Low Temperature Heterogeneous Oxidation Catalysis

Title

Low Temperature Heterogeneous Oxidation Catalysis

Speaker

Prof. Ziyi Zhong (GTIIT, Chemical Engineering Program)

Host

Prof. Kayin Leung (GTIIT, Biotechnology and Food Engineering Program)

Time and Location

Oct. 20, 2022, Thursday, 4:00pm-5:00pm (China Time), 11:00am-12:00pm(Israel Time), E207 (Education building, 2nd floor)

Language

English

Zoom

https://gtiit.zoom.us/j/98174764656

Abstract

Many catalytic oxidations in nature proceed under mild conditions using molecular oxygen (O2) in the air as the sole oxidant and enzymes as the catalysts. In modern society, catalysis plays an essential role in many industries, e.g., the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. However, most heterogeneous catalytic reactions need high operational reaction temperature and pressure. In recent years, research interest has been redirected to green catalysis, e.g., running catalytic reactions under mild conditions and employing green solvents and oxidants such as O2, particularly air. One question always exists: can many important oxidation reactions be operated with similar efficiency and operation conditions to the natural oxidations? The greatest challenge for many catalytic oxidation reactions is how to activate molecular oxygen under mild conditions to generate proper active oxygen species. Therefore, a molecular-level understanding of the interactions of O2 molecules with catalysts or substrates is necessary and crucial.

This presentation will discuss the activation of O2 to different active species (e.g., O22- or O2-) and their participation in several low-temperature catalytic oxidation reactions. Special attention is paid to the relationship between the catalyst structure and catalytic performance, and techniques that can be used for active oxygen species characterizations, including their limits.

Biography

Ziyi Zhong received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Wuhan University and Ph. D. from Nanjing University in China (1995). He spent five years carrying out postdoctoral research at Bar-Ilan University, the University of Washington at Seattle, and finally at the National University of Singapore. In 2002, he was awarded a Visiting Fellowship from NRC Canada and worked in an NRC Institute (BRI) in Montreal. During the period of 02/2003-09/2018, he worked in the Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences (ICES) under the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) in Singapore and also held an adjunct associate professorship in Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore (2013-2017), and a part-time position in Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute (NEWRI) in NTU (20016-2018). He joined GTIIT as a full professor in Oct 2018.