Charles McCrory

The electrochemical transformation of small molecules is at the core of energy and environmental chemistry. Reactions of interest to our group include: 1) the electrochemical reduction of CO₂ and H₂O for the conversion of intermittent energy sources to chemical fuels, 2) the reduction of NO₃^- salts and other common pollutants for the remediation of agricultural wastewater, and 3) the low-temperature electrochemical conversion of N₂ to NH₃. In the McCrory group, our general research approach is to develop enabling technologies that allow for the careful study and control of electrocatalytic processes with an emphasis on kinetic and mechanistic analysis, and to use these approaches to address fundamental challenges in the electrochemical conversion of small molecules by solid-state and molecular catalysts. We use a combination of surface science and electrochemistry to directly observe reactive intermediates in the catalytic pathway in model systems and then use these mechanistic findings to develop new, efficient electrocatalytic materials.

Selected Recent Awards(s)

• DOE Early Career Research Program Award, Office of Basic Science, 2021-2026
• Scialog Fellow, Negative Emissions Science, Research Corporation for Science Advancement, 2020
• Cottrell Scholars Award, Research Corporation for Science Advancement, 2019-2022
• Kavli Fellow, Kavli Frontiers of Science Program, National Academy of Sciences, 2019
• NSF Career Award, Chemistry Division, Chemical Catalysis Program, 2018-2023
• Dow Corning Assistant Professor of Chemistry, University of Michigan, 2017-2020

Selected Representative Publications

Soucy, T. L.; Liu, Y.; Eisenberg, J. B.; McCrory, C. C. L. "Enhancing Electrochemical Carbon Dioxide Reduction by Polymer-Encapsulated Cobalt Phthalocyanine Films by Modulating the Loading of Catalysts, Polymers, and Carbon Supports." ACS Appl. Energy Mater., 2021, ASAP, DOI: 10.1021/acsaem.1c02689.

Rivera Cruz, K. E.; Liu, Y.: Soucy, T. L.; Zimmerman, P. M.; McCrory, C. C. L. "Increasing the CO₂ Reduction Activity of Cobalt Phthalocyanine by Modulating the σ-donor Strength of Axially Coordinating Ligands." ACS. Catal., 2021, 11, 13203-13216. DOI: 10.1021/acscatal.1c02379.

Nie, W.-X.; Tarnopol, D. E.; McCrory, C. C. L. "Enhancing a Molecular Electrocatalyst’s Activity for CO2 Reduction by Simultaneously Modulating Three Substituent Effects." J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2021, 143, 3764-3778.  DOI: 10.1021/jacs.0c09357.

Michaud, S. E.; Riehs, M. T.; Feng, W.-J.; Lin, C-C.; McCrory, C. C. L. "A CoV₂O₄ Precatalyst for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction: Highlighting the Importance of Postmortem Catalyst Characterization in Electrocatalysis Studies." Chem. Commun. 2021, 57, 883-886. DOI: 10.1039/D0CC06513G.

Kallick, J. K.; Feng, W.-J.; McCrory, C. C. L. " Controlled Formation of Multilayer Films of Discrete Molecular Catalysts for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction using a Layer-by-Layer Growth Mechanism Based on Sequential Click Chemistry." ACS Appl. Energy Mater., 2020, 7, 6222-6231. DOI: 10.1021/acsaem.0c00332.

Nie, W.-X.; Wang, Y.; Zheng, T.; Ibrahim, A.; Xu, Z.; McCrory, C. C. L. "Electrocatalytic CO2 Reduction by Co Bis(pyridylmonoimine) Complexes: Effect of Ligand Flexibility on Catalytic Activity." ACS Catal., 2020, 10, 4942-4959. DOI: 10.1021/acscatal.9b05513.

Liu, Y.; Deb, A.; Leung, K.-Y.; Nie, W.-X.; Dean, W. S.; Penner-Hahn, J. E.; McCrory, C. C. L. " Determining the Coordination Environment and Electronic Structure of Polymer-Encapsulated Cobalt Phthalocyanine under Electrocatalytic Conditions using In Situ X-Ray Absorption Spectroscopy." Dalton Trans., 2020, 49, 16329-16339. DOI: 10.1039/D0DT01288B.

Liu, Y.; McCrory, C. C. L. "Controlled Substrate Transport to Electrocatalyst Active Sites for Enhanced Selectivity in the Carbon Dioxide Reduction Reaction." 2019, Nat. Commun., 10, 1683. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-09626-8.

Leung, K-Y.; McCrory, C. C. L. "The Effect and Prevention of Trace Ag⁺ Contamination from Ag/AgCl Reference Electrodes on CO₂ Reduction Product Distributions at Polycrystalline Copper Electrodes." ACS Appl. Energy Mater., 2019, 2, 8283-8293.  DOI: 10.1021/acsaem.9b01759.