Two Chemistry and Biomolecular Engineering Colquium talks - Livestream

Tandem H2-Scavenging Reactions for Dehydrogenation Equilibrium Shifting

Thermodynamic constraints in alkane dehydrogenation can be mitigated by the scavenging of H 2 through reactions with O 2 to form H 2 O or with CO 2 to form CH 4 and CO, an approach often limited in practice by yield losses caused by undesired side reactions, such as alkane combustion and hydrogenolysis. This study employs experimental and theoretical methods to elucidate the mechanistic details for these H 2 -scavenging reactions catalyzed by noble metal nanoparticles. We also explore the encapsulation of H 2 -scavenging metal functions within small-pore zeolites in order to exploit the sieving properties of these materials to increase the selectivities of H 2 -scavenging reactions in the presence of C 3 -C 4 hydrocarbons

Speaker: Haefa Manusour, UC Berkeley

Predicting limiting currents in fluorinated electrolytes

Battery applications are limited by the amount of current that can be forced through the cell. Under the strain of large currents, severe salt concentration gradients can develop within the electrolyte, thus inhibiting larger currents. If the concentration gradients become severe enough, the salt concentration at the cathode approaches zero, and this is known as the limiting current. We study the limiting current in fluorinated electrolytes and find a nonmonotonic dependence on limiting current as a function of salt concentration in both theory and experiment.

Speaker: Deep Shah, UC Berkeley

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