Dr. Eranda Nikolla seminar
Seminar title: "Embracing the Complexity of Heterogeneous Catalytic Structures for Energy and Chemical Conversion"
Abstract:
Shaping the energy landscape toward renewable energy resources is a contemporary challenge that will require significant advancements in the development of catalysts and electrocatalysts for energy and chemical conversion processes. The goal of our research group is to design heterogeneous catalytic architectures for these processes that are active, selective, and stable.
Specifically, in this presentation, I will discuss our work on designing non-stoichiometric mixed metal oxide electrocatalysts for electrochemical oxygen reduction and evolution reactions (ORR/OER). These processes play an important role in electrochemical energy conversion and storage technologies, such as fuel cells and electrolyzers. We have utilized a combination of controlled synthesis, kinetic analysis, advanced characterization, and ab initio calculations to identify the factors that govern the activity and stability of non-stoichiometric mixed metal oxide electrocatalysts with the aim of identifying cost-effective, active, and stable electrocatalysts for these electrochemical reactions.
In the second part of my talk, I will highlight our efforts in controlling the 3-dimensional environment of heterogeneous catalytic sites via encapsulation of metal nanoparticles with porous inorganic metal oxide shells or surface bound organic ligands which are used as levers to tune the activity/selectivity for targeted thermal catalytic reactions. Specifically, I will discuss our recent work on utilizing reducible metal oxide encapsulated noble metal catalytic structures to promote hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of biomass-derived compounds. We have demonstrated that the enhancement in HDO activity/selectivity induced by the encapsulation of the metal nanoparticles with a porous oxide film results from the high interfacial contact between the metal and metal oxide sites, and the restrictive accessible conformations of aromatics on the metal surface.
Bio:
Dr. Eranda Nikolla is Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, MI. Prior to this, she was a Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at Wayne State University, Detroit, MI. Her research interests focus in the development of heterogeneous catalysts and electrocatalysts for chemical conversion processes and electrochemical systems (i.e., fuel cells, electrolyzers). As an integral part of engineering catalytic/electrocatalytic structures, Nikolla has implemented a paradigm which involves a combination of controlled synthesis, advanced characterization, kinetic measurements and quantum chemical calculations to unearth the underlying mechanism that governs their catalytic performance for targeted reactions. Her group’s impact to catalytic science has been recognized through the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the Department of Energy Early Career Research Award, Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, the Young Scientist Award from the International Congress on Catalysis, the 2019 ACS Women Chemists Committee (WCC) Rising Star Award, the 2021 Michigan Catalysis Society Parravano Award for Excellence in Catalysis Research and Development, and the 2022 ACS Catalysis Lectureship for the Advancement of Catalytic Science.
