Engineered Porous Materials for Advanced Chemical Conversions: Understanding Structure-Property-Acitivty Relationship

Engineered Porous Materials for Advanced Chemical Conversions: Understanding Structure-Property-Activity Relationship

Satish K. Nune

Senior Research Scientist, Applied Functional Materials

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA

Engineering, materials and catalysis play a vital role in achieving energy security for sustainable future and growth. Accelerated development of new advanced materials with well-defined active sites for achieving unique, reproducible and reliable properties is a key in achieving global competitiveness in 21^st century. Although recent advances in porous materials have provided significant progress, there is an explicit and growing need for the development of new advanced materials with improved properties. If one could successfully engineer porous materials that are robust, structurally tunable and inexpensive but utilize all active sites, porous materials could potentially offer a clear advantage over other porous materials. To address this, Dr. Nune has developed various nanoscale porous materials with varied functionalities and hydrophobicity by taking advantage of metal-ligand cooperation effect for sustainable, economical and energetically favored chemical transformations. Wide variations in metal ions and linkers allowed structural tailorability to precisely control pore size, surface area, and Lewis acidity. He also developed approaches to further synthesize and functionalize porous nanomaterials with well-defined active sites and activity that cannot be synthesized otherwise. Larger pore sizes translated to smaller mass transport limitations compared to other inorganic materials and greater accessibility to active sites in the framework that are critical for inducing selectivity. Dr. Nune will discuss on Engineered Porous Materials for Advanced Chemical Conversions: Understanding Structure-Property-Activity Relationship.

Research Interests:

Hybrid Porous Materials, Catalyst Design, Doped-Porous Carbons, Gas Separation, Advanced Chemical Conversions, Energy Storage, Critical Metal Extraction, Nanomaterials-Synthesis and Functionalization.

Teaching Interests:  

1. Introduction to Materials Science and Engineering

2. Principles of Chemical Engineering

3. Kinetics and Reactor Design 

4. Advanced Composites