemical processes to transform manufacturing and abate global CO₂ emissions.

Postdoctoral Scholars

Portrait of Ana Konovalova

Dr. Ana Konovalova is a joint postdoctoral scholar with the Kempler and Boettcher labs in the Oregon Center for Electrochemistry. She is experienced in polymer functionalization and membrane fabrication as well as full physical/chemical ex-situ characterization of devices such as fuel cells, electrolyzers and batteries. Prior to UO she researched anion-exchange-membrane fuel cells with the Holdcroft Research Group at Simon Fraser University and received a Ph.D. from the Korea Institute of Technology for her research in the Henkensmeier group on the synthesis and characterization of polybenzimidazole-derived membranes for fuel-cells, electrolyzers, and zinc-ion batteries. Ana received her B.Sc. from Kyiv Polytechnic Institute in Chemical Technology.

google scholar, email, linkedin

Ph.D. students

Nick D’Antona graduated from St. Mary’s College of Maryland with degrees in chemistry and applied physics. In collaboration with the Boettcher lab, he is studying the kinetics and mechanism of ion transfer at the interface between two immiscible electrolyte solutions (ITIES) under hydrodynamic conditions. He has designed both microfluidic electrochemical cells and nanopipette electrodes for ITIES measurements and simulates the resulting flow profiles in COMSOL.

email, linkedin

Kira Thurman is a graduate of the Master’s internship program in polymer science and has also worked as a researcher at NREL prior to arriving at Oregon in 2021. She is co-advised by the Boettcher lab as part of the Liquid Sunlight Alliance (LiSA) and is studying fundamental aspects of corrosion reaction kinetics using well-defined monolayers on single crystal surfaces.

email, linkedin

Manasa Rajeev graduated from University of Kerala with a degree in General Chemistry. At UO, in collaboration with the Boettcher lab and Hgen, she is interested in improving the efficiencies of low-cost alkaline water electrolyzers by studying integrated electrode-membrane architectures built for gas bubble management. Currently, she is investigating catalyst degradation during hydrogen generation from intermittent electricity sourced from wind and solar energy.

email, linkedIn

Portrait photo of Raj Shekhar

Raj Shekhar graduated from the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela with a B.S. + M.S. in Chemistry. He earned an M.S. in Materials Science and Nanotechnology from Université Paris-Saclay where he studied the binuclear activation of water-molecule at transition-metal-based electrocatalysts. His Ph.D. research at Oregon, in collaboration with researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, is focused on the mechanism of direct metal-oxide-to-metal reduction in concentrated alkaline electrolytes. Raj is co-advised by the Boettcher lab.

email, linkedin

Louka Moutalier graduated from the University of Oregon in 2019 with a B.Sc. in Biochemistry, before working as a high school Chemistry/Physics teacher for two years. In 2021, Louka joined the incoming Chemistry graduate cohort at the University of California, Santa Barbara and earned his M.A. in Chemistry with an emphasis in Chemical Education in 2022. He then returned to UO to join the Electrochemistry Masters Internship Program (class of 2023) where he interned with EnZinc studying advanced anodes for secondary zinc batteries. As a Ph.D. student he is researching metal oxide/metal conversion reactions in alkaline zinc anodes for grid-scale energy storage.

Alumni

Carinna Lapson (PNNL)

Sara Scodellaro (Moses Lake Industries)

Casey Mezerkor (PNNL)

Linn Kelley (NREL)

João Victor De Moraes Morgado (Natron)

Serafina Fortiner (Nel Hydrogen)

Gainer Phay (ESS Inc.)

Antowan Davtians (Redwood Materials)

Karana Dunn (ESS Inc.)

Mark Mancini (HRL)

Education and Outreach

CH 691: Analytical Methods in Electrochemistry

CH 691 is a modern and hands-on approach to electrochemistry education offered in the fall quarter, yearly, to accompany CH 454/CH554 “Advanced Electrochemistry”. Students to gain practical experience in instrumental analysis, data analysis, and scientific communication while interacting with electroanalytical techniques taught in the classroom in CH 454/554. Lab reports are submitted as Jupyter Notebooks and a DIY attitude is emphasized (electrodes and even potentiostats are built by hand).

CH 693: Electrochemical Device Laboratory

CH 693 connects principles of electrochemical engineering, as taught in the lecture course CH 692 to practical examples of electrochemical cells. The course is offered yearly in the winter quarter. Students apply engineering principles, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and Design of Experiments to fast-paced case studies concerning electrolyzers, fuel cells, lithium-ion batteries, corrosion engineering, and electroplating.

CH 694: Applied Projects in Electrochemistry

CH 694 is a research course offered to students in the Master’s Internship Program in Electrochemical Technologies. Industry partners and academic labs sponsor small teams of Masters students on 10-week intensive research experiences on applied problems in electrochemistry and electrochemical engineering.

Publications

	University of Oregon

20	Kang, R., Zhao, Y., Hait, D., Gauthier, J., Kempler, P.A., Thurman, K., Boettcher, S.W. & Head-Gordon, M. (2023). Understanding Ion-transfer Reactions in Silver Corrosion and Electrodeposition from First-principles Calculations and Experiments. Chemical Science
19	Noble, B.B., Konovalova, A., Moutarlier, L.J., Brogden, V. & Kempler, P.A. (2024) Electrochemical chlor-iron process for iron production from iron oxide and salt water. Joule. (In press)
18	Kempler, P.A.* & Nielander, A.C. (2023). Reliable reporting of Faradaic efficiencies for electrocatalysis research. Nature Communications. 14, 1158
17	McKenzie, J, Kempler, P.A. & Brozek, C.K. (2022) “Solvent-controlled ion-coupled charge transport in microporous metal chalcogenides.” Chemical Science, 13, 12747-12759
16	Kempler, P. A.,* Slack J., & Baker, A. M. (2022). Electrochemical research priorities for affordable seasonal energy storage using electrolyzers and fuel cells. Joule, 6(2), 280-285
15	Kempler, P. A.,* Boettcher, S. W.,* & Ardo, S. (2021). Reinvigorating electrochemistry education. iScience, 102481.
14	Boettcher, S. W.,* Oener, S. Z., Lonergan, M. C., Surendranath, Y., Ardo, S., Brozek, C., & Kempler, P. A. (2020). Potentially confusing: Potentials in electrochemistry. ACS Energy Letters, 6(1), 261-266.
	California Institute of Technology
13	Yan, E., Morla, M., Kwon, S., Musgrave, C., Kempler, P.A., Brunschwig, B., Goddard, W.A., Lewis, N.S., (2022). (In review)
12	Ifkovits, Z. P., Evans, J. M., Kempler, P. A., Morla, M. B., Pham, K. H., Dowling, J. A., … & Lewis, N. S. (2022). Powdered Mn y Sb1–y O x Catalysts for Cerium-Mediated Oxygen Evolution in Acidic Environments. ACS Energy Letters, 7, 4258-4264.
11	Jiang, S., Link, A., Canning, D., Fooks, J. A., Kempler, P. A., Kerr, S., … & Chen, H.* (2021). Enhancing positron production using front surface target structures. Applied Physics Letters, 118(9), 094101.
10	Kennedy, K. M., Kempler, P. A., Cabán-Acevedo, M., Papadantonakis, K. M., & Lewis, N. S.* (2021). Primary Corrosion Processes for Polymer-Embedded Free-Standing or Substrate-Supported Silicon Microwire Arrays in Aqueous Alkaline Electrolytes. Nano Letters, 21(2), 1056-1061.
9	Kempler, P. A., Ifkovits, Z. P., Yu, W., Carim, A. I., & Lewis, N. S.* (2021). Optical and electrochemical effects of H₂ and O₂ bubbles at upward-facing Si photoelectrodes. Energy & Environmental Science, 14(1), 414-423.
8	Kempler, P. A., Richter, M. H., Cheng, W. H., Brunschwig, B. S., & Lewis, N. S.* (2020). Si Microwire-Array Photocathodes Decorated with Cu Allow CO2 Reduction with Minimal Parasitic Absorption of Sunlight. ACS Energy Letters, 5(8), 2528-2534.
7	Buabthong, P., Ifkovits, Z. P., Kempler, P. A., Chen, Y., Nunez, P. D., Brunschwig, B. S., … & Lewis, N. S.* (2020). Failure modes of protection layers produced by atomic layer deposition of amorphous TiO 2 on GaAs anodes. Energy & Environmental Science, 13(11), 4269-4279.
6	Kempler, P. A., Coridan, R. H., & Lewis, N. S.* (2020). Effects of bubbles on the electrochemical behavior of hydrogen-evolving Si microwire arrays oriented against gravity. Energy & Environmental Science, 13(6), 1808-1817.
5	Yalamanchili, S., Verlage, E., Cheng, W. H., Fountaine, K. T., Jahelka, P. R., Kempler, P. A., … & Atwater, H. A.* (2019). High Broadband Light Transmission for Solar Fuels Production Using Dielectric Optical Waveguides in TiO2 Nanocone Arrays. Nano Letters, 20(1), 502-508.
4	Kempler, P. A., Fu, H. J., Ifkovits, Z. P., Papadantonakis, K. M., & Lewis, N. S.* (2019). Spontaneous Formation of> 90% Optically Transmissive, Electrochemically Active CoP Films for Photoelectrochemical Hydrogen Evolution. The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, 11(1), 14-20.
3	Kempler, P. A.,^† Yalamanchili, S.,^† Papadantonakis, K. M., Atwater, H. A., & Lewis, N. S.* (2019). Integration of electrocatalysts with silicon microcone arrays for minimization of optical and overpotential losses during sunlight-driven hydrogen evolution. Sustainable Energy & Fuels, 3(9), 2227-2236.
2	Kempler, P. A., Gonzalez, M. A., Papadantonakis, K. M., & Lewis, N. S. (2018). Hydrogen evolution with minimal parasitic light absorption by dense Co–P catalyst films on structured p-Si photocathodes. ACS Energy Letters, 3(3), 612-617.
	Vanderbilt University
1	Njoroge, I., Kempler, P. A., Deng, X., Arnold, S. T., & Jennings, G. K. (2017). Surface-Initiated Ring-Opening Metathesis Polymerization of Dicyclopentadiene from the Vapor Phase. Langmuir, 33(49), 13903-13912.