The central theme of the Ardo Group's research program is to understand and control reaction mechanisms at interfaces, with the goal of optimizing energy conversion for practical applications, including solar seawater desalination, solar fuels devices, photovoltaics, redox flow batteries, and fuel cells.
Watch a short video from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation explaining The Ardo Group's solar desalination concept and Shane's Distinctive Voices Lecture (53 minutes) from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine titled "Development of a plastic water bottle for sunlight-driven desalination."
Asymmetry is the key characteristic responsible for light-induced charge separation, current rectification, selective catalysis, and energy transport; it is operative in semiconductors, biological membranes, and molecular donor–chromophore–acceptor complexes. Members of the Ardo Group design and control asymmetry through modeling, synthesis, and engineering of molecule–material structures. The electrochemical, photochemical, and photophysical properties of hard and soft material interfaces are manipulated via molecular functionalization and electrostatic engineering. New materials and molecules are being investigated, including multiple-electron-transfer oxidation catalysts, near-infrared-absorbing dyes, photoacidic nanocrystals, chemically modified surfaces, and ion-conducting polymers. The results from each study are pertinent to fundamental electrochemistry and charge-transfer, energy-transfer, and ion-transfer phenomena.
The Ardo Group is well-suited for students and postdoctoral scholars with various backgrounds and expertise, spanning the disciplines of chemistry, materials science, chemical engineering, applied physics, electrical engineering, and biophysics.
4/15/2019: Greg Krueper, Anni Zhang, Mike Chen, Baldwin Liwanag, and Margherita Taddei officially accept offers to attend graduate school in the Department of Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder, the Department of Materials Science & Engineering at UCLA, the Department of Chemistry at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry at UCLA, and the Department of Chemistry at the University of Washington, respectively. Congratulations, Greg, Anni, Mike, Baldwin, and Margherita!
4/4/2019: Leanna receives a travel grant to defer costs of attending the Electrochemistry Society Meeting in Dallas. Congratulations, Leanna!
3/13/2019: Margherita graduated with honors from the University of Bologna. Congratulations on your successful master's thesis defense, Margherita!
3/12/2019: The Ardo Group receives additional funding from Nissan Chemical Corporation as sponsored research to pursue research and development of light-driven ion pumps for solar desalination of salt water. Go Team!
2/22/2019: The Ardo Group and several other UC Irvine collaborators receive collaborative funding from the UC Irvine Research Seed Funding Program aimed to invest in the development of center-scale multidisciplinary convergence research programs for "UCI Initiative in Electrochemistry and Electrochemical Engineering." Go Team!
2/22/2019: The Ardo Group and the Ge Group, Pan Group, and Wu Group receive collaborative funding from the UC Irvine Research Seed Funding Program aimed to invest in the development of center-scale multidisciplinary convergence research programs for "Enabling Next-Generation Solar Energy Storage and a Clean Hydrogen Economy." Go Team!
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