On Tuesday, April 14, 2015, members of the Purdue Catalysis Center (PCC) hosted 36 local sixth through eighth grade students for an after school activity. The students are part of the Innovation 2 Reality (I2R) program, which is organized by Purdue Women in Engineering. The theme for the spring 2015 I2R session was Engineering the Frontiers of Medicine.

PCC members provided an engaging, fun-filled evening of catalysis-related activities, including hands-on experiments, chemistry and catalysis demonstrations, a presentation and tours of Forney Hall research laboratories. The students learned how catalysis is vital to everyday life and medical applications, such as the use of noble metals in the synthesis of active pharmaceutical ingredients. In the Fundamentals Laboratory in Forney Hall, the students performed a hands-on experiment with the catalytic decomposition of hydrogen peroxide to study how reactant concentration affects the reaction rate, a basic concept in catalysis. The decomposition of hydrogen peroxide is a model reaction that also shows the students how enzymes (biological catalysts) work to breakdown harmful metabolic byproducts in living organisms. The students also learned about how catalysis can be used to protect the environment from pollutants emitted from diesel engines, with the aid of an actual catalytic converter with cutout displays provided by Johnson-Matthey.

Graduate student Viktor Cybulskis, who is co-advised by Professors Fabio H. Ribeiro and W. Nicholas Delgass, and Assistant Professor Raj Gounder developed and led the outreach event. Gabriela Nagy and Yury Zvinevich, along with five other PCC graduate student researchers, Jason Bates, Tej Choksi, Phil Kester, Paulami Majumdar and Zhenwei Wu also helped supervise the lab tours, hands-on activities and demonstrations.