Rodríguez - López Laboratory

Old News

September 2021: We welcome the Fall 2021 semester with our lineup of presentations. If you are a prospective student at UIUC, feel free to drop by our group meeting. For more information, send a message to Joaquin.
09/01: JRL Seminar, Research opportunities in the JRL group.
09/08: Dipto Sarbapalli, Ultra-thin interfaces for understanding energy storage.
09/15: Abhiroop Mishra, In-situ, real-time detection of battery chemical processes
09/22: Yana Zhao, Machine learning applications to electrochemical characterization.
09/29: Oliver Rodriguez-Martinez, The Electrolab - a platform for microcharacterization.
10/06: Kendrich Hatfield, Raman-SECM imaging for electrochemical interfaces.
10/13: Jaxiry Barroso Martinez, SECM of electrodes for water remediation.
11/03: Sanja Pudar, Studies of advanced redoxmers for redox-flow batteries.
11/10: Raghuram Gaddam, Scanning Electrochemical Cell Microscopy of electrocatalysts.
11/10: Nafisa Ibrahim, Redox-active polymers for novel e-storage concepts.
11/17: Sazzad Hossein, The DIRECT method for interfacial analysis.
12/08: Adolfo Romo, Redox-active polymers for flow batteries.
12/15: Aravind Baby, Refurbishing Lead-Acid batteries using surface chemistry concepts.

August 2021: Congrats to former graduate student Matt Kromer, who will be starting this semester as Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Harvey Mudd College!

August 2021: Joaquin was named a J. Andrew and Susan S. Langan Professorial Scholar, and was also named a fellow of the IAspire Leadership academy. Thanks to all our sponsors and supporters!


July 2021: Excellent teaching assistants in the JRL lab! MatSE graduate students Abhiroop Mishra and Raghuram Gaddam were recognized in the List of Teachers ranked as Outstanding and Excellent for Spring 2021. In addition, Abhiroop was selected as one of the inaugural winners of the MatSE Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Assistant Award for 2020-2021. This award recognizes TAs in the MatSE department for teaching excellence. Congrats to both!




June 2021: Joaquin was awarded the 2021 Zhaowu Tian Prize for Energy Electrochemistry by the International Society of Electrochemistry. This decoration is awarded annually to a scientist of less than 40 years of age in recognition of her/his recent achievements in the field of electrochemistry for energy. It all happens thanks to the awesome group we’ve built. Kudos to all in the JRL group!




June 2021: A new baby in the JRL group is born in the Beckman Institute ward ?? We look forward to awesome electrochemical surface science experiments as part of the Materials Science and Engineering theme at the Institute.




April 2021: Thrilled to learn about the promotion of our former undergraduate, Tim Lichtenstein, to staff scientist at Argonne National Laboratory. Tim was a co-author on many of our early papers, and we are proud to see how he’s evolved as a scientist. Congrats!


May 2021: Kendrich’s project keeps on developing the strengths of Raman-SECM by now demonstrating how to control SERS reporting using pH swings triggered by an ultramicroelectrode. Our paper now available in Analytical Chemistry.




May 2021: Congrats to former group member Matt Kromer and to our awesome collaborators in the Flaherty group in Chemical Engineering for a truly interdisciplinary collaboration aimed at understanding how electrochemical concepts can be used to understand catalysis. Our paper now available in JACS.



May 2021: Graduate student Dipto Sarbapalli is selected as a Honorable Mention in the Link Energy Fellowship competition, a great distinction in a competition involving +100 participants.



February 2021: Adolfo is selected as a Society of Electroanalytical Chemistry Poster Awardee during Pittcon 2021 for his contribution on controlling charge transfer on metal redox-active polymers!



February 2021: To all our recent graduates for landing their next dream job! Dr. Mike Counihan is headed to Argonne National Lab as a postdoc, Dr. Zachary Gossage is headed to Japan for an international postdoc at Tokyo University of Science, Dr. Jingshu Hui is starting her new career as Associate Professor in Soochow University. Keep on spreading awesome electrochemistry throughout the world!



Best of wishes to our recent departures from the JRL lab!

October 2020: An amazing final defense from Mike now turning Dr. Mike Counihan who showed us how it's done when analyzing dynamic interfaces and polymers - plus exciting new work to be published soon!




August 2020: Congrats to Zach Gossage for his new paper just accepted in the Jounrnal of the Electrochemical Society - in collaboration with the Zhao group in ChBE, Zach figured out a way to reversible refurbish Lead-Acid Batteries. Great collaboration!


August 2020: Congrats to 2nd year MatSE student Dipto Sarbapalli who just passed his preliminary exam and is now sailing on his way to a Ph.D!


June 2020 and always: Black Lives Matter. Our laboratory is strong thanks to diversity, respect, and the recognition that each one of us makes a difference in the world. We firmly stand against racism in any of its forms and we are committed to creating a safe and thriving environment where anyone is capable of pursuing their scientific and professional dreams.


June 2020: The JRL lab is back to, safely-distanced, operations. Stay safe and wear your mask!


May 2020: They grow so fast! We are super proud for our most recent Ph.D graduates, Dr. Matthew Kromer and Dr. Zachary Gossage, who successfully defended their thesis during this Spring 2020. Also glad that their online defenses worked out well, phew! Kudos!




May 2020: Joaquin dedicated a brief message to the graduating class for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences during the online convocation for 2020. Congrats to all grads! Check out the video.




March 2020: The group had an excellent time at Pittcon 2020 in Chicago: Zach presented an oral in the SEAC student session, Mike attended the first-ever pre-Pittcon SEAC student gathering; Yana, Andrew, and Dipto presented in the SEAC poster session. Dipto won the SEAC best poster award! Congrats to all, and thanks to all for your energy and enthusiasm!




February 2020: Thrilled to announce that our PI Joaquin will receive the 2020 recipient of the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry Arthur F. Findeis Award for Achievements by a Young Analytical Scientist! See you in San Francisco in the Fall!


February 2020: Guess we were busy at the beginning of the year! 6 new publications for our group in early 2020, and many to come! Check out our research on ion intercalation, SEI imaging, redox flow batteries, and new SECM imaging modes!




February 2020: We completed the 2020 version of our Electrochemistry Bootcamp! 30 students from UIUC and schools inside and outside of Illinois (including University of Chicago, Chicago State University, University of Illinois at Chicago, Millikin University, Southern Illinois at Carbondale, and Cornell) trained in fundamental and applied electrochemistry: 15 experiments, 6 lectures, 1 simulation session; it all adds up to a strong science! Thanks to NSF for making this possible!





December 2019: Kudos to Kendrich for his first paper - and our first splash into the wonderful world of MOFs. Also a collaboration with long-time JRL Group friend Fernando Uribe-Romo, Published in JACS!




November 2019: Congrats to undergraduate Alex Chang for winning an Outstanding Poster Award! Presented by the UIUC SACNAS Chapter at the 4th Annual ECI ACS Undergraduate Research Symposium.




November 2019: We are pleased to welcome Abhiroop Mishra and Nafisa Ibrahim as new graduate students in our laboratory. We are excited about the energy they bring to the group!




November 2019: Celebrating that Kendrich Hatfield is now a Ph.D candidate!
Great job on your preliminary exam, Kendrich!


October 2019: September and October brought two papers to the JRL group that have taken years in the concept and making. Glad to see the interesting work of Mike Counihan and Zach Gossage come to life! Check out their JECS and Chemical Science papers.


October 2019: JRL presented in the 10^th SECM Workshop in Fontainebleu, France. Excellent discussions about Raman-SECM and ultra-thin interfaces! And what is better, the JRL group together with Mei Shen (UIUC), Janine Mauzeroll (McGill), and Zhifeng Ding (Western U) will be organizing the 11^th SECM Workshop this coming 2021!


Fall 2019: Welcome to the incoming class! We are excited to tell you about our research.Group meeting for the JRL group takes place on Wednesday at 4 pm in RAL 171. You can check out the presentation schedule here.

July 2019: July was Global Diversity Month and to celebrate, the Chemistry department made a highlight of our own JRL on his path from Mexico to becoming a professor: [link]


Summer 2019: The JRL group's outreach activities are recognized. Our participation in the "Cena y Ciencias" program, which brings scientific content in Spanish to children of the Champaign-Urbana community was recognized by the Urbana School district. We invite students and faculty to join in this effort! [link]





June 14, 2019: Congrats to the newly anointed Dr. Noah B. Schorr on a successful defense! Who knew the only way to make SECM-Raman better was to add chocolate cake?






May 16-18, 2019: We successfully celebrated our 2019 Electrochemistry Bootcamp - postdoctoral, graduate, and undergraduate students from UIUC, UIC, and University of Chicago learned basic and advanced electrochemical characterization techniques hands-on. Stay tuned for the following edition later this year!






April 21, 2019: Congrats to Elena, Jingshu, Joaquín and our JCESR collaborators in the Moore group for achieving a second patent on soluble macromolecular energy carriers![link]



April 21, 2019: Congrats to Marie Claudio-Cintrón, whose M.S. paper on Conducting Polymer Probes for SECM was just accepted in the "New Directions in Electroanalytical Chemistry" Special Issue of Analytica Chimica Acta!


Coming Soon!: The JRL group is pleased to announce its annual training program. Slots open until April 20th!


April 3, 2019: Three cheers for Mike for securing a Summer R&D Design Co-op at the Toyota Research Institute of North America in the materials research department!


April 1, 2019: We are proud of Zach Gossage to receive the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry Summer Fellowship! Exciting single particle and single site electrochemistry in the making!


March 29, 2019: Congrats to Kendrich for winning the Outstanding Literature Seminar in 2018! The lab is proud of his achievement!


December 17, 2018: Kudos to Elena, or shall we say Dr. Montoto, for defending an outstanding thesis! Very proud of a 4.5 year effort!


October 2018: Joaquin was included in Science News SN10: Scientists to Watch 2018 edition, for scientists under 40 years old that are tackling big problems. Our group thanks all collaborators, readers, and friends for their support in making this happen and we look forward to more exciting science to come!



Depicted here is Joaquin and the cohort of SN10's in cool artwork. The College of LAS at UIUC also wrote an article highlighting the SN10: Scientists to Watch 2018




October 9, 2018: Congrats to Jingshu, Noah, Zihan, Joaquin, and our collaborators at Florida State University for their most recent publication in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. This work highlights the importance of the interface for the K+ intercalation in few-layer graphene electrodesJ. Am. Chem. Soc., Just Accepted.



October 1, 2018: Elena, Zach, and Joaquin presented at AiMES 2018 Cancun. Great Job!










September 11, 2018: Congrats to Zach, Kenny, Joaquin, and collaborators for their cover in ChemElectroChem. The Cover Feature illustrates single-particle nanoelectrochemical and spectroelectrochemical electrolysis experiments on individual redox-active colloids. Elucidating the nanoscopic origin of macroscopic performance issues in energy storage materials is key to creating safer, longer-lasting, and more efficient batteries.


September 7, 2018: Kudos to Matthew L., Joaquin and our collaborators in the University of Birmingham at the Lab of Prof. Paramaconi Rodriguez for their publication in ACS applied energy materials. A great BRIDGE program collaboration between the University of Illinois and the University of Birmingham through the Transatlantic Collaboration Fund. ACS Appl. Energy Mater., Just Accepted.



August 23, 2018: Congrats to Elena and Zach for the ECS student travel grant to attend AiMES 2018.
We look forward to your research talks!

August 17, 2018: We start a new stage at the JRL lab! Kudos to "El Jefe" for his promotion to Associate Professor!

July 20, 2018: JRL Lab summer 2018



July 20, 2018: We celebrate that Marie got her Master of Sciences Degree, but we are sad to say goodbye!





July 05, 2018: Congrats to Zach, Kenny, Joaquin, JCESR, and our collaborators in the Moore group. In this work, we elucidated the dynamic cycling behavior at the single particle level with viologen-based redox active colloids. Tracking the life cycle with SECM and Raman measurements enabled strong conclusions regarding the redox properties and long-term stability of RACs. ChemElectroChem 2018, ASAP.



July 03, 2018: Kudos to Noah, Annie, and Joaquin for their cover in Analytical Chemistry Volume 90 Issue 13. Represented in the cover for this issue is how colocalized Raman spectroscopy and scanning electrochemical microscopy correlate single-site electrochemical reactivity to surface structure in real-time and through versatile imaging.


June 9, 2018: JRL group annual BBQ



May 22, 2018: Congrats to Elena, Kenny, Joaquin, and collaborators for their cover in Macromolecules Vol 51, Issue 10. Represented in the cover for this issue is how computational and molecular design of soluble redox-active polymers guides the choice of tether length for improved charged state stability, redox reversibility, and energy storage performance.


May 15, 2018: Kudos to Elena and Zach, Joaquin, JCESR, and our collaborators in the Moore and Helms groups. A great collaboration for size-exclusion flow batteries were we threw in the full microelectrode toolbox to understand Redox-Active Oligomers (RAOs) Chem. Mater. 2018, Just Accepted.



April 27, 2018: Noah, Annie, and Joaquin just published a really interesting paper in Analytical Chemistry. Congrats! This paper describes on how coupling Raman spectroscopy to SECM can be used to simultaneously measure reaction kinetics and changes in structure of graphene surfaces. Anal. Chem. 2018, Just Accepted.



April 24, 2018: Kudos to Elena, Kenny, Joaquin, and collaborators for their recent publication at Macromolecules. This paper highlights how different structural aspects in a redox polymer have a direct effect on their performance. Macromolecules 2018, ASAP



April 20, 2018: Congrats to Marie for being awarded for Outstanding Literature Seminar in 2017. JRL lab is really proud of her achievement.




March 27, 2018: Congrats to Noah, Zach, and Joaquin for the most recent publication in Current Opinion in Electrochemistry. This review highlights on the progress of coupling electrochemical scanning probe techniques with mass spectrometry and X-ray analysis. Curr. Opin. Electrochem. 2018, Just Accepted.



March, 2018: Hats off to Jingshu for winning a "2017 Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Students Abroad"! We are very proud to count with a lab member that was selected as a top Chinese student in a competition that spanned the entire globe and all disciplines of knowledge. Kudos!



March, 2018: The JRL group touring the country. We were very glad to highlight different aspects of our work in invited talks for Pittcon 2018 in Orlando and for the first time in the American Physical Society Spring Meeting in Los Angeles. Next stop: MRS Spring meeting in Phoenix, hope to see you there for session EN09: Materials and Systems for Grid Energy Storage-Redox Flow Batteries, which we are co-organizing and where Elena will be presenting.

February 14, 2018: Kudos to Jingshu, Richa, Zack, Xuan, Adam, Joaquin, and collaborators for the most recent publication in ACS Nano. This work demonstrates the electronically transparent, physically impermeable, and possesses exceptional adsorption properties of graphene interface, which suggests new reactive strategies that meet challenges in multifaceted electrocatalytic processes. ACS Nano 2018, Just Accepted.



February 2, 2018: Congrats to Mihail, Burt, and Mike for publishing JRL's and the group 50th paper! Also a great reason to celebrate is that this is our first paper with an undergrad first author. Hopefully more to come! Anal. Chem. 2018, Just Accepted.



January 25, 2018: Polyelectrolyte dynamics meet soluble redox-polymers - or how simply changing the salt concentration leads to improved reactivity for applications in energy storage. Congrats to Mark, Kenny, Jasmine, Elena, Joaquin and our collaborators for their publication at the Journal of the American Chemical Society. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2018, Just Accepted.



January 6-12, 2018: Joaquin and Kenny attended the Gordon Research Conference (and Seminar) for Electrochemistry. Kenny presented a seminar and a poster highlighting our research in redox-active polymers. Joaquin was part of the panel "Finding a Scientific Career in Academia and Industry" and presented a poster about our work with graphene electrochemistry. Also, from our neighboring lab Mei Shen gave an excellent talk at the conference.


December 25, 2017: Happy Holidays!

November, 2017: Joaquin contributed to an interview from the Electrochemical Society regarding the ECS-Toyota Young Investigator Program. We thank our sponsors for giving us the opportunity to try out new ideas! Read the interview


November, 2017: Joaquin took part as a fellow of the 2017 Scialog: Advanced Energy Storage in Tucson, AZ. We thank the Research Corporation for inviting us and allowing us to explore new ideas for cutting-edge battery research, as well as everyone who participated for four days of lively discussion.


November 14, 2017: Congrats to Kenny, Zack and Joaquin for their cover in Chemistry of Material Vol 29, Issue 29. Represented in the cover for this issue is the opening for Brahms Opus 90 (Symphony No. 3) played through redox polymers, particles, and ions, which serve as notes that highlight our interest in energy storage.


October 31, 2017: Kudos to Matt, Matthew, Zach, Burt, Sara, Paramaconi and Joaquin for their paper in Langmuir. This paper discusses high throughput preparation of metal oxide nanocrystals by cathodic corrosion and their use as active photocatalysts.
Langmuir. 2017, Just Accepted.



October 19, 2017: We invite you to read the Beckman Institute annual report 2016-2017 titled "Connections". In this report they highlight Kenny's path to becoming a Beckman Fellow in an article titled "What's up, Postdocs? 4 Questions".




October 13, 2017: Congrats to Noah for being awarded for Outstanding Literature Seminar in 2016. JRL lab is really proud of his achievement.




September 23, 2017: JRL Lab at the 2017 Turkey Run Analytical Chemistry Conference.




September 19, 2017: We are proud to contribute in the cover art for the Langmuir special issue Fundamental Interfacial Science for Energy Applications.
SECM meets nano meets Raman!!!


September 1, 2017: Great job Noah, Matthew, Kenny and Joaquin presenting at the ISE conference.


August 30, 2017: Elena made it to the UIUC graduate college news. Her career path and highligths are discussed in an article titled "Meet Our Fellows: Ford Fellows on Campus" .

August 20, 2017: Congrats to Kenny, Zack and Joaquin for their paper in Chemistry of Materials. This perspective highlights the challenges that are present in charge mobility and propagation in different redox active materials.
Chem. Mater. 2017, ASAP.



August 3, 2017: Kudos to Taeyoung for his poster presentation at the Chemistry Poster Session in UIUC. Great Job!




July 10, 2017: Congrats to our collaborators from Prof. Smith's group along with Elena, Shaoyi, and Joaquin for their published work in Journal of Power Sources where they address the balance between ionic conductivity of RAP solutions, viscosity, reactor cost and pumping pressure for flow batteries
J. Power Sources 2017, 361, 334.



July 6, 2017: We have now assembled our Fantastic 4 of Ph.D. graduates! Kudos to Jingshu on succesfully defending your thesis!



June 9, 2017: JRL group annual BBQ



June, 2017: Our students featured in the newsletters of the top electrochemistry societies in the US:
Jingshu is featured in the ECS Newsletter as a K.M. Abraham travel awardee. During the PRiME 2016 conference, Jingshu delivered a talk regarding her work on ion intercalation on ultra-thin graphene electrodes, which was also awarded the best symposium talk by a student

Burt is featured in the SEAC Communications as one of the 2017 SEAC Student Travel Award Winners


June 16, 2017: Kudos to Zach, Noah, Kenny, Jingshu, Burt and Elena for their paper in Langmuir. SECM meets nano meets Raman: instant redox in a nanobowl
Langmuir 2017, Accepted.



June 12, 2017: We have our third PhD from the JRL Lab! Congrats Mark on succesfully defending your thesis!



June 5, 2017: We just doubled the amount of PhDs from the JRL Lab! Congrats Burt on succesfully defending your thesis! Now we have two PhDs from our lab!



June 5, 2017: Congrats to Mihail for being named a recipient of the Eastern Analytical Symposium Student Research Award, rewarding his research ability in analytical chemistry. Mihail works on the use of scanning electrochemical microscopy for the elucidation of reaction intermediate reactivity on photocatalysts


June 5, 2017: We are really happy to announce that Mark and Kenny were selected as the 2016 winners of the "Norman Hackerman Young Author Award" . The Norman Hackerman Young Author Award was established in 1928 and is the second oldest award given by ECS. The award is given for the best paper published in the Journal of The Electrochemical Society by a young author or co-authors in the volume year preceding the award.


June 3, 2017: Congratulations to Elena and Joaquin on their paper in the Journal of the Electrochemical Society describing the benefits of using redox active polymers for a size-exclusion approach in prototype flow batteries.
J. Electrochem. Soc. 2017, 164(7), A1688-A1694.



May 14, 2017: Congratulations to the graduating class from the JRL group!



May 10, 2017 Congratulations to Zack Barton on successfully defending the dissertation "Spatially Resolved Ionic Measurements with Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy"! Zack is the first Ph.D. graduate from the Rodriguez-Lopez Lab, thanks for your dedication and interesting work!



April 27, 2017: Kenny and Joaquin contributed to the article "Life as a Posdoc" for the Daily Illini. The article discusses about the daily routine of a postdoc and the job prospects after the postdoctoral term is over.



April 25, 2017: Congratulations to Zack, Jingshu, Noah, and Joaquin on their publication in Electrochimica Acta distinguishing between potassium ion intercalation and SEI formation processes during electrochemical energy storage!
Electrochim. Acta, 2017, 241, 98-105.



April 22, 2017 As part of the "Dads and Daughters Do Science 2017" event held by the local Society of Women in Engineering (SWE) chapter, Zack led elementary and middle-school girls through a classic liquid nitrogen ice cream demonstration.



April 19, 2017 We are proud of Mark for being selected to participate in the Milliken research symposium.



April 6, 2017: Joaquin was selected as a Scialog Fellow for the upcoming Advanced Energy Storage session. Thanks to the Research Corporation for contributing to this important dialogue!


April 5, 2017 Our symposium "Synthesis and Characterization of Materials for Energy Applications during the Spring ACS Meeting in San Francisco was a success! Thanks to all participants, attendees and sponsors!



April 3, 2017 Elena was distinguished by the Graduate College with an Academic Excellence recognition, thanks to her outstanding record and her high quality publications. Congrats!



March 30, 2017 Joaquin delivered a set of presentations at Eureka College as invited speaker for the "Jackson Day" series. It was a pleasure and an honor to join the outstanding list of past speakers for this event.



March, 2017: Watch Elena discuss her recent publication, "Redox Active Colloids as Discrete Energy Carriers".

March 10-11, 2017: JRL Lab during the Beckman Institute open house. Our demo was titled "Batteries of the Future" and consisted of simple battery demonstrations and exploring the different forms of carbon. We want to say thanks to Marie, Mike, Matt, Zack, Zach, Burt, Nick, Elena and Kenny for organizing and helping during the event.


March 5-9, 2017: JRL Lab had a strong presence during Pittcon 2017, presenting 6 posters and 7 talks. Joaquin received the 2017 Royce W. Murray Young Investigator by the Society of Electroanalytical Chemistry (SEAC). Congrats Joaquin!



February 13, 2017: Congratulations to Zack and Joaquin on their back-to-back papers in Analytical Chemistry describing SECM positioning and imaging with ionic species.
The first paper builds the theory surrounding stripping-based cyclic voltammetry probe approach curves and provides practical tools for their implementation. Anal. Chem., 2017, 89, 2708.


The second paper introduces Hg disc-well UMEs as new ion-sensitive platforms for SECM and demonstrates their superior performance for stripping-based positioning and imaging. Anal. Chem., 2017, 89, 2716.



February 11, 2017: The senior grad students and Joaquin presented in the Center for Electrochemistry Workshop in Austin. It was great to share science with our academic family!


February 8, 2017: Congrats to Mark for being selected to present his research at the 2017 Milliken Graduate Research Symposium.

February, 2016: Joaquin was elected by his colleagues as a member of the board for the Society of Electroanalytical Chemistry (SEAC) for the period 2017-2022 � We are glad to contribute to our beautiful field!




January 23, 2017: JRL lab during the Cena y Ciencias (Supper and Science) outreach activity. Cena y Ciencias is a collaborative scientific outreach program in the bilingual community of the Urbana Public School District. Thanks to Elena, Kenny and Marie for your help and participation during this event.


January 8, 2016: Our group was mentioned in an article "Better Batteries Charge Forward"
by Science News, featuring parts of our work on polymer flow batteries as part of JCESR. Very interesting read!

December 25, 2016: Happy Holidays!

December 13, 2016: We are excited to announce that Elena won the ACS Diversity Program Travel Award. With this award Elena will be able to present her research at one of the National ACS meetings in 2017.

November 27, 2016: : Kenny, Elena and Joaquin attended the MRS 2016 Fall meeting in Boston, we were glad to exchange new ideas for energy materials.



November 14, 2016: We are glad to contribute in the cover art for the Accounts of Chemical Research special issue Nanoelectrochemistry.
RAPs in the house!!!


October 28, 2016: Great job from the JRL lab at the 2016 Turkey Run Analytical Conference. We had two excellent oral presentations from Burt and Zack and seven posters.





October 24, 2016: JRL Lab welcome the new first year graduate students Marie and Mike!

October 16, 2016: JRL lab is really proud of Elena and Burt for winning best oral presentation and best poster respectively. Elena won the Graduate Student Oral Presentation Award in Chemistry at the 2016 SACNAS Conference. Burt won the best poster award and later highlighted his research by giving a 5 minutes chalk talk at the 2016 MUACC conference.


October 10, 2016: Jingshu did an excellent job representing the JRL lab at the PRiME 2016 conference. We want to congratulate her for winning the best oral presentation award. In the photo Jingshu is with Prof. K. M. Abraham from Northeastern University Center for Renewable Energy Technologies.


October 01, 2016: JRL lab during the Cena y Ciencias (Supper and Science) outreach activity. Cena y Ciencias is a collaborative scientific outreach program in the bilingual community of the Urbana Public School District. Thanks to Elena, Kenny, Zach, Citlali, Mei and Joaquin for your help and participation during this event.






September 30, 2016: Congrats to Mark, Kenny and Jingshu for their paper in Chemistry of Materials about the impact of backbone tether length and structure on the electrochemical performance of viologen redox active polymers Chem. Mater., 2016, In Press."



September 27, 2016: Congrats to Mark for his review paper in the special issue of Nanoelectrochemistry in Accounts of Chemical Research. The review highlights redox active polymers (RAPs) and related polymer colloids as soluble nanoscopic energy storing units that enable the simple but powerful size-exclusion concept for nonaqueous flow batteries Acc. Chem. Res., 2016, Article ASAP



September 21, 2016: Congrats to Zach, Burt and Noah for their paper in the Analytical Chemistry Journal. The paper shows a new methodology for the fast approach of nanoelectrodes to surfaces. Anal. Chem., 2016, In Press



September 15, 2016: Congrats to Elena, Jingshu, Mark, Marissa and Kenny for their paper in the Journal of the American Chemical Society about the synthesis and electrochemical characterization of Redox Active Colloids for Energy Storage Applications J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2016, In Press




September 13, 2016: Congrats to Xuan, Zach, Burt, Jingshu and Zack for their paper in ACS nano about Electrochemical Imaging of Photoanodic Water Oxidation Enhancements on TiO2 Thin Films Modified by Sub-Surface Al Nano-Dimers ACS Nano, 2016, In Press



September 1, 2016: Congrats to Jingshu on being selected for one of the K.M. Abraham Travel Awards to assist with the cost of attending the PRiME Meeting


August 26, 2016: JRL group had a great time at the ISE meeting! Joaquin, Mark and Burt presented highlights on Battery interphase imaging, polymer electrochemistry and photocatalysis.
Congrats to Mark for winning the division 6 " Molecular Electrochemistry" travel award.
Congrats to Burt for winning a best poster award.




August, 2016: Congrats to Joaquin for being named on the "List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students" Spring 2016.


August 4, 2016: Congrats to Jasmine and Mikhail for their poster presentaions at the Chemistry Poster Session in UIUC. Great Job!




July 15, 2016: Joaquin is a recipient of the 2016-2017 Electrochemical Society - Toyota Young Investigator Fellowship, announced by the society. Our group is proud to explore new concepts in electrocatalysis and electroanalysis

Featured also in EurekAlert!


Summer 2016: Joaquin is the 2017 Royce W. Murray Young Investigator by the Society of Electroanalytical Chemistry (SEAC). Our group is proud to explore new concepts in electrochemical analysis.



Visit the SEAC Newsletter.

June 24, 2016: Jingshu and a group of talented undergrads published their work in Electrochimica Acta regarding the utilization of graphene as an interface between metal substrates and solution phase redox probes Electrochimica Acta, 2016, 211, 1016-1023.




July 14, 2016: Congrats to our collaborator Prof. Fernando J. Uribe Romo for his paper in Journal of the American Chemical Society titled "Mechanically Shaped 2-Dimensional Covalent Organic Frameworks Reveal Crystallographic Alignment and Fast Li-Ion Conductivity" J. Am. Chem. Soc., Just Accepted Manuscript



June 2016: JRL group BBQ party!




June 2016: The JRL group starts its NSF-DMR funded research into visualizing energy storage processes on ultra-thin electrodes!



June 15, 2016: Exploring the link between structure and reactivity, we are proud to share our collaborative work in elucidating surface photocatalysis now available in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

June 9, 2016: Joaquin participated as invited panelist in the Regional Clean Energy Innovation Forum at Purdue University.

June 5, 2016: New travel support for MUACC 2016 @ UIUC is available for early career scientists!

May 28, 2016: Joaquin came back from a minitour in the West, visiting the University of Utah, and participating as invited speaker in the Beyond Lithium Ion IX conference.

May 28, 2016: Joaquin joins the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at UIUC as a Faculty Affiliate. We will collaborate within the Nanoelectronics and Nanomaterials Group. We are glad to join and start collaborations on exciting topics!

May 18, 2016: Joaquin is awarded the East Central Illinois ACS Local Section "Distinguished Service Award 2016" ... We are glad to help out in Chemistry outreach


May 12, 2016: Elena is awarded a Ford Foundation 2016 Predoctoral Fellowship for showing an outstanding promise as a future scholar, researcher and teacher. Congrats to Elena for this outstanding achievement!

April 26, 2016: MUACC 2016 will be held at UIUC - an important event for the JRL lab and part of the history of analytical chemistry in our department

April 26, 2016: The JRL group is proud of former undergraduate student Timothy Lichtenstein, now graduate student at Penn State, for receiving a the Nuclear Energy University Program-Integrated University Program fellowship. The program funds research that advances nuclear power as a resource. His research will develop electrochemical methods to reduce the volume of nuclear waste.

April 8, 2016: Elena wins the Argonne Hispanic/Latino Club Scholarship, a Student Leadership Award by the office of Student Affairs at the University. Congratulations!



April 7, 2016: Dr. Kenneth Hernandez-Burgos becomes a Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate - Proffesorial Advancement Initiative (AGEP-PAI) Postdoctoral Scholar... Excellent opportunities to come!

April 4, 2016: Congrats to Mark for winning the Academic Excellence and Good Citizenship award

March 31, 2016: Mark Burgess wins the Department of Energy Office of Science Graduate Student Research Fellowship (DOE SCGSR) - He will soon be visiting the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for cool in-situ TEM experiments

March 30, 2016: Congrats to Mark and Kenny for their paper in Analyst about the impact of electrolyte composition on the reactivity of redox active polymers Analyst, 2016, In Press


March 4, 2016: Congrats to Jingshu and Mark for their paper in ACS nano about proving Li ion intercalation mechanism in few layer graphene ACS Nano, 2016, In Press


February 25, 2016: Congrats to Zack for his paper in Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry about Emerging scanning probe approaches to the measurement of ionic reactivity at energy storage material Anal. Bioanal. Chem., 2016, In Press


February 24, 2016: Learn more about our contribution in JCESR for polymer batteries!

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February 23, 2016: Joaquin has been named a 2016 Sloan Fellow . The Rodriguez-Lopez lab is happy to share the excitement of contributing better techniques and better materials for batteries.




February 15, 2016: Congratulations to Kenneth for being awarded a prestigious 2016 Beckman Research Fellowship! Kenny will be collaborating with the groups of Jeff Moore and Cathy Murphy in developing an advanced polymer electrolyte for flow batteries and expanding his training and knowledge using the top-notch facilities at the UIUC Beckman Institute.









December 24, 2015: Happy Hollidays!


December 8, 2015: Electrochemistry Bootcamp day 1: Basic Electrochemical Methods




December 7, 2015: Electrochemistry Bootcamp days announcement



November 27, 2015: Joaquin completed his tour in the UK, visiting Cambridge, Oxford, Warwick and Birmingham together with our JCESR folks. Presentations given at the UK Energy Storage Conference and in Birmingham. We thank all our friends in the UK for a great time, Cheers!




November 24, 2015: Thanks to our collaborators in JCESR and Argonne National Lab for the cool photoshoot of our lab activities -Good work and looking good.



November 13, 2015: Congrats to Burt for his paper in the Journal of the American Chemical Society about the use of nanoelectrodes to see surface defects influencing adsorbate reactivity in situ. J. Am. Chem. Soc., (2015), 137 (47), 14865



November 4, 2015: Joaquin is higlighted in the JCESR Newsletter: Issue Three




November 4, 2015: Redox flow batteries project is higlighted in the JCESR Newsletter: Issue Three



October 30, 2015: Congrats to Mark for passing his Prelim exam! Now he is a Ph.D. Candidate!

October 26, 2015: JRL Lab welcome the new first year graduate students Zach, Matt and Noah!

October 25, 2015: Congrats to Mark and Kenny for their paper on the electrochemical characterization of soluble redox active polymers

October 3, 2015: Congrats to Mark for his excellent talk at the Turkey Run Analytical Chemistry Conference 2015

October 2, 2015: Congrats to Elena, Jingshu, Zack and Kenny for their excellent poster presentations at the Turkey Run Analytical Chemistry Conference 2015

 

July 1, 2015: JRL Lab welcome the new postdoc Kenneth Hernandez-Burgos from Cornell University

June 1, 2015: JRL Lab welcome the new REU students Sona Avetian and Marissa Kneer

May 27, 2015: Burt presented an awesome talk in the ECSorg meeting in Chicago about the imaging of photocatalysts in operando using SECM! Kudos

May 27, 2015: JRL was glad to present at the inaugural Bard award symposium: Congratulations to Henry White!




May 27, 2015: Joaquin was in Pittsburgh to receive the SACP starter grant - interesting data to come with our redox titrations!



May 16, 2015: Congrats to Richa, Tim and Phil for their graduation! #ILLINOIS2015 Thanks for filling our lab with energy and awesome science!

April 29, 2015: Congrats to Burt for his first review on photocatalysis - such science x2!

April 29, 2015: Congrats to Burt for his first paper on redox titrations of photocatalysts - such science!

April 29, 2015: Congrats to Mark for receiving a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship! Exciting results coming!

December 2, 2014: Burt gets a departmental award to present his cool SECM studies of photocatalysts at the 2014 MRS Fall meeting in Boston

December 2, 2014: Mark wins best poster at Turkey Run Analytical Conference for his work on liquid-liquid interfaces, congrats!

December 2, 2014: We welcome Elena to the lab!

December 2, 2014: Cheers to Jingshu and Tim for our first JACS paper!

December 2, 2014: Cheers to Zachary Barton and the JRL group for our first paper in analytical Chemistry!

December 2, 2014: News from Summer 2014! Congratulations to Zachary Barton for being awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship!

December 2, 2014: News from Summer 2014! Congratulations to Jingshu Hui for the invitation to join the NIST Summer School 2014 - neutrons!

December 1, 2014: Congratulations to Undergraduate student Philip Benson for being selected as 2014 Dow Undergraduate Research Fellow!

December 1, 2014: Congratulations to Undergraduate students Minseok Kim and Richa Bhargava for obtaining Gieseking research fellowships!

September 8, 2014: Joaquin is featured in the new issue of C&EN!