The Ardo Group is a Diverse Team of Innovators and Educators that are Allies for Change. We are committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, opportunities, research integrity, and dissemination of knowledge. These constitute the foundational guiding principles that underpin our daily actions, and lead to our Team's camaraderie.
In our research, we invent new ways to leverage daily variations in terrestrial photon fluxes between the Sun, the Earth, and the Universe to help close the Water Cycle, the Carbon Cycle, the Hydrogen Cycle, and the Nitrogen Cycle. More specifically, the central aim of our research program is to understand and control dynamics of non-equilibrium processes relevant to photoelectrochemical desalination (formerly Moore Foundation), oceanic carbon capture (DOE ARPA-E), solar photocatalytic H2 production (DOE EPN EFRC & formerly DOE EERE), liquid solar fuels (DOE LiSA Hub), protonic photovoltaics (DOE BES), electrolyzer & fuel cell membranes (formerly DoD ARO), interfacial ion-transfer catalysis (NSF CCI CI2), excited-state proton-transfer dynamics (NSF CSDM-B), and ionic ratchets (UCI Beall Family Foundation).
Guided by results from numerical simulations and processes that occur in Nature, our Team designs and fabricates kinetically asymmetric systems using chemical synthesis and molecular-level engineering of molecule–material structures. Specific tailoring of the mechanisms imparted by these asymmetries allows us to control photo-induced charge separation in solar energy conversion schemes, current rectification using electrochemical ratchets and ionic diodes made from ice or ion-exchange membranes, selective and rapid catalysis of PCET reactions and water dissociation, and local temperature using photonic and heat transfer processes. Results from each study increase fundamental knowledge of transport and transfer phenomena (ion, electron, photon, energy, heat) that dictate the function and effectiveness of technologies for sustainable clean water, carbon capture, and renewable energy.
The Ardo Group is well-suited for students and postdoctoral scholars with various backgrounds and expertise, spanning the disciplines of chemistry, applied physics, chemical engineering, materials science, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and biophysics. Click on the following links to watch a short video from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation that explains the Ardo Group's solar desalination concept and Shane's Distinctive Voices Lecture (53 minutes) from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine titled "Development of a plastic water bottle for sunlight-driven desalination."
We are grateful to our sponsors for their generous support of our research program
CI2
CI2
9/26/2024: The Ardo Group's collaborative publication with the Xiang Group at Caltech titled "Asymmetric Bipolar Membrane for High Current Density Electrodialysis Operation with Exceptional Stability" is accepted for publication in ACS Energy Letters. Congratulations, Eowyn and the rest of the team!
9/10/2024: The Ardo Group's collaborative publication with the Bala Chandran Group at the University of Michigan titled "Revealing the Role of Redox Reaction Selectivity and Mass Transfer in Current–Voltage Predictions for Ensembles of Photocatalysts" is accepted for publication in Energy & Environmental Science. Congratulations, Luisa, Brad, Justin, and the rest of the team!
9/12/2024: The Ardo Group's collaborative publication with the Domen Group at Shinshu University titled "Photocatalytic water splitting for large-scale solar-to-chemical energy conversion and storage" is accepted for publication in Frontiers in Science. Congratulations, Takashi and the rest of the team!
7/15/2024: The Ardo Group's collaborative publication with the Atwater Group at Caltech titled "Acid and base generation via an electrochemical hydrogen-looping cell tailored for carbon removal applications" is accepted for publication in Device. Congratulations, Zack and the rest of the team!
7/8/2024: Jen is now also Dr. Urbine. Congratulations on your successful thesis defense and thank you for being a go-getter, outdoorsy, and autocatalytic, Jen!
7/2/2024: Madison Ngo from California State University, Los Angeles joins Team Ardo for a short research effort. Welcome, Madison!
6/21/2024: The Ardo Group receives funding from UCI Beall Applied Innovation for a Proof of Product (PoP) Grant to pursue research and development of "Demonstration of a green H2 production reactor design projected to meet aggressive DOE cost targets." Go Team!
6/20/2024: The Ardo Group and collaborators in the Bae Group receive funding from the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science through the Office of Basic Energy Sciences's Solar Photochemistry Research Area to pursue research toward "Light-driven proton pumps using photoacid-dye-sensitized bipolar ion-exchange membranes." Go Team!
6/17/2024: Clara Yoon from California State University, Long Beach joins Team Ardo for the summer as an Ensembles of Photosynthetic Nanoreactors (EPN) EFRC Fellow. Welcome, Clara!
5/13/2024: The Ardo Group's collaborative publication with the Ogitsu Group at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory titled "Confinement Effects on Proton Transfer in TiO2 Nanopores from Machine Learning Potential Molecular Dynamics Simulations" is accepted for publication in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. Congratulations, Hyuna and the rest of the team!
4/15/2024: The Ardo Group's collaborative publication with the Esposito Group at Columbia University titled "Probing the active sites of oxide encapsulated electrocatalysts with controllable oxygen evolution selectivity" is accepted for publication in EES Catalysis. Congratulations, Will, Robert, Justin, and the rest of the team!
4/9/2024: The Ardo Group's collaborative viewpoint publication with the Boettcher Group at the University of Oregon titled "Absolute band-edge energies are over-emphasized in the design of photoelectrochemical materials" is accepted for publication in Nature Catalysis. Congratulations, Aaron and the rest of the team!
4/4/2024: Nathaniel is awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. Congratulations, Nathaniel!
2/29/2024: Rohit and Gabe's publication titled "Elementary Reaction Steps That Precede or Follow a Unimolecular Reaction Step Can Obfuscate Interpretation of the Driving-Force Dependence to Its Rate Constant" is accepted for publication in the The Journal of Physical Chemistry A. Congratulations, Rohit and Gabe!
1/18/2024: Munho successfully passes his preliminary oral exam in the Department of Materials Science & Engineering. Congratulations, Munho!
1/8/2024: Kyle Daly joins Team Ardo. Welcome, Kyle!
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