The ability to integrate control, sensor, and reactor functionality offers advantages over the current complex, multi-unit pilot plant environment. Microreactor feasibility has been demonstrated with results for a microchemical system for partial oxidation reactions. This class of reactions provides key chemical intermediates, has the potential for thermal runaway, and often involves hazardous chemicals. Fabrication, application and scaling issues in the development of microchemical reactor technology are being explored. Understanding basic chemical mechanisms and rates of complex homogeneous and heterogeneous reaction sequences is a common theme in chemical reaction studies within the Department.
Research also aims to expose the relationship between chemical reactivity and molecular structure.
In addition to the above catalysis examples, experimental studies include hydrocarbon pyrolysis, hydrogen transfer reactions in hydrocarbon liquids, preparation of fullerenes by combustion, film growth by chemical vapor deposition, and microchemical catalytic reactors. Examples of modeling approaches include the use of graph theory to gain new insights into hydrocarbon pyrolysis and the implementation of modern computational chemistry techniques to obtain quantitative predictions of gas-phase reaction kinetics in catalysis, combustion and chemical vapor deposition systems. With these techniques, the thermodynamics and kinetics of molecular processes can be predicted, in addition to effects of promoters, supports, defects, and co-catalysts on catalytic activity. Another is the investigation of chemical processes taking place on solid catalysts in an aqueous environment in order to develop new catalysts for the oxidation of organics from waste water. Theoretical methods are particularly effective for evaluating complicated systems such as these, in which key processes are difficult to isolate experimentally.