Faculty Directory
Linsey Seitz

Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering

Contact

2145 Sheridan Road
Tech E160
Evanston, IL 60208-3109

847-467-3056 Email Linsey Seitz

Website

Seitz Group

Departments

Chemical and Biological Engineering

Education

Helmholtz Post-doc Fellow, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany

Ph.D./M.S. Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA

B.S. Chemical Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI

Research Interests

Electrochemistry, catalysis, renewable energy, spectroscopy

Our society faces an imminent need to address environmental, health, and political issues associated with energy and resource consumption, which are being further strained by a growing population. Catalysis can help pave the way to a more sustainable future by effectively facilitating key bond-making and bond-breaking reactions for production of renewable fuels and treatment of pollutants. Electrochemical reactions such as water splitting and CO₂/CO reduction have attracted attention in the past few decades as promising energy conversion processes. These reactions are capable of producing a variety of compounds which are the foundation of our energy infrastructure and chemical industry with a massive global demand and annual production rates on the order of 10 billion tons per year. If the feed streams for these processes are composed of captured CO₂, then a closed carbon cycle can be formed to result in net-neutral CO₂ emissions and sustainable fuel production. Furthermore, access to clean drinking water and other natural resources is a critical global challenge facing society, both in developed and undeveloped countries. Development of more efficient and economic catalytic processes for removal or conversion of toxic chemicals is vital to help reduce industrial waste streams and increase accessibility to these resources.

Research in the Seitz lab focuses on fundamental understanding of catalytic reactions and materials using insights from electrochemistry and spectroscopy towards the development of catalysts with enhanced activity, selectivity, and stability. Our research lies at the interface of chemical engineering, materials science, and physics with the goal of improving the efficiency and technological viability of clean energy and chemical conversion processes. Electrochemical studies of controlled catalyst surfaces, with an emphasis on determining intrinsic catalyst activity, provide a basis from which to develop more in-depth knowledge of reaction mechanisms and limitations. In addition, we investigate physical, chemical, and electronic properties of catalysts at the surface and bulk using advanced material characterization techniques, including those available at the nearby synchrotron research facility (Advanced Photon Source) at Argonne National Lab. Emphasis of these studies are on the development and implementation of reactor cells for catalyst characterization under relevant operating conditions. The combination of these insights inform further catalyst tuning by adjusting various chemical and physical “knobs,” such as composition, morphology, and crystal structure, to develop the next generation of materials. It is the goal of this work to shift our global energy dependence away from fossil fuels towards renewable energy and ultimately reduce the negative impact of humans on our planet.

Selected Publications

J. Edgington, N. Schweitzer, S. Alayoglu, L. C. Seitz†, “Constant Change: Exploring Dynamic Oxygen Evolution Reaction Catalysis and Material Transformations in Strontium Zinc Iridate Perovskite in Acid,” J. Am. Chem. Soc., 143(26), 9961-9971, 2021. DOI: 10.1021/jacs.1c04332

X. K. Lu, B. Lu, H. Li, K. Lim, L. C. Seitz†, "Stabilization of Undercoordinated Cu Sites in Strontium Copper Oxides for Enhanced Formation of C2+ Products in Electrochemical CO2 Reduction," ACS Catal., 12(11), 6663-6671, 2022. DOI: 10.1021/acscatal.2c01019

B. Lu, C. B. Wahl, X. K. Lu, M. E. Sweers, H. Li, V. P. Dravid, and L. C. Seitz†, "Iridium-incorporated strontium tungsten oxynitride perovskite for efficient acidic hydrogen evolution," J. Am. Chem. Soc., 144(30), 13547-13555, 2022. DOI: 10.1021/jacs.2c03617

B. N. Ruggiero, K. M. Sanroman Gutierrez, J. D. George, N. M. Mangan, J. M. Notestein, L. C. Seitz†, "Probing the Relationship Between Bulk and Local Environments to Understand Impacts on Electrocatalytic Oxygen Reduction Reaction," J. Catal., 414, 33-43, 2022. DOI: 10.1016/j.jcat.2022.08.025

J. Edgington, A. Deberghes, L. C. Seitz†, "Glassy Carbon Substrate Oxidation Effects on Electrode Stability for Oxygen Evolution Reaction Catalysis Stability Benchmarking in Acid," ACS Appl. Energy Mater., 5(10), 12206-12218, 2022. DOI: 10.1021/acsaem.2c01690