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RSVP

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 structures and architectures for these processes that are active, selective, and stable.

Specifically, we have focused on engineering the structure of nonstoichiometric mixed metal oxide electrocatalysts as an avenue for generating robust heterogeneous catalysts for electrochemical transformations related to energy conversion and storage (these include oxygen reduction/evolution reactions and CO₂ reduction). 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 nonstoichiometric mixed metal oxide electrocatalysts for these targeted electrochemical reactions. We have shown that (i) the electronic structure of the transition metal cations in nonstoichiometric mixed metal oxide electrocatalysts can be systematically tuned via oxide compositional variations to achieve the outmost reactivity, (ii) the oxide framework can act as a platform for in situ generation of highly catalytically active surfaces under electrochemical conditions, and (iii) single catalytic sites incorporated into photo-active mixed metal oxide structures can be used to influence surface chemistries with visible light.

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 work on utilizing reducible metal oxide encapsulated noble metal catalytic structures to promote hydrodeoxygenation of biomass-derived feedstocks. We have demonstrated that the enhancement in 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.

Eranda Nikolla is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, MI. Her research interests focus on the development of heterogeneous catalysts for chemical and electrochemical energy conversion/storage processes. As an integral part of engineering catalytic 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, the 2022 ACS Catalysis Lectureship for the Advancement of Catalytic Science, and the 2023 Maria Flytzani-Stephanopoulos Award for Creativity in Catalysis

*Refreshments will be provided plus a chance to talk with the speaker after their seminar till 5pm.

**This visitor series sponsored by The Welch Foundation supports the advancement of transformative and vibrant chemistry research at UT Austin.