Audrey Taylor joined NREL’s Chemistry and Nanoscience Center in late 2021 as a postdoctoral researcher. Her research at NREL focuses on fuel cell diagnostics, durability, and validating pathways toward electrode fabrication. Her research efforts also focus on the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide (CO₂) to value-added products with an emphasis toward scalability. She is interested in electrode morphology and structure-property correlations to enhance the transport properties of electrochemical energy conversion systems.

Prior to joining NREL, Audrey earned her master’s degree in chemistry from Western Washington University where she used block copolymer templates to synthesize bimetallic nanoparticles with a controlled interparticle spacing and morphology. Series of lithographic nanocatalysts were studied for their activity toward formic acid oxidation. She then went onto pursue a doctorate in chemistry and graduated from Simon Fraser University in 2021. Her doctoral work focused on investigating nano-to-microscale nickel-based electrode architectures for improving the performance and efficiency of electrochemical water splitting reactions.

Research Interests

Single-entity electrochemistry

Structure-property correlations in electrocatalytic materials

Li-ion battery materials

Education

Ph.D., Chemistry, Simon Fraser University

M.Sc., Chemistry, Western Washington University

B.S., Chemistry, The Evergreen State College

Associations and Memberships

Member, The Electrochemical Society

Member, The Canadian Society for Chemistry

Featured Work

Enabling a High-Throughput Characterization of Microscale Interfaces within Coated Cathode Particles, ACS Applied Energy Materials (2021)

Arrays of Microscale Linear Ridges with Self-Cleaning Functionality for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces (2021)

Electrochemically Aged Ni Electrodes Supporting NiFe2O4 Nanoparticles for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction, ACS Applied Energy Materials (2020)

Influence of Electrochemical Aging on Bead-Blasted Nickel Electrodes for the Oxygen Evolution Reaction, ACS Applied Energy Materials (2019)

Regular Dimpled Nickel Surfaces for Improved Efficiency of the Oxygen Evolution Reaction, ACS Applied Energy Materials (2018)

Block Copolymer Templated Synthesis of PtIr Bimetallic Nanocatalysts for the Formic Acid Oxidation Reaction, Journal of Materials Chemistry A, (2017)

Block Copolymer Templated Synthesis of Core-Shell PtAu Bimetallic Nanocatalysts for the Methanol Oxidation Reaction, Chemistry of Materials (2014)

Awards and Honors

Award for Outstanding Innovation, Mitacs (2020)

Barbara Ferrier Research Award, Simon Fraser University (2019)

Graduate Fellowship Award, Simon Fraser University (2018)

ECS Oral and Poster Award (2016)

National Science Foundation S-STEM Scholarship Recipient (2012)