Dr. Drisdell’s interests center around understanding the chemistry and chemical mechanisms that underlie processes relating to energy research, through a combination of in situ experimentation and first principles calculations. His primary focus is on synchrotron X-ray techniques, because these provide elemental and electronic selectivity even in complex chemical environments. When coupled with computations, these techniques offer information about chemical species, orientations, and electronic configurations, and the role these play in efficiency and performance.
In JCAP, Dr. Drisdell is engaged in in situ synchrotron X-ray spectroscopic studies to probe the mechanism for CO2 reduction. This includes studies of both catalysts and electrochemical products, utilizing in situ hard and soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy as well as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Instrument design, experimentation, and first principles computations are all integral to this effort. The initial focus is on developing and demonstrating sensitivity to the interface between the catalyst and the electrolyte (or gaseous reactive medium) during operation.
Selected Publications
Farmand, M., Landers, A., Lin, J., Feaster, J., Beeman, J., Ye, Y., Clark, E., Higgins, D., Yano, J., Davis, R., Mehta, A., Jaramillo, T., Hahn, C., Drisdell, W. Electrochemical flow cell enabling operando probing of electrocatalyst surfaces by X-ray spectroscopy and diffraction. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, DOI: 10.1039/C8CP07423B (2019).
Scott, S., Hogg, T., Landers, A., Maagaard, T., Bertheussen, E., Lin, J., Davis, R., Beeman, J., Higgins, D., Drisdell, W., Hahn, C., Mehta, A., Seger, B., Jaramillo, T., Chorkendorff, I. Absence of Oxidized Phases in Cu Under CO Reduction Conditions. ACS Energy Letters, DOI: 10.1021/acsenergylett.9b00172 (2019).
Lam, R. K., et al. Two-photon absorption of soft X-ray free electron laser radiation by graphite near the carbon K-absorption edge. Chemical Physics Letters, 703, 112-166, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cplett.2018.05.021 (2018).
Sutter-Fella, C., Ngo, Q. P., Cefarin, N., Gardner, K. L., Tamura, N., Stan, C., Drisdell, W., Javey, A., Toma, F., Sharp, I. D. Cation-Dependent Light-Induced Halide Demixing in Hybrid Organic–Inorganic Perovskites. Nano Letters, DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b00541 (2018).
Drisdell, W. S., Leppert, L., Sutter-Fella, C. M., Lang, Y., Li, Y., Ngo, Q., Wan, L., Gul, S., Kroll, T., Sokaras, D., Javey, A., Yano, J., Neaton, J., Toma, F., Prendergast, D., and Sharp, I. Determining Atomic-scale Structure and Composition of Organo-lead Halide Perovskites by Combining High-resolution X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy and First-principles Calculations. ACS Energy Letters, DOI: 10.1021/acsenergylett.7b00182 (2017).
Favaro, M. et al. An Operando Investigation of (Ni-Fe-Co-Ce)Ox System as Highly Efficient Electrocatalyst for Oxygen Evolution Reaction. ACS Catalysis, DOI: 10.1021/acscatal.6b03126 (2016) .
Fukushima, T., Drisdell, W., Yano, J. & Surendranath, Y. Graphite-Conjugated Pyrazines as Molecularly Tunable Heterogeneous Electrocatalysts. Journal of the American Chemical Society 137(34), 10926-10929, DOI: 10.1021/jacs.5b06737 (2015).
Lichterman, M. F. et al. Direct Observation of the Energetics at a Semiconductor/Liquid Junction byOperando X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy. Energy Environ. Sci., 2015, DOI: 10.1039/C5EE01014D(2015).
Loiudice, A. et al. Bandgap Tunability in Sb-Alloyed BiVO4 Quaternary Oxides as Visible Light Absorbers for Solar Fuel Applications. Advanced Materials, DOI: 10.1002/adma.201502361 (2015).
Van Allsburg, K., Anzenberg, E., Drisdell, W., Yano, J. & Tilley, T. D. Oxygen-Atom Transfer Chemistry and Thermolytic Properties of a Di-tert-butylphosphate-Ligated Mn4O4 Cubane. Chemistry - A European Journal, DOI: 10.1002/chem.201406114 (2015).
For a complete list of publications, see JCAP publications page.