(177c) Identifying Paradigms in Catalyst Design: An Overview of New Approaches and Future Challenges to Tailor Catalyst Properties and Performance

Designing catalysts with optimal performance in applications that span both traditional and emerging technologies relies on the capability to selectively tailor material properties, such as crystal size, shape, and composition. A limited, often phenomenological, understanding of catalyst synthesis presents challenges to achieve desired structural outcomes. In this talk, I will discuss methods used by our group and others to tailor zeolite synthesis. I will describe a versatile method to precisely control zeolite crystal habit and surface architecture through the use of zeolite growth modifiers, which are molecules that bind to specific crystal surfaces and mediate anisotropic rates of growth. Efforts to control crystallization have been met with concurrent initiatives to develop techniques capable of probing in situ phenomena of growth at near molecular resolution. These synergistic endeavors aim to engineer zeolite catalysts with a level of control that is unrivaled by conventional methods. This talk will emphasize ways in which we can translate novel approaches in catalyst design to commercial realization. I will also discuss how the methodology used to optimize zeolite properties is a facile and versatile approach that can be translated to the synthesis of metals, metal oxides, and other catalytic materials.