Currently at The University of Texas at Austin
Founding Director, Center for Sustainable Energy at Notre Dame (ND Energy)

Education

Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, University of Illinois
M.S., Chemical Engineering, University of Illinois
B.S., Chemical Engineering, University of Texas

Research Interests

The general focus of the Brennecke Research Group is the utilization of Ionic Liquids to develop environmentally benign processes. Research on “green” solvents is a challenging task since it not only requires optimization of several properties to overcome technical challenges but also calls for economical feasibility for their process application and acceptance in industry to replace the invested current technology. The Brennecke Research Group focuses on the technical platform of this multifaceted challenge.

Through the principles of thermodynamics, several properties of such solvents can be measured and predicted. A lot of work examines the LLE or VLE of a system. The group's current projects investigate the use of ionic liquids for various applications such as refrigerants, CO₂ absorbents, electrochemistry and separation media.

Key Words

Carbon Capture and Conversion, Storage of Energy

Relevant Energy Publications

1. Samuel Seo, Tangqiumei M. Song, Fuminori Mizuno, Kensuke Takechi, and Joan. F. Brennecke, “Influence of Ion Diffusivity and Gas Solubility in Ionic Liquids on Li-Air Battery Performance, ECS Trans., 2016, 75(15), 147-160.
2. Liyuan Sun, Han Xia, Oscar Morales-Collazo, and Joan F. Brennecke, “Electrochemical Properties of Ionic Liquids Containing Aprotic Heterocyclic Anions (AHA ILs) and Their Mixtures with Lithium Salts," ECS Trans., 2016, 75(15), 469-487.
3. Sheridan, Quintin R.; Oh, Seungmin; Morales-Collazo, Oscar; et al. “Liquid Structure of CO₂-Reactive Aprotic Heterocyclic Anion Ionic Liquids from X-ray Scattering and Molecular Dynamics”, Journal of Physical Chemistry B, Volume:120, Issue:46, Pages:11951-11960, Published: NOV 24 2016.
4. Hong, Bo; Simoni, Luke D.; Bennett, Joshua E.; et al. “Simultaneous Process and Material Design for Aprotic N-Heterocyclic Anion Ionic Liquids in Postcombustion CO₂ Capture”, Industrial & Engineering Chemistry, Research, Volume: 55, Issue:30, Pages: 8432-8449, Published: AUG 3 2016.
5. Lee, Tae Bum; Oh, Seungmin; Gohndrone, Thomas R.; et al. “CO₂ Chemistry of Phenolate-Based Ionic Liquids”, Journal of Physical Chemistry B, Volume:120, Issue:8, Pages:1509-1517, Published: MAR 3 2016.