Young investigator research group on electrocatalysis at HZB
Dr. Michelle Browne (here at her graduation ceremony in Dublin) starts now a Young Investigator Group at HZB. © privat
Dr. Michelle Browne establishes her own young investigator group at the HZB . Starting in August, the group is co-funded by the Helmholtz Association for the next five years. The electrochemist from Ireland concentrates on electrolytically active novel material systems and wants to develop next-generation electrocatalysts, for example hydrogen production. At HZB she will find the perfect environment to conduct her research.
Michelle Browne received her PhD in 2016 from the University of Dublin, Trinity College Dublin (TCD), Ireland. She held research fellow positions at universities in Belfast, Prague, and Dublin. She has received prestigious fellowships and awards, for example the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship, L’Oreal UNESCO Rising Talent UK & Ireland Fellowship and the Clara Immerwahr Award.
Her research focuses on the synthesis of novel catalytically active materials such as transition metal oxides and MXenes. She aims to characterise and optimise these material systems in order to develop next-generation electrolyzer materials that can also be upscaled for industrial use, in order to produce green hydrogen.
Electrocatalysis: Synthesis to Devices
Michelle Browne's research project fits perfectly with the research projects already underway at the Institute for Solar Fuels and within CatLab. "At HZB, I have a wide variety of investigation methods at my disposal, from scanning electron microscopy to the various instruments at BESSY II, which also allow operando analyses," she says.
Michelle Browne's affiliation with the Technische Universität Berlin in the Institute of Chemistry is planned. Starting in the fall, Browne will recruit postdocs and PhD students to join her team.
- Electrocatalysts: New model for charge separation at the solid-liquid interfaceHydrogen is at the heart of the transition to carbon neutrality, as both an energy carrier and a reagent for green chemistry. However, large-scale production of hydrogen via electrolysis, as well as the production of many other chemical products, requires significantly cheaper and more efficient catalysts. A precise understanding of the electrochemical processes that take place at the interface between the solid catalyst and the liquid medium is highly useful for developing better electrocatalysts. In the journal Nature Communications, an European team has now presented a powerful model that determines charge separation at the interface, the formation of the electric double layer and local electric potential variations, and the resulting influence on the catalytic activity.
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