The National Science Foundation awarded Martin Edwards, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, a prestigious Faculty Early Career Development grant, also known as a CAREER award, to create the next generation of imaging tools for measuring electrochemical reactions at the nano level. His research could lead to better batteries, improved defenses against corrosion and even new ways to manufacture pharmaceuticals.

The CAREER grants support early-career faculty with the “potential to serve as academic role models in research and education,” according to the NSF. Edwards, an electrochemist who also trained as a mathematician, will receive the $538,673 grant over five years.

“CAREER awards recognize our nation’s most promising researchers and their groundbreaking work,” said Margaret Sova McCabe, vice chancellor for research and innovation. “Martin Edwards and his impactful research in electrochemistry helps improve lives as he explores how understanding nano reactions can inform better design of everyday products such as batteries and pharmaceuticals.”

Scanning electrochemical cell microscopy, the technology that Edwards helped create in 2009 as a graduate student, has been used by labs around the world to map in detail electrochemical activity. Species-switching scanning electrochemical cell microscopy, which Edwards will develop with the CAREER grant, uses a single probe to conduct multiple experiments, exponentially increasing the variables that can be tested in a short amount of time. When realized, it will allow experiments that would take years with today’s technology to be done in days.

“More realistically, what you wouldn’t have chosen to do in years, because you can’t dedicate that much time or resources, you can now do in days,” Edwards said.

A closer look

The scanning electrochemical cell microscope uses the thin tip of pipette (center) to measure at the nanoscale electrochemical behavior of individual elements in an electrode.

Electrochemistry studies the combination of chemical reactions and electricity. Traditionally, a metal or semiconductor -- the electrode -- would be placed in a liquid solution, an electrical potential applied and the current measured.

Even “pure” metals, however, have different arrangements of atoms, defects or impurities. A metallic alloy is a mixture of a metal and another element, a combination that might be designed to add strength, resist corrosion or lower costs. And impurities in a metal or the elements in an alloy are not evenly distributed.

“You might think it’s like when we bake a cake, and it’s perfectly mixed up. But it’s more like a marble cake,” Edwards said.

The traditional electrochemistry experiment would return the average results from all the elements in the electrode.

Edwards developed scanning electrochemical cell microscopy to analyze at the nanoscale level the electrochemical behavior of individual elements in an electrode. He uses a pipette with a tip as small as 10 nanometers — for comparison, a sheet of paper is 100,000 nanometers thick. The pipette is filled with a liquid solution containing a salt that allows it to carry an electrical current, the surface of the liquid touches the material to be tested, and the electric current passing through that region is measured.

“Instead of dunking the entire electrode in a solution, at any one time we just dip a tiny portion of it in a solution,” Edwards said.

Then the pipette moves to a new position, and each new measurement, like a pixel forming a photo, creates a detailed map of the electrochemical properties.

Species-switching scanning electrochemical cell microscopy, the new approach that will be supported by the CAREER grant, uses a nano-pipette divided into two barrels. Different solutions can flow in and out of the pipette, allowing multiple experiments at each spot.

“This approach allows us to ramp up productivity,” Edwards said. “And the more variables we are trying to understand, the more it’s important to do these things rapidly.”

An educational component

The CAREER grant also asks recipients to develop an educational program. Edwards will teach students and fellow researchers how to create multiphysics models, computer simulations that show how a complex system interacts.

“If I can pass on how to do it and how to do it well, it will support the field because everything in electrochemistry is multiphysical,” Edwards said.

He will run a workshop on multiphysics modeling and develop online training material. Most of the attendees will be graduate students from the U of A and other schools around the country.

Multiphysics modeling is used in many academic fields and industries.

“I’ve trained probably 30 people ad hoc. It’s time to scale it up a little bit,” Edwards said.

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