News

October 18, 2023
Congratulations to Kaan Yalçin for passing his Ph.D. qualifying exam! The topic was: Confinement controls reversible intra-pore redox cycling of Pt in HZSM-5 catalysts.
September 14, 2023
Congratulations to Niko Hansen for passing his Ph.D. qualifying exam! The topic was: Advanced Analytical Techniques to Probe C-H Bond Activation over Atomically Dispersed Pt Catalysts.
August 17, 2023
The group presented three talks at the American Chemical Society Fall Meeting 2023:
Kaan Yalçin: Synthesis and characterization of zeolite-supported platinum catalysts with controlled platinum nanoparticle locations in the General Catalysis symposium on Aug 17;
Wenqi Zhou/Prof. Kronawitter: Influence of CO2 on ethane dehydrogenation over chromium sites stabilized by highly siliceous MFI zeolite in the General Catalysis symposium on Aug 16;
Invited Talk from Prof. Kronawitter:  Interpreting heterogeneous catalytic reaction mechanisms through relationships between adsorbate and near-surface gas phase compositions in the Catalyst Dynamics of Active Sites, Catalyst Structure, and Reaction Environment symposium on Aug 15.
March 15, 2023
Congratulations to Leah Filardi for publication of a new article in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics! The article, titled Surface Basicity Controls C–C Coupling Rates during Carbon Dioxide-Assisted Methane Coupling over Bifunctional Ca/ZnO Catalysts, provides an investigation into catalyst composition dependence on the rates of tandem upgrading of carbon dioxide and methane, two greenhouse gases and components of natural gas and biogas, to ethylene and syngas. To our knowledge this is the first time a volcano-type relationship is established between CO2-assisted CH4 coupling activity and surface basicity. 
February 22, 2023
Professor Kronawitter is pleased to deliver an invited seminar to The Catalysis Society of Metropolitan New York on our recent work studying the structure and reactivity of Pt and Cr in zeolites: "Understanding the Local Environments of Supported Atomically Dispersed Metal Cations: Impacts on Metal Cluster Formation and Catalysis." 
October 24, 2022
Congratulations to Wenqi Zhou for passing her Ph.D. qualifying exam!
September 26, 2022
Professor Kronawitter has the pleasure of visiting Arizona State University, School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy, for an invited seminar on the subject of catalysis with highly dispersed supported metals/cations: "Evaluating the Impacts of Atomically Dispersed Metals’ Local Environments on Catalytically Relevant Outcomes." 
July 19, 2022
Congratulations to Noah Felvey for publication of a new article in Journal of the American Chemical Society! The article, titled Interconversion of Atomically Dispersed Platinum Cations and Platinum Clusters in Zeolite ZSM-5 and Formation of Platinum gem-Dicarbonyls, reports the conditions leading to formation of isolated Pt cations versus clusters in zeolite ZSM-5, as well as their associated local chemical environments and the process of their interconversion. The chemistry is general, as demonstrated using other industrially relevant zeolites (ZSM-5, Beta, Mordenite, and Y).
May 24, 2022
Noah Felvey gives a presentation at the 27th North American Catalysis Society Meeting in New York, NY titled "Cationic Platinum in HZSM-5: Reversible Conversion to Platinum Clusters." This talk is part of Session: Microporous Catalysts II.
May 24, 2022
Professor Kronawitter delivers a presentation at the 27th North American Catalysis Society Meeting in New York, NY titled "Developing New Insights into Oxidative Methanol Conversion through Operando Interrogation of Both the Near-Surface Gas Phase Above a Catalyst and Its Surface."
March 24, 2022
Ph.D. candidate Sadi Gurses delivers a presentation at the 2022 American Chemical Society Spring Meeting in San Diego, CA titled "Low-temperature electrocatalytic approaches for liquid-phase light alkane upgrading."  This presentation was part of the session on Electrochemistry-Enabled Catalysis for Energy, Chemicals, and Materials.
March 20, 2022
Professor Kronawitter delivers a presentation at the 2022 American Chemical Society Spring Meeting in San Diego, CA titled "Understanding oxidative coupling reactions through operando characterization of surface sites and the near-surface gas phase."  The presentation is part the Symposium Honoring Bruce C. Gates, within the Division of Catalysis Science and Technology.
November 16, 2021
Professor Kronawitter delivers a presentation at the 2021 AIChE Annual Meeting in the  Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Division titled "New Insights into Oxidative Methanol Conversion through Operando Interrogation of the Near-Surface Gas Phase Above a Catalyst."  The presentation describes recent findings from our exciting new studies, made possible through collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories' Combustion Research Facility, to  examine the near-surface gas phase during heterogeneous catalysis. Sadi M. Gurses, Nils Hansen, Jonathan H. Frank, David L. Osborn, Ambarish Kulkarni are co-authors.
November 9, 2021
Congratulations to Sadi Gurses for publishing a new article in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters ! The article is titled "Near-Surface Gas-Phase Methoxymethanol Is Generated by Methanol Oxidation over Pd-Based Catalysts."  It reports an exciting discovery: that methoxymethanol - a rarely observed and reactive C2 oxygenate - is an intermediate generated during oxidative conversion of methanol to upgraded chemicals.  This study involved additional work with the Kulkarni group at UC Davis and our collaborators at Sandia National Laboratories.
June 23, 2021
Professor Kronawitter is pleased to deliver an invited seminar at the School of Chemistry, University of New South Wales (Sydney), titled "Utilizing CO2, Air, and Electricity to Facilitate Light Alkane Upgrading." Sadi Gurses, Yulei Wang, and Noah Felvey are co-authors. 
May 28, 2021
Congratulations to Wenqi Zhou for passing her Ph.D. Preliminary Exam!
February 1, 2021
Congratulations to Sadi Gurses for publishing a new article in The Journal of Physical Chemistry C ! The article is titled "Electrochemistry of the Interaction with Methane with Platinum at Room Temperature Investigated through Operando FTIR and Voltammetry."  The article investigates - as a function of time, applied potential, and pH in aqueous electrolytes - the nature of chemical fragments bound to the surfaces of Pt electrodes that result from the heterogeneous decomposition/oxidation of methane.
It was a privilege to contribute this article as part of the Emily A. Carter Festschrift virtual special issue of The Journal of Physical Chemistry.
October 7, 2020
Professor Kronawitter gives a presentation at the Electrochemical Society Pacific Rim Meeting (PRiME 2020), titled "In Situ Deposition of Platinum-Group Metals for Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Peroxide Production by Oxygen Reduction." Sadi Gurses, Yulei Wang, Özge Bayoglu, and Noah Felvey are co-authors. 
September 16, 2020
Professor Kronawitter delivers an Invited Department Seminar for Uppsala University's Department of Chemistry, titled "Utilizing Electricity, Air, and Carbon Dioxide for Selective Conversion of Light Alkanes." Sadi Gurses, Yulei Wang, Zhu Chen, Bruce Koel, Noah Felvey, and Ron Runnebaum are co-authors. 
August 14, 2020
Congratulations to Yulei Wang, Sadi Gurses, and Noah Felvey for publication of a recent study: "Room temperature and atmospheric pressure aqueous partial oxidation of ethane to oxygenates over AuPd catalysts" in Catalysis Science and Technology! The article makes important observations on the conversion of a light alkane to value-added oxygenates in the mild conditions that are relevant to technologies for distributed chemical manufacturing.
July 17, 2020
Professor Kronawitter is a participant on a recent Perspective in ACS Catalysis, led by Bruce Gates and Erjia Guan, on supported catalysts incorporating isolated, paired metal centers: "Supported Metal Pair-Site Catalysts."
July 6, 2020
Congratulations to Noah Felvey for publication of his recent study in Catalysis Science and Technology!  Noah's work is a collaboration between the lab of Ron Runnebaum and the Kronawitter lab. The article is titled "Ethane dehydrogenation over Cr/ZSM-5: Characterization of active sites through probe molecule adsorption FTIR" by Noah Felvey, Michael Meloni, Coleman X. Kronawitter*, and Ron Runnebaum*.
June 9, 2020
Congratulations to Leah Filardi for passing her Ph.D. qualifying exam! A great end to the quarter for the team.
May 28, 2020
Professor Kronawitter gives an invited seminar for the UC Santa Barbara Catalysis Seminar Series titled "Thermal and Electrochemical Catalysis for Light Alkane Upgrading."
May 20, 2020
Congratulations to Özge Bayoglu for passing her Ph.D. qualifying exam!
October 17, 2019
Professor Kronawitter gives an Invited Presentation at the 236th Electrochemical Society Meeting - Symposium: Photocatalysts, Photoelectrochemical Cells, and Solar Fuels; Session: Photocatalysis and Electrocatalysis - titled "Aqueous Thermal-Electrochemical Catalysis for Light Alkane Upgrading," in Atlanta, GA. Dr. Yu Lei Wang, Sadi Gurses, and Noah Felvey are co-authors.
August 12, 2019
Sadi Gurses presented a poster at the SUNCAT Summer Institute 2019 titled "Thermal and Electrochemical Catalysis for Aqueous-Phase Light Alkane Upgrading." The poster presentation was co-authored by Dr. Yu Lei Wang, Noah Felvey, and Coleman Kronawitter.
July 31, 2019
Congratulations to Dr. Yu Lei Wang and the Kronawitter group team for acceptance of recent work for publication in ACS Catalysis! The article is titled "In situ deposition of Pd during Oxygen Reduction Yields Highly Selective and Active Electrocatalysts for Direct H2O2 production" by Yu Lei Wang, Sadi Gurses, Noah Felvey, Alexey Boubnov, Samuel S. Mao, and Coleman X. Kronawitter*.
June 24, 2019
Professor Kronawitter is presenting research results at the 2019 North American Catalysis Society Meeting (NAM26) in Chicago, IL in a talk titled "Thermal and Electrochemical Catalysis for Aqueous-Phase Valorization of Light Alkanes." Sadi Gurses, Dr. Yu Lei Wang, and Noah Felvey are co-authors on the presentation.
May, 2019
Congratulations to Özge Bayoglu and Leah Filardi for passing their Ph.D. Preliminary Exams!
March 25, 2019
Professor Kronawitter is privileged to give an invited seminar at ExxonMobil Chemical Company in Baytown, TX, titled, "Thermal and Electrochemical Catalysis for Light Alkane Upgrading."
December, 2018
We are proud to welcome three new students to the group!  We welcome Özge Bayoglu (Ph.D., Chemical Engineering), Leah Filardi (Ph.D., Chemical Engineering), and Shiva Murali (M.S., Chemical Engineering).
October, 2018
The Kronawitter goup welcomes Yizhen Chen, a Visiting Scholar from University of Science and Technology of China.  Yizhen is primarily working on a collaborative project involving syntheses and applications of atomically-dispersed catalysts for selective conversions of light hydrocarbons. He is co-advised by Prof. Gates, Prof. Kronawitter, and Prof. Kulkarni of the Department of Chemical Engineering.
October 3 and 4, 2018
Professor Kronawitter is giving two Invited Presentations at the Advanced Light Source 2018 User Meeting. On October 3 he will give a talk titled "Investigations of heterogeneous processes for electrocatalysis through ambient pressure photoemission spectroscopy." On October 4 he will give a tutorial lecture titled "Experimental challenges associated with synchrotron APPES at semiconductor crystal surfaces."
August 28, 2018
Congratulations to Sadi Gurses for passing his Ph.D. Qualifying Exam!
June 15, 2018
Congratulations to Jose Hernandez! Jose has graduated with a M.S. in Materials Science & Engineering.
May 4, 2018
Congratulations to Noah Felvey for passing his Ph.D. Qualifying Exam!
March 21, 2018
Professor Kronawitter gives an Invited Seminar at the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis in Berkeley, CA.
March 2, 2018
Professor Kronawitter gives an Invited Presentation at the 3rd Molecules and Materials for Artificial Photosynthesis Conference in Cancun, Mexico. Program here.
September 18, 2017
Professor Kronawitter and Professor Runnebaum elected Co-Chairs of the Pacific Coast Catalysis Society, a chapter of the North American Catalysis Society! NACS website here.
September 16, 2017
Professor Kronawitter and Professor Runnebaum hosting the Pacific Coast Catalysis Society Annual Meeting 2017 at UC Davis.  Full program, including speakers, available here.
September 15, 2017
Congratulations to Jose Hernandez for being accepted into the Business Development Fellow Program at UC Davis!
June, 2017
Congratulations to Sadi Gurses and Noah Felvey for passing their Ph.D. Preliminary Exams!
June 5, 2017
Professor Kronawitter gives a talk at the 25th North American Catalysis Society Meeting in Denver, CO.
April 17, 2017
Professor Kronawitter gives a talk at the Materials Research Society Spring Meeting 2017, in Phoenix, AZ.
June 31, 2016
Professor Kronawitter gives an Invited Presentation at SPIE Optics + Photonics for Sustainable Energy in San Diego, CA.