The Philadelphia Section of the STLE is pleased to award a $1,250 scholarship to U. Penn graduate student Jian Chang. Chang is a PhD student in chemical and biomedical engineering, working under the direction of Professors John Vohs and Ray Gorte. His initial project focused on developing solid oxide electrodes for the electrochemical synthesis of ammonia from N2. While he was unable to achieve high selectivity to ammonia, Chang’s work provided fundamental insight into the factors that control electrode selectivity and reactivity.
Chang is currently studying ways to upgrade biomass to fuels and chemicals using solid catalysts. Furfural, a common agricultural byproduct, can be upgraded to a variety of valuable products through aldol condensation reactions. Carbon-carbon bonds are formed in the process and the number of carbon atoms can grow in a controlled manner. His results have shown, when using CaO/MgAl2O4 as the catalyst, furfural reacts with decanal forming a C15 hydrocarbon chain at an exceptional rate of 3.8 mmol/(h·gcat) with 98% selectivity at 100 °C. This is of industrial interest because most aldol-condensation applications use homogeneous-base catalysts. By contrast, heterogeneous catalysts are more easily separated from the products and are less likely to cause corrosion of the equipment. With these catalysts, it is demonstrated that various types of lubricants and other chemicals can be easily synthesized from renewable feedstocks.
Chang is described as a talented researcher making important contributions to electrochemical and catalytic science.