Publications

A relaxed electric double layer reacts faster: New insights on the influences of Fe³⁺ concentration and pH on photocatalytic oxygen evolution with TiO₂ nanoparticles
Rebecca Lentz, Zhaokai Lin, Hyuna Kwon, Pushp Raj Prasad, William D. H. Stinson, Tadashi Ogitsu, Daniel V. Esposito, Joseph P. Patterson, Tuan Anh Pham, Oluwaseun I. Salako, and Rohini Bala Chandran, 2025, Submitted.

Nanoscopic Titanium Dioxide Overlayers Improve the Durability of Porphyrin Molecular Electrocatalysts while Maintaining Molecular Structure and Redox Activity
Patrick O. Aghadiuno, W. Wilson McNeary, William D. H. Stinson, Naya Nwokorie, Tea-Yon Kim, Shane Ardo, Katherine Hurst, and Daniel V. Esposito, 2025, Submitted.

Resonant Self-Diffraction of Femtosecond Extreme Ultraviolet Pulses in Cobalt
Alexei A. Maznev, Wonseok Lee, Scott K. Cushing, Dario De Angelis, Danny Fainozzi, Laura Foglia, Christian Gutt, Nicolas Jaouen, Fabian Kammerbauer, Claudio Masciovecchio, Riccardo Mincigrucci, Keith A. Nelson, Ettore Paltanin, Jacopo Stefano Pelli-Cresi, Vincent Polewczyk, Dmitriy Ksenzov, and Filippo Bencivenga, 2025, Submitted.

Zeta Potential Measurements of SiO₂ and TiO₂ Particles in Anionic and Cationic Surfactant Solutions
Oluwaseun I. Salako, Joel Jr. Gonzalez, Andrew G. Cummins, John L. Zambrano, Barbara Lewis, Rebecca Lentz, Patrick O. Aghadiuno, William H. Stinson, Daniel V. Esposito, 2025, Submitted.

Nanoscopic plugs block hydrogen crossover in submicron thick proton-conducting SiO₂ membranes for water electrolysis
Jesse S. Dondapati, Lucas A. Cohen, William D. H. Stinson, Jingjing Jin, Sampada S. Mahajana, Aidan M. Puma, Acadia K. Hu, Arrelaine A. Dameron, Matthew S. Weimer, Ryan J. Ouimet, Alan C. West, and Daniel V. Esposito, 2025, Submitted.

Exceptionally Long-Lived Charge Separated States in CdS Nanocrystals with a Covalently Bound Phenothiazine Derivative
Sophia M. Click, Madison R. Jilek, Olivia F. Bird, Nathaniel Prugh, Faith A. Flinkingshelt, Yisrael M. L. Lamb, Jenny Y. Yang, Kenneth A. Miller, and Gordana Dukovic, 2025, Submitted.

Electrolyte Immersion Increases Photoconductivity in a Model Polymer Photocathode
William P. Kopcha, Aiswarya Abhisek Mohapatra, Casey M. Davis, Jonathon R. Thurston, Eui Hyun Suh, Aniruddha Basu, Zejie Chen, Shane Ardo, Erin L. Ratcliff, Stephen Barlow, Seth R. Marder, Michael F. Toney, Melissa K. Gish, Andrew J. Ferguson, and Obadiah G. Reid, 2025, Submitted. Collaboration with Center for Soft PhotoElectroChemical Systems (SPECS) EFRC.

Effects of Bilayer Nanoenvironment on the Catalytic Activity of Lipid-Pd Nanoparticle Assemblies in Water
Nicholas Pavlakovich, Saba Dalaub, Patrick Nasser, Maribelle Monroy, Justin Mulvey, Giuseppe Di Palma, Joseph P. Patterson, and Young-Seok Shon, 2025, Submitted.

Understanding, and moving beyond, band bending to perform useful work with light: A compendium on photoinduced charge separation
Adam C. Nielander, Matthew R. Shaner, and Shane Ardo, 2024, Submitted. Collaboration with Liquid Sunlight Alliance (LiSA) Hub.

Direct observation of Rh and La dopant positions in SrTiO₃ nanoparticles with atomic-scale electron microscopy
Justin T. Mulvey, Pushp Raj Prasad, Zejie Chen, Levi D. Palmer, Bradley W. Layne, Ezra Korican-Barlay, Kenta Watanabe, Mingjie Xu, A. Alec Talin, Xiaoqing Pan, Akihiko Kudo, Scott K. Cushing, Shane Ardo, and Joseph P. Patterson, 2024, Submitted.

Towards Nanoscale and Element-Specific Lattice Temperature Measurements using Core-Loss Electron Energy-Loss Spectroscopy
Levi D. Palmer, Wonseok Lee, Javier Fajardo, Jr., A. Alec Talin, Thomas E. Gage, and Scott K. Cushing, 2024, Submitted. arXiv

Ensembles of optically thin light absorbers can increase theoretical solar-to-fuel efficiencies
Sam Keene, Gabriel S. Phun, Zejie Chen, and Shane Ardo, 2024, Submitted.

2025

(17) Single-Molecule Fluorescence Microscopy Reveals Energy Transfer Active versus Inactive Nanocrystal/Dye Conjugate Pairs
Danielle R. Lustig, Enes Buz, Olivia F. Bird, Justin T. Mulvey, Pushp Raj Prasad, Joseph P. Patterson, Gordana Dukovic, Kevin R. Kittilstved, and Justin B. Sambur, Chemical & Biomedical Imaging, 2025, Accepted. DOI: 10.1021/cbmi.5c00009

(16) Models and Measurements Quantify Photon Recycling, Charge-Carrier Diffusion, and Photon Scattering Contributions to Photoluminescence in InP Nanowire Arrays
Danielle R. Lustig, Fangqi Chen, Wentao Zhang, Olivia F. Bird, Javier Fajardo Jr., Shane Ardo, Shu Hu, Gordana Dukovic, A. Alec Talin, Rohini Bala Chandran, and Justin B. Sambur, The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2025, 129(17), 8270–8283. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.5c01618

(15) Revealing the Influence of Binding Motifs on Electron Transfer and Recombination Kinetics for CdSe Quantum Dots Functionalized with a Modified Viologen
Olivia F. Bird, Kenneth M. Drbohlav, Evan K. Gowdy, Faith A. Flinkingshelt, Lauren M. Pellows, Benjamin F. Hammel, Bradley W. Layne, Shane Ardo, Jenny Y. Yang, Kenneth A. Miller, and Gordana Dukovic, The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2025, 129(11), 5556–5570. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.5c00740

(14) Unequal {110} Facets: The Critical Role of Surface Termination in Determining Photoelectrochemical Activity of Single BiVO₄ Particles
Avishek Banik, Hiroaki Maekawa, Javier Fajardo, Brian Zutter, Francis M. Alcorn, Suhas Kumar, Kenta Watanabe, Akihiko Kudo, Nien-Hui Ge, A. Alec Talin, and Justin B. Sambur, ACS Nano, 2025, 19(6), 6250–6262. DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.4c15460

(13) Synthesis and Characterization of [Ni(H₂O)(7-PPh₂NArSO₃)₂]NaBF₄ for Light-Driven Quantum Dot-Catalyst Hydrogen Evolution
Faith A. Flinkingshelt, Sophia M. Click, Hyuna Kwon, Joseph W. Ziller, Tuan Anh Pham, Tadashi Ogitsu, Gordana Dukovic, and Jenny Y. Yang, Energy & Fuels, 2025, 39(4), 2196–2202. DOI: 10.1021/acs.energyfuels.4c05559
Invited article to the special issue “2025 Pioneers in Energy Research: Prashant Kamat”

2024

(12) Towards Spatial Control of Reaction Selectivity on Model Photocatalysts using Area Selective Atomic Layer Deposition on a Model Dual Site Electrocatalyst Platform
W. Wilson McNeary, William D. H. Stinson, Moaz Waqar, Wenjie Zang, Xiaoqing Pan, Daniel V. Esposito, and Katherine E. Hurst, ACS Nano, 2024, 18(51), 34708-34719. DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.4c10387

(11) Photocatalytic water splitting for large-scale solar-to-chemical energy conversion and storage
Takashi Hisatomi, Qian Wang, Fuxiang Zhang, Shane Ardo, Erwin Reisner, Hiroshi Nishiyama, Akihiko Kudo, Taro Yamada, and Kazunari Domen, Frontiers of Science, 2024, 2, 1411644. DOI: 10.3389/fsci.2024.1411644

(10) Electronic Topological Transitions in Cadmium at Pressure Studied via Theoretical and Experimental X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy
Jasmine K. Hinton, Daniel Schacher, Wonseok Lee, G. Alexander Smith, Emily Siska, Changyong Park, Paul B. Ellison, Scott K. Cushing, Craig P. Schwartz, Keith V. Lawler, and Ashkan Salamat, Physical Review B, 2024, 110, 205118. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.110.205118

(9) Confinement Effects on Proton Transfer in TiO₂ Nanopores from Deep Potential Molecular Dynamics Simulations
Hyuna Kwon, Marcos F. Calegari Adrade, Shane Ardo, Daniel V. Esposito, Tuan Anh Pham, and Tadashi Ogitsu, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2024, 16(24), 31687–31695. DOI: 10.1021/acsami.4c02339

(8) Absolute band-edge energies are over-emphasized in the design of photoelectrochemical materials
Aaron J. Kaufman, Adam C. Nielander, Gerald J. Meyer, Stephen Maldonado, Shane Ardo, and Shannon W. Boettcher, Nature Catalysis, 2024, 7, 615-623. DOI: 10.1038/s41929-024-01161-0
Collaboration with Liquid Sunlight Alliance (LiSA) Hub and Center for Hybrid Approaches in Solar Energy to Liquid Fuels (CHASE) Hub

(7) Revealing the Role of Redox Reaction Selectivity and Mass Transfer in Current–Voltage Predictions for Ensembles of Photocatalysts
Luisa Barrera, Bradley W. Layne, Zejie Chen, Kenta Watanabe, Akihiko Kudo, Daniel V. Esposito, Shane Ardo, and Rohini Bala Chandran, Energy & Environmental Science, 2024, 17(21), 8254-8273. DOI: 10.1039/D4EE02005G

(6) Probing the Actives Sites of Oxide Encapsulated Electrocatalysts with Controllable Oxygen Evolution Selectivity
William D. H. Stinson, Robert S. Stinson, Jingjing Jin, Zejie Chen, Mingjie Xu, Fikret Aydin, Yinxian Wang, Marco F. Calegari Andrade, Xiaoqing Pan, Tuan Anh Pham, Katherine E. Hurst, Tadashi Ogitsu, Shane Ardo, and Daniel V. Esposito, EES Catalysis, 2024, 2(4), 953-967. DOI: 10.1039/D4EY00074A

2023

(5) Characterizing the Ligand Shell Morphology of PEG-Coated ZnO Nanocrystals Using FRET Spectroscopy
Danielle R. Lustig, Enes Buz, Justin T. Mulvey, Joseph P. Patterson, Kevin R. Kittilstved, and Justin B. Sambur, The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 2023, 127(41), 8961‐8973. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.3c04900

(4) Unveiling the Hidden Influence of Defects via Experiment and Data Science
Justin B. Sambur and Jakoah Brgoch, Chemistry of Materials, 2023, 35(18), 7351–7354. DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.3c01817

(3) Using electron energy-loss spectroscopy to measure nanoscale electronic and vibrational dynamics in a TEM
Ye-Jin Kim, Levi D. Palmer, Wonseok Lee, Nicholas J. Heller, and Scott K. Cushing, The Journal of Chemical Physics, 2023, 159, 050901. DOI: 10.1063/5.0147356

(2) Single-Particle Measurements Reveal the Origin of Low Solar-to-Hydrogen Efficiency of Rh-Doped SrTiO₃ Photocatalysts
Brian Zutter, Zejie Chen, Luisa Barrera, William Gaieck, Aliya S. Lapp, Kenta Watanabe, Akihiko Kudo, Daniel V. Esposito, Rohini Bala Chandran, Shane Ardo, and A. Alec Talin, ACS Nano, 2023, 17(10), 9405‐9414. DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.3c01448

(1) Toward Imaging Defect-Mediated Energy Transfer between Single Nanocrystal Donors and Single Molecule Acceptors
Danielle R. Lustig, Zach N. Nilsson, Justin T. Mulvey, Wenjie Zang, Xiaoqing Pan, Joseph P. Patterson, and Justin B. Sambur, Chemical & Biomedical Imaging, 2023, 1(2), 168‐178. DOI: 10.1021/cbmi.3c00015

Patents

Methods for Selectively Depositing Nano- or Microscopic Plugs in Membranes for Electrochemical Appliations
Daniel V. Esposito, Jesse Dondapati, and Alan West, 2025, Provisional Patent, 03-14-2025, Columbia University.

Reactor Designs for Photocatalytic O₂ Evolution from Water with Integrated Green H₂ Compression
Shane Ardo, Chengxiang Xiang, Daniel V. Esposito, 2024, Provisional Patent, 12-13-2024, UC Irvine.

Acknowledgements: This material is based upon work performed by Ensembles of Photosynthetic Nanoreactors (DE-SC0023431), which is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences Energy Frontier Research.