As an electrochemist I have considerable experience in the experimental study of electrode reactions. I come with a strong background in chemical instrumentation and have good skills in (measurement) hardware (e.g., potentiostat) and software design. Apart from building specialised instruments (e.g., for the benchmarking of electrolyser systems, the full control of multielectrode cell experiments) I am also regularly working on the (mathematical) modelling of electrode processes.

Electrode reactions (e.g., hydrogen or oxygen evolution, or the reduction of carbon dioxide to small organic molecules) are central to the development of new technologies that can provide solutions to the temporary storage of energy, originating from renewable (solar, wind, hydro) sources. The research we propose here attempts to shed light on a particularly important aspect of electrode reactions: their pH dependence. Most technologically relevant electrode processes take place in an aqueous environment and show either an explicit or an implicit dependence on pH. This is so, either because the processes themselves or some of their parasitic reactions consume hydronium or hydroxide ions. As the reactions proceed, they create pH shifts at the electrode interface that has an immediate feed-back on the rate and mechanism of the reactions. Although the phenomenon of interfacial pH shift has long been known, its far-reaching effects are often disregarded in modern electrochemical research. The aim of this project is thus two-fold: to lay down the fundaments of interfacial pH shift modelling and to create means for the experimental assessment of this important phenomenon. The new insight gained by the proposed research will not only be of considerable value from the point of view of fundamental science, but it will also count as a substantial step towards the knowledge-driven development of new electrochemical technologies.

I this topic (joint with Peter Broekmann's group at the University of Bern) we study the upscale prospects of CO2 electroreduction by employing gas diffusion electrode based electrolyser systems. We develop combined analytics (e.g., ICP–MS assisted EDX tomography) in order to do accelerated durability tests on GDE cathodes, and to study their liquid penetration and flooding phenomena.