TOPIC：Atomic-architecture of nano-structured catalytic materials under operating conditions
SPEAKER：Prof. Gopinathan Sankar, Deparment of Chemistry, University College London
TIME：October 13 (Thursday) PM15:00
VENUE：410 Meeting Room, Chemistry Building B (化学B楼410会议室)
INVITER：Prof. Jiesheng Chen (陈接胜教授)

Abstract：
Catalysis is the back-bone of chemical industries and they will continue to be essential in numerous applications that are indispensable to enhance quality of our life and society.  Among the various processes based on heterogeneous catalysis, selective oxidation reactions play a pivotal role in chemical industries; oxidation is one of the largest process and contributes about 25% of total production in chemical industries. The catalytic oxidation of alcohols to aldehydes or ketones is widely recognized as one of the most fundamental transformations in organic chemistry and furthermore these reactions represent as an example of green chemistry. 

Several types of heterogeneous catalysts, for example, supported catalysts, bulk oxides and nanoporous materials, are widely used for a variety of catalytic reactions. Within the family of heterogeneous catalytic systems, nanoporous materials are highly effective for performing shape selective reactions and hence studied widely for a variety of catalytic applications. Similarly nano sized metals and metal oxides are becoming increasingly important in a range of catalytic applications.

Whilst these materials are widely used for a range of applications, it is important to understand the structure under operating conditions to establish structure-function relationships.  To do so, it is necessary to employ techniques that provide sufficient time resolution to determine the atomic-structure under operating conditions.  X-ray techniques in particular using Synchrotron Radiation offers many such possibilities.  A detailed discussion of how the combination of X-ray techniques provide detailed information of size, shape, short, medium and long range structures of nano structured materials by taking examples from nano sized oxides and crystalline zeolite systems.  Advantages and disadvantages of these techniques will be discussed in detail.

Biography
1. Personal Details
Name: Professor Gopinathan Sankar, Ph. D., M.R.S.C.
Department: Department of Chemistry, University College London
Date of Appointment: 1st July 2007

2. Education / Qualifications
1979 B.Sc. Chemistry (1st class), University of Madras, India.
1981 MSc, Anna University, Madras, India.
1986 Ph.D. \"EXAFS studies of catalysts and related systems\", Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India.

3. Professional History
2007-  Professor of Inorganic and Materials Chemistry, University College London.
2004-2007 Professor of Materials Chemistry, The Royal Institution of GB, London
1996-2004 Leverhulme Research Fellow and Asst. director Davy Faraday Research Lab, The Royal institution of GB.
1990-1994 PDRA, Davy Faraday Research Lab, The Royal institution of GB, London.
1987-1990 Scientific Officer, Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, India.

4. Prizes, Awards and other Honours
Year  Award       Awarding Body
1989  Young Scientist       Indian Academy of Sciences

5.1 Publications
Produced over 240 publications in international journals, >150 invited conference lectures and international University Lectures. Overall citations 8110 (based on Web of Science).  H-index = 50; 17 publications cited more than 100 times and one of them more than 1000 times
5.2 Selected Recent Publications
[1] Bhachu, D.S., Sathasivam, S., Sankar, G., Scanlon, D.O., Cibin, G., Carmalt, C.J., Parkin, I.P., Watson, G.W., Bawaked, S.M. & Obaid, A.Y. 2014 Solution Processing Route to Multifunctional Titania Thin Films: Highly Conductive and Photcatalytically Active Nb: TiO2. Advanced Functional Materials 24, 5075-5085.
[2] Bhachu, D.S., Scanlon, D.O., Sankar, G., Veal, T., Egdell, R.G., Cibin, G., Dent, A.J., Knapp, C.E., Carmalt, C.J. & Parkin, I.P. 2015 The Origin of High Mobility in Molybdenum Doped Indium Oxide. Chemistry of Materials.
[3] Hyde, T.I. & Sankar, G. 2015 Solid State Platinum Speciation from X-ray Absorption Spectroscopic Studies of Fresh and Road Aged Three Way and Diesel Vehicle Emission Control Catalysts. In Platinum Metals in the Environment (pp. 289-308, Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
[4] Roldan, A., Hollingsworth, N., Roffey, A., Islam, H.-U., Goodall, J., Catlow, C., Darr, J., Bras, W., Sankar, G., Holt, K. G Hogarth, NH de Leeuw, 2015 Bio-inspired CO2 conversion by iron sulfide catalysts under sustainable conditions. Chemical Communications 51, 7501-7504.
[5] Sankar, M., Ajithkumar, T.G., Sankar, G. & Manikandan, P. 2015 Supported imidazole as heterogeneous catalyst for the synthesis of cyclic carbonates from epoxides and CO 2. Catalysis Communications 59, 201-205.
[6] Santos, V.P., Wezendonk, T.A., Jaén, J.J.D., Dugulan, A.I., Nasalevich, M.A., Islam, H.-U., Chojecki, A., Sartipi, S., Sun, X. & Hakeem, A.AArd CJ Koeken, Matthijs Ruitenbeek, Thomas Davidian, Garry R Meima, Gopinathan Sankar, Freek Kapteijn, Michiel Makkee, Jorge Gascon. 2015 Metal organic framework-mediated synthesis of highly active and stable Fischer-Tropsch catalysts. Nature communications 6.
[7] Simmance, K., van Beek, W. & Sankar, G. 2015 Time resolved in situ X-ray diffraction study of crystallisation processes of large pore nanoporous aluminophosphate materials. Faraday discussions 177, 237-247.