Friday August 23, 2024

SEEC C120

2:00 - 3:00 PM

Abstract

Affordable clean energy and climate action are two of the sustainable development goals set by the United Nations to be achieved by 2030. The vast majority of energy technologies relies on nanomaterials. The progress of these technologies is strongly connected to the ability of inorganic chemists to tune the function-dictating features of nanomaterials. (i.e. size, composition, composition, morphology). In this talk, I will present our recent group efforts towards the synthesis via colloidal chemistry of atomically defined nanocrystals (NCs) which helps addressing current challenges in catalysis and energy conversion.

Biography

Professor Raffaella Buonsanti is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at EPFL. She leads a multidisciplinary research program which spans from nanoscience to materials chemistry and electrocatalysis.  She has received an ERC Starting Grant in 2016 and an ERC Consolidator Grant in 2022 in addition to numerous awards, including the Swiss Chemical Society Werner Price in 2021, the European Chemical Society Lecture Award and the Royal Chemical Society ChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship in 2019, the ACS Inorganic Nanoscience Award in 2024. She is also an Associate Editor of ACS Catalysis.

Off

Friday August 16, 2024

SEEC S228, Sievers Room

12:00 - 1:00 PM

Prof. Norbert Koch hosted a broad discussion around approaches for exploring the energy levels of organic semiconductors, with a particular focus on interactions across interfaces. This provided a didactic overview for researchers working on organic semiconductors, 2D semiconductors and perovskites.

Off

Abstract:

Mineralogy is an ancient science, with writings on mineral properties dating to the 4th Century BC across cultures. Today, minerals are viewed as the containers of ingredients needed to develop the low-carbon economy, and before long mining will occur off the Earth. Mineral sciences are broad, and that perspective brings opportunity for interdisciplinary collaborations across fields of science, engineering and medicine. Originally driven to study mineral properties at extreme conditions of pressure, temperature, radiation, etc. in geophysical sciences, through collaborative opportunities my journey in the mineral sciences has led to technology transfer wherein extreme environments are the vehicle to create, modify or control material properties with some fundamental science applications in energy, nanotechnology and offworld construction.

Bio:

Steve Jacobsen is Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Northwestern University and Faculty Affiliate of the Paula M. Trienens Institute for Sustainability and Energy, and the Center for Engineering Sustainability and Resilience at Northwestern. He received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) through the National Science Foundation, a Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering, and was Editor of Geophysical Research Letters from 2018-2023. Prior to joining Northwestern, he was an Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow at the Bavarian Geoinstitute in Germany, and the Barbara McClintock Postdoctoral Fellow at the Earth and Planets Laboratory at Carnegie Institution for Science. He received his Ph.D. in geophysics in 2001 from the Â鶹ĘÓƵ.

Off

Thursday December 7, 2023

9:00 - 10:00 AM

SEEC Sievers Room S228

Abstract

Next-generation energy, nanoelectronic, and quantum technologies rely on the discovery, integration, and optimization of novel advanced materials. Importantly, predicting and characterizing the functional properties of these materials—e.g. thermal conductivities, mechanical stiffness, and magnetic behavior—is critical for their implementation into energy-efficient devices. Advances in energy storage, electric vehicles, communication, computation, thermoelectrics, electronics, and quantum technologies are reliant on understanding the transport of energy carriers (phonons, electrons, spins) in complex systems. However, as devices become increasingly complex with novel materials, 3D geometries, interfaces, and nanoscale dimensions, conventional models fail to accurately predict the functional properties and, traditional imaging and metrology tools cannot probe the relevant behaviors on their intrinsic length- and time-scales.

Off

Monday November 13, 2023

2:00 - 3:00 PM

SEEC Building S228 (Sievers Room)

Download the Flyer

Abstract

This presentation will share three short stories focused on the make, use, and recycling of polymers with a focus on sustainability. In the first story, the development and application of organocatalyzed atom transfer radical polymerization using organic photoredox catalysts driven by visible light as well as their evolution and application toward challenging reductions including Birch reductions and PFAS remediation. In the second story, the synthesis and self-assembly of molecular bottlebrush block copolymers to photonic crystal coatings for greener structural coatings will be shared. In the third story an approach toward chemically recyclable polyolefin-like multiblock polymers with diverse mechanical properties through the construction of multiblock polymers from hard and soft oligomeric building blocks will be discussed. The multiblock polymers exhibit broad mechanical properties, spanning elastomers to plastomers to thermoplastics, while integrating a high melting transition temperature (T_m) and low glass transition temperature (T_g) making them suitable for use across diverse applications (T_m as high as 128 °C and T_g as low as -60 °C). After use, the different plastics can be combined and efficiently deconstructed back to the fundamental hard and soft building blocks for separation and repolymerization to realize a closed-loop recycling process.

Biography

Garret M. Miyake is the Dr. Robert Williams Professor of Organic Chemistry at Colorado State University. He earned his B.S. in Chemistry from Pacific University. He completed his Ph.D. studies with Eugene Chen at Colorado State University before conducting postdoctoral research with Robert Grubbs at the California Institute of Technology. He has been recently recognized with the 2021 ACS Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering Journal of Polymer Science Innovation Award and was a finalist for the 2023 Blavatnik Young Scientist Award. The Miyake group has research interests focusing on photoredox catalysis, sustainable polymers, as well as the synthesis of block copolymers that self-assemble to photonic crystals.

Off

Tuesday April 18, 2024

1:30 - 2:30 PM

SEEC C120

  Download the Flyer

Abstract: 

It is now well-established that reliance on fossil fuels for our energy needs is having a devastating effect on global climate patterns and our eco system.  We can no longer rely simply on accelerated use of renewable energy resources to replace fossil fuels to avert this crisis, which is caused by the continuing atmospheric accumulation of CO2 from industrial emissions; we must also deploy Negative Emissions Technologies (NETs) in which accumulated heat-trapping CO2 is removed directly from the ambient environment itself.  Indeed, there has been a recent surge of interest in exploiting direct air capture (DAC) for this purpose, a surge that has not yet been matched by a similar drive to reduce CO2 in oceans, where increasing acidification has led to destruction of coral reefs, and reduced carbonate ion concentrations harm shellfish and other marine life. Since the total CO2 accumulation rate by oceans rivals that in the atmosphere, effective means its removal from seawaters could augment the other NETs to reduce the environmental burden imposed by this greenhouse gas. Traditional approaches for CO2 capture and release generally rely on either chemical or physical interactions with sorbents with subsequent temperature or pressure changes to release the captured CO2 and regenerate the sorbent. Isothermal operations that obviate or significantly reduce the heat integration requirements in these processes could potentially have significant advantages over the traditional methods in terms of complexity, energetics, and cost of the overall capture operation.   Electrochemically based technologies that rely primarily on renewable energy resources for the capture and release of CO2 under isothermal conditions may, therefore, offer effective alternative approaches for both point-of-use gas emissions mitigation, and for removal of CO2 from the atmosphere and ocean waters.  In this presentation, we will discuss the general principles underlying electrochemical processes, and the opportunities and challenges inherent in their implementation to address the pressing problems facing our world today (and tomorrow!). 

Bio: 

T. Alan Hatton is the Ralph Landau Professor and Director of the David H. Koch School of Chemical Engineering Practice at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  He obtained his BSc and MSc degrees in Chemical Engineering at the University of Natal, Durban, South Africa, and worked at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in Pretoria for three years before attending the University of Wisconsin, Madison, to obtain his PhD.  He is currently Faculty Lead on Carbon Management in the Future Energy Systems Center of the MIT Energy Initiative.  His research interests have encompassed self-assembly of surfactants and block copolymers, synthesis and functionalization of magnetic nanoparticles, and the exploitation of these stimuli-responsive materials for chemical, environmental and pharmaceutical processing applications. More recently, his group has pioneered a number of electrochemically mediated operations for water treatment and resource recovery, as well as for carbon dioxide removal from point sources, ambient air, and ocean waters. In addition, his laboratory has spun out two start-up companies: Verdox (2019), which is developing electrochemical swing processes for CO2 capture from point sources and ambient air, was recently awarded a $1 million Elon Musk XPrize, while Mantel Capture (2022) is focused on exploiting molten salts for CO2 capture at the high temperatures at which it is produced in many chemical industries. 

Off

Friday March 17, 2023

2:00 - 3:00 PM

SEEC Building, Room S228, Sievers Room

Download the Flyer

Abstract: 

The Scalable Thermal Energy Engineering Laboratory (STEEL) develops thermal energy conversion technologies and thermal transport technologies to address some of the most pressing energy, sustainability, and climate related challenges.  The energy transition and climate mitigation strategies both require better utilization of thermal energy, namely in how we heat and cool.  Central to heating and cooling are heat pumps and refrigeration technologies, and, with the Kigali amendment to the Montreal protocol, there now exists a need to invent new thermodynamic cycles and processes that have zero-global warming potential (zero-GWP) impact unlike our conventional refrigerant vapor compression technologies.  In this talk, Prof. Shannon Yee will discuss how refrigeration, air-conditioning, and heat pumping can now be accomplished through electrochemical thermodynamic cycles, highlighting experimental demonstrations of this new technology.  Just as electric vehicles are displacing a mainstay mechanical engineering technology of internal combustion vehicles, electrochemical heat pumps and refrigerators could someday displace another mainstay mechanical engineering technology, air-conditioners and refrigerators.  If time allows, Prof. Yee will also talk about the fundamental building blocks of thermal technologies enabled by thermal switches.  With new material functionality enables new methods for which we can (up-) convert and manage heat, thereby allowing for the recovery of waste heat and providing better thermal reliability across technology domains.  Such efforts bring together chemists, material scientists, and engineers to realize the fundamental components that enable us to unlock new technologies. 

Bio: 

Dr. Shannon Yee is an Associate Professor at the G.W.W. School of Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Yee joined Georgia Tech in 2014 directly from his PhD at the University of California Berkeley.  In the midst of his studies, he joined the US. Dept. of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (ARPA-E) during its inaugural year as the first ARPA-E Fellow.  Dr. Yee completed his MS in Nuclear Engineering in 2008 and his BS in Mechanical Engineering in 2007, both from The Ohio State University. In 2008, he was awarded a prestigious Hertz Fellowship.  In 2015, Dr. Yee was selected for an AFOSR Young Investigator Award to develop polymer thermoelectrics.  Dr. Yee is the recipient of the 2017 ASME Pi-Tau-Sigma Gold Medal award for “outstanding contributions to the field of Mechanical Engineering in the first decade of one’s career.”  In 2019, Shannon was selected for an ONR Young Investigator Award to develop polymer thermal switches.  Most recently, Dr. Yee is directing the Generation II Reinvent the Toilet (G2RT) program supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and was recognized as one of 

Off

Friday March 17, 2023

11:00 AM - 12:00 PM

SEEC C120

Download the Flyer

Abstract:    

Hydropower is the largest renewable source of electricity generation worldwide, accounting for 16% of electricity generation in 2019. Although there has been a recent trend towards increasing the capacity of other renewable electricity sources, such as solar and wind, hydropower will remain one of the most important renewable electricity sources globally and should play an important role in the sector’s decarbonization. On the other hand, climate change can threaten the viability of future hydropower development. Climate change could alter the timing and magnitude of precipitation, which directly influences water availability and streamflow. Additionally, the accelerated melting of glaciers creates unsustainable streamflow in glacierized basins that will likely disappear as glaciers continue to retreat. Furthermore, rising temperatures could increase evapotranspiration within basins, reducing the expected water volumes available and directly affecting power plant operations. SHowever, there is a gap in the literature regarding climate impacts on individual hydropower projects in the Global South, and further regional studies are needed.  In this talk, Professor Jaramillo will present the Risk and Impacts of Climate Change on Hydropower (RICCH) tool developed at Carnegie Mellon University. RICCH is an interac-tive assessment tool for hydropower in the Global South that could inform future adaptation of the hydropower sector. The talk will  highlight the results of analyses using RICCH on future hydropower generation in South America and Africa.  

Bio: 

Prof. Paulina Jaramillo is currently a Professor of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). Prof. Jaramillo is also a fellow of the Scott Institute for Energy Innovation and Research at CMU and a research affiliate of the Kigali Collaborative Research Center. She also holds a courtesy appointment at CMU Africa. Finally, Prof. Jaramillo was a coordinating lead author for the IPCC’s 6th Assessment Report as part of Working Group III. Prof. Jaramillo’s past research focused on life cycle assessment of energy systems with an emphasis on climate change impacts and mitigation research. As a professor at CMU, she is currently involved in multidisciplinary research projects to better understand the social, economic, and environmental implications of transitions in the U.S. energy system. Prof. Jaramillo’s research and education efforts also include issues related to energy access and develop-ment in the Global South. 

Off

Thursday March 16, 2023

10:00 - 11:00 AM

SEEC Building, Sievers Room (S228)

Download the flyer

Abstract:

Indoor plumbing and sewer sanitation technologies have enabled healthy and productive lives for     billions residing in developed nations.  However, globally there are ~3.6B people without access to improved sanitation.  This is largely because the infrastructure to provide connected sanitary sewers and centralized treatment facilities is too expensive for those living in poverty. For the last decade, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has championed this global equity issue though the reinvent the toilet challenge (RTTC).  Through this program, several success stories have emerged resulting in container-sized treatment systems that process waste at the community level. However, the single-user reinvented toilet (SURT) has remained elusive. This SURT essentially needs to do everything that centralized sewage treatment facility does, but within the space constraints of the toilet and washing machine.  Additionally, this must be accomplished at a cost that is acceptable to the world’s poorest people. With that goal in mind, Prof. Shannon Yee leads the Generation 2 Reinvented Toilet (G2RT) program, where a global team of scientists and engineers are taking a second look at the reinventing the toilet solution space and integrating the best concepts developed across the RTTC program with the goal of realizing a low-cost SURT solution.  Come and learn how this large global team is approaching the problem through international collaboration bringing expert engineering to turn an infrastructure into an appliance. 

Bio:

Dr. Shannon Yee is an Associate Professor at the G.W.W. School of Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Yee joined Georgia Tech in 2014 directly from his PhD at the University of California Berkeley.  In the midst of his studies, he joined the US. Dept. of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (ARPA-E) during its inaugural year as the first ARPA-E Fellow.  Dr. Yee completed his MS in Nuclear Engineering in 2008 and his BS in Mechanical Engineering in 2007, both from The Ohio State University. In 2008, he was awarded a prestigious Hertz Fellowship.  In 2015, Dr. Yee was selected for an AFOSR Young Investigator Award to develop polymer thermoelectrics.  Dr. Yee is the recipient of the 2017 ASME Pi-Tau-Sigma Gold Medal award for “outstanding contributions to the field of Mechanical Engineering in the first decade of one’s career.”  In 2019, Shannon was selected for an ONR Young Investigator Award to develop polymer thermal switches.  Most recently, Dr. Yee is directing the Generation II Reinvent the Toilet (G2RT) program supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and was recognized as one of 

Off

March 10, 2023

11:00 AM - 12:30 PM

Engineering Building ECNW 312

Download the Flyer

Off