dr. Ward van der Stam

dr. Ward van der Stam
Room - David de Wied 4.88
W.vanderStam@uu.nl

The electrocatalytic reduction of CO₂ into hydrocarbon fuels, like methane or ethylene, is regarded as one of the best methods to address one of the main current environmental issues: reducing the CO₂ footprint of our society. However, in order to meet the demands of the energy transition (i.e. reduce the CO₂ footprint with 80-95% by 2050), longer hydrocarbon chains with three or more carbon atoms (C_>2) have to formed out of CO₂. Our research focuses on the synthesis of colloidal metal nanoparticles with various sizes and shapes (e.g. nanorods or nanoplatelets) in order to design the ultimate electrocatalyst, and use these nanoparticles in the CO₂ reduction reaction (CO₂RR) for the production of C_>2 hydrocarbons. Our main interest lies in unravelling where the reaction takes place by performing in-situ diffraction and spectroscopy measurements, ideally under true reaction conditions. Colloidal nanomaterials are ideally suited for this purpose, since they can be prepared with atomic precision in solution, which not only allows us to deposit them on various electrodes, but also characterize the size, shape and faceting during the reaction. This will give valuable fundamental, but also practical insights into the exact reaction mechanism of CO₂RR and the (de)activation of the electrocatalyst nanoparticles, which will allow us to rationally design the ultimate electrocatalyst. Furthermore, the size-, shape- and composition-tunability of colloidal nanomaterials can be used to direct and induce C-C coupling, in order to efficiently produce C_>2 hydrocarbons from CO₂.

Academic Career

Tenure-track position:

2019 – to date: Tenure Track Assistant Professor at Utrecht University in the group of Prof. Bert Weckhuysen (NL)

Postdoctoral experience

2018-2019: Postdoctoral Researcher at Delft University of Technology under the supervision of dr. Ferdinand Grozema (NL)

2016-2018: Postdoctoral Researcher at Delft University of Technology under the supervision of dr. Arjan Houtepen (NL)

Early Stage Researcher

2016: PhD degree from Utrecht University under the supervision of dr. Celso de Mello Donegá and Prof. Andries Meijerink (NL)

2012: Master degree in Chemistry & Physics with greatest distinction (cum laude) from Utrecht University (NL)

2012: MSc Internship at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia under the supervision of Prof. Liberato Manna (IT)

2010: Bachelors degree in Chemistry from Utrecht University under the supervision of dr. Esther Groeneveld and dr. Celso de Mello Donegá (NL)

Educational/Teaching Activities

2021-to date: Lecturer for the undergraduate first-year course ‘Inorganic Chemistry’, discussing, among others, trends in the periodic table, MO theory and H₂O electrolyzers/H₂ economy

Mar 2021: Lecturer at the ECCM Graduate School 2020, entitled ‘In situ and operando spectroscopy of CO₂ reduction reaction‘

2020 – to date: Topical Lecturer in the undergraduate third-year course ‘Physical Chemistry 3’ entitled ‘CO₂ electrolyzers and spectroscopy’

Oct 2020: Lecturer at the MCEC Graduate School 2020 entitled ‘Introduction to Electrochemistry’

Oct 2019: Lecturer at the MCEC Graduate School 2019 entitled ‘Introduction to Colloidal Nanomaterials’

2019 – to date: Member of the Education Advisory Board (OAC) of the Chemistry Bachelor at Utrecht University

Mar 2019 – to date: Daily supervisor or first examiner of Bachelor and Master students at Utrecht University – Project supervision for their thesis projects

Mar 2018: Lecturer for the course ‘Nanoparticle Technology’ at Delft University of Technology, entitled ‘Colloidal nanoparticle synthesis and applications‘

Oct 2016 – Feb 2019: Daily supervisor of 5 Bachelor and 1 Master students at Delft University of Technology – Project supervision for their thesis projects

Oct 2012 – Sep 2012: Daily supervisor of 4 Bachelor and 4 Master students at Delft University of Technology – Project supervision for their thesis projects

2012-2018: Teaching assistant for several courses at Utrecht University (UU) and Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), including ‘Inorganic and Solid State Chemistry’ (UU), ‘Organic Chemistry Practicals’ (UU), ‘Thermodynamics’ (TU Delft) and ‘Nanomaterials’ (UU)

Awards, Honors and Grants

Research Grants

ENW-PPS-IPP grant (2020). Funding Agency: Netherlands Organization of Scientific Research. (co-applicant)

Scientific Awards

Granted beam time for 4 proposals at European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), Grenoble, France

Poster prize at the NaNaX6 conference, Bad Hofgastein, Austria (2014)

Outreach

Ward has discussed during the ‘Operatie Breinbreker’ show how we can stop climate change. Click here to watch Ward’s appearance in the show! (in Dutch)

During the ‘Weekend van de Wetenschap’ in 2019 and 2020, Ward designed and organised experiments to make children excited about science. You will find more information on the presented program here. (in Dutch)

Publications

Wu, L; Kolmeijer, K E; Zhang, Y; An, H; Arnouts, S; Bals, S; Altantzis, T; Hofmann, J P; Figueiredo, Costa M; Hensen, E J M; Weckhuysen, B M; Stam, Van Der W

Stabilization effects in binary colloidal Cu and Ag nanoparticle electrodes under electrochemical CO2reduction conditions Journal Article

Nanoscale, 13 (9), pp. 4835-4844, 2021.