Professor Jillian L. Dempsey

Moscowitz Memorial Lectureship

Professor Jillian L. Dempsey

Bowman and Gordan Gray Distinquished Term

Professor, Deputy Director of the Center for Hybrid Approaches in Solar Energy to Liquid Fuels (CHASE), Director of Undergrad Studies for the Department of Chemistry

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Abstract

Elucidating Proton-Coupled Electron Transfer Mechanisms Underpinning the Catalytic Generation of Renewable Fuels

The conversion of energy-poor feedstocks like water and carbon dioxide into energy-rich fuels involves multi-electron, multiproton transformations. In order to develop catalysts that can mediate fuel production with optimum energy efficiency, this complex protonelectron reactivity must be carefully considered. Using a combination of electrochemical methods and time-resolved spectroscopy, we have revealed new details of how molecular catalysts mediate the reduction of protons to dihydrogen and the experimental parameters that dictate catalyst kinetics and mechanism. Through these studies, we are revealing opportunities to promote, control and modulate the proton-coupled electron transfer reaction pathways of catalysts. Here we attempt to answer, “What can we learn about how molecules crystallize from the 1.1+ million structures in the Cambridge Structural Database that have crystallized?”

Jillian L. Dempsey

Jillian received her S.B. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2005 where she worked in the laboratory of Prof. Daniel G. Nocera. As an NSF Graduate Research Fellow, she carried out research with Prof. Harry B. Gray and Dr. Jay R. Winkler at the California Institute of Technology, receiving her PhD in 2011. From 2011–2012 she was an NSF ACC Postdoctoral Fellow with Daniel R. Gamelin at the University of Washington. In 2012 she joined the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Jillian’s research group explores charge transfer processes associated with solar fuel production, including proton-coupled electron transfer reactions and electron transfer across interfaces. Her research bridges molecular and materials chemistry and relies heavily on methods of physical inorganic chemistry, including transient absorption spectroscopy and electrochemistry. She has received numerous awards including the Harry B. Gray Award for Creative Work in Inorganic Chemistry by a Young investigator (2019), the J. Carlyle Sitterson Award for Teaching First-Year Students (2017), a Sloan Research Fellowship (2016), a Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering (2015), and the University Award for Advancement of Women (2021).

Start date
Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2022, 9:45 a.m.
End date
Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2022, 11 a.m.
Location

331 Smith Hall

Zoom Link

Share