This project aims to upgrade a rapid-testing reactor system to more quickly and accurately evaluate new catalysts for important chemical reactions, speeding up catalyst discovery.
The Rioux group has developed a rapid method to determine the kinetics of heterogeneously catalyzed reactions using a transient reactor system combined with pseudo-random binary sequence (PRBS) gas pulses. This approach significantly reduces the time required to measure reaction rates and derive reliable kinetic and thermodynamic parameters compared to traditional methods, which can take weeks or months for a single catalyst. While initially demonstrated for carbon monoxide oxidation, the method is broadly applicable to other gas-phase catalytic reactions. This project focuses on applying the PRBS transient reactor approach to the ammoxidation of propane and related alkanes, reactions that produce nitriles used in plastics, rubbers, and fibers. In collaboration with Professor James Hodges, who is developing a wide range of mixed metal oxide (MMO) catalysts, the team will rapidly screen many catalyst compositions and reaction conditions. The resulting high-quality kinetic data will enable identification of the most promising catalysts and support data-driven approaches to catalyst discovery. To improve measurement accuracy and expand the range of reactions that can be studied, the team will replace the current mass spectrometer with a fast-response gas-phase infrared spectrometer. Unlike mass spectrometry, infrared detection is less sensitive to matrix effects and corrosive gases such as ammonia, making it better suited for ammoxidation and other challenging reactions. This upgrade will broaden the applicability, reliability, and impact of the transient kinetic methodology.
