Mentor: Anna Wuttig, Assistant Professor, Chemistry
Caroline Hou is a student in the class of 2027 majoring in Chemistry. Her strong interest in catalyst and energy research has inspired her previous research on photocatalysis for carbon dioxide reduction and noble active electrode materials for sodium batteries. She is now focused on the study of self-assembly electrocatalysts with the application of small molecule reduction reaction, such as ORR. As a Polsky Research Fellow, she worked in Professor Anna Wuttig’s lab under the Department of Chemistry. Hou’s work focused on synthesizing and studying the electrocatalytic behavior of diffusive/ localized electroactive compounds on semiconductor electrode surfaces.
“I think one of my major successes I had during my time as a Fellow was to obtain a greater understanding of semiconductors as an electrode material. The full-time summer working schedule enabled me to spend time studying the textbook and literature knowledge of this field, which was fully new to me, while doing the experimental study in the lab. The time and resources allowed me to develop the understanding that further supports my experiment design and analysis to be more logical.”