RUI: Chemical dynamics of methanol decomposition on platinum

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Catalysts are substances that accelerate chemical reactions without themselves being consumed. Catalysts reduce energy consumption, minimize pollution, enable the manufacture of valuable chemicals, and increase food production. Despite these successes, there is an increasing need to make catalysts more efficient to further reduce energy and waste. To accomplish this, better fundamental understanding of the chemical reactions that occur on catalysts is required. With funding from the Chemical Catalysis Program of the Division of Chemistry, Dr. LaRue’s research group at Chapman University is studying the fundamental processes of how chemical bonds are formed and broken by metal catalysts. This research team investigates how methanol, an important industrial chemical, reacts on pure platinum catalysts. The fundamental knowledge gained from these studies leads to better catalyst designs, designs that meet today's environmental challenges. Dr. LaRue is integrating his research activities into the classroom and community outreach. These activities include research internships for undergraduate and community college students, national lab and international research experiences, and revamped upper level chemistry courses using discovery-based research techniques. STEM outreach in the local community is also carried out in collaboration with the Chapman chapter of the American Chemical Society, of which Dr. LaRue is the faculty mentor. Understanding the fundamental chemical processes on the surfaces of catalysts is critical to developing new, highly selective and efficient catalysts that meet today’s global challenges. With funding from the Chemical Catalysis Program of the Division of Chemistry, Dr. LaRue’s research group at Chapman University is studying how catalytic sites and neighboring molecules can preferentially induce different types of bond scissions during methanol dissociation on platinum surfaces. The different reaction pathways, C-O versus C-H bond cleavage, depend strongly on surface structure and coverage. To reveal the fundamental properties that govern the reaction dynamics of selective bond making and breaking, Dr. LaRue’s research group is using a unique combination of techniques available at Chapman: temperature programmed decomposition (TPD), low-energy electron diffraction (LEED), and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES). The team also works at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory using the x-ray spectroscopy and at Stockholm University using sum-frequency generation (SFG) spectroscopy, ultrafast spectroscopy, and molecular beams. Dr. LaRue actively integrates his research activities into the classroom and community outreach. These activities include research internships for undergraduate and community college students, national lab and international research experiences, the development of discovery-based research upper level chemistry courses, and STEM outreach in the local community.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.