Presidential Young Investigator Award: Advanced Catalytic Processes and Materials Fabrication Engineering

这一总统青年研究员奖包括三个方面的研究：1.超微孔材料的选择性控制。这项工作集中在无机氧化物修饰的碳分子筛的设计、制备和应用上。这些复合材料具有聚合物衍生碳的分子筛分特性，以及二氧化硅、氧化铝、二氧化钛或氧化锆等无机氧化物的高比表面积和其他特性。最初的项目是准备一个催化剂系统，通过在筛子的外壳内加入催化费托合成和加氢裂化的中心，从合成气(一氧化碳和氢气)生产汽油范围内的碳氢化合物。建立了一个模型来描述该体系中的传质和化学耦合动力学。然后，模型和物理系统将被迭代地重新设计，以定位用于此目的的最优系统。2.先进催化材料。多孔压电材料的制备正在研究中；这些材料既可用作催化剂，也可用作饱和碳氢化合物活化的催化剂载体。此外，氧化铝表面的活性中心的物理和电子结构也在研究中；这种非常活跃的多相催化剂似乎在化学上模拟了均相催化剂。3.电子材料加工。目前正在研究第III和第V族有机金属化合物的热解、光解和催化分解的动力学和机理；这些反应是CVD过程的中心。此外，正在设计一种通过烷基锌前驱体氧化来生产氧化锌薄膜的系统；希望这将导致一种制造二维超导氧化物的方法。

This Presidential Young Investigator award includes three areas of research: 1. Selectivity control with ultramicroporous materials. This effort concentrates on the design, fabrication, and application of inorganic-oxide-modified carbon molecular sieves. These composite materials have the molecular sieving properties of polymer-derived carbon and the high surface areas and other properties of inorganic oxides such as silica, alumina, titania, or zirconia. The initial project is to prepare a catalyst system to produce gasoline-range hydrocarbons from syngas (carbon monoxide and hydrogen) by incorporating sites that catalyze Fischer-Tropsch synthesis and hydrocracking inside an envelope of sieve. A model will be developed to describe the coupled mass transfer and chemical kinetics in this system. The model and the physical system will then be redesigned iteratively to locate the optimal system for this purpose. 2. Advanced catalytic materials. The fabrication of porous piezoelectric materials is being studied; these may be useful both as catalysts and as catalyst supports for the activation of saturated hydrocarbons. Also, the physical and electronic structure of the active site on the surface of rhodium-molybdenum on alumina is under investigation; this very active heterogeneous catalyst appears to chemically mimic homogeneous rhodium catalysts. 3. Electronic materials processing. The kinetics and mechanisms for pyrolytic, photolytic, and catalytic decompositions of organometalloid compounds of groups III and V are being studied; such reactions are central to CVD processes. Also, a system is under design for production of zinc-oxide films by oxidation of alkylzinc precursors; it is hoped this will lead to a method for the fabrication of two-dimensional superconducting oxides.