Background

Education

Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, Bachelor of Chemical Engineering (2014)
Purdue University, Ph.D. Chemical Engineering (2014 – Present)

Experience

• Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), Summer Intern (May-July 2013)
• Undergraduate Research, ICT

Awards

• Outstanding Graduate Student Research Award (Purdue University) 2018
• Bisland Dissertation Fellowship (Purdue University) 2018
• Best Research Poster award, Graduate Student Organization (GSO) symposium (Purdue University) 2017
• Eastman Chemical Travel Grant (Purdue University) 2016
• Best Research Poster award, Graduate Student Organization (GSO) symposium (Purdue University) 2016
• Centennial Fellowship (Purdue University) 2015 - 2016
• Merit Scholarship (Institute of Chemical Technology) 2012 - 2013

About Me

I completed my Bachelor of Chemical Engineering degree from Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT), Mumbai, India in 2014. I joined Purdue as a graduate student in Fall 2014. During the time when I am not doing research, I like traveling, hiking, reading books and trying out new things outside my comfort zone.

Project Description

The goal of my research is to develop structure-function relations that would correlate the active site with rates and selectivities of NH₃-SCR reaction on different microporous and mesoporous materials}

I am currently focusing on studying Cu-exchanged chabazite (CHA) zeolites, which have been found to have better hydrothermal stability and selectivity in reducing NO_x to N₂ over a wide temperature range as compared to other zeolite frameworks, in probing the active sites and reaction mechanism} This involves synthesizing different composition (Si/Al and Cu loading) zeolites, followed by complete structural characterization using Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), BET micro pore volume measurement, TEM/SEM imaging, NH₃ Temperature programmed desorption (NH₃-TPD) to count the residual Bronsted acid sites, UV-Vis and FT-IR spectroscopy Kinetic data is collected on these characterized materials in a continuous, down-flow, packed bed reactor, in order to correlate the rate of reaction with the number of active sites. To get more information about oxidation state of exchanged Cu and its coordination environment under working state and further establish a structure-activity correlation, operando X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS) is also performed at Advanced Photon Source (Argonne National Laboratory).

Publications

• C. Paolucci, I. Khurana, A.A. Parekh, S. Li, A.J. Shih, H. Li, J.R. Di Iorio, J.D. Albarracin-Caballero, A. Yezerets, J.T. Miller, W.N. Delgass, F.H. Ribeiro, W.F. Schneider, R. Gounder, Dynamic multinuclear sites formed by mobilized copper ions in NOx selective catalytic reduction, Science, 357 (6354) 898 (2017)
• J. D. Albarracin-Caballero^, I. Khurana^, J.R. Di Iorio, A. J. Shih, J. E. Schmidt, M. Dusselier, M. E. Davis, A. Yezerets, J. T. Miller, F. H. Ribeiro and R. Gounder, Structural and Kinetic Changes to Small-Pore Cu-Zeolites After Hydrothermal Aging Treatments and Selective Catalytic Reduction of NOx with Ammonia, Reaction Chemistry & Engineering, (2017) (^Equal contribution)
• C. Paolucci, A.A. Parekh, I. Khurana, J.R. Di Iorio, H. Li, J.D. Albarracin Caballero, A.J. Shih, T. Anggara, W.N. Delgass, J.T. Miller, F.H. Ribeiro, R. Gounder, and W.F. Schneider, Catalysis in a Cage: Condition-Dependent Speciation and Dynamics of Exchanged Cu Cations in SSZ-13 Zeolites, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 138, 18 (2016)