Larry Curtiss

Last updated
Larry Curtiss
Alma materUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison (BA), Carnegie-Mellon University (PhD)
OccupationChemist
Organization(s)Argonne National Laboratory, Joint Center for Energy Storage Research, the Center for Electrochemical Energy Science, American Association for the Advancement of Science
Known forGaussian-n series, lithium-air batteries
AwardsUniversity of Chicago Distinguished Performance Award
Website www.anl.gov/profile/larry-a-curtiss

Larry A. Curtiss is an American chemist and researcher. He was born in Madison. WI. in 1947. He is a distinguished fellow and group leader of the Molecular Materials Group in the Materials Science Division at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory. [1] In addition, Curtiss is a senior investigator in the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR), a DOE Energy Storage Hub, and was the deputy director of the Center for Electrochemical Energy Science, a DOE Energy Frontier Research Center. [1]

Contents

Curtiss is a specialist in developing quantum chemical methods for accurate energy calculations and applying these methods to energy- and material-related problems, including those related to catalysis, batteries, and carbon materials. His work has been cited over 67,000 times. [2]

Curtiss is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. [3]

Early life and education

Curtiss received his bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1969. [1] He then attended Carnegie-Mellon University, where he completed his master's in physical chemistry in 1971, and his Ph.D. in physical chemistry in 1973. [1] [4] While a graduate student, he worked under the supervision of pioneering chemist Sir John Anthony Pople, who won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work on computational methods in quantum chemistry. [5] Curtiss's thesis focused on quantum chemical studies of hydrogen bonded complexes. After graduating in 1973, he became a research fellow at Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio until 1976. [1] [4]

Curtiss joined Argonne in 1976 as a research associate in Argonne's former Chemical Technology Division, where he rose through the ranks to become senior scientist in 1988. [4] In 1998, Curtiss was appointed to his current position as senior scientist and group leader of the Molecular Materials Group within Argonne's Materials Science Division. [4] From 2006 until 2009, he was also an acting group leader at the Center for Nanoscale Materials, and from 2004 until 2018, Curtiss was a senior fellow of the University of Chicago/Argonne Computation Institute. [4] In 2000, Curtiss was named an Argonne Distinguished Fellow. [3]

Research

Developing and applying computational chemistry methods

Curtiss helped develop the Gaussian-n series of quantum chemical methods for accurate energy calculations (G1, G2, G3, and G4 theories). [6] [7] [8] [9] These methods are for calculating the thermochemical properties of molecules and ions.

Modeling lithium-ion batteries and beyond-lithium-ion batteries

Curtiss is also involved in developing so-called "beyond-lithium-ion" batteries, such as lithium-sulfur and lithium–air batteries. He helped create a Li-O2 battery that runs on lithium superoxide. [10] [11] Curtiss and researchers from Argonne and the University of Illinois also designed a lithium-air battery that works in a natural air environment for over 700 charge and discharge cycles, surpassing previous technology. [12] [13]

Honors and awards

Select Recent Publications

Patents

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Pople</span> British theoretical chemist (1925–2004)

Sir John Anthony Pople was a British theoretical chemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Walter Kohn in 1998 for his development of computational methods in quantum chemistry.

Gaussian is a general purpose computational chemistry software package initially released in 1970 by John Pople and his research group at Carnegie Mellon University as Gaussian 70. It has been continuously updated since then. The name originates from Pople's use of Gaussian orbitals to speed up molecular electronic structure calculations as opposed to using Slater-type orbitals, a choice made to improve performance on the limited computing capacities of then-current computer hardware for Hartree–Fock calculations. The current version of the program is Gaussian 16. Originally available through the Quantum Chemistry Program Exchange, it was later licensed out of Carnegie Mellon University, and since 1987 has been developed and licensed by Gaussian, Inc.

Q-Chem is a general-purpose electronic structure package featuring a variety of established and new methods implemented using innovative algorithms that enable fast calculations of large systems on various computer architectures, from laptops and regular lab workstations to midsize clusters, HPCC, and cloud computing using density functional and wave-function based approaches. It offers an integrated graphical interface and input generator; a large selection of functionals and correlation methods, including methods for electronically excited states and open-shell systems; solvation models; and wave-function analysis tools. In addition to serving the computational chemistry community, Q-Chem also provides a versatile code development platform.

Møller–Plesset perturbation theory (MP) is one of several quantum chemistry post-Hartree–Fock ab initio methods in the field of computational chemistry. It improves on the Hartree–Fock method by adding electron correlation effects by means of Rayleigh–Schrödinger perturbation theory (RS-PT), usually to second (MP2), third (MP3) or fourth (MP4) order. Its main idea was published as early as 1934 by Christian Møller and Milton S. Plesset.

In computational chemistry, post–Hartree–Fock (post-HF) methods are the set of methods developed to improve on the Hartree–Fock (HF), or self-consistent field (SCF) method. They add electron correlation which is a more accurate way of including the repulsions between electrons than in the Hartree–Fock method where repulsions are only averaged.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Triiodide</span> Ion

In chemistry, triiodide usually refers to the triiodide ion, I
3
. This anion, one of the polyhalogen ions, is composed of three iodine atoms. It is formed by combining aqueous solutions of iodide salts and iodine. Some salts of the anion have been isolated, including thallium(I) triiodide (Tl+[I3]) and ammonium triiodide ([NH4]+[I3]). Triiodide is observed to be a red colour in solution.

INDO stands for Intermediate Neglect of Differential Overlap. It is a semi-empirical quantum chemistry method that is a development of the complete neglect of differential overlap (CNDO/2) method introduced by John Pople. Like CNDO/2 it uses zero-differential overlap for the two-electron integrals but not for integrals that are over orbitals centered on the same atom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spartan (chemistry software)</span>

Spartan is a molecular modelling and computational chemistry application from Wavefunction. It contains code for molecular mechanics, semi-empirical methods, ab initio models, density functional models, post-Hartree–Fock models, and thermochemical recipes including G3(MP2) and T1. Quantum chemistry calculations in Spartan are powered by Q-Chem.

Semi-empirical quantum chemistry methods are based on the Hartree–Fock formalism, but make many approximations and obtain some parameters from empirical data. They are very important in computational chemistry for treating large molecules where the full Hartree–Fock method without the approximations is too expensive. The use of empirical parameters appears to allow some inclusion of electron correlation effects into the methods.

Martin Philip Head-Gordon is a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory working in the area of computational quantum chemistry. He is a member of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science.

Lithium superoxide is an unstable inorganic salt with formula LiO2. A radical compound, it can be produced at low temperature in matrix isolation experiments, or in certain nonpolar, non-protic solvents. Lithium superoxide is also a transient species during the reduction of oxygen in a lithium–air galvanic cell, and serves as a main constraint on possible solvents for such a battery. For this reason, it has been investigated thoroughly using a variety of methods, both theoretical and spectroscopic.

Quantum chemistry composite methods are computational chemistry methods that aim for high accuracy by combining the results of several calculations. They combine methods with a high level of theory and a small basis set with methods that employ lower levels of theory with larger basis sets. They are commonly used to calculate thermodynamic quantities such as enthalpies of formation, atomization energies, ionization energies and electron affinities. They aim for chemical accuracy which is usually defined as within 1 kcal/mol of the experimental value. The first systematic model chemistry of this type with broad applicability was called Gaussian-1 (G1) introduced by John Pople. This was quickly replaced by the Gaussian-2 (G2) which has been used extensively. The Gaussian-3 (G3) was introduced later.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis E. Brus</span> American chemist

Louis Edward Brus is an American chemist, and currently the Samuel Latham Mitchell Professor of Chemistry at Columbia University. He is the co-discoverer of the colloidal semi-conductor nanocrystals known as quantum dots. In 2023, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

The lithium–air battery (Li–air) is a metal–air electrochemical cell or battery chemistry that uses oxidation of lithium at the anode and reduction of oxygen at the cathode to induce a current flow.

A metal–air electrochemical cell is an electrochemical cell that uses an anode made from pure metal and an external cathode of ambient air, typically with an aqueous or aprotic electrolyte.

Michael Makepeace Thackeray is a South African chemist and battery materials researcher. He is mainly known for his work on electrochemically active cathode materials. In the mid-1980s he co-discovered the manganese oxide spinel family of cathodes for lithium ion batteries while working in the lab of John Goodenough at the University of Oxford. In 1998, while at Argonne National Laboratory, he led a team that first reported the NMC cathode technology. Patent protection around the concept and materials were first issued in 2005 to Argonne National Laboratory to a team with Thackeray, Khalil Amine, Jaekook Kim, and Christopher Johnson. The reported invention is now widely used in consumer electronics and electric vehicles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Crabtree</span> American physicist (1944–2023)

George William Crabtree was an American physicist known for his highly cited research on superconducting materials and, since 2012, for his directorship of the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR) at Argonne National Laboratory.

Paul Fenter is a senior physicist and leader for Interfacial Processes Group, in the Chemical Sciences and Engineering Division at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and the former director of the Center for Electrochemical Energy Science (CEES), a DOE Energy Frontier Research Center.

Khalil Amine is a materials scientist at Argonne National Laboratory, an Argonne distinguished fellow, and group leader of the Battery Technology group. His research team is focused on the development of advanced battery systems for transportation applications. In addition to his Argonne appointment, he is an adjunct professor at Stanford University, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, King Abdulaziz University, Hanyang University, and Peking University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karena Chapman</span> Australian chemist

Karena Chapman is an Australian chemist who is the Joseph W Lauher & Frank W Fowler Endowed Chair in Materials Chemistry at Stony Brook University. Her research considers the use of high energy X-rays to better understand the structure property relationships of energy materials.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Larry A. Curtiss | Argonne National Laboratory". www.anl.gov. Retrieved 2019-12-06.
  2. 1 2 "Larry A. Curtiss - Google Scholar Citations". scholar.google.com. Retrieved 2019-10-27.
  3. 1 2 3 "Argonne Distinguished Fellows | Argonne National Laboratory". www.anl.gov. Retrieved 2019-10-27.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "Larry Curtiss" (PDF). Argonne National Laboratory. August 2018. Archived from the original on December 6, 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  5. "Chemistry Tree - Sir John Anthony Pople". academictree.org. Retrieved 2019-12-06.
  6. Pople, John A.; Head-Gordon, Martin; Fox, Douglas J.; Raghavachari, Krishnan; Curtiss, Larry A. (1989-05-15). "Gaussian-1 theory: A general procedure for prediction of molecular energies". The Journal of Chemical Physics. 90 (10): 5622–5629. Bibcode:1989JChPh..90.5622P. doi:10.1063/1.456415. ISSN   0021-9606.
  7. Curtiss, Larry A.; Redfern, Paul C.; Raghavachari, Krishnan (2007-02-28). "Gaussian-4 theory". The Journal of Chemical Physics. 126 (8): 084108. Bibcode:2007JChPh.126h4108C. doi:10.1063/1.2436888. ISSN   0021-9606. PMID   17343441.
  8. Curtiss, Larry A.; Raghavachari, Krishnan; Trucks, Gary W.; Pople, John A. (1991-06-01). "Gaussian-2 theory for molecular energies of first- and second-row compounds". The Journal of Chemical Physics. 94 (11): 7221–7230. Bibcode:1991JChPh..94.7221C. doi: 10.1063/1.460205 . ISSN   0021-9606.
  9. Curtiss, Larry A.; Raghavachari, Krishnan; Redfern, Paul C.; Rassolov, Vitaly; Pople, John A. (1998-11-08). "Gaussian-3 (G3) theory for molecules containing first and second-row atoms". The Journal of Chemical Physics. 109 (18): 7764–7776. Bibcode:1998JChPh.109.7764C. doi:10.1063/1.477422. ISSN   0021-9606.
  10. "Stable "superoxide" opens the door to a new class of batteries | Argonne National Laboratory". www.anl.gov. 12 January 2016. Retrieved 2019-10-27.
  11. 1 2 US 9553316,Lu, Jun; Amine, Khalil& Curtiss, Larry Aet al.,"Lithium-oxygen batteries incorporating lithium superoxide",published 2017-01-24, assigned to Uchicago Argonne LLC
  12. Community, Nature Research Chemistry (2018-03-25). "New design produces true lithium-air battery". Nature Research Chemistry Community. Retrieved 2019-10-27.
  13. "Out of thin air | Argonne National Laboratory". www.anl.gov. 21 March 2018. Retrieved 2019-10-27.
  14. Narayanan, Badri; Redfern, Paul C.; Assary, Rajeev S.; Curtiss, Larry A. (2019-08-07). "Accurate quantum chemical energies for 133 000 organic molecules". Chemical Science. 10 (31): 7449–7455. doi:10.1039/C9SC02834J. ISSN   2041-6539. PMC   6713865 . PMID   31489167.
  15. Pang, Quan; Shyamsunder, Abhinandan; Narayanan, Badri; Kwok, Chun Yuen; Curtiss, Larry A.; Nazar, Linda F. (September 2018). "Tuning the electrolyte network structure to invoke quasi-solid state sulfur conversion and suppress lithium dendrite formation in Li–S batteries". Nature Energy. 3 (9): 783–791. Bibcode:2018NatEn...3..783P. doi:10.1038/s41560-018-0214-0. ISSN   2058-7546. OSTI   1472132. S2CID   52825801.
  16. Asadi, Mohammad; Sayahpour, Baharak; Abbasi, Pedram; Ngo, Anh T.; Karis, Klas; Jokisaari, Jacob R.; Liu, Cong; Narayanan, Badri; Gerard, Marc; Yasaei, Poya; Hu, Xuan (March 2018). "A lithium–oxygen battery with a long cycle life in an air-like atmosphere". Nature. 555 (7697): 502–506. Bibcode:2018Natur.555..502A. doi:10.1038/nature25984. ISSN   1476-4687. OSTI   1508362. PMID   29565358. S2CID   4376436.
  17. Halder, Avik; Curtiss, Larry A.; Fortunelli, Alessandro; Vajda, Stefan (2018-03-21). "Perspective: Size selected clusters for catalysis and electrochemistry". The Journal of Chemical Physics. 148 (11): 110901. Bibcode:2018JChPh.148k0901H. doi: 10.1063/1.5020301 . ISSN   0021-9606. PMID   29566496.
  18. Lu, Jun; Chen, Zonghai; Ma, Zifeng; Pan, Feng; Curtiss, Larry A.; Amine, Khalil (December 2016). "The role of nanotechnology in the development of battery materials for electric vehicles". Nature Nanotechnology. 11 (12): 1031–1038. Bibcode:2016NatNa..11.1031L. doi:10.1038/nnano.2016.207. ISSN   1748-3387. PMID   27920438.
  19. Lu, Jun; Jung Lee, Yun; Luo, Xiangyi; Chun Lau, Kah; Asadi, Mohammad; Wang, Hsien-Hau; Brombosz, Scott; Wen, Jianguo; Zhai, Dengyun; Chen, Zonghai; Miller, Dean J. (January 2016). "A lithium–oxygen battery based on lithium superoxide". Nature. 529 (7586): 377–382. Bibcode:2016Natur.529..377L. doi:10.1038/nature16484. ISSN   0028-0836. PMID   26751057. S2CID   4452883.
  20. Asadi, Mohammad; Kim, Kibum; Liu, Cong; Addepalli, Aditya Venkata; Abbasi, Pedram; Yasaei, Poya; Phillips, Patrick; Behranginia, Amirhossein; Cerrato, José M.; Haasch, Richard; Zapol, Peter (2016-07-29). "Nanostructured transition metal dichalcogenide electrocatalysts for CO 2 reduction in ionic liquid". Science. 353 (6298): 467–470. Bibcode:2016Sci...353..467A. doi: 10.1126/science.aaf4767 . ISSN   0036-8075. PMID   27471300.
  21. US 9478837,Amine, Khalil; Curtiss, Larry A.& Lu, Junet al.,"Lithium air batteries having ether-based electrolytes",published 2016-10-25, assigned to Uchicago Argonne LLC
  22. US 10385032,Vajda, Stefan; Halder, Avik& Curtiss, Larry A.,"Selective oxidation of propane to propylene oxide",published 2019-08-20, assigned to Uchicago Argonne LLC