10/10/2023
By Fanglin Che
Prof. William F. Schneider
Dorini Family Chair in Energy Studies and Department Chair
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Concurrent Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
University of Notre Dame
Title: Models and Opportunities in Plasma Catalysis
Abstract: Heterogeneous catalysis is essential to industrial chemical processes, from those that transform petroleum into fuels and chemicals to those, like the Haber Bosch process, that create fertilizers to feed the planet. The first heterogeneous catalysts were discovered empirically and improved through Edisonian experimentation. Within the last twenty years or so, however, the field has been transformed through the advent of catalysis science, which, using high fidelity synthesis and characterization coupled with molecular-level models, is able to understand and predict catalytic function. Catalysis science has revealed that the most common heterogeneous catalysts present a tableau of reactivity limited by intrinsic correlations between the various reaction steps that make up a surface catalytic reaction. Coupling of heterogeneous catalysts with non-thermal plasmas offers the potential to break these constraints. While empirical evidence suggests that such combinations can enhance apparent catalytic function relative to plasmas or catalysts alone, the absence of basic models to rationalize this behavior and guide material and plasma selection has limited progress. In this talk I will describe recent work to bridge this gap through the development of models that highlight the potential origins and consequences of combining non-thermal plasmas and catalysts, all in the context of nitrogen fixation.
Biography: Bill Schneider’s expertise is in chemical applications of density functional theory (DFT) simulations. After receiving his Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from the Ohio State University, he began his professional career in the Ford Motor Company Research Laboratory working on a variety of problems related to the environmental impacts of automobile emissions. At Ford he developed an interest in the catalytic chemistry of NOx for diesel emissions control, and he has published extensively on the chemistry and mechanisms of NOx decomposition, selective catalytic reduction, trapping, and oxidation catalysis. In 2004 he joined the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering faculty at the University of Notre Dame as an Associate Professor. At Notre Dame he has continued his research into the theory and molecular simulation of heterogeneous catalysis, with particular emphasis on reaction environment effects on catalytic materials and their implications for mechanism and reactivity. He was named the H. Clifford and Evelyn A. Brosey Chair in 2016 and Dorini Family Chair and Chair of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in 2020. He has co-authored more than 200 papers and book chapters, is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, is an Executive Editor of The Journal of Physical Chemistry, and was the 2018 recipient of the Giuseppe Parravano Award of the Michigan Catalysis Society.