Background
Education
- University of Kansas, B.S. Chemical Engineering (2010 - 2014)
- Purdue University, Ph.D. Chemical Engineering (2014 - 2019)
Experience
- US DoE: National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Science Undergraduate Laboratory Intern (2014)
- University of Kansas, Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis, Undergraduate Researcher (2013 – 2014)
- University of Viginia, Center for Biorenewable Chemicals (Davis Lab), NSF REU student researcher (2012)
Awards
- Inorganic Materials Graduate Student Award - First Place Presentation (AIChE) (2019)
- Chemical Reaction Engineering Division Travel Award (AIChE) (2018)
- Outstanding Student Poster Award (Michigan Catalysis Society) (2018)
- Eastman Travel Grant - Purdue (2017)
- Richard J. Kokes Award - North American Catalysis Society (2017)
- Graduate Research Fellowship Honorable Mention - NSF (2015)
- Ross Fellowship - Purdue University (2014)
- Graduate Research Fellowship Honorable Mention - NSF (2014)
- Senior Outstanding Academic Achievement - KU Chemical Engineering Dept. (2014)
- Undergraduate Research Award - KU Center for Undergraduate Research (2013)
- Two-Semester Outstanding Achievement in Physical Chemistry - KU Chem Dept. (2013)
- Top Honors General Chemistry Student - KU Chem Dept. (2011)
- National Merit Finalist (2010)
- Bukowski, B. C., Bates, J. S., Gounder, R., Greeley, J.*, “Defect-Mediated Ordering of Condensed Water Structures in Microporous Zeolites.” Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 58 (2019) 16422–16426.
- Bates, J. S., Bukowski, B. C., Harris, J. W., Greeley, J., Gounder, R.*, “Distinct Catalytic Reactivity of Sn Substituted in Framework Locations and at Defect Grain Boundaries in Sn-Zeolites.” ACS Catalysis, 9 (2019) 6146–6168.
- Cordon, M. J., Hall, J. N., Harris, J. W., Bates, J. S., Hwang, S.-J., Gounder, R.*, “Deactivation of Sn-Beta Zeolites Caused by Structural Transformation of Hydrophobic to Hydrophilic Micropores During Aqueous-Phase Glucose Isomerization.” Catalysis Science & Technology, 9 (2019), 1654–1668.
- Cordon, M. J., Harris, J. W., Vega-Vila, J. C., Bates, J. S., Kaur, S., Gupta, M., Witzke, M.E., Wegener, E. C., Miller, J. T., Flaherty, D. W., Hibbitts, D. D., Gounder, R.*, “The Dominant Role of Entropy in Stabilizing Sugar Isomerization Transition States within Hydrophobic Zeolite Pores.” Journal of the American Chemical Society, 140 (2018) 14244–14266.
- Bukowski, B. C., Bates, J. S., Gounder, R., Greeley, J.*, “First Principles, Microkinetic, and Experimental Analysis of Lewis Acid Site Speciation During Ethanol Dehydration on Sn-Beta Zeolites.” Journal of Catalysis, 365 (2018) 261–276.
- Bates, J. S., Gounder, R.*, “Influence of Confining Environment Polarity on Ethanol Dehydration Catalysis by Lewis Acid Zeolites.” Journal of Catalysis, 365 (2018) 213–226.
- Bates, J. S., Bukowski, B. C., Harris, J. W., Greeley, J., Gounder, R., “Distinct Catalytic Reactivity of Sn Substituted in Framework Locations and at Defect Grain Boundaries in Sn-Zeolites.” AIChE Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL, November 12, 2019.
- Bates, J. S., Bukowski, B. C., Greeley, J., Gounder, R., “Effects of Intrapore Hydroxyl Density on Confined Water Structures and Ethanol Dehydration Kinetics within Microporous Brønsted Acids.” AIChE Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL, November 11, 2019.
- Bates, J. S., Bukowski, B. C., Harris, J. W., Greeley, J., Gounder, R., “Kinetic and Spectroscopic Assessments of Water Structure and Dynamics within Confining Zeolite Voids During Ethanol Dehydration.” North American Catalysis Society Meeting, Chicago, IL, June 2019.
- Bates, J. S., Bukowski, B. C., Harris, J. W., Greeley, J., Gounder, R. “Influence of inner- and outer-sphere structural diversity on Lewis and Brønsted acid-catalyzed ethanol dehydration in zeolites.” Tri-State Catalysis Society Spring Symposium. Lousville, KY, April 30, 2019. (Invited)
- Bates, J. S., Bukowski, B. C., Harris, J. W., Greeley, J., Gounder, R. “Influence of inner- and outer-sphere structural diversity on Lewis and Brønsted acid-catalyzed ethanol dehydration in zeolites.” Catalysis Club of Chicago Spring Symposium. Naperville, IL, April 16, 2019.
- Bates, J. S., Cordon, M. J., Hall, J. N., Harris, J. W., Gounder, R., “Effects of confining environment polarity on reactivity and stability of Sn-Beta zeolites during gas-phase and liquid-phase catalysis.” ACS National Meeting, Orlando, FL, April 3, 2019.
- Bates, J. S., Gounder, R., “Influence of Confining Environment Polarity and Active Site Structure on Ethanol Dehydration Catalysis by Lewis Acid Zeolites.” AIChE Annual Meeting, Pittsburgh, PA, November 1, 2018.
- Bates, J. S., Bukowski, B. C., Greeley, J. P., Gounder, R., Catalytic Consequences of Framework Polarity for Ethanol Dehydration on Sn-Beta Zeolites. AIChE Annual Meeting, Minneapolis, MN, November 1, 2017.
- Bates J. S., Pan Q., Ramanathan A., Subramaniam B., Zr-Incorporated Mesoporous Silicates, Zr-KIT-6, As Lewis Acid Catalysts. Microporous and Mesoporous Materials II. AIChE Annual Meeting Oral Presentation, San Francisco, CA, November 4, 2013.
Project Description
Brønsted and Lewis acid sites located within microporous solids catalyze a variety of chemical transformations of oxygenates and hydrocarbons. Such reactions occur in condensed phases in envisioned biomass and shale gas upgrading routes, motivating deeper fundamental understanding of the reactivity-determining interactions among active sites, reactants, and solvents. The crystalline structures of zeolites, which consist of SiO4 tetrahedra with isomorphously-substituted M4+ (e.g., Sn4+, Ti4+) as Lewis acid sites, or Al3+ with charge-compensating extraframework H+ as Brønsted acid sites, provide a reasonably well-defined platform to study these interactions within confining voids of molecular dimension. In this work, gas-phase probe reactions that afford independent control of solvent coverages are developed and used to interpret measured rate data in terms of rate and equilibrium constants for elementary steps, which reflect the structure and stability of kinetically relevant transition states and reactive intermediates. The foundational role of quantitative kinetic information enables building molecular insights into the mechanistic and active site requirements of catalytic reactions, when combined with complementary tools including synthetic approaches to prepare active sites and surrounding environments of diverse and intended structure, quantitative methods to characterize and titrate active sites and functional groups in confining environments, and theoretical modeling of putative active site structures and plausible reaction coordinates.