Dr. Sarah King, PhD

Interfaces between materials or solid and liquid phases are ubiquitous in our natural and manufactured world, but poorly understood. Changes in the atomic and electronic structure of materials and molecules at interfaces lead to unique properties such as modified excited state lifetimes, charge transport mechanisms, and interfacial states. In my proposed research, I will develop an experimental technique to determine the mechanisms of charge and energy transfer at iron oxide/aqueous interfaces – identifying new opportunities for improving the efficiency of iron oxide for use in solar water splitting and catalysis and fundamentally changing our understanding of the science of interfaces.