Rodney Smith

Assistant Professor

Rodney Smith’s research involves the study of electrocatalysts for use in sustainable energy storage systems. His research examines the chemistry of electrode surfaces, measures electron transfer kinetics and probes electrochemical reaction dynamics in an effort to guide the design and fabrication of solid-state electrocatalysts.

Contact information
Office: ESC 332
Phone: 519-888-4567 x38388
Email: rodsmith@uwaterloo.ca
Website: Rodney Smith

Expertise

Inorganic materials
Electrocatalysis
Reaction dynamics
Reaction kinetics
Energy storage

Research

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 CO₂reduction. The research is interdisciplinary in nature, involving materials synthesis and a diverse selection of spectroscopic and electrochemical techniques.

Highlighted Publications

Smith, R. D. L.; Pasquini, C.; Loos, S.; Chernev, P.; Klingan, K.; Kubella, P.; Mohammadi, M. R.; Gonzalez-Flores, D.; Dau, H., Geometric distortions in nickel (oxy)hydroxide electrocatalysts by redox inactive iron ions Energy & Environ. Sci., 2018, 11, 2476-2485.
Gonzalez-Flores, D.; Klingan, K.; Chernev, P.; Loos, S.; Mohammadi, M. R.; Pasquini, C.; Kubella, P.; Zaharieva, I.; Smith, R. D. L.; Dau, H. Nickel-iron catalysts for electrochemical water oxidation – redox synergism investigated by in-situ X-ray spectroscopy with millisecond time resolution. Sustainable Energy & Fuels, 2018, 2, 1986-1994.
Smith, R. D. L.; Pasquini, C.; Loos, S.; Chernev, P.; Klingan, K.; Kubella, P.; Mohammadi, M. R.; Gonzalez-Flores, D.; Dau, H., Spectroscopic Identification of Active Sites for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction on Photochemically Deposited Fe-Co Oxides. Nat. Commun., 2017, 8, 2022.
Rodney D. L. Smith, Rebecca S. Sherbo, Kevan D. Dettelbach, Curtis P. Berlinguette  ”On How Experimental Conditions Affect the Electrochemical Response of Disordered Nickel Oxyhydroxide Films” Chem. Mater., 2016, DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.6b01420.
Rodney D. L. Smith, Curtis P. Berlinguette “Accounting for the Dynamic Oxidative Behavior of Nickel Anodes”  J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2016, 138, 1561-1567.
Rodney D. L. Smith, Barbora Sporinova, Randal D. Fagan, Simon Trudel, Curtis P. Berlinguette,   “Facile photochemical preparation of amorphous iridium-oxide films for water oxidation catalysis” Chem. Mater., 2014, 26, 1654-1659.
Rodney D. L. Smith, Mathieu S. Prévot, Randal D. Fagan, Simon Trudel, Curtis P. Berlinguette “Water oxidation catalysis: electrocatalytic response to metal stoichiometry in amorphous  metal oxide films containing iron, cobalt and nickel” J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2013, 135, 11580-11586.
Rodney D. L. Smith, Mathieu S. Prévot, Randal D. Fagan, Zhipan Zhang, Pavel Sedach, Man K. J. Siu, Simon Trudel, Curtis P. Berlinguette “Photochemical route for accessing amorphous metal oxide materials for water oxidation catalysis”  Science, 2013, 340, 60-63.