Overview
As a PhD researcher, you’ll explore how spin polarised magnetic multilayers can overturn traditional catalytic limits and unlock new reactivity. Using advanced vibrational spectroscopies (SERS, IR, SFG), you’ll probe reaction pathways in real time and help uncover the mechanisms of chemospintronics - pioneering catalyst design at the exciting intersection of chemistry, physics, and materials science.
About this opportunity
Scaling relationships exist across catalysis as the binding energies of surface intermediates are typically interrelated – optimisation of the catalyst structure to achieve a change in the binding energy of one intermediate will lead to a change in the binding energy of the other species along the reaction pathway. This limits the degrees of freedom available within catalyst design, placing an apparent upper-limit in achievable catalytic activity, which can be visualised in the form of the “peak of the volcano” in a 2D catalytic activity-descriptor plot. Recently numerous reports of electrocatalysis at ferromagnetic electrodes have shown dramatic changes in activity for reactions including hydrogen and oxygen evolution from water (Nature Catalysis, 2019, 2, 971–976). Activity changes are often claimed to arise due to the use of a spin-polarized surface, which could lead to a breaking of the scaling relationships due to spin effects on adsorption energies that selective (de)stabilise reaction species.
This is exciting but the approach appears reliant on the use of ferromagnetic materials, limiting applicability. Very recently (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2026, 148, 1, 967–975) we showed in a proof-of-concept project that dramatic changes in electrocatalytic activity can also be achieved using originally non-magnetic catalysts grown on multilayer magnetic structures. We proposed that the large change in catalytic activity was due to induced spin-polarization in the catalytic layer leading to a change in the adsorption energies of reaction species. This Chemospintronic approach, where spintronic structures are used to modify the chemical catalytic activity of existing materials, has the potential to circumvent scaling relationships across photo-, thermal-, and electrocatalysis and transform our design of catalysts. This could unlock new catalytic materials that have activities vastly exceeding the current state-of-the-art. But whilst the catalytic effects are clearly evidenced in our initial study, the hypothesised mechanisms by which they operate are not.
The PhD student will work with an interdisciplinary team that operates across the Departments of Chemistry and Physics, and also the Stephenson Institute for Renewable Energy at the University of Liverpool. They will make use of advanced vibrational spectroscopies such as surface enhanced Raman, Infrared and Sum-Frequency Generation spectroscopy (e.g. Nature Catalysis., 2018, 1, 952-959) to carry out detailed mechanistic studies of (electro)catalytic mechanisms at these spintronics materials. The University of Liverpool has world-leading expertise and capabilities in the fields of in-situ spectroscopies of reaction mechanisms and in advanced materials studies (including magnetic materials). Exploiting these the student will be able to monitor and measure if catalytic mechanisms have changed when the magnetic layers are included and directly evidence (for the first time!) the breaking of scaling relationships.
The project requires a highly motivated student willing to work at the intersection of conventional disciplines (electrocatalysis, vibrational spectroscopy, thin-film magnetic materials). Application is via the University of Liverpool portal (http://liverpool.ac.uk/postgraduate-research/how-to-apply/), but informal enquires to acowan@liverpool.ac.uk are also welcomed.
Further reading
[1] J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2026, 148, 1, 967–975 (https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.5c16824)
[2] Nature Catalysis, 2019, 2, 971–976 (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-019-0376-6)
[3] Nature Catalysis., 2018, 1, 952-959 (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-018-0169-3)