Spin-dependent electrochemistry and its applications in clean energy technology
The electrochemical water-splitting process is set to play a key role in developing sustainable clean energy technologies. Hydrogen production using water-electrolysis is proved to be a central technology for energy storage. Despite the substantial effort, the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is still an enigma. Understanding its detailed mechanism is still exigent because one has to consider the spin restrictions. In past years, it is established that electron transmission through chiral molecules depends on the electron's spin. When an electron passes through chiral molecules, do so in a manner that depends on the electron's spin and the molecule's enantiomeric form. This effect is referred to as the chiral-induced spin selectivity effect which laid a foundation for the development of organic molecules-based spin filters. Our research will focus on exploring chiral organic or organic-inorganic hybrid materials and studying their application as anodes for the application of oxygen evolution reactions. We are also interested to study the effect of spin selective electron transfer in oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) which is also very important for fuel cell technology and metal-air battery.
References
1. Naaman et al. Spintronics and Chirality: Spin Selectivity in Electron Transport Through Chiral Molecules, Ann. Rev. Phys. Chem., 2015, 66, 263-81.
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2. Mtangi et al. Control of Electrons' Spin Eliminate Hydrogen Peroxide Formation During Water Splitting, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2017, 139, 2794 - 2798.
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3. Banerjee-Ghosh et al. Controlling Chemical Selectivity in Electrocatalysis with Chiral CuO Coated Electrodes, J. Phys. Chem. C, 2019, 123 (5), 3024-3031.
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4. Zhang et al. Enhanced Electrochemical Water Splitting with Chiral Molecule-Coated Fe3O4 Nanoparticles, ACS Energy Lett., 2018, 3, 2308−2313.
Surface chemistry and Heterogeneous catalysis
Modern surface science comes about the minute understanding and control of the surface chemical reactions. Our research interest will focus on exploring the spin-dependent interaction of magnetic surfaces and chiral molecules and accumulating the fundamental knowledge to build a foundation for the development of various surface science-related technologies.
References
1. Banerjee-Ghosh et al. Separation of Enantiomers by Enantio-Specific Interaction of Chiral Molecules with Magnetic Substrates, Science, 360, 2018, 1331–1334.
2. Santra et al. A Method for Separating Chiral Enantiomers by Enantiospecific Interaction with Ferromagnetic Substrates, : J. Phys. Chem. C 2021, 125, 17530−17536.
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Electron transfer through proteins
Chirality is preserved throughout evolution. Electron transfer (ET) processes in nature often occur through proteins, which are also chiral. During protein-protein interaction, charge-reorganization occurs. It has been found that the charge reorganization can be affected by controlling the spin. Our aim is to study the spin selective electron transfer through proteins and its effect to control the protein’s activity.
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References
1. Ghosh et al. Substrates Modulate Charge-Reorganization Allosteric Effects in Protein−Protein Association, J. Phys. Chem. Lett., 2021, 12, 2805−2808.
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2. Banerjee-Ghosh et al. Long-range charge reorganization as an allosteric control signal in proteins, J. Am. Chem. Soc, 142, 2020, 20456–20462.
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3. Sang et al. Temperature Dependence of Charge and Spin Transfer in Azurin, J. Phys. Chem. C, 125, 2021, 9875−9883.
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4. Mishra et al. Spin-Dependent Electron Transport through Bacterial Cell Surface Multiheme Electron Conduits, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2019, 141, 19198−19202.
