Catalysis is the increase in rate of a chemical reaction due to an added substance known as a catalyst. Catalysts are not consumed by the reaction and remain unchanged after it. If the reaction is rapid and the catalyst recycles quickly, very small amounts of catalyst often suffice; mixing, surface area, and temperature are important factors in reaction rate. Catalysts generally react with one or more reactants to form intermediates that subsequently give the final reaction product, in the process of regenerating the catalyst.
The water–gas shift reaction (WGSR) describes the reaction of carbon monoxide and water vapor to form carbon dioxide and hydrogen:
In chemistry, a catalytic cycle is a multistep reaction mechanism that involves a catalyst. The catalytic cycle is the main method for describing the role of catalysts in biochemistry, organometallic chemistry, bioinorganic chemistry, materials science, etc.
Harry Albert Atwater, Jr. is an American physicist and materials scientist and is the Otis Booth Leadership Chair of the division of engineering and applied science at the California Institute of Technology. Currently he is the Howard Hughes Professor of Applied Physics and Materials Science and the director for the Liquid Sunlight Alliance (LiSA), a Department of Energy Hub program for solar fuels. Atwater's scientific effort focuses on nanophotonic light-matter interactions and solar energy conversion. His current research in energy centers on high efficiency photovoltaics, carbon capture and removal, and photoelectrochemical processes for generation of solar fuels. His research has resulted in world records for solar photovoltaic conversion and photoelectrochemical water splitting. His work also spans fundamental nanophotonic phenomena, in plasmonics and 2D materials, and also applications including active metasurfaces and optical propulsion.
Reactive flash volatilization (RFV) is a chemical process that rapidly converts nonvolatile solids and liquids to volatile compounds by thermal decomposition for integration with catalytic chemistries.
Didier Astruc carried out his studies in chemistry in Rennes. After a Ph. D. with professor R. Dabard in organometallic chemistry, he did post-doctoral studies with professor R. R. Schrock at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the U.S. and later a sabbatical year with professor K. P. C. Vollhardt at the University of California at Berkeley. He became a CNRS Director of research in Rennes, then in 1983 full Professor of Chemistry at the University Bordeaux 1. He is known for his work on electron-reservoir complexes and dendritic molecular batteries, catalytic processes using nanoreactors and molecular recognition using gold nanoparticles and metallodendrimers.
Charles T. Kresge is a chemist and retired Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Saudi Aramco. He was R&D Vice President at the Dow Chemical Company. His area of expertise is inorganic synthesis, and his primary field of research is in the area of crystalline aluminosilicate materials, particularly for the discovery of mesoporous molecular sieves.
Sivanandi Rajadurai aka Mylaudy Dr. S. Rajadurai is a scientist in the field of catalysis, physical chemistry, and emission control, focused on protection of the global environment and is a corporate executive. He is the chairman and founder of the Rajadurai Foundation.
Balasubramanian Viswanathan also known as BV, is a highly accomplished Indian material scientist, an emeritus professor at IIT Madras and husband of late Vijayalakshmi Viswanathan, the first woman financial commissioner of Indian Railways. He is well known in the field of catalysis and material science and has been instrumental in setting up and running the first National Centre for Catalysis Research at IIT Madras. He has authored more than 30 books with top publishers including Springer Publishing, John Wiley & Sons, Elsevier, covering various aspects of material science, catalysis, nanotechnology, Energy, Fuel cells, CO2 reduction and has published more than 600 scientific journals. He is considered to be an authority on catalysis and material science in the scientific world and has an H-index of 61 resulting from more than 14,000 citations.
Dionisios G. Vlachos is an American chemical engineer, the Allan & Myra Ferguson Endowed Chair Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Delaware and director of the Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation, a U.S. Department of Energy - Energy Frontiers Research Center. Throughout his career at University of Delaware and the University of Minnesota, he has advanced the study of catalysts and reaction engineering including catalytic applications in biomass utilization, alkane conversion and zeolites. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and recipient of the Wilhelm Award of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (2011).
Prashant Jain is an Indian-born American scientist and a professor of chemistry at the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign where his research laboratory studies the interaction of light with matter, designs nanoparticle catalysts, and develops methods for mimicking plant photosynthesis. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Royal Society of Chemistry, a TR35 inventor, a Sloan Fellow, a PECASE recipient, a Royal Society of Chemistry Beilby medalist, and a top-cited researcher in chemical sciences.
Swadhin Kumar Mandal is a Bengali Indian organometallic chemist and a professor at the department of chemical sciences of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata. Mandal, an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow, is known for his studies in the fields of catalysis, new drug development and material chemistry. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, for his contributions to chemical sciences in 2018.. In 2020, he was awarded the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award (https://www.humboldt-foundation.de/en/apply/sponsorship-programmes/friedrich-wilhelm-bessel-research-award)by Alexander von Humboldt (AvH) Foundation, Germany in recognition of his outstanding research accomplishments. In 2022, he was awarded the Erna and Jakob Michael visiting professorship at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. In 2021, he was elected as a fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences (FASc) and in 2024, he was elected as a fellow of the Indian National Science Academy (FNA).
Jingguang Chen is a Chinese-American chemical engineer. He is the Thayer Lindsley Professor of Chemical Engineering at Columbia University, with a joint appointment as Senior Chemist at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory. Over the course of his career Chen has made significant contributions to the fundamental understanding and use of novel materials for catalytic and electrocatalytic applications, including research into the development of bimetallic and transition metal carbide catalysts.
Raffaella Buonsanti (born 1981 in Matera, Italy) is an Italian chemist and material scientist. Her research is at the interface between materials chemistry and catalysis as she focuses on the synthesis of nanocrystals to drive various energy-related reactions, such as CO2 reduction. She is currently a tenure-track assistant professor at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and director of the Laboratory of Nanochemistry for Energy located at EPFL's Valais campus.
Emiel Jan Maria Hensen is a Dutch chemist and professor of Inorganic Materials and Catalysis at Eindhoven University of Technology. Hensen's research has focused on developing novel heterogeneous catalysts, kinetics and mechanism, and energy conversion. He leads a team of over 50 researchers working to improve "clean and sustainable chemical conversion processes for the production of fuels and chemicals."
Mita Dasog is an associate professor at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada. She has received the Emerging Professional Award, the Canadian Council of University Chemistry Chairs Doctoral Award, is a “Top 25” Global Young Scientist in Sustainable Research, and is one of the top 150 women in STEM for her outreach efforts with youth and young women.
Alexis Tarassov Bell is an American chemical engineer. He is currently the Dow professor of Sustainable Chemistry in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in UC Berkeley's college of chemistry. He is also the Faculty Senior Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He is known for his work with heterogenous catalysts and characterizing the mechanisms of these reactions on a quantum level.
In chemistry, plasmonic catalysis is a type of catalysis that uses plasmons to increase the rate of a chemical reaction. A plasmonic catalyst is made up of a metal nanoparticle surface which generates localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPRs) when excited by light. These plasmon oscillations create an electron-rich region near the surface of the nanoparticle, which can be used to excite the electrons of nearby molecules.
Peter Strasser is a German chemist. He is the winner of the 2021 Faraday Medal.
Petra de Jongh is a Dutch materials chemist, currently working as a professor of Catalysts and Energy Materials at the Debye Institute for Nanomaterials Science at Utrecht University. Her research spans many fields, tackling issues like converting and storing renewable sources of energy, developing lighter, sustainable batteries, reducing energy consumption, and designing catalysts for chemical conversions. De Jongh is the first female winner of the Gilles Holst Medal, which is given to outstanding researchers in the Netherlands, who have made significant contributions to the fields of applied chemistry or physics.
