David Flaherty
Georgia Institute of Technology, GA·Chemistry
Many chemical reactions used to make fuels and basic chemicals rely on precious metal catalysts, materials that speed up reactions without being used up. One promising type is the single atom alloy (SAA): nanoparticles made mostly of gold with a small amount (1–5%) of a more reactive metal such as palladium or platinum spread through them.
- Fields
Chemistry
Engineering
Materials Science
- Topics
heterogeneous catalysis
single atom alloy
bimetallic nanoparticles
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Nov 2026
What they work on
- Synthesize gold-rich alloy nanoparticles containing palladium, platinum or rhodium at diameters of about 1–2, 6 and 10 nm, and track how gas adsorption and reactions restructure them over extended periods.
- Determine the thermodynamic links between adsorption energies, active-site arrangements and nanoparticle structure using microcalorimetry, X-ray absorption spectroscopy and density functional theory simulations of full nanoparticles.
- Relate the identity, amount and atomic neighbors of the reactive metal to rates and selectivity for making hydrogen peroxide versus water from H2 and O2, combining kinetics with kinetic Monte Carlo modeling.
More about the research
SAAs can make reactions fast and selective, meaning they favor the desired product. They are relevant to uses such as converting biomass and shale gas and running fuel cells. But they give few active sites per gram of expensive metal. This collaborative project with teams at the University of Florida and Virginia Tech asks whether SAA particles can be made much smaller (under 2 nm) and still keep their useful behavior.
Why it matters
Precious metal catalysts are costly, and SAAs currently waste much of their metal. Learning how to make tiny SAA particles that keep their speed and selectivity could lower metal costs for making energy carriers and platform chemicals, such as converting biomass and shale gas and operating fuel cells and electrolyzers. The methods developed could also help study other catalysts that change shape as they work.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Suljo Linic
University of Michigan, MI·Engineering
Synthesize plasmonic single atom alloy nanoparticles, silver or gold particles with isolated platinum, palladium, rhodium or ruthenium atoms at the surface, and characterize their geometry.
Mogus Mochena
Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, FL·Chemistry
Predict the stability and electronic structure of platinum, palladium, rhodium and nickel single atoms on transition metal carbides and nitrides using density functional theory and machine learning, verified by scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy in ultrahigh vacuum.
Matthew Montemore
Tulane University of Louisiana, LA·Engineering·Early-career
Screen alloy-host single-atom alloys with machine learning and density functional theory to find stable, active catalysts for oxidation and alkane conversion, then move top candidates to surface-science and nanoparticle tests.
The school
Georgia Institute of Technology: 50 labs on PI Pages, $1.5B a year on research, 572 research doctorates a year.
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