William Phillips (DuChene group): Environmental nitrate and nitrite are detrimental to local ecosystems and are poisonous to humans. Currently, we remove these contaminants by converting them to N2, a value-neutral product. An alternative is to electrochemically reduce nitrate and nitrite to ammonia via the nitrate reduction reaction (NitRR) providing the primary feedstock chemical for fertilizer. Copper has been demonstrated as a promising catalyst for NitRR, obtaining very high product formation rates and selectivities for ammonia with early reaction onset potentials. While the field is focused on engineering the greatest performing catalyst architecture, a deeper fundamental understanding is necessary to guide these improvements. My research investigates two separate thrusts. First, I am investigating the structure-function relationship for low-index copper surfaces to determine which surface has the greatest activity for NitRR. The second direction is to develop a microkinetic model of NitRR by pinpointing the rate-determining step using a variety of electrochemical techniques in tandem with in situ Raman spectroscopy. The understanding obtained from these two thrusts will enable improved nanoparticle catalyst design and inform catalyst predictions via computational modeling.