Description:

Center for Catalysis and Surface Science (CCSS) Monthly Meeting

When: Friday, November 3, 2023 | 12:00 – 1:00pm
Where: Ryan Hall, 4003

Title: "Metal-Surface Stereoelectronic Communication in Surface Organometallic Catalysis"
Speaker: David Kaphan, Argonne National Laboratory

Abstract: Chemisorption of organometallic complexes on inorganic supports is a powerful strategy for the development of heterogeneous, single-site, homogeneous-in-function catalysts. Typical support materials, most commonly silica (SiO2) and alumina (Al2O3), play a crucial role in stabilizing reaction intermediates and site-isolating reactive species throughout the catalytic cycle but the inert nature of these catalyst supports is not amenable to direct modulation or augmentation of catalytic processes by manipulation of the support akin to electronic ligand design and “redox non-innocence” in homogeneous catalysis. In this talk our group’s efforts toward the application non-traditional supports, including Li-ion battery cathode and anode materials as redox non-innocent and/or tunable catalyst supports will be discussed. In a proof of principle for this approach, a nickel modified lithium manganese oxide (LixMn2O4) material synthesized by an “oxidative grafting” process is shown to monotonically increase in catalytic activity as a function of reductive lithium intercalation. This approach toward tunable catalyst design as well as catalyst synthesis by oxidative grafting of organometallic precursors is further explored in the context of oxidative coupling of unsaturated hydrocarbons. These studies reveal a complex interplay between bond forming elementary steps at the active site and reoxidation, both of which are dependent on electronic communication between the surface and active site, and can be modulated a function of surface lithiation.       

The Center for Catalysis and Surface Science (CCSS) monthly meetings host speakers, as well as provide tutorials,  research updates and facilitate team collaboration. 

The mission of the Center for Catalysis and Surface Science (CCSS) is to promote interdisciplinary research fundamental to the discovery, synthesis, and understanding of catalysts and catalytic reactions essential to modern society. As a part of the Paula M. Trienens Institute for Sustainability and Energy, CCSS applies fundamental advances in catalysis science towards applications in alternative fuels, abatement of harmful emissions, resource recovery concepts, new processing routes, and many other strategies towards making chemicals more sustainable.