Associate Professor of Chemistry; Associate Professor of Macromolecular Science and Engineering
About
The electrochemical interconversion of small molecules containing C, O, N, and H is at the core of energy and environmental chemistry. Research in the McCrory Lab generally focuses on using careful electroanalytical studies to elucidate the mechanism of electrocatalytic systems, then using this mechanistic understanding to inform the rational design of next-generation catalyst materials. We are broadly interested in the electrochemical interconversion of small molecules relevant to energy and environmental chemistry. For instance, we are particularly interested in the selective electrochemical reduction of CO2 via the CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) due to its applications towards both storing energy from intermittent energy sources in the form of chemical bonds (e.g. solar fuels) and as a pathway to converting CO2 in industrial waste streams to value added products. Another reaction of major interest is the electrochemical reduction of NO3– salts to NH3 or N2 as a means of remediating agricultural and industrial wastewater. We are also interested in the oxidation of water to O2 in the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), the oxidative half reaction that occurs at the anode in solar fuels devices, and the selective oxidation of alcohols in the alcohol oxidation reaction (AOR) for electrosynthetic applications.
In the McCrory group, our general research approach is to develop enabling technologies that allow for the careful study and control of electrocatalytic processes with an emphasis on kinetic and mechanistic analysis, and to use these approaches to address fundamental challenges in the electrochemical conversion of small molecules by solid-state and molecular catalysts. We use a combination of surface science and electrochemistry to directly observe reactive intermediates in the catalytic pathway in model systems and then use these mechanistic findings to develop new, efficient electrocatalytic materials.
Selected Recent Awards(s)
- DOE Early Career Research Program Award, Office of Basic Science, 2021-2026
- Scialog Fellow, Negative Emissions Science, Research Corporation for Science Advancement, 2020
- Cottrell Scholars Award, Research Corporation for Science Advancement, 2019-2022
- Kavli Fellow, Kavli Frontiers of Science Program, National Academy of Sciences, 2019
- NSF Career Award, Chemistry Division, Chemical Catalysis Program, 2018-2023
- Dow Corning Assistant Professor of Chemistry, University of Michigan, 2017-2020
Selected Representative Publications
Strategies for Breaking Molecular Scaling Relationships for the Electrochemical CO2 Reduction Reaction.
Nie, W.-X.; McCrory, C. C. L. Dalton Trans., 2022, 51, 6993-7010.
Enhancing Electrochemical Carbon Dioxide Reduction by Polymer-Encapsulated Cobalt Phthalocyanine through Incorporation of Graphite Powder
Soucy, T. L.†; Liu, Y.†; Eisenberg, J. B.; McCrory, C. C. L. ACS Appl. Energy Mater., 2022, 5, 159-169.
Considering the Influence of Polymer-Catalyst Interactions on the Chemical Microenvironment of Electrocatalysts for the CO2 Reduction Reaction.
Soucy, T. L.; Dean, W. S.; Zhou, J.; Rivera Cruz, K. E.; McCrory, C. C. L. Acc. Chem. Res., 2022, 55, 252-261.
Enhancing a Molecular Electrocatalyst’s Activity for CO2 Reduction by Simultaneously Modulating Three Substituent Effects.
Nie, W.-X.; Tarnopol, D. E.; McCrory, C. C. L. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2021, 143, 3764-3778.
Increasing the CO2 Reduction Activity of Cobalt Phthalocyanine by Modulating the σ-donor Strength of Axially Coordinating Ligands.
Rivera Cruz, K. E.†; Liu, Y.†; Soucy, T. L.; Zimmerman, P. M.; McCrory, C. C. L. ACS Catal., 2021, 11, 13203-13216.
A CoV2O4 Precatalyst for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction: Highlighting the Importance of Postmortem Catalyst Characterization in Electrocatalysis Studies.
Michaud, S. E.; Riehs, M. T.; Feng, W.-J.; Lin, C-C.; McCrory, C. C. L. Chem. Commun. 2021, 57, 883-886.
Controlled Formation of Multilayer Films of Discrete Molecular Catalysts for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction using a Layer-by-Layer Growth Mechanism Based on Sequential Click Chemistry.
Kallick, J. K.; Feng, W.-J.; McCrory, C. C. L. ACS Appl. Energy Mater., 2020, 3, 7, 6222-6231.
Determining the Coordination Environment and Electronic Structure of Polymer-Encapsulated Cobalt Phthalocyanine under Electrocatalytic Conditions using In Situ X-Ray Absorption Spectroscopy
Liu, Y.; Deb, A.; Leung, K.-Y.; Nie, W.-X.; Dean, W. S.; Penner-Hahn, J. E.; McCrory, C. C. L. Dalton Trans., 2020, 49, 16329-16339.
Electrocatalytic CO2 Reduction by Co Bis(pyridylmonoimine) Complexes: Effect of Ligand Flexibility on Catalytic Activity.
Nie, W.-X.; Wang, Y.; Zheng, T.; Ibrahim, A.; Xu, Z.; McCrory C. C. L. ACS Catal., 2020, 10, 4942-4959.
The Effect and Prevention of Trace Ag+ Contamination from Ag/AgCl Reference Electrodes on CO2 Reduction Product Distributions at Polycrystalline Copper Electrodes.
Leung, K-Y.; McCrory, C. C. L. ACS Appl. Energy Mater., 2019, 2, 8283-8293.
Controlled Substrate Transport to Electrocatalyst Active Sites for Enhanced Selectivity in the Carbon Dioxide Reduction Reaction.
Liu, Y.; Leung, K-Y.; Michaud, S. E.; Soucy, T. L.; McCrory, C. C. L. Comment. Inorg. Chem. 2019, 39, 242-269.
Modulating the Electrocatalytic Mechanism of Selective CO2 Reduction by Cobalt Phthalocyanine through Polymer Coordination and Encapsulation.
Liu, Y.; McCrory, C. C. L. 2019, Nat. Commun., 10, 1683.
