Science at the Edge
Engineering Seminar
April
1st,
2016
11:30
a.m., Room1400
Biomedical and
Refreshments
served
at 11:15 a.m.
Tobin J. Marks
Chemistry
Department
Northwestern
University
Strategies
for Biofeedstock
Conversions via Tandem Catalytic C-O Hydrogenolysis
Abstract
This
lecture focuses on thermodynamics/mechanism-based strategies
for converting
abundant biofeedstocks into useful fuels and chemicals. New approaches to the
hydrogenolysis of the
ubiquitous biofeedstock C-O bonds include selective
hydrogenolysis of cyclic
and linear etheric C-O bonds by tandem catalytic systems
consisting of
recyclable metal triflates and supported hydrogenation
catalysts, in either
ionic liquid solvents or in the neat substrates. Kinetic and
DFT computational
studies show that the turnover-limiting step in these
reactions is the
retro-hydroalkoxylation, followed by rapid alkenol
hydrogenation. The metal
triflate catalytic activity scales approximately with the
DFT-computed charge
density on the metal ion. With
the most
active catalysts, ethereal substrates are rapidly converted,
via the alkenol,
to the corresponding saturated hydrocarbons.
In similar tandem processes, esters and triglycerides
are also rapidly
and selectively converted, ultimately, to C3 hydrocarbons and
diesters or
biodiesel fuel. The
kinetics and
mechanism of these ester hydrogenolysis processes, as deduced
by combined
experimental results and DFT computation, are compared and
contrasted with
those of the corresponding ethers.
Bio
Tobin
Marks is Vladimir N. Ipatieff Professor of Chemistry,
Professor of Materials
Science and Engineering, and Professor of Applied Physics at
Northwestern
University, and Distinguished Adjunct Professor at Texas
A&M Qatar and
World Class BK21 Professor at Korea University.
He received a B.S. degree in Chemistry from the
University of Maryland
(1966) and Ph.D. from MIT (1971) in Inorganic Chemistry. His research interests
include transition
metal and f‑element organometallic chemistry; catalysis;
vibrational
spectroscopy; synthetic facsimiles of metalloprotein active
sites;
carcinostatic metal complexes; solid state chemistry and
low-dimensional
molecular metals; nonlinear optical materials; polymer
chemistry;
tetrahydroborate coordination chemistry; macrocycle
coordination chemistry;
molecular electro-optics; metal-organic
chemical
vapor deposition; polymerization catalysis; printed flexible
electronics; solar energy; and transparent conductors.
Marks
has received American Chemical Society National Awards in
Polymeric Materials,
1983; Organometallic Chemistry, 1989; Inorganic Chemistry,
1994; Chemistry of
Materials, 2001; Distinguished Service in Inorganic Chemistry,
2008; Organic
Chemistry (Cope Senior Scholar), 2010; Catalysis (Somorjai),
2013. He received the
2000 American Chemical
Society Cotton Medal; 2001
American Chemical Society Willard Gibbs Medal; 2001 N.
American Catalysis
Society Burwell Award; 2001 American Chemical Society Linus
Pauling Medal; 2002
American Institute of Chemists Gold Medal; 2003 German
Chemical Society Karl
Ziegler Prize; 2004 Royal Society of Chemistry Frankland
Medal, 2005 American
Chemical Society Bailar Medal;
Member, U. S. National Academy of Sciences (1993); Fellow,
American Academy of
Arts and Sciences (1993), Member, German National Academy of
Sciences (2005);
Fellow, Royal Society of Chemistry (2005); US National Medal
of Science (2007);
Fellow, Chemical Research Society of India (2008); Fellow,
Materials Research
Society (2009): Honorary
Fellow, Indian
Academy of Sciences (2010). He received the 2008 Spanish
Principe de Asturias
Prize for Scientific Research; 2009 N. American Catalysis
Society Pines Award;
2009 Taylor Materials Research Award, Penn. State U.; 2009 Von
Hippel Award,
Materials Research Society; 2010
American Chemical Society Nichols Medal; 2010
Distinguished Affiliated
Professor Award and Wilhelm Manchot Prize, Technical U. of
Munich; 2010
American Chemical Society Mosher Award; 2011 Schulich Prize,
Technion-Israel
Institute of Technology; 2011 Dreyfus Prize in the Chemical
Sciences; 2012
American Chemical Society Richards Medal; the 2012 National
Academy of Sciences
Award in the Chemical Sciences; member, National Academy of
Engineering, 2012;
Distinguished Alumni Award and Election, Circle of Discovery,
University of
Maryland, 2012; Alan G. MacDiarmid Medal, University of
Pennsylvania, 2013;
Wilkinson Medal, Royal Society of Chemistry UK, 2014; Luigi
Sacconi Medal,
Italian Chemical Society, 2015.
He received Doctor of Science degrees
honoris causa, from
the Hong Kong
University of Science and Technology in 2011, the University
of South Carolina
in 2011, and the Ohio State University in 2012.
Peer-reviewed
publications: 1195; h-index = 136 (on 71,500 citations);
Issued US Patents:
233.
For further
information
please contact Prof. Richard Lunt, Department of Chemical
Engineering and
Materials Science at [log in to unmask]
Persons with disabilities have the right
to request and
receive reasonable accommodation. Please call the Department of
Chemical
Engineering and Materials Science at 355-5135 at least one day
prior to the
seminar; requests received after this date will be met when
possible.