News

March 2024

• 03/07 – Bright presented his work on direct methanol coupling for selective conversion of CO2 to ethane at 11th ChEGSA Symposium in College Station, Texas. 

• 03/07 – Ray presented his work on optimizing the electrocatalytic performance of Ti2N MXene through decoupling surface and bulk structure and phenomena at 11th ChEGSA Symposium in College Station, Texas. 

• 03/07 – David presented his work on electrochemical synthesis of formamide from CO2 and NH3 using Ti2N MXene at 11th ChEGSA Symposium in College Station, Texas. 

• 03/07 – Laura presented her work on investigating lithium-ion energy storage in novel 2D materials at 11th ChEGSA Symposium in College Station, Texas. 

• 03/07 – Denis presented his work on stable Mars-van Krevelen catalytic cycle for green NH3 production on nitride MXene at 11th ChEGSA Symposium in College Station, Texas. He also won Best Oral Presentation for Advanced Materials & Nanotechnology category.

• 03/01 – Dr. Dr. Djire was invited to do a talk on current and emerging MXene research at the Fayetteville State University, North Carolina. 

February 2024

• 02/27 – Shri joins the DJIRE Lab as an Undergraduate Researcher.

• 02/20 – Dr. Djire delivered a talk on versatile materials with unprecedented properties for energy applications at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Illinois.

• 02/19 – Ben’s work on the switchable charge storage mechanism via in-situ activation of MXenes for high capacitance and stability was accepted for publication in ACS Nano!
• 02/15 – Applications for DJIRE Lab’s Summer Research Program are now open! Visit the Outreach Page for more information or apply through the link: https://forms.gle/3hkS11EFXHWJjJf69.

January 2024

• 01/24 – Dr. Djire participated in the Nano4EARTH Roundtable Discussion on Catalysts in Washington, DC. Together with 9 other invited participants, the roundtable aimed to discuss climate mitigation efforts by incorporating nanocatalysts into industrial processes. Read this for more information: https://www.nano.gov/nano4earthroundtable4

• 01/14 – Dr. Djire hosted the DJIRE Lab Annual Party. This was attended by members, close friends, and family of the DJIRE Lab.

December 2023

• 12/22 – Dr. Djire was awarded the Most Outstanding Junior Faculty Award from the CHEN department. We are proud of you! https://shorturl.at/eqvD6

• 12/01 – Ray presented his work at the Materials Expo in College Station, Texas. His poster was on manipulating the surface and bulk properties of MXenes to tune the catalytic activity for hydrogen evolution. The conference was organized to celebrate the 10th-year anniversary of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

November 2023

• 11/16 – James presented his work on Ti4N3Tx MXene as a highly stable universal aqueous energy storage material at the ACS SWRM 2023 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

• 11/15 – Denis presented his work on Ti2N MXene for green ammonia production: mechanistic understanding through in-situ spectroelectrochemistry at the ACS SWRM 2023 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

• 11/15 – Dr. Djire presented two talks at the ACS SWRM 2023 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. His first talk was on the selective conversion of CO2 to ethane through direct methanol coupling on two-dimensional MNene catalyst and his second talk was on advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in chemistry and STEM through 2D MXenes in renewable energy storage and conversion. He also presented Ray’s work on the reactivity of Ti2N MXene through decoupling surface and bulk structure and phenomena.

• 11/07 – Eugenie’s work on the effect of delamination chemistry on the electrochemical reduction reactions by Ti4N3 MXene was presented by Denis at the 2023 AIChE Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida. Ray’s work on the properties of Ti2N MXene through decoupling surface and bulk structure and phenomena was presented by Dr. Djire.

• 11/07 – Denis presented his work on unveiling the mechanism of green ammonia production on the Ti2N via in-situ spectroelectrochemistry at the 2023 AIChE Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida.

• 11/06 – James presented a poster on high performing pH-universal electrochemical energy storage using titanium nitride MXenes at the 2023 AIChE Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida. He received a Travel Grant from the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering and he also won 1st Place in the Poster Competition for Materials Engineering and Sciences category. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/james-k-523843156

October 2023

• 10/12 – The work of Ekene, David, Mike, and Eugenie on achieving Pt-like activity with Ru-doping on Ti3CN MXene for sustainable hydrogen production (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.checat.2023.100634) was featured in the Texas A&M College of Engineering News! Check it out here: https://engineering.tamu.edu/news/2023/10/paving-a-way-to-green-hydrogen-production.html

• 10/10 – The DJIRE Lab was featured in the LinkedIn page of Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University. Check out our current effort to produce clean energy here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/texas-a%26m-university-artie-mcferrin-department-of-chemical-engineering_researcher-spotlight-dr-abdoulaye-djire-activity-7117592574906822656-QNFa

September 2023

• 09/29 – Laura presented her work on improving the energy storage through nonaqueous electrolytes at the Texas A&M Conference on Energy in College Station, Texas.

• 09/29 – Bright presented his work on the optical bandgap diagnostics of assessing nitride MXenes stability in various solvents at the Texas A&M Conference on Energy in College Station, Texas. He even won Best Poster Presenter.

• 09/28 – Eugenie presented her work on the surface terminations of Ti4N3 MXene and their effect on the ORR/HER reactivity at the Texas A&M Conference on Energy in College Station, Texas.

• 09/28 – Ray presented his work on optimizing the reactivity of Ti2N MXene through decoupling the surface and bulk structure at the Texas A&M Conference on Energy in College Station, Texas.

• 09/28 – Denis presented his work on the in-situ spectroelectrochemistry to understand the mechanism of green ammonia production on Ti2N MXene at the Texas A&M Conference on Energy in College Station, Texas.

• 09/22 – Denis successfully defended his PhD Preliminary Exam.

• 09/10 – James presented his work on high-performing energy storage device based on titanium nitride MXene at the NOBCChE 2023: 50th Annual Research Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana. He also won Best Poster Presentation awarded by ACS.

• 09/10 – Eugenie presented her work on surface modulation of nitride MXene and its effect on the ORR/HER reactivity at the NOBCChE 2023: 50th Annual Research Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana.

• 09/10 – Bright presented his work on optical bandgap diagnostics for assessing the stability nitride MXenes at the NOBCChE 2023: 50th Annual Research Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana.

August 2023

• 08/04 – De’zarae and Taylor (advised by Dr. Zhu) presented their works at the Undergraduate Summer Research Grant (USRG) Poster Session in College Station, Texas.

• 08/02 – DJIRE Lab and Ugaz Lab partnered with Texas A&M’s Spark! PK-12 Outreach to share how research is done in academia.

July 2023

• 07/27 – Dr. Barteau was selected by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to lead a nationwide study about the recruitment and retention of international talents, while maintaining national security. Read it here: https://engineering.tamu.edu/news/2023/07/shaping-research-one-policy-at-a-time.html

• 07/24 – DJIRE Lab hosted a lab tour for high school students who participated in the Engineering Summer Bridge Program.

• 07/24 – Ray was awarded the Phillips 66 Technical Fellowship for 2023-2024.

• 07/17 – Dr. Djire collaborated with Dr. Balla Ngom of University of Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar, Senegal. They are working to establish the first 2D MXene research for energy applications in West Africa. This is under the sponsorship of US-Africa Frontiers Fellowship.

• 07/17 – Ray’s review paper on the application of the in-situ Raman spectroelectrochemistry to understand the mechanisms of hydrogen evolution reaction was accepted for publication in ACS Catalysis!

June 2023

• 06/01 – De’Zarae and Wynn join the lab as an undergraduate researchers. De’Zarae was recruited for the DJIRE Summer Program 2023.

May 2023

• 05/17-19 – Ray and James presented their works at the ADSE Young Researchers Conference Spring 2023 in College Station, Texas.

• 05/13 – Ben graduated from MS CHEN and Eugenie graduated from MS MSEN!
• 05/12 – Kieran, Josh, Ally, and Mike graduated from BS CHEN!
• 05/06 – James’s paper on the superior cyclability of high surface area Vanadium Nitride in salt electrolytes in Nanoscale Advances!

April 2023

• 04/28 – Dr. Djire delivered a talk on novel materials and chemistries for carbon-neutral energy at the Southwest Catalysis Society Spring Symposium 2023 in Houston, Texas.

• 04/28 –Eugenie presented her work on subsurface oxygen reduction reaction activity on nitride MXene at the Southwest Catalysis Society Spring Symposium 2023 in Houston, Texas.

• 04/28 –Bright presented his work on developing a diagnostic tool for the determination of MXene’s stability in various solvents at the Southwest Catalysis Society Spring Symposium 2023 in Houston, Texas. He won Best Poster Presentation.

• 04/28 – Denis, Bright, and Eugenie presented their works at the Southwest Catalysis Society Spring Symposium 2023 in Houston, Texas. Denis and Bright won Best Poster Presentation.

• 04/18 – Ekene’s paper on Pt-like catalytic activity from an atomistically engineered carbonitride MXene for sustainable hydrogen production was accepted for publication in Chem Catalysis!

• 04/17 – Ray’s paper on decoupling surface and bulk reactivities of MXenes and catalytic activity tuning through modifying surface chemistry was accepted for publication in ACS Catalysis!

March 2023

• 03/30 – Dr. Djire delivered a talk on novel-materials and chemistries for carbon-neutral energy at the University of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
• 03/07 – Ben successfully defended his Master’s Thesis

• 03/06 – Ben presented his work on Electrochemically Activated Ti4N3Tx MXene Electrodes for Batteries and Supercapacitors at 10th ChEGSA Symposium in College Station, Texas

• 03/06 – Bright presented his work on Synthesis and Stability of Ti4N3 Nitride MXene at 10th ChEGSA Symposium in College Station, Texas

• 03/06 – Ebtihal presented her work on Examining the Efficacy of Contemporary Alternative Oxidation Reactions towards Green Hydrogen Production at 10th ChEGSA Symposium in College Station, Texas

• 03/06 – Eugenie presented her work on Ti2N MXene as an Active and Stable Electrocatalyst for Oxygen Reduction Reaction at 10th ChEGSA Symposium in College Station, Texas. She also won Best Oral Presentation for Advanced Materials & Nanotechnology category

• 03/06 – David presented his work on Ru@Ti3CN Hybrid Electrocatalyst for Green Hydrogen Production at 10th ChEGSA Symposium in College Station, Texas

• 03/04-05 – Denis, Ray, and Dr. Djire performed in-situ/operando XAS in Argonne National Lab

• 03/01 – Dr. Djire spearheaded the discussion on Synthesis and Processing of Nanoscale Materials in GRC Conference in Ventura, California

February 2023

• 02/28 – Denis delivered a talk on writing research articles for international publication at the PICHE-MSC Research Writing Webinar in Manila, Philippines.​

January 2023

• 01/17 – Ally Moore, Josh Honnekeri, and Olivia Rajagopal join DJIRE Lab as undergraduate researchers

• 01/13 – Yashaswini Paleru joins DJIRE Lab as a Master’s student

• 01/03 – Eugenie’s paper on the subsurface oxygen reduction reactivity on Ti2N MXene revealed by in-situ Raman spectroelectrochemistry was accepted for publication in Sustainable Energy & Fuels!

December 2022

• 12/22 – the group’s paper review and perspectives on transition metal electrocatalysts towards carbon-neutral energy was accepted for publication in Energy & Fuels!
• 12/17 – Ekene graduated from MS CHEN!
• 12/16 – Denis’s paper on the effect of pH on the electrochemical behavior and nitrogen reduction reaction activity of Ti2N Nitride Mxene was accepted for publication in Advances Materials & Interfaces!

• 12/12-15 – Dr. Djire delivered a talk on turning air and water into ammonia using versatile materials as a Keynote Speaker at the African MRS 2022 in Dakar, Senegal. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/abdoulaye-djire-phd-a596b37a_africa-in-2d-mxenes-activity-7012180043942559744-1Sk1

• 12/07 – Dr. Djire delivered a talk on novel materials with unusual chemistries for carbon-neutral energy at the Chemical Engineering department of Kansas State University (KSU)

• 12/01 – Dr. Djire delivered a talk on versatile materials with unconventional chemistries for carbon-neutral energy at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

November 2022

• 11/30 –Dr. Djire presented on controlling the surface reactivity of hybrid carbonitride MXene via in-situ electrocatalysis at MRS 2022 in Boston, Massachusetts

• 11/29 – Dr. Djire presented on tuning the nitrogen reduction reaction reactivity of nitride MXene through modifying pH and electrolyte choice at MRS 2022 in Boston, Massachusetts

• 11/07 – Ekene presented his work in ACS SWRM 2022 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

• 11/07 – Ray presented his work in ACS SWRM 2022 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

• 11/06 – Denis presented his work in ACS SWRM 2022 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

• 11/03 – Laura Hoagland joins our lab as a PhD student

October 2022

• 10/29 – Dr. Djire delivered a talk in the Africa Sustainable Resources (ASR) Meeting 2022

• 10/20 – Ekene successfully defended his Master’s Thesis

• 10/17 – Vaishnavi Nemaniwar joins our lab as a Master’s student

• 10/16-19 – Eugenie presented her work in SES 2022 in College Station, Texas

• 10/12-14 – Dr. Djire was invited to the First US-Africa Frontiers of Science, Engineering, and Medicine Symposium in Nairobi, Kenya
• 10/12 – Denis presented his work at the 242nd ECS Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia
• 10/07 – Dr. Djire presented a talk on MXenes in University of Houston

September 2022

• 09/28 – Denis presented his work at the Conference on Energy hosted by Texas A&M Energy Research Society.

• 09/28 – Eugenie presented her work at the NOBCChE 2022 in Orlando, Florida

• 09/27 – Ekene presented his work at the NOBCChE 2022 in Orlando, Florida

• 09/05 – Kieran Tillis joins our group as an undergraduate researcher
• 09/02 – Ekene’s paper on controlling the surface reactivity via in-situ/operando electrocatalysis was accepted for publication in ChemCatChem!
• 09/01 – Denis was awarded the Phillips 66 Technical Fellowship for 2022-2023

August 2022

• 08/01-03 – Denis presented his work at the MXene Conference in Drexel University, Philadelphia

June 2022

• 06/22 – Denis and Kyle’s paper on in-situ/operando Raman spectroscopy for Charge Storage analysis was accepted for publication in ChemElectroChem!
• 06/05 – Ray, Eugenie, and Denis’s review paper on the progress of MXene-based catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction was accepted for publication in the Journal of the Electrochemical Society!

May 2022

• 05/29 – Denis and Ekene presented their works at the 241st ECS Meeting in Vancouver, Canada

• 05/18 – Dr. Djire presented his work at the Nature Conference on Chemistry of 2D Materials broadcast on their YouTube page

• 05/14 – Chris and Kyle graduated from their BS CHEN with Summa Cum Laude

• 05/08-13 – Dr. Djire presented his work at the MRS Spring Meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii

April 2022

• 04/30 – Denis got featured in the 2022 Chemical Engineering Magazine! Read it here: https://engineering.tamu.edu/chemical/_files/_documents/_marketing/chen-spring-2022-magazine-4.pdf
• 04/29 – Denis presented his work at the SWCS Spring Symposium in Spring, TX and was awarded the Young Lecturer Award.

• 04/08 – Denis’s NRR on Ti₂N MXene paper is featured in a news article on the Texas A&M Engineering News homepage (https://engineering.tamu.edu/news/2022/04/chen-producing-ammonia-through-electrochemical-processes-could-reduce-carbon-dioxide-emissions.html)

March 2022

• 03/22 – Denis presented his work at the ACS National Conference in San Diego

• 03/08 – Denis and Kyle’s paper on in-situ/operando Raman spectroscopy for HER analysis is published in Nanoscale!

February 2022

• 02/18 – Bright Ngozichukwu joins our group as a PhD student
• 02/14 – James Kasten joins our group as an undergraduate researcher
• 02/14 – Dr. Djire is highlighted by the AIChE Catalysis & Research Engineering Division https://www.linkedin.com/posts/abdoulaye-djire-phd-a596b37a_home-activity-6899030382109364224-5UTg
• 02/10 – Dr. Djire was invited for a talk with the Texas A&M Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP)

January 2022

• 01/17 – Christopher Sims joins our group as an undergraduate researcher

• 01/04 – Denis’s review paper on nitride MXenes and in-situ/operando analysis is accepted for publication in Small!

December 2021

• 12/21 – Denis’s paper on NRR on Ti₂N MXene is accepted for publication in Nature Scientific Reports!

November 2021

• 11/19 – We created our first MXene film!

• 11/02 –  Denis’s CO2 Review Paper is featured in a news article on the Texas A&M Research homepage https://research.tamu.edu/2021/11/04/how-to-reach-net-zero-emissions-extract-co2-and-put-it-to-better-use/

October 2021

• 10/15 – Ray Yoo join our lab as PhD Student and Cheng-Che Hsiao and Errol Mascarenhas join our lab as Master’s Students

• 10/06 – Eugenie Pranada joined our group as a Master’s Student

August 2021

• 08/04 – Denis’s review paper on CO₂ Reduction is accepted for publication in ACS Applied Energy Materials!

July 2021

• 07/26 – Eric Kelley joined our group as an undergraduate researcher

• 07/06 – We installed a new Mbraun 2-person glovebox

June 2021

• 06/28 – We installed a new Rigaku MiniFlex  6th Gen with ASC-8 sample holder

• 06/01 – Dr. Djire was invited for a virtual talk, titled “Photoelectrochemical Behavior of Transition Metal Alloyed Nitride MXenes”, at the 239th ECS Meeting

May 2021

• 05/28 – Kyle Hansen joined our group as an undergraduate researcher

• 05/19 – George’s perspective article, titled “Challenges and opportunities for nitrogen reduction to ammonia on transitional metal nitrides via Mars-van Krevelen mechanism”, is published in Cell Reports Physical Science!

• 05/17 – We installed a new Invenio- R FTIR Spectrometer from Bruker

• 05/14 – Dr. Zhi Qiao (George) leaves the group, after securing a position in Industry. We thank him and wish him the best in his future endeavors.

• 05/03 – Dr. Djire was invited for a virtual seminar, “Mechanism of HER in 2-D Nitride MXenes”, at the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology. Click Here For The Seminar

April 2021

• 04/26 – George’s perspective paper on Nitrogen Reduction is accepted for publication in Cell Reports Physical Science!

• 04/23 – We installed Shimadzu’s latest advanced Gas Chromatograph-Mass Spectrometer, GCMS-QP2020NX, in our lab!

• 04/20 –  We installed a brand new PGSTAT302N Potentiostat from Metrohm Autolab

March 2021

• 03/08 – Ekene Uwadiunor joined our group as a Master’s Student

• 03/15 – We installed new Physisorption and Chemisorption systems from Quantachrome Instruments

February 2021

• 02/12 – Dr. Djire’s work on revealing the mechanism of hydrogen fuel formation on 2D nitride MXenes using in-situ/operando X-ray absorption spectroelectrochemistry has been accepted to the journal of ACS Catalysis!

January 2021

• 01/19 – We installed out brand new Ring Rotating Disk Electrode from PINE

• 01/02 – First preliminary in-situ and operando tests with screen printed electrodes

December 2020

• 12/23 – We installed our brand new SP-300 bipotentiostat from Biologic

• 12/04 – We installed our in-house UV-Vis NIR spectrophotometer (UV-3600i Plus from Shimadzu)

• 12/01 – Dr. Djire spoke about opportunities for underrepresented minority groups at the 2020 MRS meeting

November 2020

• 11/23 – We installed our in-house brand new inVia™ Qontor® confocal Raman microscope, which is the most advanced Raman microscope from Renishaw

• 11/18 – Prof. Djire gave an invited talk on “International Webinar on Functional Energy Materials” hosted by Clemson University entitled “Revealing the mechanism of hydrogen evolution activity in 2D titanium nitride MXenes via in situ/operando spectroscopy and microscopy.”

• 11/16 – Dr. Zhi Qiao joins our group as a postdoctoral researcher

October 2020

• 10/16 – Denis Johnson joins the group as a PhD student

September 2020

• 09/01 – The DJIRE group, is launched

• Djire, “Vanadium Nitride Supercapacitors Save the day”, APS Science, (2019), Volume 2, https://www.aps.anl.gov/APS-Science-Highlight/2020-04-30/vanadium-nitride-supercapacitors-save-the-day

2019

• Djire, “Imagine Charging Your Phone Within Seconds…And It Lasting For Days!”, Science Trends, (2018) Click Here