(6fy) Engineering Transport in Microporous Materials for Next-Generation Energy Technologies

Research Interests: I aim to establish new technologies that can solve pressing challenges in developing renewable energy and sustainable resources. To accomplish this, I will lead investigations into fundamental gas, liquid, and ion interactions in nanoengineered porous materials, focusing on host-guest thermodynamics and kinetics. Through my academic training in fields that span chemical engineering, inorganic chemistry, and polymers chemistry, I have acquired a unique perspective in understanding and developing cutting-edge materials; my areas of interest include two newer generation material classes: cooperative materials and microporous polymer nanocomposites. Cooperative materials, which can be synthesized by grafting oligomers into microporous hosts, are a new class of microporous materials that possess unexplored transport behavior. Microporous polymer nanocomposites, which can selectively permeate guest species, have the potential to revolutionize chemical process technology by replacing decades old distillation and absorption-based processes. Collaborating with faculty across academic disciplines, including chemistry and materials science, will enable me to more effectively find solutions to problems in energy and resources.

Teaching Interests: Universities are the only institutions that believe that cultivating intellectual curiosity can lead to world-changing ideas. This is why professors, who are uniquely positioned to foster intellectual growth through instructing and mentoring students, hold such noble positions in society. My own curiosity for and joy of sharing fundamental concepts in chemical engineering drove me to pursue advanced study and is now the driving force in my pursuit for a career in academia. I initially began teaching during my time as an undergraduate as a Teaching Assistant for core chemical engineering curricula, including process engineering, kinetics, and mass transport & separations. I was awarded the Koch Fellowship for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. It was during my undergraduate teaching experience that I had my initial foray into scientific research, and it was through these experiences together that I realized the vast personal and intellectual growth that is facilitated by their joint pursuit. In graduate school, I served as a Graduate Student Instructor (GSI) for graduate-level statistical thermodynamics. Additionally, as the GSI of a lower level survey of energy technologies course for chemical engineers, I found myself inspired by the passion that undergraduates found in chemical engineering. As an Assistant Professor, I would be happy to teach any core undergraduate course, with a particular fondness for thermodynamics. For graduate education, I would be thrilled to again teach statistical thermodynamics, or introduce a new course on the properties and applications of polymer membranes and microporous adsorbents.

Graduate Research, Advisor: Prof. Jeffrey Long, UC Berkeley (2013-2018): My graduate work focused on the understanding and development of metal–organic frameworks and the design of metal–organic framework/polymer composites. In Prof. Jeffrey Long’s group at UC Berkeley, my research was at the interface of inorganic chemistry and chemical engineering; here I saw a unique opportunity to understand the transport of gases and thermodynamics of gas-adsorbent interactions within metal–organic frameworks. This led to insights into advanced materials for olefin/paraffin separation, CO₂ capture, and natural gas processing. I developed a novel class of adsorption-selective membrane materials that overcome fundamental limitations of polymer membranes by compositing metal–organic framework nanoparticles with high-performance polyimides. Going forward, I sought to explore materials with an even greater ability to separate olefin/paraffin mixtures. I demonstrated the record performance of a metal–organic framework featuring coordinatively unsaturated metal sites for ethylene/ethane and propylene/propane mixtures. Finally, I introduced these materials as a solution to a long-standing challenge in alternative ethylene production by enabling the oxidative coupling of methane process. This work required a fundamental understanding of metal-gas interactions and was enabled by the tuning of metal site electronic structure.

Postdoctoral Research, Advisor: Prof. Yi Cui, Stanford University (March 2018-Present): While my graduate work focused primarily on understanding gas transport and thermodynamics in microporous hosts, I then went on to expand my scope by pursuing my postdoctoral studies on ion transport in solid polymer electrolytes under the supervision of Prof. Yi Cui at Stanford University. Here, I have studied polymers of intrinsic microporosity in order to understand the implications of salt transport and reactivity on Li-S battery performance.

Presentations at AIChE 2018:
[1] Adsorption-Enhanced, Plasticization Resistant Composite Membranes Using Metal–Organic Framework Nanocrystals (Session: Mixed-Matrix Materials for Gas Separation)
[2] Highly Selective, High-Capacity Metal–Organic Frameworks for Olefin Production (Session: MOFs, COFs, and Porous Polymer Materials: Characterization and Application)
[3] Engineering Ion Transport in Microporous Polymer Separators for Li-S Batteries (Session: Polymers in Batteries)

Selected Publications (out of 16):

[1] Mason, J. A.; Oktawiec, J.; Taylor, M. K.; Hudson, M. R.; Rodriguez, J.; Bachman, J. E.; Gonzalez, M. I.; Cervellino, A.; Guagliardi, A.; Brown, C. M.; Llewellyn, P. L.; Masciocchi, N.; Long, J. R., “Methane Storage in Flexible Metal–Organic Frameworks with Intrinsic Thermal Management” Nature 2015, 527, 357–361.

[2] Bachman, J. E.; Smith, Z. P.; Li, T.; Xu, T.; Long, J. R., “Enhanced Ethylene Separation and Plasticization Resistance in Polymer Membranes Incorporating Metal–Organic Framework Nanocrystals” Nature Mater. 2016, 15, 845–849.

[3] Bachman, J. E.; Long, J. R., “Plasticization-Resistance Ni₂(dobdc)/Polyimide Composite Membranes for the Removal of CO₂ from Natural Gas” Energy Environ. Sci. 2016, 9, 2031–2036.

[4] Shete, M.; Kumar, P.; Bachman, J. E.; Ma, X.; Smith, Z. P.; Xu, W.; Mkhoyan, A.; Long, J. R.; Tsapatsis, M., “On the Direct Synthesis of Copper 1,4-Benzenedicarboxylate (CuBDC) MOF Nanosheets and their Performance in Mixed-Matrix Membranes” J. Membr. Sci. 2017, 549, 312–320.

[5] Bachman, J.E.; Kapelewski, M. T.; Reed, D. A.; Gonzolez, M. I.; Long, J. R., “M₂(m-dobdc) (M = Mn, Fe, Co, Ni) Metal–Organic Frameworks as Highly-Selective, High-Capacity Adsorbents for Olefin/Paraffin Separations” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2017, 139, 15363–15370.

[6] Maserati, L.; Meckler, S. M.; Bachman, J. E.; Long, J. R.; Helms, B. A., “Diamine-Appended Mg₂(dobpdc) Nanorods as Phase-Change Fillers in Mixed-Matrix Membranes for Efficient CO₂/N₂ Separations” Nano Lett. 2017, 17, 6828-6832.

[7] Smith, Z. P.; Bachman, J. E.; Li, T.; Gludovatz, B.; Kusuma, V. A.; Xu, T.; Hopkinson, D. P.; Ritchie, R. O.; Long, J. R., “Increasing M₂(dobdc) Loading in Selective Mixed-Matrix Membranes: A Rubber Toughening Approach” Chem. Mater. 2018, 30, 1484-1495.

[8] Bachman, J. E.; Reed, D. A.; Kapelewski, M. T.; Chachra, G.; Jonnavittula, D.; Radielli, G.; Long, J. R., “Enabling Alternative Ethylene Production through its Selective Adsorption in Mn₂(m-dobdc)” Energy Environ. Sci. 2018, Advance Article.

[9] Meckler, S. M.; Bachman, J. E.; Robertson, B. P.; Zhu, C.; Long, J. R.; Helms, B. A. “Thermally Rearranged Polymer Membranes Containing Tröger’s Base Units with Exceptional Performance for Air Separations” Agnew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2018, 130, 5006-5010.