|
 In
late 1993, the quality of my research life took a momentary turn for
the worse, as I moved with nothing but ideas and a family from the modern
facilities in the Exxon Corporate Research Labs to Berkeley. My “research
space” in Gilman Hall had all of the modern features and comforts
one would have wanted in an office back when it was built in 1917. As
laboratory space, however, it was sorely lacking. There were windows
that served as exhaust vents, and only after resourceful students arranged
several fans and one dehumidifier did it acquire a semblance of environmental
control. Needless to say, the range of possible experiments was limited
and electronic equipment and the psyche of the students suffered. But
our luck was soon to change. Two years later, we moved from our densely
packed facilities into the spacious second and third floors of Tan Hall.
Our students and their research have never looked back.
Controlling
Pore Size
Our research focuses on the basic processes involved in the synthesis
of inorganic structures and in their function as heterogeneous catalysts
for reactions used in refining, energy conversion, petrochemical synthesis,
and environmental protection. Our funding from industry and government
is well balanced, reflecting our combination of basic and applied research.
We assemble inorganic solids while controlling their pore and atomic
connectivity and then characterize their structures with exacting detail,
using a variety of spectroscopic methods, some available within our
group, but some too large and complex even for Tan Hall (e.g., a synchrotron
X-ray source at a nearby farm). We also develop and use spectroscopic
and kinetic methods to explore how active sites cycle in these inorganic
catalysts–often a few times per second for years, a marvel of recycle
in a disposable world.
Educating
Scientists
Since 1995, more than forty graduate students and post-doctoral fellows
from twelve different countries as well as ten undergraduate students
have performed research in our lab, including ten students who have
received Ph.D. or M.S. degrees based on research done in these facilities.
Today, these scientists use their talents in industry, national labs,
and academia throughout the world, not just in the field of catalysis,
but also in surface and materials chemistry, in chemical engineering
practice, and even in more entrepreneurial endeavors. As they have learned
and moved on, they have left their imprint on the College in the form
of novel concepts, clever approaches, and experimental infrastructure
for others to use.
The research
in our lab has led to better catalysts as well as more detailed knowledge
of their mechanisms for several important reactions. In a collaboration
with Stuart Soled at ExxonMobil, small oxide clusters, often
no larger than a typical molecule, are being tested to catalyze reactions
that currently use toxic and corrosive liquid acids as catalysts. We
have used these small structures as selective oxidation catalysts in
our work with
Alex Bell,
and in the process developed
spectroscopic
and titration methods to probe the change in geometry as they perform
as catalysts. We have uncovered new routes to cleaner fuels by reacting
organosulfur compounds using the hydrocarbons in these fuels instead
of using scarce and expensive H2. In collaboration
with BP, we developed a selective route to formaldehyde chemical intermediates
using dimethylether as the feedstock. In chemistry relevant to the conversion
of natural gas to petrochemicals and liquid fuels, we have recently
prepared two metal carbide compositions as small clusters; one type
shows unprecedented selectivity in methane conversion to aromatics,
while the other ranks among the most active catalysts reported for converting
methane-derived H2/CO mixtures to large hydrocarbons. Occasionally,
we combine such reactions with separations, and our recent synthesis
of thin oxide films has led to membranes with H2
permeation rates and selectivities similar to those in Pd foils currently
used.
One can
only imagine how much of this would have been accomplished in our original
“research space” in Gilman Hall.
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