Tendai Gadzikwa
Kansas State University, KS·Chemistry·Early-career
Enzymes are nature's best catalysts. They speed up reactions enormously and produce one product out of many possibilities.
- Fields
Chemistry
Materials Science
- Topics
metal-organic frameworks
catalysis
enzyme-inspired catalysts
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2028
What they work on
- Determine the molecular origins of unexpected reactivity observed within and on multifunctional metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), porous crystals with several chemical groups placed close together, using machine learning.
- Establish how closely spaced functional groups in confined MOF pores alter each other's physical properties and reactivity, defining structure-function relationships relevant to catalysis.
- Apply these structure-function insights to design and build more efficient enzyme-inspired confined catalysts based on multifunctional MOFs.
More about the research
They manage this by holding several chemical groups at precise positions inside a confined pocket, where the groups work together to grab, orient and stabilize reacting molecules. Building man-made catalysts that copy these features could make chemical manufacturing use less energy and create less waste.
Why it matters
Chemical manufacturing uses large amounts of energy and generates waste. Learning how confinement and nearby chemical groups shape reactivity could help chemists design more efficient and selective catalysts. Such catalysts could help industry meet these two sustainability goals.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Dianne Xiao
University of Washington, WA·Chemistry·Early-career
Develop a templating strategy to precisely position multiple metal centers and organic functional groups within metal–organic framework pores, giving uniform, tunable active sites on a solid support.
Michele Sarazen
Princeton University, NJ·Engineering·Early-career
Make hierarchical bifunctional zeolites, which combine tiny and larger pores with metal and acid sites, and test how their pore structure and connectivity change rates of polyolefin hydrocracking and catalyst deactivation.
Jian Liu
Rochester Institute of Technology, NY·Chemistry
Measure the adsorption and desorption thermodynamics and kinetics of polar and nonpolar molecules in hierarchically nanoporous metal-organic frameworks, and show that liquid-liquid interfaces form inside the pores.
The school
Kansas State University: 7 labs on PI Pages, $265M a year on research, 201 research doctorates a year.
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