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Phone:: (023) 8059 3519
Email:: N.Garcia-Araez@soton.ac.uk

Dr Nuria Garcia-Araez

Lecturer in Electrochemistry

Nuria Garcia-Araez is a lecturer in electrochemistry at Southampton. She has a multidisciplinary background on fundamental electrochemistry and in-situ characterization techniques and her current interests are the development of the next generation of rechargeable batteries, with focus on lithium-oxygen and lithium-sulfur batteries, and new methods of lithium production and recycling.

Nuria Garcia-Araez obtained her first-class degree in Chemistry in 2002 at the University of Alicante (Spain), where she also got her Ph.D. (cum laude) in 2007 in the field of single-crystal electrochemistry under the supervision of Prof. Juan Feliu and Dr. Victor Climent. Then, she received a Marie-Curie Intra-European Fellowship and a postdoctoral fellowship by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation to work in the group of Prof. Huib Bakker at AMOLF and Prof. Mark Koper at Leiden University (The Netherlands) on the application of a variety of optical and nonlinear optical techniques to study the structure and dynamics of water near ions and at electrochemical interfaces. In 2011, she obtained a position as a senior scientist in the group of Prof. Petr Novak at the Paul Scherrer Institut in Switzerland to study lithium-air batteries. In 2012 she was appointed lecturer in electrochemistry at the University of Southampton. Over the course of her career, she has been awarded 9 academic prizes, including the Best Spanish Young Electrochemist award by CIDETEC in 2012. In 2016, she received a prestigious Early Career Researcher Fellowship by the EPSRC.

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Research interests

Garcia-Araez’s most recent research is focused on the development of lithium-oxygen and lithium-sulphur batteries with the potential of delivering 5 times more energy than current lithium-ion batteries of the same weight. Her research approach is to gain a fundamental understanding of the complex reaction mechanism, identifying the bottlenecks in performance, and developing innovative solutions targeted to solve these limitations. She has also been involved in the development of a new method for lithium battery recycling (patented in 2014), and in developing high performance lithium-ion batteries by tuning the structure and composition. She has also extensive experience in developing sophisticated spectroscopic techniques to study in-situ electrochemical processes, in some cases with femtosecond time resolution. She has also extensive knowledge on interfacial thermodynamics, single-crystal electrodes, electrocatalysis and she is the co-inventor of a new method of nanoparticle synthesis (patented in 2011).

Research group

Electrochemistry

Research project(s)

Garcia-Araez: Fundamental development of Li-O2 and Li-S batteries

Garcia-Araez: A new method of lithium production and recycling

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Key Publications

Dibden, J. W., Smith, J. W., Zhou, N., Garcia-Araez, N., & Owen, J. (2016). Predicting the composition and formation of solid products in lithium-sulfur batteries by using an experimental phase diagram. Chemical Communications, 12885-12888. DOI: 10.1039/C6CC05881G
Intaranont, N., Garcia-Araez, N., Hector, A. L., Milton, J. A., & Owen, J. R. (2014). Selective lithium extraction from brines by chemical reaction with battery materials. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 2(18), 6374-6377. DOI: 10.1039/c4ta01101e
Yang, L., Frith, J. T., Garcia-Araez, N., & Owen, J. R. (2015). A new method to prevent degradation of lithium–oxygen batteries: reduction of superoxide by viologen. Chemical Communications, 51(9), 1705-1708. DOI: 10.1039/c4cc09208b
Frith, J. T., Russell, A. E., Garcia-Araez, N., & Owen, J. R. (2014). An in-situ Raman study of the oxygen reduction reaction in ionic liquids. Electrochemistry Communications, 46, 33-35. DOI: 10.1016/j.elecom.2014.06.001
Yanson, A. I., Rodriguez, P., Garcia-Araez, N., Mom, R. V., Tichelaar, F. D., & Koper, M. T. M. (2011). Cathodic corrosion: a quick, clean, and versatile method for the synthesis of metallic nanoparticles. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 50(28), 6346-6350. DOI: 10.1002/anie.201100471
Stoffelsma, C., Rodriguez, P., Garcia, G., Garcia-Araez, N., Strmcnik, D., Marković, N. M., & Koper, M. T. M. (2010). Promotion of the oxidation of carbon monoxide at stepped platinum single-crystal electrodes in alkaline media by lithium and beryllium cations. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 132(45), 16127-16133. DOI: 10.1021/ja106389k
Tielrooij, K. J., Garcia-Araez, N., Bonn, M., & Bakker, H. J. (2010). Cooperativity in ion hydration. Science, 328(5981), 1006-1009. DOI: 10.1126/science.1183512
García-Aráez, N., Climent, V., & Feliu, J. M. (2008). Evidence of water reorientation on model electrocatalytic surfaces from nanosecond-laser-pulsed experiments. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 130(12), 3824-3833. DOI: 10.1021/ja0761481

Articles

Raccichini, R., Furness, L., Dibden, J., Owen, J. R., & Garcia-Araez, N. (2018). Impedance characterization of the transport properties of electrolytes contained within porous electrodes and separators useful for Li-S batteries. Journal of the Electrochemical Society, 165(11), 2741-2749. DOI: 10.1149/2.0631811jes
Meddings, N., Owen, J. R., & Garcia-Araez, N. (2018). Novel cell designs and methods for characterizing lithium protective membranes for lithium metal batteries. Energy Procedia, 151, 62-68. DOI: 10.1016/j.egypro.2018.09.028
Garcia-Araez, N., Dibden, J. W., Meddings, N., & Owen, J. (2018). Quantitative Galvanostatic Intermittent Titration Technique for the Analysis of a Model System with Applications in Lithium−Sulfur Batteries. ChemElectroChem, 5(3), 445-454. DOI: 10.1002/celc.201701004
Liu, T., Frith, J. T., Kim, G., Kerber, R. N., Dubouis, N., Shao, Y., ... Grey, C. P. (2018). The effect of water on quinone redox mediators in nonaqueous Li-O2 batteries. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 140(4), 1428-1437. DOI: 10.1021/jacs.7b11007
Homewood, T., Garcia-Araez, N., Owen, J. R., Frith, J., Padmanabhan, V., Tonti, D., & Casañ-Pastor, N. (2018). Using polyoxometalates to enhance the capacity of lithium-oxygen batteries. Chemical Communications, 1-6. DOI: 10.1039/C8CC03832E
Meddings, N., Owen, J. R., & Garcia-Araez, N. (2017). A simple, fast and accurate in-situ method to measure the rate of transport of redox species through membranes for lithium batteries. Journal of Power Sources, 364, 148-155. DOI: 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2017.08.004
Zhang, M., Garcia-Araez, N., Hector, A., & Owen, J. (2017). A sol-gel route to titanium nitride conductive coatings on battery materials and performance of TiN-coated LiFePO4. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 1-15. DOI: 10.1039/C6TA09572K
Garcia-Araez, N., Frith, J., Owen, J. R., Landa-Medrano, I., Ruiz de Larramendi, I., & Rojo, T. (2017). Improving Na-O2 batteries with redox mediators. Chemical Communications, 53(88), 1200/-12011. DOI: 10.1039/c7cc06679a
Raccichini, R., Dibden, J. W., Brewer, A., Owen, J. R., & Garcia-Araez, N. (2017). Ion speciation and transport properties of LiTFSI in 1,3-dioxolane solutions: A case study for Li–S battery applications. The Journal of Physical Chemistry B. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.7b09614
Liu, T., Liu, Z., Kim, G., Frith, J. T., Garcia-Araez, N., & Grey, C. P. (2017). Understanding LiOH chemistry in a ruthenium catalyzed Li-O2 battery. Angewandte Chemie - International Edition. DOI: 10.1002/anie.201709886
Landa-Medrano, I., Frith, J., Ruiz de Larramendi, I., Lozano, I., Ortiz-Vitoriano, N., Garcia-Araez, N., & Rihi, T. (2017). Understanding the charge/discharge mechanisms and passivation reactions in Na-O2 batteries. Journal of Power Sources, 345, 237-246. DOI: 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2017.02.015
Al-Mahmoud, S. M., Dibden, J. W., Owen, J. R., Denuault, G., & Garcia-Araez, N. (2016). A simple, experiment-based model of the initial self-discharge of lithium-sulphur batteries. Journal of Power Sources, 306, 323-328. DOI: 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2015.12.031
Dibden, J. W., Smith, J. W., Zhou, N., Garcia-Araez, N., & Owen, J. (2016). Predicting the composition and formation of solid products in lithium-sulfur batteries by using an experimental phase diagram. Chemical Communications, 12885-12888. DOI: 10.1039/C6CC05881G
Yao, K. P. C., Frith, J. T., Sayed, S. Y., Barde, F., Owen, J. R., Shao-Horn, Y., & Garcia-Araez, N. (2016). Utilization of cobalt bis(terpyridine) metal complex as soluble redox mediator in Li-O2 batteries. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 120(30), 16290-16297. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.6b02932
Yang, L., Frith, J. T., Garcia-Araez, N., & Owen, J. R. (2015). A new method to prevent degradation of lithium–oxygen batteries: reduction of superoxide by viologen. Chemical Communications, 51(9), 1705-1708. DOI: 10.1039/c4cc09208b
Rodriguez, P., Garcia-Araez, N., Herrero, E., & Feliu, J. M. (2015). New insight on the behavior of the irreversible adsorption and underpotential deposition of thallium on platinum (111) and vicinal surfaces in acid electrolytes. Electrochimica Acta, 151, 319-325. DOI: 10.1016/j.electacta.2014.11.019
Frith, J. T., Russell, A. E., Garcia-Araez, N., & Owen, J. R. (2014). An in-situ Raman study of the oxygen reduction reaction in ionic liquids. Electrochemistry Communications, 46, 33-35. DOI: 10.1016/j.elecom.2014.06.001
Lodge, A. W., Lacey, M. J., Fitt, M., Garcia-Araez, N., & Owen, J. R. (2014). Critical appraisal on the role of catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction in lithium-oxygen batteries. Electrochimica Acta, 140, 168-173. DOI: 10.1016/j.electacta.2014.05.026
Intaranont, N., Garcia-Araez, N., Hector, A. L., Milton, J. A., & Owen, J. R. (2014). Selective lithium extraction from brines by chemical reaction with battery materials. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 2(18), 6374-6377. DOI: 10.1039/c4ta01101e
Garcia-Araez, N., & Novák, P. (2013). Critical aspects in the development of lithium–air batteries. Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry, 17(7), 1793-1807. DOI: 10.1007/s10008-013-1999-1
Garcia-Araez, N., Rodriguez, P., Bakker, H. J., & Koper, M. T. M. (2012). Effect of the surface structure of gold electrodes on the coadsorption of water and anions. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 116(7), 4786-4792. DOI: 10.1021/jp211782v
Garcia-Araez, N., Climent, V., & Feliu, J. M. (2012). Temperature effects on platinum single-crystal electrodes. Russian Journal of Electrochemistry, 48(3), 271-280. DOI: 10.1134/S1023193512030044
van der Niet, M. J. T. C., Garcia-Araez, N., Hernández, J., Feliu, J. M., & Koper, M. T. M. (2012). Water dissociation on well-defined platinum surfaces: The electrochemical perspective. Catalysis Today. DOI: 10.1016/j.cattod.2012.04.059
Yanson, A. I., Rodriguez, P., Garcia-Araez, N., Mom, R. V., Tichelaar, F. D., & Koper, M. T. M. (2011). Cathodic corrosion: a quick, clean, and versatile method for the synthesis of metallic nanoparticles. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 50(28), 6346-6350. DOI: 10.1002/anie.201100471
Garcia-Araez, N. (2011). Enthalpic and entropic effects on hydrogen and OH adsorption on Pt(111), Pt(100), and Pt(110) electrodes as evaluated by Gibbs thermodynamics. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 115(2), 501-510. DOI: 10.1021/jp1088146
Garcia-Araez, N. (2011). Standard adsorption Gibbs energy for hydrogen, OH, chloride, and sulfate on Pt(111): comparison of different isotherms. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 115(7), 3075-3082. DOI: 10.1021/jp110386q
Garcia-Araez, N., Rodriguez, P., Navarro, V., Bakker, H. J., & Koper, M. T. M. (2011). Structural effects on water adsorption on gold electrodes. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 115(43), 21249-21257. DOI: 10.1021/jp206539a
Garcia-Araez, N., & Koper, M. T. M. (2010). A sublattice-model isotherm for the competitive coadsorption of hydrogen and bromide on a Pt(100) electrode. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 12(1), 143-148. DOI: 10.1039/B912091B
Garcia-Araez, N., Climent, V., & Feliu, J. M. (2010). Analysis of temperature effects on hydrogen and OH adsorption on Pt(111), Pt(100) and Pt(110) by means of Gibbs thermodynamics. Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry, 649(1-2), 69-82. DOI: 10.1016/j.jelechem.2010.01.024
Rodriguez, P., Garcia-Araez, N., Koverga, A., Frank, S., & Koper, M. T. M. (2010). CO electroxidation on gold in alkaline media: a combined electrochemical, spectroscopic, and DFT study. Langmuir, 26(14), 12425-12432. DOI: 10.1021/la1014048
Garcia-Araez, N., Climent, V., Rodriguez, P., & Feliu, J. M. (2010). Elucidation of the chemical nature of adsorbed species for Pt(111) in H2SO4 solutions by thermodynamic analysis. Langmuir, 26(14), 12408-12417. DOI: 10.1021/la101112b
Stoffelsma, C., Rodriguez, P., Garcia, G., Garcia-Araez, N., Strmcnik, D., Marković, N. M., & Koper, M. T. M. (2010). Promotion of the oxidation of carbon monoxide at stepped platinum single-crystal electrodes in alkaline media by lithium and beryllium cations. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 132(45), 16127-16133. DOI: 10.1021/ja106389k
Rodriguez, P., Garcia-Araez, N., & Koper, M. T. M. (2010). Self-promotion mechanism for CO electrooxidation on gold. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 12(32), 9373-9380. DOI: 10.1039/B926365A
Garcia-Araez, N., Climent, V., Rodriguez, P., & Feliu, J. M. (2010). Thermodynamic evidence for K+–SO42? ion pair formation on Pt(111). New insight into cation specific adsorption. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 12(38), 12146-12152. DOI: 10.1039/C0CP00247J
Garcia-Araez, N., Climent, V., & Feliu, J. (2009). Potential-dependent water orientation on Pt(111), Pt(100), and Pt(110), as inferred from laser-pulsed experiments. Electrostatic and chemical effects. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 113(21), 9290-9304. DOI: 10.1021/jp900792q
Garcia-Araez, N., Climent, V., & Feliu, J. (2009). Separation of temperature effects on double-layer and charge-transfer processes for platinum|solution interphases. Entropy of formation of the double layer and absolute molar entropy of adsorbed hydrogen and OH on Pt(111). The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 113(46), 19913-19925. DOI: 10.1021/jp904638d
Garcia-Araez, N., Climent, V., & Feliu, J. M. (2008). Determination of the entropy of formation of the Pt(111)? perchloric acid solution interface. Estimation of the entropy of adsorbed hydrogen and OH species. Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry, 12(4), 387-398. DOI: 10.1007/s10008-007-0417-y
Garcia-Araez, N., Climent, V., Rodriguez, P., & Feliu, J. M. (2008). Thermodynamic analysis of (bi)sulphate adsorption on a Pt(111) electrode as a function of pH. Electrochimica Acta, 53(23), 6793-6806. DOI: 10.1016/j.electacta.2007.12.086
Garcia-Araez, N., Lukkien, J. J., Koper, M. T. M., & Feliu, J. M. (2006). Competitive adsorption of hydrogen and bromide on Pt(100): Mean-field approximation vs. Monte Carlo simulations. Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry, 588(1), 1-14. DOI: 10.1016/j.jelechem.2005.11.034
Climent, V., Garcia-Araez, N., Compton, R. G., & Feliu, J. M. (2006). Effect of deposited bismuth on the potential of maximum entropy of Pt(111) single-crystal electrodes. The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 110(42), 21092-21100. DOI: 10.1021/jp061982i
Climent, V., Garcia-Araez, N., & Feliu, J. M. (2006). Influence of alkali cations on the infrared spectra of adsorbed (bi)sulphate on Pt(1 1 1) electrodes. Electrochemistry Communications, 8(10), 1577-1582. DOI: 10.1016/j.elecom.2006.07.027
Garcia-Araez, N., Brosseau, C. L., Rodriguez, P., & Lipkowski, J. (2006). Layer-by-layer PMIRRAS characterization of DMPC bilayers deposited on a Au(111) electrode surface. Langmuir, 22(25), 10365-10371. DOI: 10.1021/la061217v
Climent, V., Garcia-Araez, N., Herrero, E., & Feliu, J. (2006). Potential of zero total charge of platinum single crystals: a local approach to stepped surfaces vicinal to Pt(111). Russian Journal of Electrochemistry, 42(11), 1145-1160. DOI: 10.1134/S1023193506110012
Garcia-araez, N., Climent, V., Herrero, E., Feliu, J. M., & Lipkowski, J. (2006). Thermodynamic approach to the double layer capacity of a Pt(1 1 1) electrode in perchloric acid solutions. Electrochimica Acta, 51(18), 3787-3793. DOI: 10.1016/j.electacta.2005.10.043
Garcia-Araez, N., Climent, V., Herrero, E., Feliu, J., & Lipkowski, J. (2006). Thermodynamic studies of bromide adsorption at the Pt(111) electrode surface perchloric acid solutions: Comparison with other anions. Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry, 591(2), 149-158. DOI: 10.1016/j.jelechem.2006.04.008
Garcia-Araez, N., Climent, V., Herrero, E., Feliu, J. M., & Lipkowski, J. (2005). Determination of the Gibbs excess of H adsorbed at a Pt(111) electrode surface in the presence of co-adsorbed chloride. Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry, 582(1-2), 76-84. DOI: 10.1016/j.jelechem.2005.01.031
Garcia-Araez, N., Climent, V., Herrero, E., Feliu, J., & Lipkowski, J. (2005). Thermodynamic studies of chloride adsorption at the Pt(111) electrode surface from 0.1 M HClO4 solution. Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry, 576(1), 33-41. DOI: 10.1016/j.jelechem.2004.10.003
Garcia-Araez, N., Climent, V., Orts, J. M., Feliu, J. M., & Aldaz, A. (2004). Effect of pH and alkaline metal cations on the voltammetry of Pt(1 1 1) single crystal electrodes in sulfuric acid solution. ChemPhysChem, 5(8), 1221-1227. DOI: 10.1002/cphc.200400047
Garcia-Araez, N., Climent, V., Herrero, E., & Feliu, J. M. (2004). On the electrochemical behavior of the Pt(1 0 0) vicinal surfaces in bromide solutions. Surface Science, 560(1-3), 269-284. DOI: 10.1016/j.susc.2004.04.051
Vidal-Iglesias, F. J., Garcia-Araez, N., Montiel, V., Feliu, J. M., & Aldaz, A. (2003). Selective electrocatalysis of ammonia oxidation on Pt(1 0 0) sites in alkaline medium. Electrochemistry Communications, 5(1), 22-26. DOI: 10.1016/S1388-2481(02)00521-0

Book Chapters

Garcia-Araez, N., Climent, V., & Feliu, J. M. (2011). Temperature effects on platinum single-crystal aqueous solution interphases. Combining Gibbs thermodynamics with laser-pulsed experiments. In Interfacial Phenomena in Electrocatalysis (Modern Aspects of Electrochemistry; Vol. 51). New York, US: Springer.
Climent, V., Garcia-Araez, N., & Feliu, J. M. (2009). Clues for the molecular-level understanding of electrocatalysis on single-crystal platinum surfaces modified by p-block adatoms. In Fuel Cell Catalysis: A Surface Science Approach Chichester, GB: Wiley.

Conferences

Garcia-Araez, N., Climent, V., Feliu, J., Backus, E. G. H., Bonn, M., Bakker, H. J., ... Koper, M. T. M. (2014). Redox mediators for lithium-oxygen batteries. 2nd Workshop in Advances in Li Battery Research, United Kingdom.
Garcia-Araez, N., Frith, J. T., Yang, L., Lodge, A., Richardson, W., & Owen, J. R. (2014). Soluble redox catalysts to enhance and relocate oxygen reduction and evolution in the lithium-air battery. XXXV Meeting of Electrochemistry of the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry, Spain.
Garcia-Araez, N., Frith, J. T., Yang, L., Richardson, W., Lodge, A. W., & Owen, J. R. (2014). Soluble redox catalysts to enhance and relocate oxygen reduction and evolution in the lithium-air battery. Electrochemistry 2014, Germany.
Garcia-Araez, N., Climent, V., Feliu, J., Backhus, E. H. G., Bonn, M., Bakker, H. J., ... Koper, M. T. M. (2013). Water adsorption on metal electrodes. Electrochemistry Conference 2013 - Modern Aspects of Electrochemistry and thier Applications, Spain.
Bonn, M., Bakker, H. J., Garcia-Araez, N., & Backus, E. H. G. (2012). Vibrational response and dynamics of water at charged bio- and electrochemical interfaces. 224th American Chemical Society National Meeting, United States.
Yanson, A. I., Rodriguez, P., Garcia-Araez, N., Mom, R. V., Tichelaar, F. D., & M.T.M., K. (2011). Cathodic corrosion: a quick, clean and versatile method for the synthesis of metallic nanoparticles. Paper presented at 62nd Annual Meeting of the International Society of Electrochemistry, Japan.
Bakker, H. J., Tielrooij, K. J., Garcia-Araez, N., & Bonn, M. (2011). Femtosecond vibrational study of water dynamics in salt solutions. Paper presented at 15th International Conference on Time-Resolved Vibrational Spectroscopy, Switzerland.

Review

Zhang, M., Garcia-Araez, N., & Hector, A. L. (2018). Understanding and development of olivine LiCoPO₄ cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 14483-14517. DOI: 10.1039/C8TA04063J

-CHEM1040: Introduction to Analytical Chemistry (for first and second year students)

-CHEM3046: Advanced Practical Chemistry (for third year students)

-CHEM6110: Applications of Electrochemistry (for fourth year students)

-CHEM8031/6022: Introduction to Electrochemistry (for MSc and PhD students)

-CHEM8027/6135: Practical Techniques in Electrochemistry (for MSc and PhD students)

-FEEG6026: Fundamentals of Energy Storage (for students from the CDT in Energy Storage and its Applications)

-Southampton Electrochemistry Summer School (for PhD students and researchers in electrochemistry from all over the world)

Dr Nuria Garcia-Araez
Chemistry University of Southampton Highfield Southampton SO17 1BJ

Room Number: 29/7001

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