DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY

Research Statement

Our research focuses on energy related scientific problems which are approached from the perspective of a physical chemist.  One area of current emphasis is delineating the critical molecular level reactions involved in the catalytic breakdown of glucose to produce feedstock chemicals that can be used in the production of liquid transportation fuels.  A second area involves developing an understanding of the critical reactions steps in the photochemical conversion of carbon dioxide to higher energy chemical feedstocks.  In each case, we seek a molecular level of understanding of the reactions and the process that will help facilitate the design of new more efficient catalysts.

Selected Publications

TPD of Nitric Acid from BaNa-Y:  Evidence that a Nanoscale Environment Can Alter a Reaction Mechanism. Aditya Savara, Alon Danon, Wolfgang M.H. Sachtler and Eric Weitz, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 11 (2009) 1180 - 1188

Adsorption Entropies and Enthalpies and their Implications for Adsorbate Dynamics, Aditya Savara, Catherine M. Schmidt, Franz M. Geiger, and Eric Weitz, The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 113, 2806-2815 (2009)

Oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) of ethane with O2 as oxidant on selected transition metal-loaded zeolites. Xufeng Lin, Cathleen A. Hoel, Wolfgang M. H. Sachtler, Kenneth R. Poeppelmeier and Eric Weitz, Journal of Catalysis, 265 (2009) 54-62

An FTIR study of CO2 adsorption on amine grafted SBA-15: Elucidation of adsorbed species, Alon Danon, Peter C. Stair, and Eric Weitz, J Phys. Chem C, 115 (2011) 11540-11549

Selected Honors/Awards

• Alfred P. Sloan Fellow DuPont Young Faculty Fellow Fellow, American Physical Society