Oscar Alfonso Diaz-Morales

I am originally from Caracas, Venezuela and obtained my bachelor and master degree in Chemistry at Simon Bolivar University. The experimental challenges during my BSc and MSc studies boosted my interest for in-situ techniques to probe the electrochemical interface. This led me to pursue a PhD in the group of Marc Koper at Leiden University. The research was focused in coupling spectroscopic techniques (i.e. SERS and MS) with conventional electrochemical techniques (i.e. voltammetry, chronoamperometry and chronopotentiometry) to study the factors affecting the kinetics of oxygen evolution reaction (OER), with special emphasis in understanding the interplay between the electrolyte composition and the activity. I studied several catalysts, among which metal oxides, hydroxides and organometallic complexes are found.

After my PhD graduation, I worked as postdoc in a joint project between Leiden University and Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation, using electrochemistry and ex-situ microscopy (SEM, AFM) to study platinum corrosion. Afterwards, I moved to the group of Anders Nilsson at Stockholm University where I used in-situ spectroscopic methods (XAS, XPS and MS) to probe the electrochemical interface during the electrocatalytic CO2 hydrogenation, OER and propene oxidation. I currently work with Ann Cornell at the Applied Electrochemistry Division of CBH-KTH, developing selective and eco-friendly hydrogen evolution cathodes to be used in the industrial sodium chlorate production, in the frame of a collaboration between KTH and Nouryon.

In a broad perspective, my research interests cover the use of spectroscopy (UV-Vis, Raman, Infrared, Mass Spectrometry, X-rays) to study the electrode-electrolyte interface in operando conditions.