3/26/25: New article accepted! Our collaborative paper, "Optimizing shell thickness of Ag@TiO2 nanostructures by a simple top-down method to engineer effective SERS substrates and photocatalysts" is published in ACS Omega. (Link). Congrats to the team!

 

3/5/25: The Kentucky Academy of Science has awarded a Science Education & Outreach Grant to the Wilson and Balabanoff groups to support expansion of our collaborative nanotechnology outreach program to foster interest in STEM in high school students in rural communities. Congrats to the team!

 

2/3/25: Antonella Loiacono, from Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina, joins the lab as a visiting Ph.D. scholar. Welcome Antonella!

 

12/26/24: Andrew receives a National Science Foundation CAREER award! (Link). This award will support our work on understanding plasmon-assisted electrochemistry in nonaqueous solvents. Thanks to the NSF!

 

11/18/24: Oscar gave a talk titled "Controlling selectivity in electrocatalytic CO2 reduction with an external magnetic field" to the Department of Chemistry at UofL. Congrats to Oscar on passing his research seminar!

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11/1/24: Astha Jain joins the lab as a first-year Ph.D. student. Welcome Astha!

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10/30/24: Congratulations to Johann and Colin for receiving a Mentored Undergraduate Research Award to support their research on plasmon-assisted electrocatalysis!

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10/30/24: The Wilson and Balabanoff groups visited Fairdale High School to teach students in chemistry class how the size and shape of nanoparticles influence their optical properties. Thanks to the students and teachers for the fun and engaging experience with the synthesis and spectroscopy of nanoparticles!

 

9/9/24: Andrew is selected as a Student Champion. Selection of this award, presented by the UofL President and Provost Offices, comes from student nominations for faculty and staff that "went above and beyond their duties to provide exceptional or critical support."

 

7/12/24: New article accepted! Our review article, "Utilizing the magnetic properties of electrodes and magnetic fields in electrocatalysis" is published in Inorganic Chemistry Frontiers. (Link). Congrats to first-author Oscar and co-author Fredrick!

 

6/27/24: New research article accepted! Our paper, in collaboration with the Yu Lab, "Suppressing competing solvent reduction in CO2 electroreduction with a magnetic field" is published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. (Link). Congrats to first-author Oscar and co-authors!

 

6/15/24: Andrew gave the keynote address at the Noble Metal Nanoparticles GRS and presented a poster on plasmon-enhanced electrochemistry at the Noble Metal Nanoparticles GRC. Thanks to Claire and Sanjay for the invitation!

 

5/17/24: The research team participated as judges at the annual Fairdale High School Science Fair. Lots of great work by great students!

 

5/6/24: Luna Asbell joins the lab as a Gatton Academy Summer Research Intern. Welcome Luna!

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4/18/24: Amanda and Fredrick gave seminars to the Department of Chemistry at UofL on the development and assessment of analytical chemistry laboratories and electrocatalytic C-N bond formation in the synthesis of urea, respectively. Congrats to Amanda and Fredrick for jobs well done and passing their literature seminars!

 

4/12/24: Graduate students receive prestigious departmental awards. Oscar is the recipient of the 2024-2025 Dorothy Gibson Memorial Fellowship and Johann was awarded the Best Laboratory Graduate Teaching Assistant. Big congrats to Oscar and Johann!

 

4/11/24: Our lab is awarded funding from the LRC Voucher Program to study the correlation between molecular intermediates and catalyst structure in electrocatalytic CO2 reduction.

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4/11/24: Andrew gave a seminar titled "Controlling concentration gradients in electrochemistry with plasmons and magnetic fields" in the Department of Chemistry at Temple University. Thanks to Prof. Kallie Willets for the invitation! 

 

3/28/24: Amin gave a talk titled "Understanding the origin and effect of local heating in plasmon-assisted electrochemistry" to the Department of Chemistry at UofL. Congrats to Amin on passing his research seminar!

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3/28/24: Amandeep and Fredrick gave oral and poster presentations on their research at the 2024 GSRRC at UofL on measuring surface intermediates in electrocatalysis and electrocatalytic nitrate reduction, respectively.

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3/20/24: Oscar and Amin respectively presented their research on magnetic fields and plasmons in electrochemistry at the 2024 ACS national meeting in New Orleans.

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3/12/24: New research article accepted! Our paper, "Quantification and description of photothermal heating effects in plasmon-assisted electrochemistry" is published in Communications Chemistry. (Link). Congrats to first-author Amin and co-authors!

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3/7/24: Amandeep gave a seminar highlighting mechanistic aspects of metal ions in solution for CO2 electroreduction to the Department of Chemistry at UofL. Congrats to Amandeep for a job well done and passing her literature seminar!

 

1/20/24: Congrats to Oscar and Amin for receiving travel awards to attend the Spring 2024 ACS National Meeting in New Orleans! Oscar received an ENFL division travel award and Amin received a UofL GSC travel award.

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1/8/24: Andrew gave a talk on plasmon-assisted electrochemistry at the 2024 Electrochemistry GRC. Thanks to Profs. Zamborini and Boettcher for organizing a great meeting and providing an opportunity to share our lab's work!

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12/15/23: New article accepted! Our Perspective article, "Reducing ensemble averaging for mechanistic understanding of electrocatalysis in energy conversion reactions" is published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry C. (Link). Congrats to first-author Johann and co-authors Padmanabh and Amandeep!

 

10/26/23: Oscar attended the 2023 SERMACS meeting in Durham, NC to share his work on modulating selectivity in electrocatalytic CO2 reduction using magnetic fields. 

 

10/26/23: New article accepted! Our collaborative paper, "Electrochemical surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy," is published in Nature Reviews Methods Primers. (Link). Congrats to the team!

 

10/25/23: The Wilson and Balabanoff groups visited Fairdale High School to teach students in chemistry class how the size and composition of nanoparticles influence their optical properties. Thanks to the students and teachers for the fun and engaging experience with the synthesis and spectroscopy of nanoparticles!

 

9/28/23: Andrew gave a seminar titled "Formation and dynamics of CO in CO2 electroreduction in acetonitrile" in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Iowa. Thanks to Prof. Johna Leddy for the invitation! 

 

9/18/23: Johann gave a seminar highlighting mechanistic aspects of CO2 reduction on oxide-derived copper electrocatalysts to the Department of Chemistry at UofL. Congrats to Johann for a job well done and passing his literature seminar!

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9/5/23: Andrew gave a seminar titled "Reducing ensemble averaging for mechanistic insight in electrocatalysis" in the Department of Chemistry and Physics at Indiana State University. Thanks to Prof. Rick Fitch for the invitation! 

 

8/18/23: Oscar received a Graduate Student Council Travel Award to attend the SERMACS meeting in Durham, NC. Congrats Oscar!

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8/3/23: New research article accepted! Our paper, "Directing the size and dispersity of Ag nanoparticles with kudzu leaf extracts," is published in RSC Advances. (Link). Congrats to first-author Jaley!

 

7/7/23: Farewell to Dr. Padmanabh Joshi, who completed his postdoctoral studies in the lab. We thank Dr. Joshi for the productivity, scientific insight, and being a great colleague and mentor. We wish you the best in the next steps of your career.

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6/13/23: New research article accepted! Our paper, "Potential-dependent temporal dynamics of CO surface concentration in electrocatalytic CO2 reduction," is published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. (Link). Congrats to first-author Padmanabh!

 

5/31/23: Andrew attended the 2023 ECS meeting in Boston to share our recent results on measuring the changes in concentration of surface intermediates during electrocatalytic CO2 reduction.

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5/24/23: Congrats to Oscar and Johann who were elected to President and Vice President, respectively, of the Chemistry Graduate Students Association at UofL!

 

5/22/23: Congrats to Johann who received the Most Auspicious First Year Award from the Department of Chemistry!

 

5/1/23: Amandeep Kaur and Fredrick Mufoyongo join the lab as first-year Ph.D. students. Welcome Amandeep and Fred!

 

5/1/23: We bid farewell to Jaley who is graduating from UofL and starting her Ph.D. pursuit at UK starting in Fall 23. Thanks for all your hard work and scientific insights! Best of luck in the next stage of your career!

 

4/28/23: New article accepted! Our paper and protocol video, "Tracking electrochemistry at single nanoparticles with surface-enhanced Raman scattering spectroscopy and microscopy," is published in the Journal of Visualized Experiments. (Link). Congrats to Johann and Padmanabh!

 

4/21/23: New research article accepted! Our collaborative paper with the Kim Group at Yeungnam University in South Korea, "Plasmon-Driven Near-Field Photopolymerization in a Gold Nanoparticle Colloid," is published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry C. (Link). Congrats to the team!

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4/21/23: Jaley presented a poster on her work on directing the size and dispersity of Ag nanoparticles using plant extracts at the Undergraduate Arts and Research Showcase at UofL. Congrats to Jaley on her scientific achievements!

 

4/18/23: Congratulations to Oscar who was awarded "Outstanding Chemistry Student UofL" by the Louisville ACS Local Section!

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4/11/23: Congratulations to undergraduate Ayan Abdi who was selected to participate in the 2023 Summer Research Opportunity Program! Ayan will be fabricating and functionalizing gold ultramicroelectrodes to study chemical reactions in biomimetic systems.

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3/30/23: A big week for the lab with everyone on the team presenting their research! Oscar, Amin, and Johann presented posters at the Graduate Student Regional Research Conference. Jaley gave a talk at the ACC Meeting of the Minds Conference. Andrew, Padmanabh, and Oscar presented at the ACS National Meeting. Great job to all!

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2/3/23: Jaley is selected to attend the 2023 ACC Meeting of the Minds Conference at Virginia Tech. Jaley is one of five undergraduate researchers selected that will represent University of Louisville at the conference. Congrats Jaley!

 

1/11/23: Ayan Abdi joins the group as an undergraduate researcher. Welcome Ayan!

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1/10/23: Oscar received a Graduate Student Council Travel Award to attend the ACS National Meeting in Indianapolis. Congrats Oscar!

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12/6/22: Johann Hemmer joins the group as a first-year Ph.D. student. Welcome Johann!

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11/17/22: The Wilson and Balabanoff groups visited Fairdale High School to teach students in chemistry class how to synthesize silver nanoparticles and measure their optical properties with UV-visible spectroscopy. Thanks to the students and teachers for the fun and engaging experience (link)!

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10/28/22: Congratulations to Padmanabh for winning a best poster award at MUACC!

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10/12/22: Andrew presented a seminar on the topic of "plasmons in electrocatalysis" to the ECS Student Chapter at Notre Dame. Thanks to Julius and fellow students for the invitation and great discussion!

 

10/3/22: Andrew attended the SciX 2022 conference to share our recent results of using plasmonic excitation to enhance electrocatalysis in nonaqueous solvents (link).

 

9/16/22: Andrew attended the 2022 Electrochemistry GRC and shared our lab's progress in using high resolution SERS to track the dynamics of CO formed on Ag electrodes.

 

8/24/22: Andrew and Padmanabh attended the Fall 22 ACS meeting in Chicago and presented recent findings from our lab in measuring chemical intermediates in electrocatalysis (link) and plasmonic electrochemistry (link). 

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8/10/22: New review article accepted! Padmanabh's review, "Understanding Electrocatalysis at Nanoscale Electrodes and Single Atoms with Operando Vibrational Spectroscopy," is published in Current Opinion in Green and Sustainable Chemistry. (Link). Congrats Padmanabh!

 

8/5/22: Jaley presented her research on the synthesis of Ag nanoparticles using kudzu extract at the Summer Research Showcase at UofL. Great work Jaley! We're excited about the future directions of your research!

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7/12/22: Andrew is selected as a Student Champion. Selection of this award, presented by the UofL President and Provost Offices, comes from student nominations for faculty and staff that "went above and beyond their duties to provide exceptional or critical support."  

 

6/9/22: Andrew is selected to receive the 2022 ORAU Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award! (Link, Highlight). This award will support our group's efforts in the measurement of intermediates in electrocatalysis. Thank you ORAU! 

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6/1/22: New research article accepted! Padmanabh's paper, "Plasmonically enhanced electrochemistry boosted by nonaqueous solvent," is published in The Journal of Chemical Physics. (Link). Congrats Padmanabh!

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5/25/22: Andrew visited Fairdale High School to share information about the Department and teach students about nanomaterials and microscopy.

 

4/5/22: Congratulations to undergraduate Jaley Adkins who was selected to participate in the 2022 Summer Research Opportunity Program! Jaley will be synthesizing nanomaterials using sustainable plant extracts.

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3/31/22: Andrew gave a seminar titled "Using plasmonics to measure and enhance electrocatalysis" in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Iowa. Thanks to Prof. Johna Leddy for the invitation!

 

3/3/22: Oscar gave a seminar on recent advancements in fast-scan cyclic voltammetry to the Department of Chemistry at UofL. Congrats to Oscar for a job well done and passing his literature seminar!

 

1/17/22: New research article accepted! Our collaborative paper with the Handa Lab, "Phosphine ligand-free bimetallic Ni(0)Pd(0) nanoparticles as catalyst for facile, general, sustainable, and highly selective 1,4-reductions in aqueous micelles," is published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. (Link). Congrats to the whole team!

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1/10/22: New research article accepted! Padmanabh's paper, "Electrocatalytic CO2 reduction in acetonitrile enhanced by the local environment and mass transport of H2O," is published in ACS Energy Letters. (Link). Congrats to Padmanabh and second author Oscar!

 

1/10/22: Jaley Adkins joins the lab as an undergraduate researcher to synthesize nanomaterials using sustainable plant extracts. Welcome to the team Jaley!

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11/18/21: Amin gave a seminar on the development of field-effect transistors for detecting viruses to the Department of Chemistry at UofL. Congrats to Amin for a job well done and passing his literature seminar!

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11/10/21: Andrew presented our recent findings on how the hydration shell of organic cations affects electrochemical CO2 reduction in acetonitrile at the SERMACS meeting in Birmingham, AL.

 

8/23/21: Virginia Noe joins the lab as an undergraduate researcher to fabricate Cu and Ni nanoparticles using lithography. Welcome to the team Virginia!

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8/6/21: Congratulations to An for being awarded an Undergraduate Research Scholar Grant from the EVPRI's office!

 

7/6/21: New research article accepted! Our collaborative work with the Handa Group, "Shielding Effect of Nanomicelles: Stable and Catalytically Active Oxidizable Pd(0) Nanoparticle Catalyst Compatible for Cross-Couplings of Water-Sensitive Acid Chlorides in Water" is published in JACS Au (Link).

 

6/1/21: An Tran joins the lab as an undergraduate researcher to work on the synthesis of nanomaterials to be used as electrocatalysts. Welcome An!

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5/24/21: Dr. Padmanabh Joshi joins the lab as a postdoc to study catalysis using multimodal spectroscopy. Welcome Padmanabh!

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4/1/21: New research article accepted! "A rich catalog of C-C bonded species formed in CO2 reduction on a plasmonic photocatalyst" is published in Nature Communications (Link).

This work is featured in Editors' Highlights in Catalysis (Link). 

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3/23/21: Andrew gave a lecture titled "Vibrational microscopy" to chemistry students at Southwestern University. Thanks to Prof. Massey for the opportunity and to the students for stimulating discussions! 

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3/15/21: Andrew gave a talk on the opportunities for undergraduate research in our lab and the department to the Society of Undergraduate Chemistry Students at UofL. Big thanks to Jensen Smith and Nicholas McCann for the invitation!

 

2/12/21: Andrew discussed photovoltages in plasmon-enhanced electrocatalysis during a virtual seminar at the Department of Chemistry at Eastern Kentucky University. Our Ph.D. program was also highlighted during this event. Prospective students apply here!

 

1/21/21: Andrew presented at the BK Four International Symposium: Materials for Solar Energy Harvesting & Utilization. Thanks to Prof. Youngsoo Kim for the invitation and organizing the symposium at Yeungnam University, South Korea.

 

1/15/21: Kyle Barnett joins the group as an undergraduate researcher to work on nanoparticle synthesis. Welcome Kyle!

 

1/11/21: Nawaraj (Oscar) Karki joins the group as a first-year Ph.D. student. Welcome Oscar!

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11/23/20: A warm welcome to Md Al Amin who joins the group as a Ph.D. student. 

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9/18/20: Andrew presented a virtual seminar for the Department of Chemistry at Western Kentucky University to discuss accelerating electrocatalysis with plasmons and to highlight our graduate program. Interested students apply here!

 

7/24/20: New review article accepted! "Light-induced voltages in catalysis by plasmonic nanostructures" is published in Accounts of Chemical Research. Link

 

7/20/20: New research article accepted! "Ammonia oxidation enhanced by photopotential generated by plasmonic excitation of a bimetallic electrocatalyst" is published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition. Link

 

7/19/20: New review article accepted! "Nanoscale optical imaging in chemistry" is published in Chemical Society Reviews. Link

 

7/1/20: The Wilson Laboratory is established at the University of Louisville in the Department of Chemistry.