Mechanisms of Surface Hydrogenation Reactions

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With this award, the Chemical Structure, Dynamics and Mechanisms (CSDM-A) Program of the Division of Chemistry is funding Professor Michael Trenary of the University of Illinois at Chicago to conduct experimental work looking at the catalytic hydrogenation of molecules on metal alloy surfaces. These reactions are important in industrial as well as in organic synthesis applications. The particular metal catalysts that the Trenary group is looking at have a small amount of an expensive metal alloyed with the surface of an inexpensive metal. The ultimate goal of research like this is to obtain catalysts that have the same effectiveness as more expensive catalysts at much lower cost. The graduate and undergraduate students, many from underrepresented groups, working on this project will receive training in ultrahigh vacuum science methods, while working on societally-important chemical problems with very broad impact. Prof. Trenary begins a new collaboration with Olive-Harvey College, a Chicago-area college with a predominantly African-American student body, providing Olive-Harvey undergraduates with the opportunity to do research in his laboratory.Professor Michael Trenary and his research group will use reflection/adsorption infrared spectroscopy (RAIRS) to monitor the reactivity of simple molecules adsorbed to a metal surface that has been modified (alloyed) with a small amount of a catalytically active metal. The RAIRS experiments will include time dependent studies designed to measure activation energies of elementary reaction steps and in situ studies at elevated hydrogen pressures designed to maintain hydrogen surface coverages at the temperatures where the hydrogenation reactions occur. The metal systems to be studied include Pd-Cu(111) and Pt-Ru(0001). Reactions to be studied include the hydrogenation of acrolein, the selective hydrogenation of acetylene to ethylene, the hydrogenation of surface N atoms; and the hydrogenation of adsorbed CN to methane and ammonia. The work will take on an international dimension through collaboration with STM researchers at RIKEN in Japan.