CHE 598 Seminar: Controlling Transport and Interfaces in Sustainable Electrochemical Systems
About the event
SPEAKER: Dr. Jeffrey Bell, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, Washington State University.
BIOGRAPHY:
Dr. Jeff Bell is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Washington State University. He received his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Windsor in 2017 under the direction of Professor Jichang Wang and completed his postdoctoral training at Harvard University with Professor George Whitesides. He began his independent career at Washington State University in 2020. Since joining WSU, Dr. Bell has authored more than 35 peer-reviewed publications and secured research support from the National Science Foundation, including an NSF CAREER award, the ACS Petroleum Research Fund, the Washington Research Foundation, and commercialization programs. He also serves as Associate Editor for ECS Sensors Plus. Dr. Bell’s research program operates at the intersection of electrochemistry, sensing, and sustainable energy storage. His group develops additive manufacturing approaches for low-cost electroanalytical devices and investigates how magnetic fields can control mass transport, electrodeposition, and interfacial processes in electrochemical systems. Through these efforts, his research seeks to establish simple and scalable strategies for improving the performance, accessibility, and sustainability of electrochemical technologies.
ABSTRACT:
Electrochemical technologies are central to sustainable energy storage, environmental monitoring, and global health, yet their performance in often limited by processes occurring at reactive interfaces, where mass transport, reaction kinetics, and material stability converge. In batteries, nonuniform ion flux and unstable electrode-electrolyte interfaces can promote dendrite growth, redox irreversibility, and premature failure. In chemical sensors, biofouling, complex fabrication, and poor device integration can limit reliability and accessibility. This talk presents our group’s strategy for controlling these interfaces through simple, scalable physical tools, with an emphasis on magnetic fields, geometry, and additive manufacturing. The first part of the talk focuses on aqueous Zn-based batteries. We demonstrate that static magnetic fields, which require no continuous power input, can modify near-electrode transport and magnetohydrodynamic behavior. These effects improve ion-flux distribution, plating uniformity, capacity retention, and electrochemical efficiency across multiple electrode chemistries and battery configurations. More broadly, this work establishes relationships among magnetic-field strength, cell geometry, transport behavior, and interfacial reversibility, providing a framework for delaying failure without introducing new active materials or relying on complex surface-modification strategies. The second part focuses on additive manufacturing as a platform for controlling sensor architecture and expanding access to electrochemical diagnostics. Using stereolithography and fused deposition modeling, we fabricate low-cost potentiometric sensors with tunable geometries and integrated components for detecting ions including sodium, potassium, and magnesium. These devices exhibit stable performance in biofluids and can approach the analytical performance of commercial sensors at substantially lower cost. Together, these studies show that engineering transport, geometry, and device architecture can be as important as developing new materials. By applying simple physical strategies to persistent interfacial bottlenecks, electrochemical systems can become more stable, scalable, accessible, and sustainable.