Alumni Profiles

Brandon Wood

• Program Years: 2003-2007
• Academic Institution: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Field of Study: Computational Materials Science
• Academic Advisor: Nicola Marzari
• Practicum(s):
  Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (2005)
• Degree(s):
  Ph.D. Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2007
  B.S. Physics, and B.A. Slavic Studies, Stanford University, 2001

Current Status

• Status: Staff Scientist, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
• Research Area: Computational Materials Science

Comments

Deputy Director, LLNL Laboratory for Energy Applications for the Future (LEAF)
LLNL Associate Program Lead for Hydrogen and Computational Energy Materials
Modeling & Simulation Lead, DOE Hydrogen Materials - Advanced Research Consortium (HyMARC), HydroGEN Advanced Water Splitting Materials Consortium, and H2NEW Next-generation Electrolyzer Consortium (for high-temperature electrolysis)

Publications

Y.-S. Liu, B.C. Wood, L.E. Klebanoff, et al., "Nanoscale Mg-B via surfactant ball milling of MgB2: Morphology, composition, and improved hydrogen storage properties," J. Phys. Chem. C 124, 39 (2020).

R. Shi, T.W. Heo, B.C. Wood, and Y. Wang, "Critical nuclei at hetero-phase interfaces," Acta Mater. 200, 510 (2020).

T.A. Pham, B.C. Wood, E.R. Meshot, et al., "Structural anomalies and electronic properties of an ionic liquid under nanoscale confinement," J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 11, 6150 (2020).

A. Schneemann, B.C. Wood, M.D. Allendorf, V. Stavila, et al., "Nanoconfinement of molecular magnesium borohydride captured in a bipyridine-functionalized metal-organic framework," ACS Nano 14, 10294 (2020).

S. Weitzner, S.A. Akhade, J.B. Varley, B.C. Wood, E.B. Duoss, S. Baker, and M. Otani, "Towards engineering of solution microenvironments for the CO2 reduction reaction: Unraveling pH and voltage effects from a combined density-functional-continuum theory," J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 11, 4113 (2020).

B.C. Wood, T.W. Heo, S. Kang, S. Li, and L.F. Wan, "Beyond idealized models of nanoscale metal hydrides for hydrogen storage," Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 59, 5786 (2020).

X. Zhang, T.A. Pham, T. Ogitsu, B.C. Wood, and S. Ptasinska, "Modulation of surface bonding topology: Oxygen bridges on OH-terminated InP (001)," J. Phys. Chem. C 124, 3196 (2020).

M. Jørgensen, T. R. Jensen, B.C. Wood, V. Stavila, et al., "Understanding superionic conductivity of lithium and sodium salts of weakly coordinating closo-hexahalocarbaborate anions," Chem. Mater. 32, 1475 (2020).

S. Jeong, T.W. Heo, B.C. Wood, J.J. Urban, et al., “A mechanistic analysis of phase evolution and hydrogen storage behavior in nanocrystalline Mg(BH4)2 within reduced graphene oxide,” ACS Nano 14, 1745 (2020).

T.W. Heo and B.C. Wood, “On thermodynamic and kinetic mechanisms for stabilizing surface solid solutions,” ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 11, 48487 (2019).

X. Zhang, T. Ogitsu, B.C. Wood, T.A. Pham, and S. Ptasinska, “Oxidation induced polymerization of InP surface and implications for optoelectronic applications,” J. Phys. Chem. C 123, 30893 (2019).

T.A. Pham, C. Zhan, M. Ceron, S. Hawks, M. Otani, B.C. Wood, M. Stadermann, and P. Campbell, “Specific ion effects at graphitic interfaces,” Nature Commun. 10, 4858 (2019) [cover article].

Y.-S. Liu, L.E. Klebanoff, B.C. Wood, et al., "Investigating possible kinetic limitations to MgB2 hydrogenation," Int. J. Hydrogen Energy 44, 31239 (2019).

S.A. Hawks, M.R. Ceron, T.A. Pham, C. Zhan, C.K. Loeb, D. Mew, A. Deinhart, B.C. Wood, J.G. Santiago, M. Stadermann, and P.G. Campbell, "Using ultramicroporous carbon for the selective removal of nitrate with capacitive deionization," Environ. Sci. Tech. 53, 10863 (2019).

M.R. Ceron, C. Zhan, P. Campbell, M. Freyman, C. Santoyo, L. Echegoyen, B.C. Wood, J. Biener, T.A. Pham, and M. Biener, "Integration of fullerenes as electron acceptors in 3D graphene networks: Enhanced charge transfer and stability through molecular design," ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 11, 28818 (2019).

S. Kang, T.W. Heo, M.D. Allendorf, and B.C. Wood, "Morphology-dependent stability of complex metal hydrides and their intermediates using first-principles calculations," ChemPhysChem 20, 1340 (2019).

L.F. Wan, E.S. Cho, T. Marangoni, P.T. Shea, S. Kang, C. Rogers, E.W. Zaia, R.R. Cloke, B.C. Wood, F.R. Fisher, J.J. Urban, and D. Prendergast, "Edge-functionalized graphene nanoribbon encapsulation to enhance stability and control kinetics of hydrogen storage materials," Chem. Mater. 31, 2960 (2019).

J.L. White, M.D. Allendorf, B.C. Wood, F. El Gabaly, et al., "Identifying the role of dynamic surface hydroxides in the dehydrogenation of Ti-doped NaAlH4," ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 11, 4930 (2019).

X.W. Zhou, S. Kang, T.W. Heo, B.C. Wood, V. Stavila, and M.D. Allendorf, "An analytical bond order potential for Mg-H systems," ChemPhysChem 20, 1404 (2019).

J. Ye, P. Shea, Y.M. Wang, J. Biener, B.C. Wood, et al., "Amorphization as a pathway to fast charging kinetics in atomic layer deposition-derived titania films for lithium ion batteries," Chem. Mater. 30, 8871 (2018).

A. Schneemann, J.L. White, S. Kang, S. Jeong, L.F. Wan, E.S. Cho, T.W. Heo, D. Prendergast, J.J. Urban, B.C. Wood, M.D. Allendorf, and V. Stavila, "Nanostructured metal hydrides for hydrogen storage," Chem. Rev. 118, 10775 (2018).

C. Zhan, T.A. Pham, M.R. Ceron, P.G. Campbell, V. Vedharathinam, M. Otani, D. Jiang, J. Biener, B.C. Wood*, and M. Biener, "Origins and implications of interfacial capacitance enhancements in C60-modified graphene supercapacitors," ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 10, 36860 (2018).

M.D. Allendorf, Z. Hulvey, T. Gennett, T. Autrey, J. Camp, H. Furukawa, M. Haranczyk, M. Head-Gordon, A. Karkamkar, D.-J. Liu, J.R. Long, K. Meihaus, I. Nayyar, R. Narazov, D. Siegel, V. Stavila, J.J. Urban, S. Veccham, and B.C. Wood, "An assessment of strategies for the development of solid-state adsorbents for vehicular hydrogen storage," Energy Environ. Sci. 11, 2784 (2018).

S. Kang, L.E. Klebanoff, A.A. Baker, D.F. Cowgill, V.N. Stavila, M.D. Allendorf, J.R.I. Lee, M.H. Nielsen, K.G. Ray, Y.-S. Liu, and B.C. Wood*, "Assessing the reactivity of TiCl3 and TiF3 with hydrogen," Int. J. Hydrogen Energy 43, 14507 (2018).

X.W. Zhou, T.W. Heo, B.C. Wood, S. Kang, M.D. Allendorf, and V. Stavila, "Molecular dynamics studies of fundamental bulk properties of palladium hydrides for hydrogen storage," J. Appl. Phys. 123, 225105 (2018).

C.-T. Yang, B.C. Wood, V.R. Bhethanabotla, B. Joseph, "Electron injection study of photoexcitation effects on supported subnanometer Pt clusters for CO2 photoreduction," Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 20, 15926 (2018).

M. Dmitrievska, P. Shea, K.E. Kweon, M. Bercx, J.B. Varley, W.S. Tang, A.V. Skripov, V. Stavila, T.J. Udovic, and B.C. Wood*, "Carbon incorporation and anion dynamics as synergistic drivers of ultrafast diffusion in superionic LiCB11H12 and NaCB11H12," Adv. Energy Mater. 8, 1703422 (2018).

X.W. Zhou, T.W. Heo, B.C. Wood, V. Stavila, S. Kang, and M.D. Allendorf, "Temperature- and concentration-dependent hydrogen diffusivity in palladium from statistically averaged molecular dynamics simulations," Scripta Mater. 149, 103 (2018).

A. Zevgolis, B.C. Wood, Z. Mehmedovic, A. Hall, T. Alves, and N. Adelstein, "Alloying effects on superionic conductivity in lithium indium halides for all-solid-state batteries," APL Mater. 6, 047903 (2018).

T.A. Pham, X. Zhang, B.C. Wood*, D. Prendergast, S. Ptasinska, and T. Ogitsu, "Integrating ab initio simulations and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy: Toward a realistic description of oxidized solid/liquid interfaces," J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 9, 194 (2018) [perspective, cover feature].

K.E. Kweon, J.B. Varley, P. Shea, N. Adelstein, P. Mehta, T.W. Heo, T.J. Udovic, V. Stavila, and B.C. Wood*, "Structural, chemical, and dynamical frustration: Origins of superionic conductivity in closo-borate solid electrolytes," Chem. Mater. 29, 9142 (2017).

E.S. Cho, A.M. Ruminski, Y.-S. Liu, P.T. Shea, S. Kang, E.W. Zaia, J.Y. Park, Y.-D. Chuang, X. Zhou, T.W. Heo, J. Guo, B.C. Wood, and J.J. Urban, "Hierarchically controlled inside-out doping of Mg nanocomposites for moderate temperature hydrogen storage," Adv. Funct. Mater. 27, 1704316 (2017).

K.G. Ray, L.E. Klebanoff, J.R.I. Lee, V. Stavila, S. Kang, T.W. Heo, M. Bagge-Hansen, J. White, P. Shea, Y.-S. Liu, and B.C. Wood, "Elucidating the mechanisms of MgB2 initial hydrogenation via a combined experiment-theory study," Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 19, 22646 (2017) [cover feature, selected as RSC "HOT" article].

Y. Liu, K.P. Hackenberg, J. Wu, J. Zhang, Y.M. Wang, Y. Yang, K. Keyshar, J. Gu, T. Ogitsu, R. Vajtai, J. Lou, P.M. Ajayan, B.C. Wood, and B.I. Yakobson, "Self-optimizing, highly surface-active layered metal dichalcogenide catalysts for hydrogen evolution," Nature Energy 2, 17127 (2017).

S. Kang, T. Ogitsu, S.A. Bonev, T.W. Heo, M.D. Allendorf, and B.C. Wood, "Understanding charge transfer at Mg/MgH2 interfaces for hydrogen storage," ECS Trans. 77, 81 (2017).

J. Varley, K. Kweon, P. Mehta, P. Shea, T.W. Heo, T. Udovic, V. Stavila, and B.C. Wood, "Understanding ionic conductivity trends in polyborane solid electrolytes from ab initio molecular dynamics," ACS Energy Lett. 2, 250 (2017).

B.C. Wood, V. Stavila, N. Poonyayant, T.W. Heo, K.G. Ray, L.E. Klebanoff, T.J. Udovic, J.R.I. Lee, N. Angboonpong, and P. Pakawatpanurut,"Nanointerface-driven reversible hydrogen storage in the nanoconfined Li-N-H system," Adv. Mater. Interfaces 4, 1600803 (2017).

N. Adelstein and B.C. Wood, "Role of dynamically frustrated bond disorder in a Li+ superionic solid electrolyte," Chem. Mater. 28, 7218 (2016).

T.A. Pham, S.M. Mortuza, B.C. Wood, E.Y. Lau, T. Ogitsu, S. Buchsbaum, Z.S. Siwy, F. Fornasiero, and E. Schwegler, "Salt solutions in carbon nanotubes: The role of cation-pi interactions," J. Phys. Chem. C 120, 7332 (2016).

T.W. Heo, M. Tang, L.-Q. Chen, and B.C. Wood, "Defects, entropy, and the stabilization of alternative phase boundaries in battery electrode particles," Adv. Energy Mater. 6, 1501759 (2016).

J. Ye, Y. An, E. Montalvo, P. Campbell, M. Worsley, I. Tran, Y. Liu, B.C. Wood, J. Biener, H. Jiang, M. Tang, Y.M. Wang, "Solvent-directed solgel assembly of 3-dimensional graphene-tented metal oxides with strong disparities in synergistic lithium storage," J. Mater. Chem. A 4, 4032 (2016).

W.I. Choi, B.C. Wood, E. Schwegler, and T. Ogitsu, "Combinatorial search for high-activity hydrogen catalysts based on transition-metal-embedded graphitic carbons," Adv. Energy Mater. 5, 1501423 (2015).

D.V. Esposito, J.B. Baxter, J. John, N.S. Lewis, T.P. Moffat, T. Ogitsu, G. O'Neil, T.A. Pham, A.A. Talin, J. Valazquez, and B.C. Wood, "Methods of photoelectrode characterization with high spatial and temporal resolution," Energy Environ. Sci. 8, 2863 (2015).

S. R. Qiu, B.C. Wood, P.R. Ehrmann, S.G. Demos, P.E. Miller, K.I. Schaffers, T.I. Suratwala, and R. Brow, "Origins of optical absorption characteristics of Cu2+ complexes in aqueous solutions," Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 17, 18857 (2015).

J. Ye, M.T. Ong, T.W. Heo, P. Campbell, M.A. Worsley, Y. Liu, S. Charnvanichborikarn, M.J. Matthews, J. Lewicki, M. Bagge-Hansen, J.R.I. Lee, B.C. Wood, and Y.M. Wang, "Universal roles of hydrogen in electrochemical performance of graphene: High rate capacity and atomistic origins," Sci. Rep. 5, 16190 (2015).

C.-T. Yang, B.C. Wood, V.R. Bhethanabotla, B. Joseph, "The effect of the morphology of supported subnanometer Pt clusters on the first and key step of CO2 photoreduction," Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 17, 25379 (2015).

T.W. Heo, L.-Q. Chen, and B.C. Wood, "Phase-field modeling of diffusional phase behaviors of solid surfaces: A case study of phase-separating LiXFePO4 electrode particles," Comp. Mater. Sci. 108, 323 (2015).

M.D. Radin, T. Ogitsu, M. Otani, J. Biener, and B.C. Wood, "Capacitive charge storage at an electrified interface investigated via direct first-principles simulations," Phys. Rev. B 91, 125415 (2015).

Y. An, B.C. Wood, J. Ye, Y.-M. Chiang, Y.M. Wang, M. Tang, and H. Jiang, "Mitigating mechanical failure of crystalline silicon electrodes for lithium batteries by morphological design," Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 17, 17718 (2015).

N. Kumar, M.D. Radin, B.C. Wood, T. Ogitsu, and D.J. Siegel, "Surface-mediated solvent decomposition in Li-air batteries: Impact of peroxide and superoxide surface terminations," J. Phys. Chem. C 119, 9050 (2015).

M. Bagge-Hansen, B.C. Wood, T. Ogitsu, T.M. Willey, I.C. Tran, A. Wittstock, M. Biener, M. Merrill, M.A. Worsley, M. Otani, C.-H. Chuang, D. Prendergast, J. Guo, T.F. Baumann, T. van Buuren, J. Biener, and J.R.I. Lee, "Potential-induced electronic structure changes in supercapacitor electrodes observed by in operando soft X-ray spectroscopy," Adv. Mater. 27, 1512 (2015).

J. Ye, S. Charnvanichborikarn, M.A. Worsley, S.O. Kucheyev, B.C. Wood, and Y.M. Wang, "Enhanced electrochemical performance of ion-beam-treated 3D graphene aerogels for lithium ion batteries," Carbon 85, 269 (2015).

Y. Liu, Y.M. Wang, B.I. Yakobson, and B.C. Wood, "Assessing carbon-based anodes for lithium-ion batteries: A universal description of charge-transfer binding," Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 028304 (2014).

F. Zhang, B.C. Wood, Y. Wang, C.Z. Wang, K.M. Ho, and M.Y. Chou, "Ultrafast bulk diffusion of AlHx in high-entropy dehydrogenation intermediates of NaAlH4," J. Phys. Chem. C 118, 18356 (2014).

C.-T. Yang, B.C. Wood, V.R. Bhethanabotla, B. Joseph, "CO2 adsorption on anatase TiO2(101) surfaces in the presence of subnanometer Ag/Pt clusters: Implications for CO2 photoreduction," J. Phys. Chem. C 118, 26236 (2014).

K. Ulman, D. Bhaumik, B.C. Wood, and S. Narasimhan, "Physical origins of weak H2 binding on carbon nanostructures: Insight from ab initio studies of functionalized graphene nanoribbons," J. Chem. Phys. 140, 174708 (2014).

P.G. Campbell, M.D. Merrill, B.C. Wood, E. Montalvo, M.A. Worsley, T.F. Baumann, and J. Biener, "Battery/supercapacitor hybrid via non-covalent functionalization of graphene macro-assemblies," J. Mater. Chem. A 2, 17764 (2014).

D. Dutta, B.C. Wood, S.Y. Bhide, K.G. Ayappa, and S. Narasimhan, "Enhanced gas adsorption on graphitic substrates via defects and local curvature: A density functional theory study," J. Phys. Chem. C 118, 7741 (2014).

B.C. Wood, E. Schwegler, W.I. Choi, and T. Ogitsu, "Surface chemistry of GaP(001) and InP(001) in contact with water," J. Phys. Chem. C 118, 1062 (2014).

B.C. Wood, T. Ogitsu, M. Otani, and J. Biener, "First principles-inspired design strategies for graphene-based supercapacitor electrodes," J. Phys. Chem. C 118, 4 (2014).

B.C. Wood, E. Schwegler, W.I. Choi, and T. Ogitsu, "Hydrogen-bond dynamics of water at the interface with InP/GaP(001) and the implications for photoelectrochemistry," J. Am. Chem. Soc. 135, 15774 (2013).

W.I. Choi, B.C. Wood, E. Schwegler, and T. Ogitsu, "Site-dependent free energy barrier for proton reduction on MoS2 edges," J. Phys. Chem. C 117, 21772 (2013).

B.C. Wood, T. Ogitsu, and E. Schwegler, "Local structural models of complex oxygen- and hydroxyl-rich GaP/InP(001) surfaces," J. Chem. Phys. 136, 064705 (2012).

J. Biener, S. Dasgupta, L.-H. Shao, D. Wang, M.A. Worsley, A. Wittstock, J.R. Lee, M.M. Biener, C. Orme, S.O. Kucheyev, B.C. Wood, T.M. Willey, A.V. Hamza, J. Weissmuller, H. Hahn, and T.F. Baumann, "Macroscopic 3D nanographene with dynamically tunable bulk properties," Adv. Mater. 24, 5017 (2012).

B.C. Wood, S. Bhide, D. Dutta, V.S. Kandagal, A.D. Pathak, S.N. Punnathanam, K.G. Ayappa, and S. Narasimhan, "Methane and carbon dioxide adsorption on edge-functionalized graphene: A comparative DFT study," J. Chem. Phys. 137, 054702 (2012).

B.C. Wood, T. Ogitsu, and E. Schwegler, "Ab initio modeling of water-semiconductor interfaces for photocatalytic water splitting: The role of surface oxygen and hydroxyl," J. Photon. Energy 1, 016002 (2011).

B.C. Wood and N. Marzari, "Dynamics and thermodynamics of a novel phase of NaAlH4," Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 185901 (2009).

B.C. Wood and N. Marzari, "Proton dynamics in superprotonic CsHSO4," Phys. Rev. B 76, 134301 (2007).

B.C. Wood and N. Marzari, "Dynamical structure, bonding, and thermodynamics of the superionic sublattice in alpha-AgI," Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 166401 (2006).

J.W. Elmer, T.A. Palmer, W. Zhang, B. Wood, and T. DebRoy, "Kinetic modeling of phase transformations occurring in the HAZ of C-Mn steel welds based on direct observations," Acta Mater. 51, 3333 (2003).

Awards

National Science Foundation International Research Postdoctoral Fellow (2007-2008)
DOE Computational Science Graduate Fellow (2003-2007)
DOE Fuel Cell Technologies Hydrogen Production R&D Award (2014)
LLNL Early Career Recognition Award (2017)
DOE Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Technologies Hydrogen R&D Award (2020)