Publications and Patents

Thermally Assisted Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting with Rh-doped SrTiO3 Nanoparticle Photocatalysts
Thomas Chan, Javier Fajardo, Austin Bhandarkar, Sean Nichols, Adam Gross, Yoshiya Ueki, Akihiko Kudo, Shane Ardo, and A. Alec Talin, Submitted.
 
Imaging nanoscale photocarrier traps in solar water-splitting catalysts
Levi D. Palmer, Wonseok Lee, Pushp Raj Prasad, Bradley W. Layne, Han Hsuan Wu, Zejie Chen, Kenta Watanabe, Jianguo Wen, Yuzi Liu, Xiaoqing Pan, A. Alec Talin, Akihiko Kudo, Shane Ardo, Joseph P. Patterson, Thomas E. Gage, Scott K. Cushing, Submitted. Pre-print.
 
Increased Selectivity for Photosynthetic Z-scheme H2 Evolution Over Reduction of the Ferric Ion Redox Mediator Enabled by Atomic Layer Deposition of Ultrathin Oxide Coatings on Rh-doped SrTiO3 Nanoparticles Decorated with Pt Cocatalysts
Zejie Chen, Gabriel S. Phun, William D. H. Stinson, Robert S. Stinson, Pushp Raj Prasad, Justin T. Mulvey, Mingjie Xu, W. Wilson McNeary, Francis M. Alcorn, William Gaieck, Sam Keene, Tea Yon Kim, Houman Yaghoubi, Jingyuan Liu, Akihiko Kudo, A. Alec Talin, Xiaoqing Pan, Joseph P. Patterson, Daniel V. Esposito, Katherine E. Hurst, and Shane Ardo, Submitted.
 
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, 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, Submitted. Pre-print.
 

Ensembles of Optically Thin Light Absorbers Can Increase Theoretical Solar-to-Fuel Efficiencies
Sam Keene, Gabriel S. Phun, Zejie Chen, and Shane Ardo, Submitted.

2026

(30)  A fresh perspective on the role of band bending, and related contributors, in light-driven production of electricity and chemicals
Adam C. Nielander, Matthew R. Shaner, and Shane Ardo, Energy & Environmental Science, 2026, Advance Article. DOI: 10.1039/D4EE05115G. Collaboration with Liquid Sunlight Alliance (LiSA) Hub.
 
(29) Velocity Map Imaging Analysis of Manganese Pentacarbonyl Bromide Photodissociation in the Gas Phase and on a Surface
Thomas Chan, O. A. Krohn, Eric J. Smoll, Andrew N. Cohen, A. Alec Talin, and Dave W. Chandler, The Journal of Physical Chemistry, 2026, 130, 3, 591-601. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpca.5c05486
 
(28) Advanced pathways for hydrogen production: a collective view from a technical experts meeting 
Katherine J. Chou, Yaset Acevedo, Peter Agbo, Alicia Bayon, Alexander S. Beliaev, Haluk Beyenal, Trevor Croft, Amgad Elgowainy, Daniel V. Esposito, Christoph Falter, David S. Ginley, Sophia Haussener, Shu Hu, Erik Koepf, Dhananjay Kumar, Alon Lidor, Bruce E. Logan, Peter Loutzenhiser, Anurag S. Mandalika, PinChing Maness, Gerald J. Meyer, Graham J. Nathan, Ruggero Rossi, Ellen B. Stechel, Eric R. Sundstrom, Emily Warren, Lynn M. Wendt, CX Xiang, Anthony H. McDaniel and Frances A. Houle, Energy & Environmental Science, 2026, 19, 2507-2535. DOI: 10.1039/D5EE04503G
 
(27) 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, Chem, 2026, 12(2), 102760. DOI: 10.1016/j.chempr.2025.102760
 
(26) 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, Surfaces and Interfaces, 2026, 80, 108180. DOI: 10.1016/j.surfin.2025.108180

2025

(25) Imaging Nanoscale Carrier, Thermal, and Structural Dynamics with Time-Resolved and Ultrafast Electron Energy-Loss Spectroscopy
Wonseok Lee, Levi D. Palmer, Thomas E. Gage, Scott K. Cushing, Chemical Physics Reviews, 2025, 6, 041303. DOI: 10.1063/5.0289128
 
(24) 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, ACS Nano, 2025, 19(44), 38284–38296. DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.5c09555
 
(23) 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, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2025, 17(46), 63374–63383. DOI: 10.1021/acsami.5c15338
 
(22) Gerischer Electrochemistry Today
Justin B. Sambur, Aaron J. Kaufman, Andres Montoya-Castillo, Anna Kundman, Arthur J. Nozik, Ashlyn G. DesCarpentrie, Asmita Jana, Austin Tews, Avishek Banik, Bruce A. Parkinson, C. Daniel Frisbie, Camilla Tossi, Claire D. Hallock, Daniel V. Esposito, Danielle R. Lustig, Daye Seo, Devan Solanki, Dunwei Wang, Erin L. Ratcliff, Frances A. Houle, Francesca M. Toma, Gaohua Zhu, Gary F. Moore, Gerald J. Meyer, Honghao Liu, Jacob Schneidewind, James F. Cahoon, James M. Mayer, Jao van de Lagemaat, Jeremy R. Brinker, Jillian L. Dempsey, Jonathan Diederich, Judy N. Hart, Katharina Brinkert, Krishnan Rajeshwar, Kyoung-Shin Choi, Louise A. Berben, Marco Salvi, Mark T. Spitler, Michael J. Rose, Nathan S. Lewis, Nathaniel A. Gomez, Oshnik Maurya, Patrick O. Aghadiuno, Prashant V. Kamat, R. Colby Evans, Rafael Almaraz, Renato N. Sampaio, Robert H. Coridan, Roel van de Krol, Sa Suo, Samantha V. Magpantay, Sanghyun Bae, Scott Kevin Cushing, Shane Ardo, Shannon W. Boettcher, Shu Hu, Stephen Maldonado, Tianying Liu, Tanja Cuk, Thomas Hannappel, Thomas Sayer, Todd G. Deutsch, Verena Streibel, William D. H. Stinson, Wolfram Jaegerman, Yogesh Surendranath, Zetian Mi, and Zhengwei Ye, ACS Energy Letters, 2025, 10(12), 6578–6595. DOI: 10.1021/acsenergylett.5c02966
  
(21) Effects of Bilayer Nanoenvironment on the Catalytic Activity of Lipid–Pd–Nanoparticle Assemblies in Water
Nicholas Pavlakovich, Saba Dalaub, Patrick Nasser, Maribelle Monroy, Austin Nerhus, Elisa Merced Olivas, Justin Mulvey, Giuseppe Di Palma, Joseph P. Patterson, and Young-Seok Shon, ACS Applied Nano Materials, 2025, 8(41), 20096–20104. DOI: 10.1021/acsanm.5c04145
 
(20) 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, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2025, 17(36), 50700–50712. DOI: 10.1021/acsami.5c10416
 
(19) 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, ACS Energy Letters, 2025, 0(8), 4019–4026. DOI: 10.1021/acsenergylett.5c01809. Collaboration with Center for Soft PhotoElectroChemical Systems (SPECS) EFRC.
 
(18) Nanoscale and Element-Specific Lattice Temperature Measurements Using Core-Loss Electron Energy-Loss Spectroscopy
Levi D. Palmer, Wonseok Lee, Daniel B. Durham, Javier Fajardo Jr., Yuzi Liu, A. Alec Talin, Thomas E. Gage, and Scott K. Cushing, ACS Physical Chemistry Au, 2025, 5, 6, 589-598. DOI: 10.1021/acsphyschemau.5c00044
 
(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, 3(8), 547–559. 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 SelectiveAtomic 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

Quasi-molecular nano-dielectric designs for efficient particle-based photocatalysis
Shane Ardo, Honghao Liu, 2025, Provisional Patent, 06-16-2026, UC Irvine.

Methods for Selectively Depositing Nano- or Microscopic Plugs in Membranes for Electrochemical Applications
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.

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