NEWSW I N T E R 2 0 1 4C H E M I C A L & P E T RO L E U M E N G I N E E R I N G

ChemEFrom the ChairAs I reflect on my first full year as Chair of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at Pitt, I cannot help but be tremendously proud at what our department has accomplished. And this newsletter only reflects the tip of the iceberg!

Energy and sustainability are top priorities at the University and the Swanson School, and so you’ll read about our research in catalysis and carbon sequestration, as well as our newest faculty appointments in those fields. Our work in computational modeling, specifically with polymer gels, has received national and international attention. And our interdisciplinary collaboration with the Swanson School’s Department of Bioengineering is also leading to new translational research in medicine. In this issue we’ll introduce a new feature on philanthropic support; specifically, a new legacy gift from Dr. James Pommersheim, Class of 1970.

In short, our Department has added five new faculty, improved our US News & World Report ranking, experienced a tremendous increase in expenditures and grants, and captured some notable awards. This could not be possible without my renowned faculty colleagues, as well as our exceptional undergraduate and graduate students. I hope you enjoy this year’s recap of our accomplishments, and look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Steven R. Little, PhD Associate Professor, CNG Faculty Fellow and Chair

Department Establishes James Martin Pommersheim Awardfor Excellence in Teaching

Thanks to a legacy gift from James M. Pommersheim PhD ’70, the

Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering this year established the James Martin Pommersheim Award for Excellence in Teaching. The award will recognize departmental faculty in the areas of lecturing; teaching; research methodology and research mentorship of our students; conducting seminars; tutorials; and recitations. Such faculty will actively pursue knowledge with their students and will be distinguished

in the manner and method they fulfill the Department’s mission to provide outstanding under-graduate and graduate instruction in our program.

Robert M. Enick, PhD, NETL RUA Faculty Fellow, Bayer Professor and Vice Chair for Research, was the 2013 inaugural award recipient.

According to Steven R. Little, depart-ment chair, the award recognizes the passion that Dr. Pommersheim holds for the Swanson School and the Department

and its excellence in academics and research.“Dr. Pommersheim follows the work of our faculty with great intensity, and so I’m honored that we could recognize his generos-ity by establishing this award in his honor,” Dr. Little says. “The endowment he established for the department will positively impact our educational mission and greatly benefit our students and faculty.”

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Although catalysts have been integral to chemistry and chemical engineering for more than a century, the atomic

processes behind catalytic reactions are little understood. A National Science Foundation grant will allow researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, State University of New York – Binghamton and Brookhaven National Laboratory to utilize the newest nano-characterization tools to understand how catalysis occurs and how it can enable cleaner energy technologies while reducing the creation of harmful by-products.

The study, “Collaborative Research: In situ Characterization of Methanol Oxidation Catalyzed by Copper-Based Materials,” is funded through a $459,697 grant from NSF’s division Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems (CBET). The research will be led by Principle Investigator Judith Yang, PhD and co-PI Götz Veser, PhD, both Nickolas A. DeCecco Professors of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering. Joining them from SUNY-Binghamton will be Guangwen Zhou, assistant professor of mechanical engineering who earned his PhD in materials science from the Swanson School in 2003.

“Catalysis is the heart of modern society and is responsible for much of our manufactured world, from fuels and plastics to pharmaceuticals and batteries,” explains Dr. Veser. “But even though

we understand why they work, we don’t fully grasp how they work, especially at the atomic level. This grant will enable us to utilize a battery of new technologies to better understand how catalysis works at the nano-scale, thereby enabling future researchers to design and improve the next generation of catalysts.”

For this study the research group will focus on copper catalysts, which are more abundant and affordable than noble metals such as silver, gold and platinum, and are used for numerous processes including methanol production. State-of-the-art characterization tools including environmental transmission electron microscopy, in situ scanning tunneling microscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to study the copper catalysts at reaction conditions during methanol partial oxidation. This will be coupled with computational modeling at Binghamton to test hypotheses and establish baselines for future research.

In addition, the grant will fund graduate student research and impact future academic and outreach programs at both Pitt and SUNY Binghamton.

“Much of catalytic research since the early 19th century has been trial and error because we don’t understand what happens at the atomic level during these processes,” Dr. Veser says. “We believe that our research will provide a roadmap to addressing problems facing both energy production and environmental protection.”

Pitt, SUNY-Binghamton to Explore Clean Energy TechnologyThrough Improved Catalytic Processes

Judith Yang, PhD

Götz Veser, PhD

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ChemE Researcher Receives NSF Grant to Study the Complexity of Ternary Multiphase Materials

Tapping Crude Oil: Designing CO2 Thickeners

“Multiphase materials” are ubiquitous in everyday life, from rubber tires and paints to mayonnaise and shampoo. These materials are distinctive in that some are solid particles dispersed in fluid; some are mixtures of two fluids; and some are gas bubbles dispersed in fluids. A grant from the National Science Foundation will allow Pitt researchers to better understand and control structure and flow of such three-component multiphase systems with the goal of improving manufacturing processes and potentially leading to the creation of new materials.

The project, “Structure and flow in solid/fluid/ fluid systems: Model studies using immiscible polymer blends,” is funded through a $311,689 grant from NSF’s Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems (CBET) Division, through the Particulate and Multiphase Processes program.

The overall goal is to examine the role of surface tension-related phenomena (often called

capillarity) in multiphase flow and structure. The Principal Investigator, Sachin Velankar, PhD, associate professor of chemical and petroleum engineering, explains, “As a community, we know a great deal about structure and flow of particulate suspensions as well as droplet-matrix emulsions. But we know very little about what happens when all three things – particles, fluid drops, and a continuous phase fluid – are present. We know that the flow behavior of materials is not-quite-solid, and not-quite-liquid, but we know little about the structure. This is what our experiments will target.”

The experimental approach uses “model” materials, i.e. materials that are kept sufficiently simple that the issues of interest – interfacial phenomena and their role in structure develop-ment – can be highlighted. For this reason, using molten polymers as the fluids is especially convenient since the structure can be frozen by simply cooling. “So we can get results that are

relevant to a wide range of materials – includ-ing aqueous systems – without ever performing electron microscopy on liquids, which is rather hard,” Dr. Velankar elaborates. “The eventual goal of the project is to develop new ways to process multiphase materials as well as create new materials that are not possible at present.”

Dr. Velankar joined the University of Pittsburgh in August 2002, following postdoctoral fellowships at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, and the University of Minnesota. His research deals with polymers, rheology, two-phase flow, interfacial phenomena, and colloidal systems.

Tapping crude oil more efficiently continues to

be the focus of University of Pittsburgh engineers, who have received a $2.4 million grant from the United States Advanced Research Projects

Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). This award – in conjunction with a $1.2 million U.S. Department of Energy NETL (National Energy Technology Laboratory) grant awarded in October 2012 – aims to increase the amount of oil produced in western and southern states through use of carbon dioxide (CO2) flooding, a process in which CO2 is injected into an oil reservoir for extraction.

The project is headed by Eric Beckman, PhD, George M. Bevier Professor of Engineering and codirector of the Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation at Pitt, and Robert Enick, PhD, NETL RUA Faculty Fellow, Bayer Professor and Vice Chair for Research, Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, both within Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering.

“There’s a wide market for a new type of CO2 thickener that is more efficient and affordable,” said Beckman. “And CO2 is an ideal candidate for oil extrac-tion given its ability to push and dissolve oil from underground layers of rock.”

Their research would improve upon a current CO2 flooding strategy, which involves injecting large volumes of water along with the CO2, known as a water-alternating-gas, or WAG.

“If a thickener could be identified that could increase the viscosity of the CO2 to a value comparable to that of the oil in the underground layers of rock, then the need to inject water would be eliminated and more oil would be recovered more quickly,” said Enick.

The ARPA-E award will also foster continued collaborations between the University of Pittsburgh and GE Global Research (which partnered on a previous ARPA-E award related to carbon capture) and between the University of Pittsburgh and researchers at the NETL facilities in Pittsburgh and Morgantown, W.V.

Contributing author: B. Rose Huber

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Pitt Team Treats Gum Diseaseby Using Homing Beacon to Bring Needed Immune Cells to Inflamed Area

The red, swollen and painful gums and bone destruction of periodontal disease could be effectively treated by

beckoning the right kind of immune system cells to the inflamed tissues, according to a new animal study conducted by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh. Their findings, published this week in the early online version of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, offer a new therapeutic paradigm for a condition that afflicts 78 million people in the U.S. alone.

Periodontal disease currently is treated by keeping oral bacteria in check with daily brushing and flossing as well as regular professional deep cleaning with scaling and root planing, which remove tartar above and below the gum line. In some hard-to-treat cases, antibiotics are given. These strategies of mechanical tartar removal and antimicrobial delivery aim to reduce the amount of oral bacteria on the tooth surface, explained co-author and co-investigator Charles Sfeir, D.D.S., PhD, director, Center for Craniofacial Regeneration and associate professor, Departments of Periodontics and Oral Biology, Pitt’s School of Dental Medicine.

“Currently, we try to control the build-up of bacteria so it doesn’t trigger severe inflammation, which could eventually damage the bone and tissue that hold the teeth in place,” Dr. Sfeir

said. “But that strategy doesn’t address the real cause of the problem, which is an over-reaction of the immune system that causes a needlessly aggressive response to the presence

of oral bacteria. There is a real need to design new approaches to treat

periodontal disease.”

In the healthy mouth, a balance exists between bacteria and the immune system response to forestall infection without generating inflammation, said senior author Steven Little, PhD,

associate professor and chair of the Department of Chemical

and Petroleum Engineering, Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering. But in

many people, a chronic overload of bacteria sets up the immune system to stay on red alert, causing harm to the oral tissues while it attempts to eradicate germs.

“There is a lot of evidence now that shows these diseased tissues are deficient in a subset of immune cells called regulatory T-cells, which tells attacking immune cells to stand down, stopping the inflammatory response,” Dr. Little said. “We wanted to see what would happen if we brought these regulatory T-cells back to the gums.”

To do so, the researchers developed a system of polymer microspheres to slowly release a chemokine, or signaling protein, called CCL22 that attracts regulatory T-cells, and placed tiny amounts of the paste-like agent between the gums and teeth of animals with periodontal disease. The team found that even though the

amount of bacteria was unchanged, the treatment led to improvements of standard measures of periodontal disease, including decreased pocket depth and gum bleeding, reflecting a reduction in inflammation as a result of increased numbers of regulatory T-cells. MicroCT-scanning showed lower rates of bone loss.

“Mummified remains from ancient Egypt show evidence of teeth scraping to remove plaque,” Dr. Little noted. “The tools are better and people are better trained now, but we’ve been doing much the same thing for hundreds of years. Now, this homing beacon for Treg cells, combined with professional cleaning, could give us a new way of preventing the serious consequences of periodontal disease by correcting the immune imbalance that underlies the condition.”

Next steps include developing the immune modulation strategy for human trials. In addition to Drs. Sfeir and Little, the research team included PhD candidate Andrew J. Glowacki, Sayuri Yoshizawa, D.D.S., PhD, Siddharth Jhunjhunwala, PhD, all of the University of Pittsburgh; and Andreia E. Vieira, PhD, and Gustavo P. Garlet, D.D.S., PhD, of Sao Paulo University, Brazil.

The project was funded by National Institutes of Health Grants 1R01DE021058-01 A1, 1R56DE021058-01, the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation, the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation, the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Contributing author: Anita Srikameswaran, University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Science Media Relations

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PITT RESEARCHERS RECEIVE NSF GRANT TO

Explore Development of “Materials that Compute” A computational “fabric” envisioned by University of Pittsburgh researchers could lead to the development of clothing that could respond to external stimuli, monitor vital signs of patients or athletes, and help the visually impaired “sense” their surrounding environment.

The research, recently funded by a $700,000 National Science Foundation Integrated NSF Support Promoting Interdisciplinary Research and Education (INSPIRE) grant build upon the already-established research of Principle Investigator Anna C. Balazs, PhD, Distinguished Robert v. d. Luft Professor of Chemical Engineering, and Steven P. Levitan, PhD, the John A. Jurenko Professor of Computer Engineering at Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering. The two are integrating Dr. Balazs’ research into Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) gel, a substance that oscillates in the absence of external stimuli, with Dr. Levitan’s expertise in computational modeling and oscillator-based computing systems.

“Although BZ gels have been investigated since the 1990s, this research moves in a new direction beyond logic operations – in essence creating materials that compute,” Dr. Balazs explains. “The material would be an integrated sensing, computing and responsive device without an external power source that could act as a “sixth sense” for those who wear it.”

Drs. Balazs and Levitan propose utilizing the chemo-responsive nature of the BZ gels to create a chemical-based computational fabric that would be lightweight and mechanically compliant, and would be human-centric, sensing and responding to human touch and motion. The material would perform autonomously for up to several hours without connections to an external power supply.

The BZ reactions within the gels would perform information process-ing between sets of stored or learned patterns and stimuli in the form of light, pressure or chemistry. This ability for the material to interpret a stimulus, send out a signal and respond in kind will be a key part of the research. “In essence, we let the physics do the computing.”

“The real leverage for this project is capitalizing on the gels’ natural oscillation to communicate at a human scale that can sense the surrounding environment, process information and react to complex stimuli,” Dr. Levitan adds. “The fabric would most likely require a piezoelectric film to generate an electric field, allowing it to interface with embedded electronics.

The five-year grant will allow the researchers to further the computa-tional modeling of how such a BZ gel fabric would function, with the goal that others would be able to fabricate the material.

“Imagine this fabric helping a burn patient who has lost the sense of touch know whether he is in contact with a hot or cold material, or the fabric integrated into a jogging suit that can monitor and display your pulse, pressure and respiration,” Dr. Balazs says. “By eliminating the need for external wiring or typical computer processors, this sensing fabric could help to change human quality of life.”

The NSF INSPIRE awards program was established to address some of the most complicated and pressing scientific problems that lie at the intersection of traditional disciplines. “Sensing and Computing with Oscillating Chemical Reactions” is jointly funded between the Division of materials research (DMR) in the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) and the Division of Computing and Communication Foundations (CCF) in the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE).

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That potential is now possible according to re-searchers at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering, who have developed computational models to design a new polymer gel that would enable complex materials to regenerate themselves. The article, “Harnessing Interfacially-Active Nanorods to Regenerate Severed Polymer Gels” (DOI: 10.1021/nl403855k), was published November 19 in the American Chemical Society journal Nano Letters.

Principal investigator is Anna C. Balazs, PhD, the Swanson School’s Distinguished Robert v. d. Luft Professor of Chemical Engineering, and co-authors are Xin Yong, PhD, postdoctoral associate, who is the article’s lead author; Olga Kuksenok, PhD, research associate professor; and Krzysztof Matyjaszewski, PhD, J.C. Warner University Professor of Natural Sciences, department of chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University.

“This is one of the holy grails of materials science,” noted Dr. Balazs. “While others have developed materials that can mend small defects, there is no published research regarding systems that can regenerate bulk sections of a severed

material. This has a tremendous impact on sustainability because you could potentially extend the lifetime of a material by giving it the ability to regrow when damaged.”

The research team was inspired by biological processes in species such as amphibians, which can regenerate severed limbs. This type of tissue regeneration is guided by three critical instruction sets – initiation, propagation, and termination – which Dr. Balazs describes as a “beautiful dynamic cascade” of biological events.

“When we looked at the biological processes behind tissue regeneration in amphibians, we

Composites That Can Regenerate When DamagedWhen a chair leg breaks or a cell phone shatters, either must be repaired or

replaced. But what if these materials could be programmed to regenerate themselves, replenishing the damaged or missing components, and thereby

extend their lifetime and reduce the need for costly repairs?

POLYMER GEL, HEAL THYSELF:

Imagine an automobile coating that changes its structure to adapt to a humid environment or a salt-covered road, better protecting the car from corrosion. Or consider a soldier’s uniform that could alter its own camouflage or more effectively protect against poison gas or shrapnel upon contact.

A trio of university researchers from the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and the University of Illinois is proposing to advance 3D printing one step – or rather, one dimension – further. Thanks to an $855,000 grant from the United States Army Research

Office, the group proposes to develop 4D materials which can exhibit behavior that changes over time.

The research group includes Principal Investigator Anna C. Balazs, PhD, the Distinguished Robert v. d. Luft Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering, and researcher in the computational design of chemo-mechanically responsive gels and composites. Co-PIs are Jennifer A. Lewis, ScD, the Hansjörg Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and an expert in 3D printing of functional materials; and Ralph G. Nuzzo, PhD, the G. L. Clark Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois, and synthetic chemist who has created novel stimuli-responsive materials.

PITT-LED RESEARCH TEAM RECEIVES GRANT

to Develop Four-dimensional Printing to Create Adaptive Materials

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The three will integrate their expertise to manipulate materials at nano and micro levels in order to produce, via 3D printing, materials that can modify their own structures over time at the macro level. 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, is the process of creating a three-dimensional solid object based upon a digital model by depositing successive layers of material.

“Rather than construct a static material or one that simply changes its shape, we’re proposing the development of adaptive, biomimetic composites that re-program their shape, properties or functionality on demand, based upon external stimuli,” Dr. Balazs explained. “By integrating our abilities to print precise, three-dimensional, hierarchically-structured materials; synthesize stimuli-responsive components; and predict the temporal behavior of the system; we expect to build the foundation for the new field of 4D printing.”

Dr. Lewis adds that current 3D printing technology allows the researchers to build in complicated functionality at the nano and

micro levels not just throughout an entire structure, but also within specific areas of the structure. “If you use materials that possess the ability to change their properties or shape multiple times, you don’t have to build for a specific, one-time use,” she explains. “Composites that can be reconfigured in the presence of different stimuli could dramatically extend the reach of 3D printing.”

Since the research will utilize responsive fillers embedded within a stimuli-responsive hydrogel, Dr. Nuzzo says this opens new routes for producing the next generation of smart sensors, coatings, textiles and structural components. “The ability to create one fabric that responds to light by changing its color, and to temperature by altering its permeability, and even to an external force by hardening its struc-ture, becomes possible through the creation of responsive materials that are simultaneously adaptive, flexible, lightweight and strong. It’s this “complicated functionality” that makes true 4D printing a game-changer.”

considered how we would replicate that dynamic cascade within a synthetic material,” Dr. Balazs said. “We needed to develop a system that first would sense the removal of material and initiate regrowth, then propagate that growth until the material reached the desired size and then, self-terminate the process.”

“Our biggest challenge was to address the transport issue within a synthetic material,” Dr. Balazs said. “Biological organisms have circulatory systems to achieve mass transport of materials like blood cells, nutrients and genetic material. Synthetic materials don’t inherently possess such a system, so we needed something that acted like a sensor to initiate and control the process.”

The team developed a hybrid material of nanorods embedded in a polymer gel, which is surrounded by a solution containing monomers and cross-linkers (molecules that link one polymer chain to another) in order to replicate the dynamic cascade. When part of the gel is severed, the nanorods near the cut act as sensors and migrate to the new interface. The functionalized chains or “skirts” on one end of these nanorods keeps

them localized at the interface and the sites (or “initiators”) along the rod’s surface trigger a polymerization reaction with the monomer and cross-linkers in the outer solution. Drs. Yong and Kuksenok developed the computational models, and thereby established guidelines to control the process so that the new gel behaves and appears like the gel it replaced, and to terminate the reaction so that the material would not grow out of control.

Drs. Balazs, Kuksenok and Yong also credit Krzysztof Matyjaszewski, who contributed toward the understanding of the chemistry behind the polymerization process. “Our collaboration with Prof. Matyjaszewski was exceptionally valuable in allowing us to accurately account for all the complex chemical reactions involved in the regeneration processes” said Dr. Kuksenok.

“The most beautiful yet challenging part was designing the nanorods to serve multiple roles,” Dr. Yong said. “In effect, they provide the perfect vehicle to trigger a synthetic dynamic cascade.” The nanorods are approximately ten nanometers in thickness, about 10,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair.

In the future, the researchers plan to improve the process and strengthen the bonds between the old and newly formed gels, and for this they were inspired by another nature metaphor, the giant sequoia tree. “One sequoia tree will have a shallow root system, but when they grow in numbers, the root systems intertwine to provide support and contribute to their tremendous

growth,” Dr. Balazs explains. Similarly, the skirts on the nanorods can provide additional strength to the regenerated material.

The next generation of research would further optimize the process to grow multiple layers, creating more complex materials with multiple functions.

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One of Forbes Magazine’s

Top “30 Under 30” Researcher Joins ChemE

Energy and environmental researcher Christopher Wilmer, PhD will be joining

the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering this fall as assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering. Dr. Wilmer, who received his PhD in chemical and biological engineering at Northwest-ern University, will focus on utilizing large-scale molecular simulations to design new materials for energy and environmental applications.

Dr. Wilmer’s research involves the use of large-scale molecular simulations to help find promising materials for energy and environmental applica-tions. Using supercomputers managed by Pitt’s Center for Simulation and Modeling (SaM), his research group will explore millions of hypotheti-cal materials and then work with experimental collaborators to synthesize the best ones. Specific research efforts will be aimed at designing porous materials for natural gas storage and separations, electrodes for batteries, and supramolecular structures for nano-manufacturing applications.

His computational modeling research and ground-breaking discoveries in high-performance metal organic frameworks (MOFs) were recognized in December 2012 when Forbes magazine included him in its “30 Under 30 in Energy” list.

“Chris’ interdisciplinary research is a perfect fit for the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, as well as for the Swanson School’s focus on energy, sustainability and the environ-ment,” said Steven R. Little, PhD, associate professor, CNG faculty fellow and department chair. “His theoretical modeling and simulation expertise will support the development of new materials for energy applications including gen-eration, transmission, storage and sequestration.”

“I am extremely excited to join the department. It is clear that natural gas is going to play a domi-nant role in the energy future of the United States,

if not the world, and the University of Pittsburgh is right next to one of the largest known reserves,” Dr. Wilmer said. “It will be exciting to be doing research at the heart of the next energy revolution.

“The expertise in computational modeling of molecular-scale systems at the University of Pittsburgh is without parallel. I am looking forward to contribute to the Center for Simulation and Modeling and further its mission to be a nexus of excellence for computational modeling in the United States.”

Dr. Wilmer was born in Canada to Polish parents who immigrated to Canada shortly before Poland fell under martial law in 1981. Spurred by nanotechnology-driven visions of the future penned by writers Erik Drexler and Ray Kurzweil, Chris acquired a earned his bachelors of applied science from the University of Toronto’s Engineering Science – Nanoengineering program.

Coming to the United States to pursue a PhD in Chemical Engineering at Northwestern under the mentorship of Prof. Randall Q. Snurr, he took an interest in the American way of developing new technologies – through entrepreneurship. While still a student, he co-founded a spin-out company, NuMat Technologies, based on his doctoral research. NuMat designs porous materials that could be used to make better natural gas fuel tanks for vehicles, and in 2012 the company won the Department of Energy’s National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition, held at the White House. This past year NuMat raised over $2 million in private investment and has grown to more than ten employees. Dr. Wilmer has authored almost 20 publications and holds more than 500 article citations, and received the Distinguished Graduate Researcher Award from Northwestern in 2012.

For more information visit Dr. Wilmer’s website at www.wilmerlab.com.

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Pitt Team Finds Water ‘Likeability’ Plays a Role in Battery-charged Objects

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Among this year’s new faculty appointments within the

Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering is Giannis Mpourmpakis, PhD as assistant professor. Dr. Mpourmpakis previ-ously was a Senior Researcher at the Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation (CCEI) at the University of Delaware.

“Dr. Mpourmpakis’ research into how catalysts perform at the nano-scopic level will have a tremendous

impact into our Department’s focus on energy innovation,” noted Steven R. Little, PhD, associate professor, CNG Faculty Fellow and chair of the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering.

At the Swanson School Dr. Mpourmpakis research will investigate the activity and synthetic pathways of bimetallic catalysts for energy and environmental applications. By focusing on applications at the atomic level, he hopes to develop more efficient and low-cost bimetallic catalysts for hydrogen purification, production and fuel cells applications.

Dr. Mpourmpakis’ research focuses on the theoretical investigation of the physicochemical properties of nanomaterials, with applications in the nanotechnology and energy arenas. His research is interdisciplinary, cross-cutting the fields of energy, nanotechnology, materials science, catalysis and modeling. In addition to performing original research on biomass conversion to fuels and chemicals, his duties at CCEI included advising of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.

Dr. Mpourmpakis earned his bachelor of science in chemistry (2001), master of science in applied molecular spectroscopy, (2003) and PhD in theoretical and computational chemistry (2006) from the University of Crete, Greece. His doctoral research focused on the theoretical design of novel nanomaterials for hydrogen storage applications, under the advisement of Prof. George E. Froudakis. In 2006 he joined the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Delaware as a postdoctoral researcher and investigated the catalytic behavior and growth mechanisms of metal nanoparticles, under the supervision of Prof. Dionisios G. Vlachos (Elizabeth Inez Kelley Professor of Chemical Engineering and Director of CCEI). He has published 37 research papers in high impact journals (h-index=14, citations ~ 700). His research has attracted significant awards including the post-doctoral Marie-Curie Interna-tional Outgoing Fellowship from the European Commission (2008-2011) and participation in the 60th Nobel Laureate Meeting in which he was selected as one of the top 500 young researchers worldwide in Lindau, Germany (2010).

Objects made from graphite – such as lithium-ion batteries – are “hydrophobic,” meaning that

they “dislike” water. For decades this lack of likeability has presented significant challenges in terms of building more durable technological devices made with graphite – until now.

It appears that past samples of graphite were likely contaminated by air, causing the samples to appear hydrophobic, according to a University of Pittsburgh study. The Pitt team has demonstrated – for the first time – these materials are actually intrinsically attracted to water or “hydrophilic.” The findings, published in Nature Materials, have particular implications for lithium-ion batteries and super capacitors, as both battery types are built from these materials.

“This work could change the fundamental understanding of the surface properties of these materials,” said

Lei Li, PhD, co-lead author of the paper and an assistant professor within Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering. “These findings hold implications for producing stronger, more durable batteries. And, hopefully, it will also be important to the fabrication of devices in various nanotechnology areas.”

It was former undergraduate engineering student Rebecca McGinley (ENG ’12) who noticed the inconsis-tent results regarding the surface’s “wetting behavior” or its reaction to water, pushing the team to further investigate the strange phenomena. They found that, when graphite and graphene are exposed to air, a thin layer of hydrocarbon (a compound made entirely of hydrogen and carbon) quickly contaminated the surface. Using infrared spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, the team was able to “see” this

Nanotech and Energy Researcher Giannis Mpourmpakis Joins Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering

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John Keith, PhD Appointed Inaugural R.K. Mellon Faculty Fellow

hydrocarbon layer, noting its hydrophobic nature. However, when the team used heat to remove this contaminant layer, the surface became hydrophilic.

“Plastic and other types of materials emit hydrocarbon into the air,” said Haitao Liu, co-lead author of the paper and an assistant professor in Pitt’s Department of Chemistry within the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. “In the past, the research community believed that graphite didn’t ‘like’ water, possibly because their samples were always contaminated; the contamination happens typically within 10 minutes.”

Liu and Li say this wettability could have an impact on how much energy can be stored within such devices that use lithium-ion batteries or super capaci-tors. The team will now conduct follow-up studies to understand the origins of their observations and study how controlling this wettability may impact some of the applications of graphite (e.g. lubrication and energy storage).

In addition to McGinley, other collaborators from Li’s engineering laboratory include Patrick Ireland (ENG ’12), Andrew Kozbial (ENG ’13), Yongjin Wang (ENG ’13), and current undergraduate student Brittni Morganstein. From Liu’s chemistry laboratory, graduate students Zhiting Li (A&S ’13) and Feng Zhou (A&S ’13) were involved as well as Ganesh Shenoy (A&S ’13) and undergraduate chemistry student Alyssa Kunkle. Likewise, Pitt postdoctoral researcher in chemistry Sumedh Surwade assisted.

The paper, “Effect of airborne contaminants on the wettability of supported graphene and graphite,” first appeared online July 21. This work was supported by Taiho Kogyo Tribology Research Foundation, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Office of Naval Research, Pitt’s Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation, Pitt’s Central Research Development Fund, and the National Science Foundation.

Contributing author: B. Rose Huber

Battery-charged Objects continued

University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering has named John Keith, PhD

as Assistant Professor and R.K. Mellon Faculty Fellow, according to an announcement from Steven R. Little, PhD, Associate Professor, CNG Faculty Fellow and Chair of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering. Dr. Keith’s appointment is funded in part through the 2012 Richard King Mellon Foundation grant to the University’s Center for Energy, in which Dr. Keith will also participate.

Dr. Keith’s research focus will be developing and applying multiscale computational methods to

predict how to develop novel catalysts and enhance existing processes that convert CO2 and water into useful chemicals and fuels. In collaboration with experimentalists, this work will likely contribute to finding economically feasible routes for energy solutions.

Prior to joining the Swanson School, Dr. Keith was an associate research scholar with Emily Carter, Founding Director, Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, Gerhard R. Andlinger Professor in Energy and the Environment, Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering & Applied and Computational Mathematics at Princeton University. In addition to mentoring several graduate students, Dr. Keith was a lecturer and did research within a collaborative AFOSR-MURI program to better understand rhenium catalyzed CO2 reduction to CO and pyridinium catalyzed CO2 reduction to methanol. Prior to that he was an Alexander von Humboldt postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Dr. Timo Jacob, Director of the Institute for Electrochemistry at the University of Ulm (Germany). There, he used computational chemistry to model heterogeneous electrocatalytic reaction mechanisms, self-assembled monolayer metallization processes, and he contributed to the development of a reactive forcefield for gold surfaces and nanoparticles.

Dr. Keith received his BA in chemistry with high honors from Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, where he was first introduced to theoretical chemistry by George Petersson, PhD, Professor of Theoretical and Computation Chemistry and Fisk Professor of Natural Science. As an undergraduate he received American Chemical Society Connecticut Valley Regional Award (2001); the Bradley Prize for outstanding undergraduate thesis in chemistry (2001); and the American Chemical Society Analytical Chemistry Award (2000). Before entering graduate school, he spent a semester instructing introductory chemistry laboratory at the University of Minnesota while working as a visit-ing researcher with noted computational quantum and theoretical chemistry researcher Donald G. Truhlar, PhD, Regents Professor of Chemistry.

His graduate research using first principles quantum chemistry to model solution phase organometallic catalysis was carried out under William A. Goddard, Charles and Mary Ferkel Professor of Chemistry, Materials Science, and Applied Physics and Director of the Materials and Process Simulation Center at the California Institute of Technology where in 2007 he received his PhD in chemistry.

Visit Dr. Keith’s website at klic.pitt.edu.

n Winter 2014 | 11ENGINEERING.PITT.EDU

HONORSWARDSA

ANNA BALAZS, PhD, the Distinguished Robert v. d. Luft Professor of Chemical Engineering, was awarded the national 2013 Mines Medal by the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology. The South Dakota School of Mines & Technology founded the national award in 2009 to recognize scientists and engineers who have demonstrated exceptional leadership and innovation. “Dr. Balazs inspired our faculty and students to ask themselves what are the most important scientific problems the world faces and work on them. For her, it is the line between living and non-living. If a finger can regenerate itself like a salamander can regrow a limb, if we can develop new sensors for prosthetics that translate pressure into neural impulses that allow someone to feel again, then we will have understood more about the science of living. She inspired us, by her words and her example, to force our minds outward. We are grateful for her work, and happy to honor her with the Mines Medal,” said South Dakota School of Mines & Technology President Heather Wilson, D.Phil.

CHERYL BODNAR, PhD, assistant professor of chemical and petroleum engineering, was selected to participate in the National Academy of Engineering’s annual Frontiers of Engineering Education Symposium, October 27-30 in Irvine, California. The Frontiers of Engineering Education (FOEE) Symposium brings together some of the nation’s most engaged and innovative engineering educators in order to recognize, reward, and promote effective, substantive, and inspirational engineering education through a sustained dialogue within the emerging generation of innovative faculty. Dr. Bodnar’s research interests relate to the incorporation of active learning techniques such as problem based learning and games and simulations in undergraduate classes as well as the integration of innovation and entrepreneurship into the Chemical and Petroleum Engineering curriculum. She is actively engaged in the development of a variety of informal science education approaches with the goal of teaching K-12 students about and exciting them in regenerative medicine and its potential to transform human lives. She earned her B.Sc. with distinction and PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

NAI-CHIU “JOSEPH” LAI, PhD CHE ’73, Chairman and Co- founder, Fastgen Corporation, was named the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering Distinguished Alumnus. Fastgen is a start-up biomedical technology company, based in California, involved in the development of diagnostic products for screening TB and diseases. Dr. Lai was also founder and chairman (2000-2003) and director of BioForm Medical Inc. until it was acquired in 2011 (now Merz Aesthetics). He received his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh and BS from Cornell University, both in Chemical Engineering. While at Pitt Dr. Lai engaged in pioneer research in sensor development for real-time blood gas monitoring under Professor C. C. Liu, and since been involved in the biosensors and medical technology industry. Upon graduation, he continued biosensors development for real- time and bed-side monitoring at General Electric Medical System Group and then at other companies. He has co-founded three other companies, Criticare Systems Inc, Gaztech Inc, and Immtech International Inc. Criticare and Immtech went public on Nasdaq in 1986 and 1996, and Gastech was acquired. At Criticare he led a team to develop pulse-oximeter, non-invasive blood pressure monitor (NIBP), and IR anesthetic gas monitor which are now the standard of care in hospitals and clinics around the world.

STEVEN R. LITTLE, PhD and ROBERT M. ENICK, PhD were among the recipients of the 2013 Carnegie Science Awards, sponsored by Eaton. The Carnegie Science Center established the Carnegie Science Awards program in 1997 to recognize and promote outstanding science and technology achievements in western Pennsylvania. Dr. Enick, the NETL RUA Faculty Fellow, Bayer Professor and Vice Chair for Research, Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, received the Environmental Award. Working in collaboration with a GE Global Research Team, Dr. Enick has developed a unique method of capturing carbon dioxide from the stacks of coal-fired power plants. This state-of-the-art technique is projected to have much lower energy costs than current technologies.

Dr. Little, associate professor, CNG Faculty Fellow and Chair, received the University/Post-Secondary Educator Award. Locally, Dr. Little is recognized as a first-rate educator and mentor by his colleagues and students. He was also recently named a “Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar” and chosen to speak to the nation’s brightest science and engineering students at the Beckman Foundation’s Scholars Symposium.

LISA VOLPATTI ’13 was named a 2013 recipient of the Whitaker International Fellows and Scholars Program award. She will use the award to attend Churchill College at the University of Cambridge in England, where she will pursue a one-year research degree, the Master of Philosophy in Chemistry. Ms. Volpatti will focus her research on examining the chemical properties of amyloid fibrils to determine whether they have the potential to deliver pharmaceuticals to parts of the human body.

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James Martin Pommersheim Award continued from front cover

UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH | SWANSON SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING | CHEME NEWS | WINTER 2014

Dr. Pommersheim received bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh. While working on his graduate research he spent three years here as a teaching assistant. His interest in teaching was sparked by his interaction with Pitt faculty, most notably its Chair, Professor Edward Stuart. He served the Department of Chemical Engineer-ing at Bucknell University as a professor from 1965 to 2003 and again in fall 2006. His research and teaching was focused on conceptual and mathematical modeling in Chemical Engineering, with research centered on transport in cementi-tious systems. At Bucknell he was instrumental in establishing the transport theory sequence of courses, as well as his own course in applied mathematics which emphasized modeling along with mathematical methods. He enjoyed the challenge of teaching chemical engineering

topics to freshman students in the course Exploring Engineering. Dr. Pommersheim also taught Operations Research in the Management Department for three years. He served as Visiting Research Professor at Penn State University in the summers of 1988 and 1989; and Visiting Professor, Department of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering, in the spring semesters of 2005, 2006 and 2011 at Syracuse University.

In addition to his extensive teaching career, Dr. Pommersheim served as a research associate for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Occidental Research and Petroleum, Mobil Oil, and NASA. He provided consulting services for the Center for Building Technology (NIST) and for Pennsylvania State University, State College (Materials Research Institute). He has a number of publications and presentations at national and international meetings.

Dr. Pommersheim is a member of AIChE as well as several other professional and honorary societies. His specific honors and awards include: Faculty Advisor to outstanding Senior Design teams in the Smith College of Engineering, Syracuse University (2005 and 2006); Outstanding Paper Award from the Society of Coating Technology (1996); ASEE Mid-Atlantic Region Award for Excellence in Instruction of Engineering (1984); Class of 1956 Award for Inspirational Teaching, Bucknell University (1985); Invited Scholar, Faculty Development Program of Queen’s University (1982); and the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, Bucknell University (1979).

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