Description:

The Center for Catalysis and Surface Science (CCSS) is a strategic research center within the Institute for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern (ISEN). CCSS promotes interdisciplinary research fundamental to the discovery and atomistically-controlled synthesis of catalysts that optimize the sustainability of industrial and consumer goods.

STEPHANIE KWON
Assistant Professor, Chemical and Biological Engineering
The major sources of energies and materials that we use in daily life are produced by chemical reactions that break and form chemical bonds. These reactions can be controlled in specificity using catalysis, which enhances the rate of the desired reaction through the stabilization of the transition state that mediates such route. The demand for catalysis has recently grown even more with challenges in supplying fossil fuels and with growing concerns in global warming and environmental issues.

The main goal of my research group is to understand the identity and kinetic relevance of the requisite elementary steps involved in heterogeneous catalysis in order to ultimately design catalytic systems with improved reactivity and selectivity toward desired products. Such goal is achieved by rigorously combining atomic-level synthetic methods, characterization tools, and theoretical assessments, which allow us to understand and control catalytic reactions at a molecular-level. The results of our projects will provide mechanistic insights into current catalytic systems and help to develop new catalysts with minimal energy requirements and environmental impacts.