Education
- Ph.D., Materials Science & Engineering, Massachusets Institute of Technology
- B.S., Materials Science & Engineering, Massachusets Institute of Technology
- B.S., Physics, Massachusets Institute of Technology
As raw material and energy costs rise, developing more efficient catalysts is critical for improving utilization of increasingly scarce resources. At present, heterogeneous catalysts are largely still investigated using trial and error, and a great deal of luck. In many situations, a particular "recipe" is discovered that works quite well, and it is passed down, never modified, and frequently not even understood. These techniques usually involve well-established techniques such as wet impregnation and co-precipitation as the basis for synthesizing catalytic materials, with experimentation often only involving the investigation of a very limited set of parameters, such as metal loading, pore size distribution, and pH.
Brian's research is focused on applying recent advances in nanotechnology, coatings technology, and materials synthesis to improve the performance of these very important materials by investigating parameters never extensively looked at previously. Utilizing robotics in order to rapidly synthesize unique, new catalysts, combined with the design of high-throughput catalyst screening micro-reactors, Brian hopes to be able to lay the groundwork for understanding how reaction conditions never before investigated effect the performance of catalysts important for fuel production and chemical manufacture.