The Surendranath Lab is focused on addressing global challenges in the areas of chemical catalysis, energy storage and utilization, and environmental stewardship. Fundamental and technological advances in each of these areas require new methods for controlling the selectivity and efficiency of inner-sphere reactions at solid-liquid interfaces. Our strategy emphasizes the bottom-up, molecular-level, engineering of functional inorganic interfaces with a current focus on electrochemical energy conversion.

Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Interfaces. The reactivity of an isolated metal center may be modulated systematically by coordinating organic ligands. We will develop general methods for modulating the reactivity of solid-liquid interfaces by coordinating organic ligands to extended solid surfaces. By adapting design principles for the coordination of metal ions in solutions, we aim to tune the electronic structure, local electric field, and secondary coordination environment of surface-confined active sites thereby promoting synergistic reactivity. By correlating ligand structure to surface reaction kinetics, we will develop a coordination chemistry framework for controlling interfacial reactivity at the molecular level. We are currently focused on developing organic-inorganic hybrid interfaces for advanced fuel cell applications.