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Nick Brunelli

  • HC Slip Slider Professorship, Chemical & Biomolecular Eng
  • 253 CBEC
    151 W. Woodruff Ave.
    Columbus, OH 43210
  • 614-688-3400

About

Education

  • Ph.D., California Institute of Technology, 2010
  • B.S., The Ohio State University, 2004

 

KEY DISTINCTIONS

  • 6 patents

 

NATIONAL HONORS

 

American Chemical Society:

  • 2018 Class of Influential Researchers

​National Science Foundation:

  • NSF CAREER Award 2017 
  • NSF Graduate Research Fellowship 2004-07

National Merit Scholarship:

  • Finalist 2000

 

INDUSTRY AWARDS

 

  • Dow Outstanding Junior Award in Chemical Engineering 2003

 

UNIVERSITY AWARDS

 

Ohio State University College of Engineering:

  • Lumley Research Award 2019
  • AIChE Donald F. Othmer Sophomore Award in Chemical Engineering 2001; Outstanding Senior Chemical Engineering Alumni Award 2002

 

RESEARCH AREAS - Brunelli Catalytic Materials Design Group

  • Heterogeneous and Immobilized Catalysis and Catalytic Materials; Sustainability, Energy, Environment.
  • PUBLICATIONS

Our research program focuses on the design, synthesis, spectroscopic interrogation, and reaction testing of novel catalytic materials. We bring a broad background of organic and inorganic synthesis techniques to investigate fundamental aspects of catalytic materials with the goal of increasing catalytic selectivity and activity. A major focus of our work is creating uniform catalytic sites. For heterogeneous catalytic materials, typical synthetic methods produce a distribution of catalytic sites, making identification of the highly active and selective species difficult. Homogeneous catalysis overcomes this through making well-defined small molecule catalysts through organic synthesis techniques. Our approach utilizes organic synthesis techniques to generate the highly organized catalytic active sites. Through spectroscopie interrogation and catalytic testing, we seek to identify highly selective and active structures. Iterative design, synthesis and testing enables our work to advance fundamental understanding of catalytic material design. 

Honors

  • May, 2019

    Reaction Chemistry & Engineering Emerging Investigator (2019).

  • March, 2019

    2019 Lumley Research Award.

  • September, 2018

    2018 Influential Researcher.

  • June, 2004-
    June, 2007

    National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow.

  • September, 2000-
    June, 2004

    National Merit Finalist.

  • May, 2003

    Dow Outstanding Junior Award in Chemical Engineering.

  • NSF CAREER Award.

Presentations

  • "Use of Dual Atmospheric Microdischarges for Manipulating the Growth of Silicon Nanoparticles." 2006, Presented at AVS 53rd International Symposium and Exhibit,

Papers in Proceedings

2018

  • Brunelli, N.; Deshpande, N.; Parulkar, A.; Joshi, R. et al. "Regioselectivity of epoxide ring opening with alcohols using heterogeneous Lewis acid catalysts." (8 2018).
  • Brunelli, N.; Deshpande, N.; Kobayashi, T.; Yang, C-T. et al. "Tuning the molecular design of tertiary amine catalysts on amorphous mesoporous silica supports for glucose isomerization." (8 2018).
  • Brunelli, N.; Deshpande, N.; Yang, C-T.; Cho, E.H. et al. "Increasing conversion selectivity for biomass relevant reactions through molecularly tuning catalyst design." (8 2018).
  • Brunelli, N.; Deshpande, N.; Whitaker, M.; Parulkar, A. "Tuning catalytic material design of zeolites and mesoporous materials to increase catalytic selectivity." (8 2018).

2017

  • Brunelli, N.; Deshpande, N.; Whitaker, M.; Parulkar, A. et al. "Tuning the molecular design of catalytic materials to increase activity and selectivity for mesoporous silica materials." (8 2017).
  • Brunelli, N.; Whitaker, M.; Joshi, R.; Parulkar, A. "Molecular design of cooperative interactions for amorphous silica materials to tune catalytic selectivities." (4 2017).

2016

  • Brunelli, N.; Whitaker, M.; Deshpande, N.; Parulkar, A. "Molecular design of cooperative interactions for heterogeneous catalytic materials to tune catalytic rates and selectivities." (8 2016).
  • Brunelli, N.; Deshpande, N.; Pattanaik, L.; Sherman, K. et al. "Molecular design of cooperative interactions for heterogeneous catalytic materials to tune catalytic rates and selectivities." (3 2016).

2014

  • Brunelli,Nicholas,A; Chepiga,Kathryn,M; Fang,Yan; Davies,Huw,ML; Jones,Christopher,W "Designing immobilized dirhodium carbenoid catalysts for high activity and enantioselectivity." (3 2014).
  • Brunelli, N.A.; Chepiga, K.M.; Fang, Y.; Davies, H.M.L. et al. "Designing immobilized dirhodium carbenoid catalysts for high activity and enantioselectivity." in 247th National Spring Meeting of the American-Chemical-Society (ACS). (3 2014).
  • Gill, C.S.; Chepiga, K.; Feng, Y.; Brunelli, N.A. et al. "Polymer and silica supported Ru and Rh carbene catalysts for asymmetric olefin cyclopropanation and C-H activation." (8 2014).
  • Brunelli, N.A.; Chepiga, K.M.; Fang, Y.; Davies, H.M.L. et al. "Designing immobilized dirhodium carbenoid catalysts for high activity and enantioselectivity." (3 2014).
  • Gill, C.S.; Chepiga, K.; Feng, Y.; Brunelli, N.A. et al. "Polymer and silica supported Ru and Rh carbene catalysts for asymmetric olefin cyclopropanation and C-H activation." in 248th National Meeting of the American-Chemical-Society (ACS). (8 2014).
  • Moschetta, E.G.; Brunelli, N.A.; Collier, V.E.; Lindy, G.I. et al. "The effects of alkyl linker length and pore size on the bifunctional catalytic activity of amine-functionalized silica materials for C-C bond formation." (1 2014).

2013

  • Long, W.; Brunelli, N.A.; Ping, E.W.; Didas, S.A. et al. "Pd-aminopolymer-silica hybrid catalysts for selective hydrogenation of alkynes to olefins." (4 2013).
  • Long, W.; Brunelli, N.A.; Ping, E.W.; Didas, S.A. et al. "Pd-aminopolymer-silica hybrid catalysts for selective hydrogenation of alkynes to olefins." in 245th National Meeting of the American-Chemical-Society (ACS). (4 2013).

2012

  • Jones, C.W.; Brunelli, N.A. "Acid-base bifunctional mesoporous silica in the aldol condensation reaction." (3 2012).
  • Jones, C.W.; Brunelli, N.A. "Acid-base bifunctional mesoporous silica in the aldol condensation reaction." in 11th International Biorelated Polymer Symposium / 243rd National Spring Meeting of the American-Chemical-Society (ACS). (3 2012).