[https://marketing.purdue.edu/Email/TemplateSets/ChE/Templates/Template04/Images/che-engineering-logo-400-white-text.png]<https://engineering.purdue.edu/ChE> Purdue University Davidson School of Chemical Engineering Graduate Seminar Series Dr. Justin Notestein Associate Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering Northwestern University "Oxide Engineering at the Nanoscale for Catalyst Supports and Active Sites" Tuesday, March 28, 2017 3:00 - 4:15 p.m. FRNY G140 Abstract Oxides are crucial materials as catalyst supports or as active sites in their own right for a number of important chemical transformations. Oxide-oxide interfaces are known catalytic hotspots, but they are inherently unstructured for many materials, and thus challenging to control and understand. Our research group therefore takes a multifaceted approach to study the catalytic surface of these materials through novel syntheses, probe molecules, and reaction modes. Two stories reflecting current materials development will be described. In the first area, we describe continuing efforts at creating highly dispersed metal oxide sites on silica and other supports, principally for selective oxidation (epoxidation, hydroxylation, ODH). For epoxidation, we created a series of similarly-dispersed group IV and V oxides supported on silica using bulky precursors, and used those materials to make surprisingly simple conclusions about the role of electronics on reactivity. For ODH, we demonstrate some of the first ODH by CuOx clusters, and show the dependence of precursor structure, surface density, and in particular, support. Going further, we are able to quantify the fraction of kinetically-relevant sites of these and other oxide materials using an in situ phosphonic acid titration technique. Combined, synthesis and site titration allows us to organize large families of supported catalysts into quantitative, predictive relationships that apply to a number of different materials from traditional oxides to metal organic frameworks and their analogues. In the second area, we demonstrate a technique to easily deposit thin (<2 nm), conformal SiO2 shells on other oxides such as TiO2 or Al2O3. These core-shell materials impart a number of new properties on the material, including the creation of acidity sufficiently strong to crack alkyl benzenes (SiO2 on Al2O3), and the ability to act as supports that stabilize small metal nanoparticles. We also have shown that we can control access of molecules to the reactive surface using similar layers. This trait can, for example, minimize oxidation of one species in a mixture due to size or relative strength of adsorption. Finally, these layered oxide architectures allow the synthesis of multiple, distinct oxide structures on a single particle for tandem catalysis. Overall, it will be shown how advances in oxide materials synthesis can lead to improved understanding and breakout reactivity even in this mature field of research. Bio Prof. Justin Notestein is an associate professor at Northwestern University in the department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and an affiliation with the Center for Catalysis and Surface Science. He received his BSE at Princeton University in 2001 in chemical engineering with a certificate in materials science and engineering, and he completed his PhD at the University of California Berkeley in chemical engineering in 2006 under the direction of advisors Alex Katz and Enrique Iglesia. Following postdoctoral work at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign in the departments of chemistry and materials science with Prof. Jeffrey Moore, he joined Northwestern in 2007 and was elevated to the rank of associate professor in 2013. Since 2007, he has mentored approximately 20 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in three different disciplines (chemistry, chemical engineering, and materials science), many in the context of extensive networks of collaborative projects throughout the university. Prof. Notestein is the author or inventor of more than 50 manuscripts and patents on many aspects of catalysis. Research in Prof. Notestein's group focuses on the development and understanding of new hybrid, oxide, and nanostructured catalysts and adsorbents for a number of transformations relevant to energy and fuels, emissions and environmental catalysis, and industrial chemical processes. Systems studied in his wide ranging research group include supported molecular oxidation catalysts or reagents for epoxidation and alkane oxidation, nanostructured oxide photocatalysts for (shape) selective oxidation, molecular and zeolite catalysts for hydrocarbonylation, metal organic frameworks, hybrid adsorbents for biofuels and CO2 capture, modified ceria for deNOx, and support modifications for stabilizing supported metal nanoparticles. Special attention has been paid to developing full synthesis-structure-function relationships for supported oxides, including new methods for quantification of kinetically relevant sites. The insights derived from atom-precise syntheses and mechanistic investigations lead to improvements in rational design and selection of new catalysts. Prof. Notestein's research has supported by individual and collaborative grants from the US Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, the ACS Petroleum Research Fund, the 3M Non-tenured Faculty Fund, Toyota, and Dow Chemical. Among other recognition, Prof. Notestein has been awarded the Dreyfus Foundation New Faculty Award and the DuPont Young Professor Award. In the classroom, Prof. Notestein has been recognized as a member of the faculty honor roll, academic advisor of the year for the school of engineering, and recipient of several selective grants for coursework development. Davidson School of Chemical Engineering<https://engineering.purdue.edu/ChE> Purdue University West Lafayette, IN 47907 (765) 494-4050<tel:+17654944050> (c) 2017 Purdue University<http://www.purdue.edu/purdue/disclaimer.html> All rights reserved An equal access/equal opportunity university<http://www.purdue.edu/purdue/ea_eou_statement.html>