Professor Gostick has been exploring the use of electrospun nanofibrous materials for electrode applications. The electrospinning technique allows for substantial control over the structural properities of the resultant product, so they can customize materials with targeted structural properties. Simultaneously, his group has been developing various modelling tools to help in the search for the optimum structure of a given application, including overall cell scale models of performance, down to sub-pore scale models of fluid flow and reaction. He has recently demonstrated materials that performed significantly better than off-the-shelf commercial materials in Vanadiaum flow battery tests conducted in collaboration with colleagues at MIT.

Dr. Michael Pope's research group, the 2D Materials and Electrochemical Devices Lab, focuses on improving the production and processing of various 2D nanomaterials with the aim of developing higher performance electrochemical devices and composites. Professor Pope has made significant contributions to the understanding of electrochemical mechanisms involving graphene and has developed various self-assembly strategies to process electrodes for improved high voltage graphene-based supercapacitors, Li-S batteries and electrochemical sensors.

The elucidation of reaction mechanisms for solid-state electrocatalysts provides a foundation for the design of next-generation catalytic materials, but requires a detailed understanding of the structure and behavior of active reaction sites. The ubiquity of structural defects in heterogeneous materials is a major concern that limits confidence in any mechanistic proposal, but also provides significant opportunities to advance fundamental understanding of reaction interfaces and develop analytical techniques. The Smith Group analyzes reaction mechanisms for heterogeneous electrocatalysts by strategically introducing defects and analyzing them through structure-property analyses. Data obtained through this approach provides insights into the stability, electrochemical behavior and electrocatalytic performance of electrocatalysts.