[ChBE-Grad] ChBE Seminar this Friday

[Solano, Nicolette]

UH ChBE Dept. Seminar
10:30am-11:30am, Friday, February 3, 2017
Rm L2D2
Surface Science for Materials Design
Simon Pang, PhD
Georgia Institute of Technology


ABSTRACT: Processes that occur at surfaces can control the performance of materials in diverse research areas such as catalysis, separations, and nanotechnology. Understanding these surface properties is critical for enabling rational-design of materials with modified surfaces that exhibit improved performance. In the case of heterogeneous catalysts, the surface is most often the site of catalytic action, often with many species adsorbing, reacting and desorbing in a dynamic process. Even for nanoporous materials with high internal surface area, the external surface is the first point of interaction between the material and the external fluid, and these interactions become more important as materials are moved to the nanoscale.
I will describe three examples where our understanding of the processes occurring at the surfaces of catalytic and porous materials have aided in design of materials with improved performance. First, I will discuss leveraging our understanding of the surface chemistry of furfural, a biomass-derived multifunctional molecule, to design surface-modified Pd catalysts to improve reaction selectivity. Next, I will discuss use of in situ x-ray spectroscopy to understand the surface composition of bimetallic NiCu catalysts and how this was used to aid design of catalysts with improved reaction activity. I will conclude with an example of how understanding the differences between the external surface facets of a metal-organic framework, ZIF-8, allowed modulation of the overall particle stability. Though from different fields, these studies collectively demonstrate the role of surface phenomena in design of advanced materials.















-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://bug.egr.uh.edu/pipermail/chbe-grad/attachments/20170130/176da732/attachment.html