Welcome to the Smith Lab Website!

We work in the 
Materials for Energy Conversion and Storage (MECS) section, 
Department of Chemical Engineering, 
Delft University of Technology, 
in The Netherlands.

​Our group investigates electrochemical and photoelectrochemical reactions via experiment, simulation, and theory. Through close ties to industry, we focus on science for society; the scientific questions most relevant to the technology that can mitigate climate change.  For more information about our research, please visit the research section of our site.
   

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Our Vision for Sustainable Chemicals and Fuels

NEWS

August 1 2018: Mark Sassenburg has joined the group as a new PhD student! He rounds out the team for the Smith WU TANG (clan / ERC grant).  Mark returns, having previously completed his bachelors and masters research with the group, studying bipolar membranes and gas diffusion electrodes.
July 10 2018: Dr. Nathan T. Nesbitt has joined the group as a postdoctoral researcher! Nate returns to the group, having visited for a half year in 2016 during his PhD, which he completed at Boston College with Prof. Michael J. Naughton this May. During his PhD he completed his thesis on "Facets and sharp edges in metal nanostructures for plasmonics and electrocatalysis."
March 2 2018: Dr. Dowon Bae has joined the group as our newest postdoctoral researcher!  Dowon completed his PhD and was previously a postdoctoral researcher at Denmark Technical University (DTU), and will join our group to study photoelectrochemical redox flow batteries.  Dowon was able to obtain a prestigious Marie Curie LEaDing Fellowship to join our group, and we are very much looking forward to the next two years!
February 8 2018: Digda's new paper, "General Considerations for Improving Photovoltage in Metal-Insulator-Semicondutor Photoanodes", is accepted in the Journal pf Physical Chemistry C (JPCC)!  This was another great collaboration with colleagues at AMOLF in Amsterdam, and demonstrates design rules for choosing insulators and metals to maximize MIS photovoltages!  
January 2 2018: Dr. Tom Burdyny has joined the group as our newest postdoctoral researcher!  Tom comes to us from the University of Toronto, and with a strong mechanical engineering background will help us to develop materials and systems for practical CO2 conversion.  Really looking forward to learning a lot from Tom, and expanding the expertise of the group as we continue to grow.  Looking forward to the next few years!
November 1 2017: Dr. Recep Kas has joined the group as a postdoctoral researcher!  Recep will be working on in-situ spectroelectrochemical techniques for monitoring catalyst surfaces during electrochemical CO2 reduction.   So happy to have Recep join the team, looking forward to a lot of fun and great work in the next two years!
October 2 2017: Marijn Blommaert and Sanjana Chandrashekar have joined the group as new PhD students!  Marijn will be working on bipolar membranes and Sanjana will work on electrocatalysis, both projects relating to CO2 reduction.  Welcome to the group Marijn and Sanjana, looking forward to the next 4 years with you both!
September 21 2017: Fresh off completing his PhD, Dr. Ming Ma has another paper published in Nano Energy titled, "Electronic effects on the electrochemical reduction of CO2 on compositionally variant Au-Pt bimetallic thin films"!  Great work Ming!
September 18 2017: Kailun Yang has joined the group to begin a 4-year PhD project on electrocatalysis! Kailun comes all the way from China with her own prestigious CSC scholarship.  Welcome to the group Kailun, excited to have you join the team! 
September 14 2017: Dr. Ming Ma successfully defended his thesis, becoming the first PhD graduate from the group!  Congratulations on a fantastic thesis Ming!
​September 8 2017: Wilson has been awarded an ERC Starting Grant from the European Commission!  This grant will give €2 Million to the lab to investigate CO2 reduction catalysts in-situ during electrochemical reactions, and will come with funds for a brand new EC-AFM/SECM.  Once again, the hard work of the entire group (past and present) has gone directly into this award.  Thanks to the whole team for all their dedication, excited for the next phase of growth for the lab! (several PhD and postdoc positions now available!)
September 1 2017: Anirudh Venugopal has joined the group to begin a 4-year PhD project on photoelectrochemistry!  Anirudh joins us after completing his MSc at TU Delft (cum laude) also with our group.  Welcome Anirudh, looking forward to exciting science in the next 4 years!
July 5 2017: Digda's new paper, "Interfacial engineering of metal-insulator-semiconductor junctions for efficient and stable photoelectrochemical water oxidation", is finally published online in Nature Communications!  This was a great effort with colleagues at AMOLF in Amsterdam, and demonstrates a highly efficient photoelectrochemical system that is stable for over 200 hours!  Excited to have the first two Smith Lab PhD students (Digda and Bartek) get the first Nature paper from the group, great work guys!  Coverage of the work here and here!
May 26 2017: Bartek's next great paper, "Near complete suppression of surface losses and total internal quantum efficiency in BiVO4 photoanodes", is accepted in Energy and Environmental Science!  After almost a full year in review, its a relief to get this paper out, and show our nice results with manny collaborators (from ESRF in France and UJI in Spain).  Congratulations Bartek and the other co-authors on a fantastic paper! 
April 11 2017: Wilson has gained a new partnership with Toyota Motor Europe to develop efficient solar to hydrogen devices.  This is a great new opportunity with a new industrial partner that will bring lots of exciting new people and results to the lab.  Looking forward to starting the collaboration!
March 14 2017: Wilson was awarded a new grant from STW/NWO, along with Fokko Mulder, on the electrochemical production of ammonia!  This grant comes with strong industrial support from Nuon and Shell, and will allow us to expand our electrochemical activities to study more chemical reactions that can benefit society.  Looking forward to working together with Fokko and hiring 2 more PhD students!
March 7 2017: Marco's next great paper, "On the hot carrier generation and extraction of plasmonic alloy nanoparticles", is now out in ACS Photonics!  Congratulations Marco and our collaborators from Sweden and Cyprus!
December 6 2016: Nienke's new paper, "Probing the reaction mechanism of CO2 electroreduction over Ag films via operando infrared spectroscopy", is accepted in ACS Catalysis!  Great fundamental work and a strong first paper with the group, well done and congratulations Nienke!
December 1 2016: Wilson was selected as one of 39 researchers in the Netherlands to join the inagural class of the Advanced Research Center: Chemical Building Blocks Consortium (ARC CBBC).  The honor comes as a result of all the hard work done by the whole group, and we hope to use this as a valuable tool to collaborate with other researchers and industry in the coming years.  Thanks to the board members for their confidence and support of the group!
December 1 2016: The group is happy to welcome our newest PhD student, Kai Liu!  Kai joins the group after previously working in the biocatalysis group, and will work on CO2 electroreduction.  Welcome to the group Kai, looking forward to the next 4 years!
November 11 2016: David's new paper, "Synergistic electrochemical CO2 reduction and water oxidation with a bipolar membrane", is now out in the ACS Energy Letters!  Congratulations David, really great article that is the culmination of a fantastic 2 year postdoc!
October 25 2016: Marco's new review paper, "Plasmonic nanoparticle-semiconductor composites for efficient solar water splitting", is now out in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A!  Congratulations Marco and our collaborators from Sweden!
October 1 2016: The group is happy and proud to welcome our newest PhD student, Divya Bohra!  Divya rejoins the group after doing her (cum laude) Masters thesis with us and then spending two years with Shell.  Welcome back to academia Divya, looking forward to the next 4 years!
August 25 2016: Wilson was awarded a new grant for €900,000 from NWO/FOM with a strong partnership involving Shell!  The grant is focused on low-cost, stable, and selective systems and materials to convert sunlight, water, and CO2 into chemical fuels.  Fortunately, the grant partners the Smith Lab with leading researchers in the PV field (Arno Smets at TU Delft), and CO2 electrocatalysis (Marc Koper at Leiden).  Great opportunity for the group, looking forward to hiring new enthusiastic people to get this project off the ground!
August 7~12 2016: The Group attends the 5th CINF Summer School in Denmark, hosted by DTU and Ib Chorkendorff.  Fantastic talks and lively discussions for a week in Denmark was enjoyed by everyone!
July 11 2016: Wilson was given early tenure and a promotion to Associate Professor today!  This is a direct reflection of the hard work and excellent students that have made the lab run efficiently for the past few years.  Thanks to all who helped make this possible!
July 4 2016: Vincent I.P. Verhagen successfully defended his bachelors thesis entitled, "Stabilisation of organometallic halide perovskites by Bi-doping"! Great job on your thesis and thanks for all the hard work Vincent, congratulations!
June 30 2016: Hugo Iglesias van Montfort successfully defended his bachelors thesis entitled, "Analysis of the effect of chamber thickness and membrane presence on the efficiency of electrochemical water splitting flow-cells"! Congratulations Hugo, great presentation and excellent work!
June 27 2016: Yael Althuis successfully defended his bachelors thesis entitled, "The synthesis of oxide-derived solver thin films on a germanium crystal"!  Congratulations Yael, thanks for the past few months of hard work and good luck in your next steps!
June 25 2016: We were honored to have Nobel Laureate (Physics 1997) and former U.S. Secretary of Energy (2009-2013) Steven Chu visit our lab this weekend where we discussed solar to fuel conversion, CO2 capture, climate change and the role of scientists in policy.  
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May 30 2016: Mings paper, "Selective and efficient reduction of CO2 to CO on oxide-derived nanostructured Ag electrocatalysts", is accepted in Angewandte Chemie International Edition! Congratulations Ming!

May 23 2016: Today we move to the new lab!  Fantastic new facilities, new offices, and lots of inspiration all around.  Pictures to come soon...
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May 17 2016: Wilson was awarded a VIDI grant for €800,000 from NWO in the Chemical Sciences (CW) division!  The project will focus on defect engineering perovskite solar cells and developing in-situ techniques to observe catalyst surfaces during operational conditions.  Thanks to the whole lab for their hard work and helpful discussions in developing these ideas.  New PhD and postdoc vacancies are now open!
Story from TU Delft and NWO

March 22 2016: Mings paper, "Controllable hydrocarbon formation via electrochemical reduction of CO2 on Cu nanowire arrays", is accepted in Angewandte Chemie International Edition! Congratulations Ming!

March 19 2016: Our paper in collaboration with the Gratzel group, "Bipolar Membrane Assisted Solar Water Splitting in Optimal pH", is accepted in Advanced Energy Materials!  Congratulations David and colleagues!

March 1 2016:  
Smith Lab website launches!

We graciously receive funding from the following sources: