Rodney Smith

Rodney Smith's research interests lie in the fabrication and characterization of solid-state materials that mediate the electrochemical synthesis of sustainable fuels. Rodney develops innovative fabrication techniques, examines the structure of materials, and studies reaction kinetics and dynamics in an effort to improve the efficiency and selectivity of reactions such as electrochemical CO2 reduction. The research is interdisciplinary in nature, involving materials synthesis and a diverse selection of spectroscopic and electrochemical techniques.

• Inorganic materials
• Electrocatalysis
• Reaction dynamics
• Reaction kinetics
• Energy storage
• Energy Materials
• AI assisted Materials Development
• Synthetic Chemistry and Catalysis
• Next Generation Energy Systems
• Nanomaterials

• 2012 Ph.D., Electrochemistry, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada
• 2007 B.Sc., Honours Chemistry, University of Manitoba, Canada

• Canadian Society for Chemistry, Member since 2008
• American Chemical Society, Member since 2008
• Electrochemical Society, Member since 2010
• Materials Research Society, Member since 2018
• International Academy of Electrochemical Energy Science, Member since 2018

• Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology, Member since 2017
• Waterloo Artificial Intelligence Institute, Member since 2022

• CHEM 313 - Main Group and Solid State Chemistry
  • Taught in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2024
• CHEM 400 - Special Topics in Chemistry
  • Taught in 2019, 2022, 2023
• CHEM 710 - Selected Topics in Inorganic Chemistry
  • Taught in 2020, 2022

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.

• Du C., Lu S., Wang J.-A., Wang X., Wang M., Fruehwald H.M., Wang L., Zhang B., Guo T., Mills J.P., Wei W., Chen Z., Teng Y., Zhang J., Sun C.-J., Zhou H., Smith R.D.L., Kendall B., Henkelman G., and Wu Y.A., Selectively Reducing Nitrate into NH3 in Neutral Media by PdCu Single-Atom Alloy Electrocatalysis, ACS Catalysis, Volume 13, 10560-10569, Canada, 2023.
• Bodappa N., Bouzidi S., Liu X., Whittingham A.W.H., and Smith R.D.L., Spontaneous Reactivity of La2CuO4 toward CO2 Diagnosed Using Variable Temperature Raman Spectro, Journal of Physical Chemistry C, Volume 127, 16870-16879, Canada, 2023.
• Ye F., Fruehwald H.M., Tian K., Zandieh M., Smith R., Sanderson J., and Musselman K.P., PEGylated MoSe2 Nanomaterials with Limited Oxidation via Femtosecond Laser Ablation for Photothermal Therapy, ACS Applied Nano Materials, Canada, 2023.
• Liu Y., and Smith R.D.L., Differentiating Defects and Their Influence on Hematite Photoanodes Using X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy and Raman Microscopy, ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, Volume 14, 6615-6624, Canada, 2022.
• Bodappa N., Stepan S., and Smith R.D.L., Erratum: Analysis of Solid-State Reaction Mechanisms with Two-Dimensional Fourier Transform Infrared Correlation Spectroscopy (I, Inorganic Chemistry, Volume 61, 757, 2022.
• Whittingham A.W.H., Liu X., and Smith R.D.L., How Cation Substitutions Affect the Oxygen Reduction Reaction on La2−xSrxNi1−yFey
• Klassen C.M., Smith R.D.L., and Daun K.J., Characterizing the Al[sbnd]Si coating on 22MnB5 steel using Raman spectroscopy, Materials Characterization, Volume 127, Canada, 2022.
• Jenkins T., Persaud B.D., Cowger W., Szigeti K., Roche D.G., Clary E., Slowinski S., Lei B., Abeynayaka A., Nyadjro E.S., Maes T., Thornton Hampton L., Bergmann M., Aherne J., Mason S.A., Honek J.F., Rezanezhad F., Lusher A.L., Booth A.M., Smith R.D.L., and Van Cappellen P., Current State of Microplastic Pollution Research Data: Trends in Availability and Sources of Open Data, Frontiers in Environmental Science, Volume 10, Canada, 2022.
• Alsac E.P., Zhou K., Rong W., Salamon S., Landers J., Wende H., and Smith R.D.L., Identification of non-traditional coordination environments for iron ions in nickel hydroxide lattices, Energy and Environmental Science, Volume 15, Canada, 2022.
• Lei B., Bissonnette J.R., Hogan U.E., Bec A.E., Feng X., and Smith R.D.L., Customizable Machine-Learning Models for Rapid Microplastic Identification Using Raman Microscopy, Analytical Chemistry, Volume 94, 17011-17019, Canada, 2022.
• Zandieh M., Hogan U.E., Smith R.D., and Liu J., Spherical DNA for Probing Wettability of Microplastics, Langmuir, Volume 39, 4959-4966, Canada, 2023.
• Liu Y., Zhang J., Bodappa N., and Smith R.D.L., Mechanistic insights into lepidocrocite conversion to hematite from variable temperature Raman microscopy, JPhys Energy, Volume 3, Canada, 2021.
• Pasquini C., Liu S., Chernev P., Gonzalez-Flores D., Mohammadi M.R., Kubella P., Jiang S., Loos S., Klingan K., Sikolenko V., Mebs S., Haumann M., Beyer P., D'Amario L., Smith R.D.L., Zaharieva I., and Dau H., Operando tracking of oxidation-state changes by coupling electrochemistry with time-resolved X-ray absorption spectroscopy demon, Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, Volume 127, 5395-5408, Germany, 2021.
• Bodappa N., Stepan S., and Smith R.D.L., Analysis of Solid-State Reaction Mechanisms with Two-Dimensional Fourier Transform Infrared Correlation Spectroscopy, Inorganic Chemistry, Volume 60, 2304-2314, Canada, 2021.
• Whittingham A.W.H., Lau J., and Smith R.D.L., Mechanistic insights into the spontaneous reaction between CO2 and La2-xSrxCuO4, Canadian Journal of Chemistry, Volume 99, 773-779, Canada, 2021.
• Zhang J., Liu Y., and Smith R.D.L., Identification of Three Coexistent Defect Types in Hematite Photoanodes through Structure–Property Analysis, Energy Technology, Volume 10, Canada, 2022.
• Mohammadi M.R., Loos S., Chernev P., Pasquini C., Zaharieva I., Gonzalez-Flores D., Kubella P., Klingan K., Smith R.D.L., and Dau H., Exploring the Limits of Self-Repair in Cobalt Oxide Films for Electrocatalytic Water Oxidation, ACS Catalysis, Volume 10, 7990-7999, Iran, 2020.
• Liu Y., and Smith R.D.L., Identifying protons trapped in hematite photoanodes through structure-property analysis, Chemical Science, Volume 11, 1085-1096, Canada, 2020.
• Cheng M., Rivas N., Lim S.J., Pichugin K., Petruk A.A., Klinkova A., Smith R., Hopkins W.S., and Sciaini G., Trapping a Photoelectron behind a Repulsive Coulomb Barrier in Solution, Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, Volume 10, 5742-5747, Canada, 2019.
• Whittingham A.W.H., and Smith R.D.L., Electrochemically Induced Phase Changes in La2CuO4 During Cathodic Electrocatalysis, ChemElectroChem, Volume 6, 5116-5123, Canada, 2019.
• Alsac E.P., Whittingham A., Liu Y., and Smith R.D.L., Probing the Role of Internalized Geometric Strain on Heterogeneous Electrocatalysis, Chemistry of Materials, Volume 31, 7522-7530, Canada, 2019.
• Pasquini C., Zaharieva I., Gonzalez-Flores D., Chernev P., Mohammadi M.R., Guidoni L., Smith R.D.L., and Dau H., H/D Isotope Effects Reveal Factors Controlling Catalytic Activity in Co-Based Oxides for Water Oxidation, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Volume 127, 2938-2948, Germany, 2019.
• Rong W., Stepan S., and Smith R.D.L., Evidence of Variations in Atomic Distribution in Disordered Mixed Metal Hydroxides, MRS Advances, Volume 4, 1843-1850, Canada, 2019.
• Villalobos J., Gonzalez-Flores D., Klingan K., Chernev P., Kubella P., Urcuyo R., Pasquini C., Mohammadi M.R., Smith R.D.L., Montero M.L., and Dau H., Structural and functional role of anions in electrochemical water oxidation probed by arsenate incorporation into cobalt-oxide m, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, Volume 21, 12485-12493, Costa Rica, 2019.
• Smith R.D.L., Pasquini C., Loos S., Chernev P., Klingan K., Kubella P., Mohammadi M.R., Gonzalez-Flores D., and Dau H., Geometric distortions in nickel (oxy)hydroxide electrocatalysts by redox inactive iron ions, Energy and Environmental Science, Volume 11, 2476-2485, Germany, 2018.
• Gonzalez-Flores D., Klingan K., Chernev P., Loos S., Mohammadi M.R., Pasquini C., Kubella P., Zaharieva I., Smith R.D.L., and Dau H., Nickel-iron catalysts for electrochemical water oxidation-redox synergism investigated by: In situ X-ray spectroscopy with milli, Sustainable Energy and Fuels, Volume 2, 1986-1994, Costa Rica, 2018.
• Smith R.D.L., Pasquini C., Loos S., Chernev P., Klingan K., Kubella P., Mohammadi M.R., Gonzalez-Flores D., and Dau H., Spectroscopic identification of active sites for the oxygen evolution reaction on iron-cobalt oxides, Nature Communications, Volume 8, Canada, 2017.
• Smith R.D.L., Sherbo R.S., Dettelbach K.E., and Berlinguette C.P., On How Experimental Conditions Affect the Electrochemical Response of Disordered Nickel Oxyhydroxide Films, Chemistry of Materials, Volume 28, 5635-5642, Canada, 2016.
• Smith R.D.L., and Berlinguette C.P., Accounting for the Dynamic Oxidative Behavior of Nickel Anodes, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Volume 127, 1561-1567, Canada, 2016.
• Zhang C., Fagan R.D., Smith R.D.L., Moore S.A., Berlinguette C.P., and Trudel S., Mapping the performance of amorphous ternary metal oxide water oxidation catalysts containing aluminium, Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Volume 3, 756-761, Canada, 2015.
• Smith R.D.L., Sporinova B., Fagan R.D., Trudel S., and Berlinguette C.P., Facile photochemical preparation of amorphous iridium oxide films for water oxidation catalysis, Chemistry of Materials, Volume 26, 1654-1659, Canada, 2014.
• Smith R.D.L., Prevot M.S., Fagan R.D., Trudel S., and Berlinguette C.P., Water oxidation catalysis: Electrocatalytic response to metal stoichiometry in amorphous metal oxide films containing iron, coba, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Volume 127, 11580-11586, Canada, 2013.
• Smith R.D.L., Prevot M.S., Fagan R.D., Zhang Z., Sedach P.A., Siu M.K.J., Trudel S., and Berlinguette C.P., Photochemical route for accessing amorphous metal oxide materials for water oxidation catalysis, Science, Volume 127, 60-63, Canada, 2013.
• Smith R.D.L., Trudel S., and Berlinguette C.P., Photochemical route for the preparation of complex amorphous water oxidation catalyst, ECS Transactions, Volume 58, 67-76, Canada, 2013.
• Smith R.D.L., and Pickup P.G., Nitrogen-rich polymers for the electrocatalytic reduction of CO2, Electrochemistry Communications, Volume 12, 1749-1751, Canada, 2010.
• Smith R.D.L., and Pickup P.G., Voltammetric quantification of the spontaneous chemical modification of carbon black by diazonium coupling, Electrochimica Acta, Volume 54, 2305-2311, Canada, 2009.
• Smith R.D.L., and Pickup P.G., Novel electroactive surface functionality from the coupling of an aryl diamine to carbon black, Electrochemistry Communications, Volume 11, 10-13, Canada, 2009.
• Alsac E.P., and Smith R.D.L., Linking Lattice Strain and Electron Transfer Kinetics in Crystalline Layered Double Hydroxides, ACS Catalysis, Volume 12, 12419-12431, Canada, 2022.
• Zhang J., Daun K.J., and Smith R.D.L., Raman Spectroscopic Analysis of the Reaction between Al-Si Coatings and Steel, ACS Omega, Volume 8, 27002-27009, Canada, 2023.