Leo W. Gordon

Interested in NMR techniques for studying energy storage and carbon capture systems.

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Curriculum Vitae

I am a postdoctoral scholar in the Clément group at UC Santa Barbara where I investigate ion transport processes in polymeric materials using NMR methodologies such as pulsed-field gradient and electrophoretic NMR. I completed my Ph.D. research at The City College of New York (CCNY) working in the field of energy storage materials where I was advised by Prof. Robert J. Messinger.

The primary focus of my Ph.D. was using NMR characterisation techniques to determine charge storage mechanisms and to understand electrolyte speciation. Solid-state NMR is my main tool for investigating charge storage, which I apply to understand ionic and electronic charge storage mechanisms in organic electrodes for rechargeable aluminium batteries. I also have expertise in liquid NMR, which I have demonstrated through my work on lithium metal battery electrolytes, along with molten salt electrolytes for aluminum batteries. I have further interests in metal anode surface chemistries, lithium cathode recycling, and the nuances of charge storage with different molten salt electrolyte speciations. My central PhD work has culminated in publications including articles in the Journal of Physical Chemistry C, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, and the Journal of Magnetic Resonance.

Before joining the Chemical Engineering department at CCNY, I attained an integrated Masters degree in Chemistry (MChem) from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. During my thesis research I worked to develop and understand novel designs for multi-microelectrode arrays for electrochemical sensing applications. Also during the bachelors portion of my degree, I briefly investigated dye-sensitised solar cells (DSSCs) using plant derived dyes, targeting low-cost and minimally corrosive materials.

In my free time I enjoy bouldering to keep fit, and to make time-saving GUI programs to process data - many of which can be found on my GitHub profile!

News

May 24, 2024 We just published a fundamental investigation of selenium structure at different length scales and how it affects the electrochemical reactions achieved in aluminium-selenium batteries. To achieve a full 6-electron capacity of selenium electrodes in aluminium batteries, it is imperative that the Se(0) to Se(–II) is attainable as well as the Se(0) to Se(IV) reactions. This paper documents the viability of the selenium to aluminium selenide electrochemical reduction in glassy selenium, which is seldom observed with crystalline trigonal selenium. This paper challenges the naive assumption that aluminium batteries using sulfur and selenium cathodes would operate in the same way. While both are chalcogens, the bonding topologies of elemental selenium and sulfur are quite different in their most stable forms (trigonal Se chains vs. 8-membered S rings) and this leads to differences in their electrochemical performances.
Jan 14, 2024 Recently a collaborative work with Oi-Man Leung at the Unversity of Southampton was published in Advanced Energy Materials. This study represents a culmination of efforts on both the electrochemistry and applications of this new electrolyte, and also the mechanistic analyses to elucidate the molecular-scale processes within. Here, we demonstrate a huge 0.3 V improvement in the oxidative stability vs. the standard AlCl3-EMIm ionic liquid electrolyte. This increase is coupled with the inherent mechanical improvements of a polymer electrolyte, without any major sacrifice of the electrolyte conductivity. NMR spectroscopy reveals AlCl3 crosslinks between poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) chains and some curious behvaiour of silica particles in this system…
Mar 24, 2023 Today I sucessfully defended my PhD thesis “Molecular Elucidation of Reaction Mechanisms in Aluminum and Lithium Metal Batteries by Solid-State NMR Spectroscopy and Electrochemical Methods”. My PhD journey has been a greatly enjoyable 5 years and I have far too many people to thank for getting me to this point. However, I must acknowledge my committee members, Prof. Alex Couzis, Prof. Ruth Stark, Prof. George John, Prof. Elizabeth Biddinger, and my advisor Prof. Robert Messinger for their great support today. Special thanks to Rob for all the hard work we put in together!
Feb 27, 2023 The latest work from our group “Reversible Zinc Electrodeposition at −60 °C Using a Deep Eutectic Electrolyte for Low-Temperature Zinc Metal Batteries” was published today. In this work we demonstrate an electrolyte with a deep-eutectic point to enable reversible zinc electrodeposition down to temperatures of -60 °C. We make 0.1 M Zn(TFSI)2 electrolytes in different ratios of [EMIm]TFSI with gamma-butyrolactone (GBL) which are probed electrochemically to determine their macroscopic properties, and further analysed at the molecular level via NMR spectroscopy and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to explain the differences in performance from an atomistic approach.
Jan 25, 2023 Our new study of aluminium-organic batteries, entitled “Revealing Impacts of Electrolyte Speciation on Ionic Charge Storage in Aluminum-Quinone Batteries by NMR Spectroscopy”, is now out in the Journal of Magnetic Resonance. This is a detailed analysis of the ionic charge storage mechanisms in aluminium-quinone batteries where we begin by detailing the speciation of three different Lewis acidic ionic liquid/ionic liquid analogue electrolytes by liquid-state NMR, we then use solid-state NMR to determine the nature of the complexed ions upon electrochemical discharge in each electrolyte. We further use DFT calculations to both determine the most favorable electroactive cation generation pathways and to link the experimentally derived NMR quadrupolar parameters to a physical basis of ion interaction with different quinone structures. Finally, we also validate our hypothesised mechanisms with targeted experiments, proving the function of various ionic species.

Selected Publications

  1. Ternary Ionic Liquid Analogues as Electrolytes for Ambient and Low-Temperature Rechargeable Aluminum Batteries
    Jonah Wang, Theresa Schoetz,  Leo W. Gordon, Elizabeth J. Biddinger, and Robert J. Messinger
    ACS Applied Energy Materials

    Jul 2024

  2. Elucidating Consequences of Selenium Crystallinity on Its Electrochemical Reduction in Aluminum–Selenium Batteries
    Leo W. Gordon, Rahul Jay, Ankur L. Jadhav, Snehal S. Bhalekar, and Robert J. Messinger
    ACS Materials Letters

    May 2024

  3. Improved Mechanical Strength without Sacrificing Li-Ion Transport in Polymer Electrolytes
    James T. Bamford, Seamus D. Jones, Nicole S. Schauser, Benjamin J. Pedretti,  Leo W. Gordon, Nathaniel A. Lynd, Raphaële J. Clément, and Rachel A. Segalman
    ACS Macro Letters

    May 2024

  4. Solid Polymer Electrolytes with Enhanced Electrochemical Stability for High-Capacity Aluminum Batteries
    Oi Man Leung,  Leo W. Gordon, Robert J. Messinger, Themis Prodromakis, Julian A. Wharton, Carlos León, and Theresa Schoetz
    Advanced Energy Materials

    Jan 2024

  5. Revealing impacts of electrolyte speciation on ionic charge storage in aluminum-quinone batteries by NMR spectroscopy
    Leo W Gordon, Jonah Wang, and Robert J Messinger
    Journal of Magnetic Resonance

    Mar 2023

  6. Molecular-Scale Elucidation of Ionic Charge Storage Mechanisms in Rechargeable Aluminum–Quinone Batteries
    Leo W. Gordon, Ankur L. Jadhav, Mikhail Miroshnikov, Theresa Schoetz, George John, and Robert J. Messinger
    The Journal of Physical Chemistry C

    Aug 2022

  7. Performance Leap of Lithium Metal Batteries in LiPF6 Carbonate Electrolyte by a Phosphorus Pentoxide Acid Scavenger
    Jian Zhang, Jiayan Shi,  Leo W. Gordon, Nastaran Shojarazavi, Xiaoyu Wen, Yifan Zhao, Jianjun Chen, Chi-Cheung Su, Robert J. Messinger, and Juchen Guo
    ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces

    Aug 2022

  8. Disentangling Faradaic, Pseudocapacitive, and Capacitive Charge Storage: A Tutorial for the Characterization of Batteries, Supercapacitors, and Hybrid Systems
    T. Schoetz,  L.W. Gordon, S. Ivanov, A. Bund, D. Mandler, and R.J. Messinger
    Electrochimica Acta

    Apr 2022