Student Hosted Colloquia: Professor Henry White, University of Utah
Student Hosted Colloquia: Professor Henry White, University of Utah (Host: Rain Mariano)
"The Physics and Electrochemistry of Nanobubbles"
About the Seminar
Our laboratory has developed a general electrochemical approach for investigating the formation and properties of a single nanobubble (e.g., H2, O2, CO2, and N2) with a radius between 5 and 100 nm. For instance, an individual N2 nanobubble can be formed at a Pt nanodisk electrode by oxidizing hydrazine (N2H4), creating a supersaturated solution of N2 adjacent to the electrode surface. Due to their nanoscale dimensions, the Laplace pressure within these nanobubbles is on the order of ~100 atm. This presentation will describe measurements of the supersaturation required to electrochemically nucleate a bubble, the critical size of the smallest stable bubble nucleus, stochastic nucleation times, and the internal pressure within these nanobubbles. Electrochemical measurements of nanobubbles also provide insight into the structure and chemical dynamics of electrochemical three-phase solid/liquid/gas boundaries, e.g., N2H4 reduction kinetics at a three-phase boundary, as well as estimation of the width of the three-phase boundary.
About the Speaker
Education: 1978, B.S., Chemistry, University of North Carolina; 1983, Ph.D., Chemistry, University of Texas at Austin; 1982-83, Postdoctoral Fellow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Current Employment: Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, University of Utah; Dean of the College of Science, University of Utah
Honors: 2015, Allen J. Bard Award, The Electrochemical Society; 2013, Utah Governor’s Medal of Science and Technology; 2012, Fellow, American Chemical Society; 2011, Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences 2009, Carl Wagner Memorial Award, The Electrochemical Society; 2008, American Chemical Society Utah Award; 2007, W.W. Epstein Outstanding Educator Award, University of Utah; 2005, D.C. Grahame Award, Physical Electrochemistry Division of the Electrochemical Society; 2004, American Chemical Society Analytical Division Award in Electrochemistry; 2002, Faraday Medal, Electrochemistry Group, Royal Society of Chemistry; 2000, C. N. Reilley Award, Society of Electroanalytical Chemistry
Professional Service: 2001-2016, Associate Editor, Journal of the American Chemical Society 2011-2016, Editorial Committee, Annual Review in Analytical Chemistry; Editorial Boards: Analytical Chemistry (2005 – 2007); Langmuir (2000 – 2008), Electrochemistry Communications (1998 – 2008); Steering Committee of XiamENS, 2007-09 (CNRS (France)/Xiamen University (China) International Laboratory); 2009-present, International Advisory Board, State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Xiamen University, China;
Current Research Interests: Electrochemistry; electrical phenomena at interfaces and molecule/nanoparticle transport in high electric and magnetic fields; electrocatalysis; ion-channel recording methods for sensing structural analysis of DNA; nanopore resistive pulse methods; the physics and chemistry of electrogenerated nanobubbles.