Phillips Hutchison

Department: Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Faculty Adviser: Emily A. Carter
Year of Study:
Undergraduate School: Rhodes College
Undergraduate Major: Chemistry, Physics

Personal Bio

My name is Phillips and I'm a postdoc here at Princeton! Originally from Atlanta, I spent most of my undergraduate experience learning that I was not so interested in the various experimental sciences I tried but that I really enjoyed computational and theoretical chemistry. However, I gained a lot by figuring out the different things I didn't enjoy. I got PhD. at Yale in theoretical chemistry, and in that time, I fell in love with the chemistry occurring at extended surfaces. Outside of the lab, I'm an avid cyclist.

Fun Fact

I process and grind my own corn for tortillas and tamales.

Research Pitch

Some wildly important chemical reactions (such as converting nitrogen gas into ammonia fertilizer) have incredibly high energetic barriers that require high temperatures and pressures to overcome. Plasmonic metal nanoparticles, have the potential to reduce the energy input required for some of these important reactions to proceed. In plasmonic catalysis, a collective oscillation of a metal nanoparticle's nearly free electrons generates higher energy charge carriers that can transfer to molecules or create molecular excited states and overcome high reaction barriers. To study this theoretically, we need methods that can accurately treat both metal surfaces and excited states. Density functional embedding theory (DFET) and embedded correlated wavefunction approaches provide the tools we need for this task. In DFET, an embedding potential is derived that represents the effect of an extended metallic environment on a defined portion of the entire surface. This embedding potential can be used in combination with correlated wavefunction approaches to accurately treat the excited state chemistry of a molecule reacting with an extended surface.

Upcoming Programs That I Am Attending:

Plans for Summer 2025

Interested in participating in Summer 2025 ReMatch+ program.