Molly MacInnes

Assistant Professor

Offices, Departments, or Centers: Biological Chemistry , Chemistry ,

I use electrochemistry to study and design materials and interfaces. I am especially interested in the interactions of aqueous metal ions with solid surfaces. Understanding these interactions is crucial both for understanding the fate of these heavy metal pollutants in the environment and for developing sensing and separations materials to identify and remove these metals from waste streams. Using conductive oxides or non-conductive nanoparticle films as electrodes, we can use electrochemistry to gain thermodynamic, kinetic, and mechanistic information about the interactions of redox-active metal ions with these surfaces. I am most interested in the f-elements, i.e. the bottom two rows of the periodic table that we never talk about in classes because little is understood about these elements, but they are becoming increasingly industrially relevant, but we are also exploring the d-elements (transition metals) because we want to build up understanding of periodic trends.

In addition to probing interactions at solid oxide surfaces, I am interested in fabricating surfaces that have a high selectivity for adsorption of specific metals. We look towards organic ligands used in separations technology and are exploring ways to graft these ligands to electrode surfaces. In this way, not only can we use electrochemistry to understand the adsorption/binding reactions, but we can explore the possibility of using the surfaces as electrochemical sensors for trace metal ions.

When I'm not in the lab or the classroom, I enjoy exploring the world through running, biking, and climbing, and I have recently developed an obsession with knitting.

Education and Degrees

B.A. (Honors), Oberlin College, 2013

Ph.D., University of Michigan, 2020

Postdoctoral experience, Los Alamos National Laboratory, 2020-2022

Selected Publications

Undergraduate co-authors are bolded.

Marshall-Roth, T.; MacInnes, M. M.; Jordan, A. M.; Piedmonte, I. D.; Pace, K. A.; Adelman, S. L.; Anderson, N. H.; Cooley, J. C.; Kozimor, S. A.; Mullis, M. S.; Mocko, V.; Rocha, F. R.; Stein, B. W. “Quantifying Outer- and Inner-Coordination Sphere Effects Using Uranium Redox Chemistry in Molten Salt Solutions.” J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2026, https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.5c20789
Kauffman, M., Graham, A. M.; Jing, D.; and MacInnes, M. M.* “Elucidating aqueous cerium(IV) adsorption dynamics on tin oxide surfaces using electrochemistry.” ACS Electrochemistry, 2026, 2, 401-409, https://doi.org/10.1021/acselectrochem.5c00422
Shaw, T. E. IV; Jones, Z. R.; Adelman, S. L.; Anderson, N. H.; Bowes, E. G.; Bauer, E. D.; Dan, D.; Knope, K. E.; Kozimor, S. A.; MacInnes, M. M.; Mocko, V.; Rocha, F. R.; Root, H. D.; Stein, B. W.; Thompson, J. D.; Wacker, J. N. “PuCl₃{CoCp[OP(OEt)₂]₃}: Transuranic Elements Entering the Field of Heterometallic Molecular Chemistry,” Chemical Science, 2024, 15, 12754-12764, https://doi.org/10.1039/D4SC01767F
Livshits, M. Y.; Wolford, N. J.; Bahn, J. K.; MacInnes, M. M.; Greer, S. M.; Vellore Winfred, J. S. R.; Hanson, K.; Gompa, T. P.; Stein, B. W. “Exploring Differences in Lanthanide Excited State Reactivity Using a Simple Example: The Photophysics of La and Ce Thenoyltrifluoroacetone (TTA) Complexes.” Inorganic Chemistry, 2023, 62, 13712-13721, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.inorgchem.3c00717
DiMucci, I. M.; Root, H. D.; Jones, Z. R.; Kozimor, S. A.; MacInnes, M. M.; Miller, J. L.; Mocko, V.; Oldham, W. J.; and Stein, B. W. “Photochemical Separation of Plutonium from Uranium.” Chemical Communications, 2022, 58, 10961-10964, https://doi.org/10.1039/D2CC04225H
Hazelnis, J. P.; Sartori, A.; Cheek, Q. B.; Giri, R. P.; MacInnes, M. M.; Murphy, B. M.; Magnussen, O. M.; and Maldonado, S. “Detection of Ge-Containing Adlayers at the Liquid Hg/Water Interface by In Situ X-Ray Reflectivity in Aqueous Borate Electrolytes Containing Dissolved GeO₂.” Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2022, 126, 8177-8189, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.2c01671
Molly M MacInnes, Zachary R Jones, Bo Li, Nickolas H Anderson, Enrique R Batista, Ida M DiMucci, Cecilia Eiroa-Lledo, Karah E Knope, Maksim Y Livshits, Stosh A Kozimor, Veronika Mocko, Kristen A Pace, Francisca R Rocha, Benjamin W Stein, Jennifer N Wacker, Ping Yang. “Using Molten Salts to Probe Outer-Coordination Sphere Effects on Lanthanide(III/II) Electron Transfer Reactions.” Dalton Trans., 2021, 50, 15696-15710
Lancaster, M.; Mow, R.; Liu, J.; Cheek, Q.; MacInnes, M. M.; Al-Jassim, M.; Deutsch, T.; Young, J.; Maldonado, S. “Protection of GaInP₂ Photocathodes by Direct Photoelectrodeposition of MoS_x Thin Films.” ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 2019,11, 25115-25122, https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.9b03742
MacInnes, M. M.; Cousineau, B. R.; Youngs, S. M.; Sinniah, K.; Reczek, J. J.; Maldonado, S. “Discovery of Unusually Stable Reduced Viologen via Synergistic Folding and Encapsulation” J. Electrochem. Soc. 2019, 166, H825-H834
Hlynchuk, S.; MacInnes, M. M.; and Maldonado, S. “Sensitization of p-GaP by physisorbed triarylmethane dyes.” Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2018, 122, 20073-20082, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b05136
MacInnes, M. M.; Hlynchuk, S.; Acharya, S.; Lehnert, N.; Maldonado, S., “Reduction of graphene oxide thin films by cobaltocene and decamethylcobaltocene.” ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 2018, 10, 2004-2015, https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.7b15599
Eady, S. C.; MacInnes, M. M.; Lehnert, N. “Immobilized Co-bis(benzenedithiolate) complexes: exceptionally active heterogeneous electrocatalysts for dihydrogen production from mildly acidic aqueous solutions.” Inorganic Chemistry, 2017, 56, 11654-11667, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.inorgchem.7b01589
Olson, A. C.; Keith, J. M.; Batista, E. R.; Boland, K. S.; Daly, S. R.; Kozimor, S. A.; MacInnes, M. M.; Martin, R. L.; Scott, B. L. “Using solution- and solid-state S K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy with density functional theory to evaluate M-S bonding for MS₄^2- (M=Cr, Mo, W) dianions.” Dalton Transactions, 2014, 43, 17283-17295, https://doi.org/10.1039/C4DT02302A
Boland, K. S.; Hobart, D. E.; Kozimor, S. A.; MacInnes, M. M.; Scott, B.L. “The coordination chemistry of trivalent lanthanides (Ce, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Dy, Yb) with diphenyldithiophosphinate anions.” Polyhedron, 2014, 67, 540-548, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.poly.2013.09.019 Spencer, L. P.; Yang, P.; Minasian, S. G.; Jilek, Robert E.; Batista, E. R.; Boland, K. S.; Boncella, J. M.; Conradson, S.D.; Clark, D.L.; Hayton, T.W.; Kozimor, S.A.; Martin, R.L.; MacInnes, M. M.; Olson, A.C.; Scott, B.L.; Shuh, D.K.; Wilkerson, M.P. “Tetrahalide Complexes of the [U(NR2)]2+: Synthesis, Theory, and Chlorine K-Edge X-ray Spectroscopy.” J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 2013, 135, 2279
Daly, S. R.; Klaehn, J. R.; Boland, K. S.; Kozimor, S. A.; MacInnes, M. M.; Peterman, D. R.; Scott, B. L. “NMR Spectroscopy and Spectral Characterization of Dithiophosphinate Ligands Relevant to Minor Actinide Extraction Processes.” Dalton Trans., 2012, 41, 216