Phillip Christopher
University of California-Santa Barbara, CA·Chemistry
Most industrial chemistry depends on catalysts: materials that let reactions happen with less energy and fewer unwanted byproducts. In many important processes the action takes place on the surfaces of tiny metal particles only nanometers across, where arriving reactant molecules stick, rearrange, and leave as products.
- Fields
Chemistry
Engineering
Materials Science
- Topics
heterogeneous catalysis
supported metal catalysts
nanoparticles
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Apr 2027
What they work on
- Determine the experimental conditions under which individual adsorbed molecules on metal nanoparticle surfaces can be sensed by in situ atomic resolution transmission electron microscopy using newly developed high-sensitivity electron detectors.
- Correlate atomic-resolution electron microscopy images with in situ Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, FTIR, recorded under matched gas exposure conditions, using the spectra to locate surface sites where adsorbate binding is most likely.
- Characterize the heterogeneity in adsorbate layer structure and dynamics at terrace, edge, facet, and defect sites on nanoparticle surfaces during CO oxidation and NO reduction with CO over supported metal catalysts.
- Use spatially resolved characterization of real adlayer structures on well-defined nanostructured catalysts to build more accurate structure-reactivity relations for supported metal catalysis.
More about the research
What those molecular layers actually look like on a real particle surface, and how they differ between flat terraces, edges, corners, and defects, has largely been inferred rather than seen. This project works toward directly seeing individual adsorbed molecules on nanoparticle surfaces during reaction.
Why it matters
Catalysts underpin efforts to make fuels, chemicals, and materials with lower emissions and energy input, and many renewable energy conversion and storage routes depend on them. Direct observation of how reactant molecules arrange themselves on nanoparticle surfaces during reactions such as CO oxidation and NO reduction could replace assumed surface pictures with measured ones, guiding design of more durable and selective catalysts for energy and emissions-control technologies.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Haimei Zheng
University of California-Berkeley, CA·Chemistry
Fabricate electrochemical liquid cells with precisely controlled electrode potentials that allow high-resolution, real-time transmission electron microscope imaging of catalysts during carbon dioxide reduction.
Alexandra Velian
University of Washington, WA·Chemistry
Synthesize atomically precise transition metal chalcogenide clusters with well-defined edge catalytic sites that mimic defect sites in solid heterogeneous catalysts.
Andre Mkhoyan
University of Minnesota, MN·Materials Science
Identify the atomic structure and chemical makeup of unconventional line defects in perovskite oxide (ABO3) thin films using atomic-resolution analytical scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM).
The school
University of California-Santa Barbara: 17 labs on PI Pages, $303M a year on research, 403 research doctorates a year.
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