Summary
Ifan leads the Interfacial Electrochemistry Group at the Department of Materials
Ifan joined Imperial College in July 2017. Prior to Imperial, he was at the Department of Physics at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU); he was first employed as a postdoctoral researcher, then as assistant professor and finally as associate professor and leader of the Electrocatalysis Group there.
In 2015, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) appointed Ifan as the Peabody Visiting Associate Professor. He taught and conducted research at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT for a whole semester.
Ifan’s research aims to enable the large-scale electrochemical conversion of renewable energy to fuels and valuable chemicals and vice versa. Such processes will be critical in order to allow the increased uptake of renewable energy.
His focus is on the catalyst at the electrode, i.e. the electrocatalyst. It turns out that the electrocatalyst material defines the efficiency of several important electrochemical processes, including:
(i) electrolysis for the storage of renewable electricity — which is inherently intermittent — in the form of fuels, such as hydrogen or alcohols.
(ii) fuel cells as a potentially zero emission source of power for automotive vehicles.
(iii) the green synthesis of valuable chemicals, such as H2O2.
(iv) batteries, which tend to degrade by gas evolution at the electrode-electrolyte interface. Hence the reactions that need to be accelerated in electrolysers and fuel cells — such as CO2, CO, O2 and H2 evolution — are precisely those that need to be inhibited in batteries.
Ifan has discovered or co-discovered several new catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction, which exhibited significant improvements in performance over the prior state-of-the-art (see Selected Publications). In particular, his research on hydrogen peroxide production led to the establishment of the spinout company, HP Now www.hpnow.dk.
Selected Publications
Journal Articles
Pedersen A, Barrio J, Li A, et al., 2021, Dual-Metal Atom Electrocatalysts: Theory, Synthesis, Characterization, and Applications, Advanced Energy Materials, Vol:12, ISSN:1614-6832
Stephens IEL, Westhead O, Bagger A, et al., 2021, (Keynote) Why Is Lithium Uniquely Able to Reduce Nitrogen to Ammonia Under Ambient Conditions?, Ecs Meeting Abstracts, Vol:MA2021-02, Pages:1542-1542
Iriawan H, Andersen SZ, Zhang X, et al., 2021, (Invited) Nitrogen Activation by Reduction and Oxidation: A Primer for Rigorous and Reproducible Measurements, Ecs Meeting Abstracts, Vol:MA2021-02, Pages:1552-1552
Guo L, Thornton DB, Koronfel MA, et al., 2021, Degradation in lithium ion battery current collectors, Jphys Energy, Vol:3, ISSN:2515-7655
Bagger A, Wan H, Stephens IEL, et al., 2021, Role of catalyst in controlling N-2 reduction selectivity: a unified view of nitrogenase and solid electrodes, ACS Catalysis, Vol:11, ISSN:2155-5435, Pages:6596-6601
Yadegari H, Koronfel MA, Wang K, et al., 2021, Operando measurement of layer breathing modes in lithiated graphite, Acs Energy Letters, Vol:6, ISSN:2380-8195, Pages:1633-1638
Rao RR, Stephens IEL, Durrant JR, 2021, Understanding What Controls the Rate of Electrochemical Oxygen Evolution, Joule, Vol:5, ISSN:2542-4351, Pages:16-18
Duarte R, Rao R, Durrant J, et al., 2020, Towards Active and Stable Bifunctional NiCo<sub>2</sub>O<sub>4</sub> Catalysts for O<sub>2</sub> Evolution and Reduction in Alkaline Media, Ecs Meeting Abstracts, Vol:MA2020-02, Pages:3860-3860
Jensen KD, Pedersen AF, Zamburlini E, et al., 2020, X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy Investigation of Platinum-Gadolinium Thin Films with Different Stoichiometry for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction, Catalysts, Vol:10
Sebastian-Pascual P, Mezzavilla S, Stephens IEL, et al., 2019, Structure-sensitivity and Electrolyte Effects in CO2 Electroreduction: From Model Studies to Applications, Chemcatchem, Vol:11, ISSN:1867-3880, Pages:3624-3643
Nitopi S, Bertheussen E, Scott SB, et al., 2019, Progress and Perspectives of Electrochemical CO2 Reduction on Copper in Aqueous Electrolyte, Chemical Reviews, Vol:119, ISSN:0009-2665, Pages:7610-7672
Chan AK, Tatara R, Feng S, et al., 2019, Concentrated Electrolytes for Enhanced Stability of Al-Alloy Negative Electrodes in Li-Ion Batteries, Journal of the Electrochemical Society, Vol:166, ISSN:0013-4651, Pages:A1867-A1874
Mezzavilla S, Horch S, Stephens IEL, et al., 2019, Structure Sensitivity in the Electrocatalytic Reduction of CO<sub>2</sub> with Gold Catalysts, Angewandte Chemie, Vol:131, ISSN:0044-8249, Pages:3814-3818
Mezzavilla S, Horch S, Stephens IEL, et al., 2019, Structure Sensitivity in the Electrocatalytic Reduction of CO2 with Gold Catalysts., Angew Chem Int Ed Engl
Jensen KD, Tymoczko J, Rossmeisl J, et al., 2018, Elucidation of the oxygen reduction volcano in alkaline media using a copper–platinum(111) alloy, Angewandte Chemie - International Edition, Vol:57, ISSN:1433-7851, Pages:2800-2805
Rao RM, Kolb MJ, Halck, et al., 2017, Towards identifying the active sites on RuO2 (110) in catalyzing oxygen evolution, Energy & Environmental Science, Vol:10, ISSN:1754-5692, Pages:2626-2637
Stephens IEL, Rossmeisl J, Chorkendorff I, 2016, Toward sustainable fuel cells, Science, Vol:354, ISSN:0036-8075, Pages:1378-1379
Pedersen AF, Ulrikkeholm ET, Escudero-Escribano M, et al., 2016, Probing the nanoscale structure of the catalytically active overlayer on Pt alloys with rare earths, Nano Energy, Vol:29, ISSN:2211-2855, Pages:249-260
Escudero-Escribano M, Malacrida P, Hansen MH, et al., 2016, Tuning the activity of Pt alloy electrocatalysts by means of the lanthanide contraction, Science, Vol:352, ISSN:0036-8075, Pages:73-76
Frydendal R, Paoli EA, Chorkendorff I, et al., 2015, Toward an active and stable catalyst for oxygen evolution in acidic media: Ti-Stabilized MnO2, Advanced Energy Materials, Vol:5, ISSN:1614-6832
Stephens IEL, Elias JS, Shao-Horn Y, 2015, The importance of being together, Science, Vol:350, ISSN:0036-8075, Pages:164-165
Hernandez-Fernandez P, Masini F, McCarthy DN, et al., 2014, Mass-selected nanoparticles of PtxY as model catalysts for oxygen electroreduction, Nature Chemistry, Vol:6, ISSN:1755-4330, Pages:732-738
Siahrostami S, Verdaguer-Casadevall A, Karamad M, et al., 2013, Enabling direct H2O2 production through rational electrocatalyst design, Nature Materials, Vol:12, ISSN:1476-1122, Pages:1137-1143
Stephens IEL, Bondarenko AS, Gronbjerg U, et al., 2012, Understanding the electrocatalysis of oxygen reduction on platinum and its alloys, Energy & Environmental Science, Vol:5, ISSN:1754-5692, Pages:6744-6762
Stephens IEL, Bondarenko AS, Perez-Alonso FJ, et al., 2011, Tuning the Activity of Pt(111) for Oxygen Electroreduction by Subsurface Alloying, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol:133, ISSN:0002-7863, Pages:5485-5491
Greeley J, Stephens IEL, Bondarenko AS, et al., 2009, Alloys of platinum and early transition metals as oxygen reduction electrocatalysts, Nature Chemistry, Vol:1, ISSN:1755-4330, Pages:552-556