Material Matters – Exploring Catalytic Materials One Entity at a Time

Title: Exploring Catalytic Materials One Entity at a Time 

Abstract

Many of the most important properties of catalytic materials emerge from processes that take place at the level of individual particles or molecules.
In this talk, I will introduce a single-entity electrochemical approach that allows us to observe and control catalysts one entity at a time. By detecting the electrical signals generated when individual catalytic entities interact with an electrode, we gain direct access to their intrinsic activity, dynamics, and heterogeneity in real time.
I will show how this perspective opens new opportunities for catalytic materials development, exemplified by plasmonic nanomaterials. Electrochemical control at the nanoscale makes it possible to explore how charge, redox state, and surface chemistry influence reactivity, providing a route to actively tune plasmonic properties at the level of single particles. The same concepts naturally extend to natural biocatalysts. Single-entity measurements allow us to follow catalytic properties of individual enzymes, revealing fluctuations, efficiency limits, and structure–function relationships that are hidden in ensemble experiments. This provides a unified view of synthetic and biological catalysts as active, dynamic entities at electrified interfaces. Overall, the talk will highlight how studying catalysts one entity at a time offers a more intuitive and powerful way to understand, compare, and design functional catalytic materials.

Bio:

Dr Alina Sekretareva is an Assistant Professor and Docent in the Department of Chemistry-Ångström at Uppsala University, Sweden.
Her research group focuses on understanding and controlling electron transfer processes in catalysis, encompassing a wide range of systems—from biological electron transfer in enzymes to photoelectrocatalytic processes on plasmonic nanostructures.
The particular emphasis of the group is on the development of single-entity electrochemical methods for studying electron transfer processes at the single molecule/particle level.

Dr Sekretareva earned her Ph.D. in Applied Physics at Linköping University, Sweden, working under the supervision of Prof. Anthony Turner and Prof. Mats Eriksson. With a prestigious Wallenberg Postdoctoral Fellowship, she subsequently joined Prof Edward Solomon's world-famous lab in the Department of Chemistry at Stanford University in the United States.
Dr. Sekretareva is a recipient of the prize from King Carl XVI Gustaf's 50th-anniversary Foundation and the Göran Gustafsson Prize in Technical Physics.