About this Event
1420 Circle Drive, Knoxville, TN 37996
UT Host: Dr. David Jenkins
Speaker: Dr. Jonah W. Jurss
Assistant Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry
University of Mississippi
Title: “Catalytic CO2 Reduction with Earth-Abundant Complexes Featuring Redox-Active Macrocycles“
Abstract: Roughly 85% of the world’s energy is derived from burning fossil fuels that generate greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide is the chief component of this waste stream and a leading contributor to climate change. It also represents a readily accessible C1 feedstock for producing value-added chemicals. To effectively utilize CO2, more efficient catalysts are needed to mediate its multielectron conversion. In this context, we have developed a family of earth-abundant nickel and cobalt catalysts supported by increasingly rigid bipyridyl-N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC)-based ligands for electrochemical and photochemical CO2 reduction to CO and CH4. Systematic modifications to the ligand framework were made to tune the flexibility and geometry of the metal complexes. Indeed, with minimal changes to the ligand donors, catalyst structure is shown to have a remarkable influence on the selectivity for CO2 reduction in the presence of water.
Bio: Jonah Jurss obtained a B.S. in Chemistry from North Carolina State University and earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. At UNC, he studied water oxidation catalysis with ruthenium polypyridyl complexes under the direction of Prof. Thomas J. Meyer and Prof. Joseph L. Templeton. After postdoctoral research on electrocatalytic hydrogen generation with Prof. Christopher J. Chang at the University of California, Berkeley, he began his independent career at the University of Mississippi in 2014. Dr. Jurss is the recipient of an NSF CAREER award and his group focuses on developing and understanding new molecular catalysts for artificial photosynthesis and C-H bond functionalization.
0 people are interested in this event