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Medlin Research Group

Intermediates in electrochemical oxygen reduction

Ultrahigh vacuum system

Our research interest is in the study of reactions at solid surfaces. These reactions are important in a number of applications, including solid state chemical sensing, heterogeneous catalysis, and microelectronics processing. Current projects focus on understanding the molecular-level origins of observed surface reaction phenomena that are important in chemical sensing and hydrogen fuel cell catalysis. Our goal is to use this understanding to design new materials for a variety of applications.

Our efforts to research various applications are united by a common theme: quantum chemical calculations are used in direct combination with experimental techniques to obtain a detailed understanding of chemical and physical phenomena at solid surfaces.

With the rapidly expanding speed of modern computers, these kinds of combined experimental/theoretical studies are poised to have a major impact on all branches of science and engineering research. We are not a "pure theory" group, but rather use first principles calculations to interpret the results of a variety of characterization techniques. For more details, see the Research section of the web site.