Evangelos Miliordos, PhD

Associate Professor

Auburn University

Friday, February 24, 2023

9:30 AM

102 Benedum Hall

Host: Yanni Mpourmpakis

Seeking Efficient Catalysts for the Selective Partial Oxidation of Methane to Methanol by Means of Quantum Chemical Calculations

Abstract

The continuously increasing quantities of natural gas extracted from underground fossil fuel reserves have intensified the efforts for the identification of efficient catalysts, which convert methane to methanol selectively. Methanol has all desirable features determined by the industrial demands. A direct conversion under mild conditions at the location of extraction of methane would facilitate the transportation of liquid methanol to larger facilities for further processing. Methanol can be used as fuel, solvent, and raw material for the synthesis of larger organic molecules. The largest challenge is not the conversion of methane to methanol but the prevention of methanol oxidation. The CH bond of methanol is weaker than methane and can be oxidized more easily. The present theoretical investigation focuses on the search for catalysts, which disfavor the oxidation of methanol. Our work revealed two families of catalysts which can potentially avoid the formation of over-oxidized methane derivatives: anionic metal oxide molecular complexes, and metal complexes with hydrophilic ligands. The high efficiency of these systems is explained in terms of their geometric and electronic structure.

Bio

Dr. Miliordos completed his undergraduate and graduate studies at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. He obtained his PhD in the Spring of 2010 working on the electronic structure of first row-transition metal oxides, and then moved to the United States as a post-doctoral researcher. He first joined the Michigan State University (2010-2012) working on weak molecular interactions under the supervision of Prof. Katharine Hunt. He then moved to the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (2012-2015) to study micro-solvation processes under the supervision of Dr. Sotiris Xantheas. His final post-doctoral appointment was at the Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation (hosted by the University of Delaware) and specifically in the research group of Prof. Dionysios Vlachos (2015-2016). He has been hired by Auburn University (AU) since 2016 as an Assistant Professor and he has recently been promoted to Associate Professor. The main two research thrusts of his research group are the study of molecules and materials with diffuse electrons, and the exploration of molecular catalysts for challenging chemical processes. He has been the author of 86 peer-reviewed publications, has received the National Science Foundation CAREER award, the OpenEye Outstanding Junior Faculty Award in Computational Chemistry from the American Chemical Society, the Dean’s research award (AU), and he currently holds the James E. Land endowment at Auburn University