The Role of Water and Gold in Catalytic Oxidation
Trinity professors Chris Pursell, left, and Bert Chandler along with postdoctoral fellow Johnny Saavedra
Support from Research Corporation’s Cottrell College Science Awards (CCSA) was instrumental in establishing independent research careers for Bert Chandler and Chris Pursell. Both are now chemistry professors at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. These CCSA seed grants funded Dr. Chandler’s interest in studying supported Au catalysts and Dr. Pursell’s interest in using infrared spectroscopy to examine the chemical and physical properties of condensed phase water. The focus of these grants, which were awarded more than 10 years ago, helped build the scientific and intellectual foundations for their most recent mechanistic investigations, which have shown a clear role for adsorbed water in CO oxidation over Au catalysts. Their work has major implications for converting shale gas into hydrogen gas, an important industrial chemical as well as a potential fuel, notes Trinity science writer Susie P. Gonzalez. More.
See: The critical role of water at the gold-titania interface in catalytic CO oxidation, Science 26 September 2014: 1599-1602.Published online 4 September 2014 [DOI:10.1126/science.1256018]
