Jesús Velázquez

Research in the Velázquez group is centered on the rational design of well-defined dimensionally reduced materials, ranging from monolayers, bilayers, nanocrystalline thin films, and free-standing mesoporous monoliths. The target materials have immediate applications in nanoelectronics, energy conversion devices and environmental remediation. Characterization of the physicochemical properties of these materials involves a combination of microscopy, spectroscopy, electrochemistry, photoelectrochemistry and synchrotron-based methods and will facilitate the development of structure-function correlations that will iteratively inform materials design.

Education, Awards and Professional Highlights

• National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2020)
• Royal Society of Chemistry, Journal of Materials Chemistry C, Emerging investigator (2020) 
• Scialog Fellow, RCSA Negative Emission Science (2020)
• Cottrell Scholar Award, RCSA (2020)
• Journal of Coordination Chemistry, Emerging Leader (2019)
• Scialog Fellow, RCSA Advance Energy Storage (2017)
• CAMPOS Faculty Scholar, UC Davis (2016-2017)
• Appointed to UC Davis faculty (2016)
• NASEM-Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, California Institute of Technology (2014)
• NASA-Harriet G. Jenkins Fellowship, University at Buffalo-SUNY (2010)
• NSF-Bridge to the Doctorate Fellowship, University at Buffalo-SUNY (2007-2009)
• Ph.D. University at Buffalo-SUNY (2012)
• B.S. University of Puerto Rico-Cayey (2004)

Representative Publications

• Lilova, K.*; Perryman, J.*; Singstock, N.*; Subramani, M.; Lam, A.; Yoo, R.; Ortiz-Rodríguez, J.; Musgrave, C.; Navrotsky, A.; Velázquez, J. M., A Synergistic Approach to Unraveling the Thermodynamic Stability of Binary and Ternary Chevrel-Phase Sulfides Chemistry of Materials. 2020, DOI:10.1021/acs.chemmater.0c02648
• Ortiz-Rodríguez, J.*; Singstock, N.*; Perryman, J.; Hyler, F.; Jones, S.; Holder, A.; Musgrave, C.; Velázquez, J. M., Stabilizing Hydrogen Adsorption Through Theory-Guided Substitution in Chevrel-Phase Mo6X8 (X=S, Se, Te) Electrocatalysts ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces. 2020, DOI:10.1021/acsami.0c07207
• Hussain, F.; Zamora, J.; Ferrer, I. F.; Kinyua, M.; Velázquez, J. M., Adsorption of Crude Oil from Crude Oil-Water Emulsion by Mesoporous Hafnium Oxide Ceramics. Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology. 2020, DOI: 10.1039/D0EW00451K
• Perryman, J. T.; Kulkarni, A. R.; Velázquez, J.M., Direct Solid-State Nucleation and Charge-Transport Dynamics of Alkali Metal-Intercalated M2Mo6S6 (M = K, Rb, Cs) Nanorods. Journal of Materials Chemistry C 2020, DOI: 10.1039/D0TC01674H  (Featured on the Inside Back Cover of Emerging Investigators Special Issue)
• Zaheer, W.; Andrews, J. L.; Parija, A.; Hyler, F. P.;  Jaye, C.; Weiland, C.; Yu, Y.; Shapiro, D. A.; Fischer, D. A.; Guo, J.; Velazquez, J. M.;  Banerjee S., Reversible Room-Temperature Fluoride-Ion Insertion in a Tunnel-Structured Transition Metal Oxide Host. ACS Energy Letters 2020, DOI: 10.1021/acsenergylett.0c01328
• Perryman, J. T.; Ortiz-Rodríguez, J.C.; Jude, J.W.; Hyler, F.P.; Davis, R.C.; Mehta, A.; Kulkarni, A. R.; Patridge, C. J.; Velázquez, J. M., Metal-promoted Mo6S8 clusters: a platform for probing ensemble effects on the electrochemical conversion of CO2 and CO to methanol. Materials Horizons 2020, 7 (1), 193-202.
• Perryman, J. T.; Hyler, F. P.; Ortiz-Rodríguez, J.C.; Mehta, A.; Kulkarni, A. R.; Velázquez, J. M., X-ray absorption spectroscopy study of the electronic structure and local coordination of 1st row transition metal-promoted Chevrel-phase sulfides. Journal of Coordination Chemistry 2019, 72, 1322- 1335. (Featured on front cover of Emerging Leader Special Issue)
• Francis*, S. A.; Velázquez*, J.M.; Ferrer, I. M.; Torelli, D. A.; Guevarra, D.; McDowell, M. T.; Sun, K.; Zhou, X.; Saadi, F. H.; John,  J.; Richter, M.;  Hyler, F.P.; Papadantonakis, K. M.; Brunschwig, B. S.; Lewis, N. S., Reduction of Aqueous CO2 to 1-Propanol at MoS2 Electrodes. Chemistry of Materials 2018, 30 (15), 4902-4908
• Wiensch, J. D.; John, J.; Velázquez,J. M.; Torelli, D. A.; Pieterick, A. P.; McDowell, M. T.; Sun, K.; Zhao, X.; Brunschwig, B.; Lewis, N. S., A Comparative Study in Acidic and Alkaline Media on the Effects of pH and Crystallinity on the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction on MoS2 and MoSe2. ACS Energy Letters 2017, 2 (10), 2234-2238
• Horrocks,G.A.; Braham, E.J.; Liang, Y.; De Jesus, L.R.; Jude, J.; Velázquez, J.M.; Prendergast D.; Banerjee, S., Vanadium K-Edge X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy as a Probe of the Heterogeneous Lithiation of V2O5: First Principles Modeling and Principal component Analysis. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 2016, 120 (42), 23922-23932
• Velázquez, J. M. *; John, J. *; Esposito, D.; Pieterick A.; Pala, R. A.; Sun, G.; Zhou, Z; Ardo, S.; Soriaga, M. P.; Brunschwig, B. S.; Lewis, N. S., A Scanning Probe Investigation of the Role of Surface Motifs in the Behavior of p-WSe2 Photocathodes. Energy & Environmental Science 2016, 9 (1), 164-175.
• Velázquez, J. M.; Saadi, F.; Pieterick, A.; Spurgeon, J. M.; Soriaga, M. P.; Brunschwig, B. S.; Lewis, N. S., Synthesis and Hydrogen-Evolution Activity of Tungsten Selenide Thin Films Deposited on Tungsten Foils. Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry 2014, 716, 45-48.
• Spurgeon, J. M.; Velázquez, J. M.; McDowell, M. T., Improving O2 Production of WO3 Photoanodes with IrO2 in Acidic Aqueous Electrolyte. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 2014, 16 (8), 3623-3631.
• Saadi, F. H.; Carim, A. I.; Velázquez, J. M.; Soriaga, M. P.; Lewis, N. S.; Operando Synthesis of Macroporous Molybdenum Diselenide Films for Electrocatalysis of the Hydrogen-Evolution Reaction. ACS Catalysis 2014, 4 (9), 2866-2873.

(*joint first authors)