Dr. Mark Barteau
University of Michigan

Abstract:
Anchoring of molecular catalysts to solid supports has long offered the prospect of creating heterogeneous catalysts with uniform sites. We have explored over many years the physical, chemical and electronic properties of polyoxometalates – a class of discrete molecular metal oxide catalysts – that are well known for acid and oxidation catalysis. Studies in which these species were dispersed on surfaces of graphite, graphene, nitrogen-containing carbons, and conventional catalyst supports such as silica, have generally shown that they behave as discrete molecules with respect to electronic and chemical properties. We have also shown that spectroscopic techniques can provide useful correlation and prediction of catalyst redox properties. However, our recent studies of catalytic reactions suggest that there are cooperative effects in surface arrays of these molecules, leading to turnover rates that depend on surface concentrations of active sites. These challenge notions about single site catalysts and about appropriate ways to describe their activity.

Biography:
Mark A. Barteau is the Director of the University of Michigan Energy Institute and the inaugural DTE Energy Professor of Advanced Energy Research. He holds academic appointments in the Department of Chemical Engineering and the Department of Chemistry. Before joining the University of Michigan in 2012, he served as the Senior Vice Provost for Research and Strategic Initiatives at the University of Delaware, where he held appointments as the Robert L. Pigford Endowed Chair of Chemical Engineering and Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2006. He received his BS degree in Chemical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis, and his MS and PhD from Stanford. He was an NSF Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Technische Universität München, before joining the University of Delaware faculty in 1982. He has held visiting appointments in chemical engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, and in chemistry at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Dr. Barteau brings extensive experience as a researcher, inventor, academic leader, and consultant for both US and international organizations. His research, presented in more than 240 publications and a similar number of invited lectures, focuses on chemical reactions at solid surfaces, and their applications in heterogeneous catalysis and energy processes. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, AFOSR and NASA. He has carried out funded research and/or consulting for industrial organizations including DuPont, Dow, BASF, Hercules, Atofina, Union Camp, W. L. Gore, and Sasol.
Prior to coming to Michigan, Dr. Barteau was the founding director of the University of Delaware Energy Institute. He chaired the Environmental Footprint task force for the Governor’s Energy Advisory Council for the preparation of the 2009 five-year energy plan for the State of Delaware.

Dr. Barteau continues to provide leadership on both national and international levels. He was one 17 members of the National Research Council committee that authored the report Beyond the Molecular Frontier: Challenges for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, in 2003. He chaired the NRC committee that produced the 2013 report Effects of Diluted Bitumen on Crude Oil Transmission Pipelines. He has served as the co-chair of the Chemical Sciences Roundtable and the chair of the Council of Chemical Sciences for the DOE Office of Science.  He has also been a member of the Governing Board of the Council for Chemical Research. He currently serves on the Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology of the National Academy of Science and on the science advisory board for the National Institute of Clean and Low-Carbon Energy (NICE) China. He is a member of the Board of Directors of NextEnergy in Detroit.

Dr. Barteau was named in 2008 as one of the “100 Engineers of the Modern Era” by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2001 Alpha Chi Sigma Award and the 1991 Allan P. Colburn Award, presented by AIChE; the 1998 International Catalysis Award, presented by the International Association of Catalysis Societies; the 1995 Ipatieff Prize from the American Chemical Society; the Paul H. Emmett Award in Fundamental Catalysis, given by the North American Catalysis Society, and the 1993 Canadian Catalysis Lecture Tour Award of the Catalysis Division of the Chemical Institute of Canada.  He has served as associate editor of the AIChE Journal and WIRES Energy and Environment, and on the editorial boards of a number of other Journals, including Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research and the Journal of Catalysis.

Sponsored by the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Notre Dame.