Title: Franklin Wright Davis Professor of Chemistry
Abstract: Liquid water-solid interfaces set the stage for a broad range of important chemical processes. Such interfaces support strong persistent and direction electric fields that can promote processes and reactivity that are unlikely in bulk environments. Characterizing these fields has been a tremendous ongoing challenge due to the difficulties in probing interfaces experimentally and modeling interfaces theoretically. Here, I present the results of molecular dynamics simulation of the interface between a generic metallic electrode and a dilute aqueous electrolyte solution. I highlight the shortcomings of traditional mean-field theories in accounting for molecular effects at the interface and the shortcomings of simulation in accounting for well-established trends that have been observed in electrochemical experiments. I will demonstrate that the electric fields that interfacial species experience are species specific and thus are not naturally represented in terms of a single universal electrostatic potential profile.
Bio: Adam Willard is a professor of chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Prior to joining the faculty at MIT (2013), Adam completed his PhD under the supervision of the late Professor David Chandler at the university of California, Bereley (2008), and carried out postdoctoral studies with Professor Peter Rossky at the University of Texas at Austin. Adam’s research in the area of theoretical chemistry with a focus on studying the molecular structure of interfacial systems.