Overview
Catalysts play a vital role in both reducing the energy consumption of important processes and unlocking new chemical reactions. Engineering catalysts in the nanoscale allows us to optimize their activity and maximize catalytic surface area.
Colloidal synthesis grants us the advantage of incredibly small, tunable catalyst nanomaterials with a narrow size range, allowing us to easily study structural effects with little variation. In particular, we can decorate our materials with single atom resolution and probe just how individual atomic catalyst sites behave in chemical reactions.
Our group focuses on understanding how a catalyst’s structure influences catalytic activity, using advanced X-ray characterization techniques and analysis. We use this knowledge to further improve catalyst design for a variety of applications, including converting biomass into biofuels and reducing atmospheric CO2 into valuable chemical products.
Colloidal synthesis grants us the advantage of incredibly small, tunable catalyst nanomaterials with a narrow size range, allowing us to easily study structural effects with little variation. In particular, we can decorate our materials with single atom resolution and probe just how individual atomic catalyst sites behave in chemical reactions.
Our group focuses on understanding how a catalyst’s structure influences catalytic activity, using advanced X-ray characterization techniques and analysis. We use this knowledge to further improve catalyst design for a variety of applications, including converting biomass into biofuels and reducing atmospheric CO2 into valuable chemical products.
