Seminar - Robert Davis

Robert Davis

Tandem Reactions of Alcohols Derived from Renewable Biomass over Multifunctional Catalysts

Abstract

Alcohols can be produced easily from a variety of carbon sources, including renewable biomass.  In this talk, the subsequent transformations of carbohydrate-derived alcohols via catalytic hydrogenolysis over bifunctional Pt-Re catalysts and coupling to longer chain alcohols over hydroxyapatite catalysts will be discussed.  The bimetallic Pt-Re catalyst exposes a metallic Pt site that catalyzes hydrogen transfer reactions and an acidic site associated with oxidized Re that catalyzes dehydration.  The effective pairing of the metal function with the acid function promotes the rate of glycerol hydrogenolysis and shifts product selectivity toward desirable 1,3-propanediol.   The Guerbet coupling of ethanol to butanol requires a multifunctional catalyst that facilitates ethanol dehydrogenation, aldol condensation, and hydrogenation.  Hydroxyapatite is an active and selective catalyst for the reaction because of its appropriate balance of Lewis acidity and basicity.  General principles regarding tandem reactions in heterogeneous catalysis will be discussed.

Bio

Robert Davis obtained his Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University in 1989.  He subsequently worked as a postdoctoral research fellow in the Chemistry Department at the University of Namur in Belgium.  He joined the faculty in Chemical Engineering at the University of Virginia in 1990 as an assistant professor, was promoted to associate professor in 1996, full professor in 2002, and Earnest Jackson Oglesby Professor in 2009.  Professor Davis also served as the Chair of Chemical Engineering at the University of Virginia from 2002 to 2011.  He received the Emmett Award of the North American Catalysis Society, the NSF Young Investigator Award, the DuPont Young Professor Award, the Union Carbide Innovation Recognition Award, and the UVa Rodman Scholars Award for Excellence in Teaching.  Professor Davis has co-authored more than 140 publications, 1 patent and 1 textbook, entitled “Fundamentals of Chemical Reaction Engineering”.  He has delivered over 100 invited lectures at conferences, academic departments and industrial research groups, and has co-authored over 100 additional presentations at technical meetings.  Professor Davis has served as President of the Southeastern Catalysis Society, Chair of the 2006 Gordon Research Conference on Catalysis, Chair of Catalysis Programming of the AIChE, Chair of a US government panel charged with worldwide assessment of Catalysis by Nanostructured Materials, Director of the Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Division of the AIChE, Director of the North American Catalysis Society, Co-Chair of an International Catalysis Workshop in China, member of the Advisory Board of the International Conferences on Solid Acid and Base Catalysis, and member of the editorial boards of Journal of Catalysis, Applied Catalysis A and B, Journal of Molecular Catalysis A, ChemCatChem and ACS Catalysis.