Summary
Research Interests
The development and application of electrochemical methods are the focus or our research. We are interested in using these methods to solve problems in analytical chemistry, energy conversion and corrosion. Renewable energy sources can be utilized with electrochemical devices such as fuel cells, batteries and dye-sensitized solar cells. We are interested in studying the fundamental properties of materials used for these applications to explain observed trends in electrocatalytic activity; we aim at using this knowledge to design new materials for more efficient devices.
We apply electrochemical principles to study the thermodynamics and kinetics of electron transfer reactions to correlate these with structure and other properties of materials. We are interested in developing new methods for the analysis of nanostructures, films and bulk materials for their potential use in energy conversion, such as semiconductors for harvesting solar energy and electrocatalysts for fuel cells.
Analytical methods based on electrochemical principles are also of interest to us. Our goal is to develop electroanalytical methods to detect specific analytical targets out of complex mixtures (pH-meters and glucose sensors are examples of widely used, highly selective electrochemical devices). An additional benefit of electroanalytical methods is the possibility of miniaturization without necessarily sacrificing selectivity or sensitivity. The goal is to develop protocols to reproducibly prepare and characterize electrochemical sensors with diameters in the order of nanometers.
Funding
Dr. Alpuche's research efforts are currently supported by a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF), from the Macromolecular, Supramolecular and Nanochemistry (MSN) program in the NSF Division of Chemistry, award No. 1255387.
Education
- Postdoctoral Fellow (2007-2009), The Ohio State University (Yiying Wu)
- Postdoctoral Fellow (2005-2007), The University of Texas at Austin, Center for Electrochemistry (Allen J. Bard)
- Ph.D. (2005), Mississippi State University (David Wipf)
- B.S. (Licenciatura, 1999), Autonomous University of Yucatan