Research Activities of Yongsheng Chen

Research Interest Areas:

• Bioenergy, catalytic conversion of biomass, nanomaterials for energy applications
• Heterogeneous catalysis, sulfur poisoning of catalyst
• Materials characterization
• X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy (XANES and EXAFS)

Current Research:

1. Adsorptive desulfurization mechanism (in collaboration with Dr. Chunshan Song)

Deep desulfurization of liquid fuels has received much attention due to the stringent environmental regulations on sulfur concentrations in transportation fuels. The current industrial process of hydrodesulfurization (HDS) requires high temperature, high pressure conditions and large hydrogen consumption. A new process, adsorptive desulfurization (ADS), has been developed to produce ultra clean fuel at ambient temperature and pressure without using hydrogen. A few families of adsorbents have been successfully developed in Dr. Chunshan Song’s group, and Dr. Chen leads a collaborative effort in understanding the fundamental principle governing the interactions between the sulfur compounds and the adsorbents. A trip to Argonne National Laboratory took place on June 11-16, 2008. See pictures here.

2. Sulfur poisoning in steam reforming catalysts (in collaboration with Dr. Chunshan Song and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory)

Sulfur poisoning is a very important phenomenon that has been studied for decades for catalytic reactions. A presence of a very small amount of sulfur on the catalyst surface can significantly deactivate the catalyst. Due to a very low level of sulfur (easily below 0.1 wt.% of sulfur), most conventional characterization techniques have difficulty in detecting sulfur in the deactivated catalysts. By using brilliant x-ray source from a synchrotron, x-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy (XAFS) at sulfur k-edge can detect sulfur in very dilute samples and determine the sulfur species in the deactivated catalysts. Dr. Chen led a team to Brookhaven National Laboratory on June 20-25, 2008. See pictures here. Stay tuned for the latest discoveries.

3. Catalysis studies in ‘green’ biodiesel production (consulting with Matson & Associate).

Selected Publications:

J. L. Fulton, J. C. Linehan, T. Autrey, M. Balasubramanian, Y. Chen, N. K. Szymczak. When is a Nanoparticle a Cluster? An Operando EXAFS Study of Amine Borane Dehydrocoupling by Rh_4-6 Clusters. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 129 2007, 11936-11949.

J. L. Fulton, Y. Chen, S. M. Heald, M. Balasubramanian. Hydration and contact ion pairing of Ca²⁺ with Cl^- in supercritical aqueous solution. J. Chem. Phys. 125 (9) 2006, Art. No. 094507.

V. Glezakou, Y. Chen, J. L. Fulton, G. K. Schenter and L. X. Dang. Electronic structure, statistical mechanical simulations, and EXAFS spectroscopy of aqueous potassium. Theor. Chem. Acc. 115 (2-3) 2006, 86-99.

Y. Chen, J. L. Fulton, W. Partenheimer. The structure of the homogeneous oxidation catalyst, Mn(II)- (Br^-1)_x, in supercritical water: An x-ray absorption fine structure study. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 127 (40) 2005, 14085-14093.

Y. Chen, J. L. Fulton, J. C. Linehan, T. Autrey. In-situ XAFS and NMR study of rhodium catalyst structure during dehydrocoupling of dimethylamine borane. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 127 (10) 2005, 3254-3255.

W. J. Shaw, J. C. Linehan, A. Gutowska, D. Newell, T. Bitterwolf, J. L. Fulton, Y. Chen, C. F. Windisch. Synthesis and characterization of a recoverable rhodium catalyst with a stimulus sensitive polymer ligand. Inorg. Chem. Comm. 8 (10) 2005, 894–896.

Y. Chen, J. L. Fulton, W. Partenheimer. A XANES and EXAFS Study of hydration and ion pairing in ambient aqueous MnBr2 solutions. J. Solution Chem. 34(9) 2005, 993-1007.

J. L. Fulton, Y. Chen, S. Heald, M. Balasubramanian. High-pressure, high temperature XAFS transmission cell for the study of aqueous ions with low absorption-edge energies. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 75 (12), 2004, 5228-5231.

Y. Chen, I. E. Wachs. Tantalum oxide supported metal oxide (Re₂O₇, CrO₃, MoO₃, WO₃, V₂O₅ and Nb₂O₅) catalysts: synthesis, Raman characterization and chemically probed by methanol oxidation. J. Catal. 217, 2003, 468-477.

Y. Chen, J. L. G. Fierro, T. Tanaka, I. E. Wachs. Supported tantalum oxide catalysts: synthesis, physical characterization and methanol oxidation chemical probe reaction. J. Phys. Chem. B 107, 2003, 5243-5250.

I. E. Wachs, Y. Chen, J.-M. Jehng, L. E. Briand, T. Tanaka. Molecular structure and reactivity of the Group Five metal oxides. Catal. Today 78, 2003, 13–24.

Y. Chen, K. Xie, Z. X. Liu. Determination of the position of V⁴⁺ as minor component in XPS spectra by difference spectra. Appl. Surf. Sci. 133, 1998, 221-224.

Y. Chen, K. Xie, Z. X. Liu. XPS studies of V₂O₅ thin film at different temperatures and oxygen partial pressures. Appl. Surf. Sci. 126, 1998, 347-351.

Y. Chen, Z. R. Zhang, Z. X. Liu. Oxygen sensitive resistance properties of Sr₂V₂O₇. Chinese J. Inorganic Materials 13 (6), 1998, 835-840.

Conference Preprints:

Y. Chen, J. L. Fulton, J. C. Linehan, T. Autrey. In-situ spectroscopic studies of rhodium catalyzed production of hydrogen from dimethylamine borane: Homogeneous or heterogeneous catalysis? Prepr. Pap.-Am. Chem. Soc., Div. Fuel Chem. 49(2) 2004, 972-973.

Selected Presentations:

T. G. Levitskaia, Y. Chen, J. L. Fulton, S. I. Sinkov, “Chitosan biomaterials as sequestering agents for radionuclides”, 232nd National Meeting, San Francisco, CA, September, 2006.

J. C. Linehan, N. Szymczak, J. L. Fulton, Y. Chen, Tom Autrey, “Catalyzed dehydrogenation of amine boranes studied by NMR”, 232nd National Meeting, San Francisco, CA, September, 2006.

J. C. Linehan, J. L. Fulton, Y. Chen, M. Balasubramanian, T. E. Bitterwolf, T. Autrey, and W. J. Shaw, “EXAFS for structure determination of clusters in solution”, 231st ACS National Meeting,  Atlanta, GA, March 2006.

Y. Chen, J. L. Fulton, J. C. Linehan, T. Autrey, M. Balasubramanian, “In situ EXAFS for Structure Determination of Catalytic Rh Clusters”, invited speaker, Advanced Photon Source User Science Seminar, Argonne, IL, April, 2006.

Y. Chen, W. Partenheimer, J. L. Fulton, “Structure of MnBr₂ and CoBr₂ homogeneous catalysts in supercritical water”, 230th ACS National Meeting, Washington, DC, August, 2005.

J. C. Linehan, T. Autrey, J. L. Fulton, Y. Chen, M. Balasubramanian, “Catalysis for hydrogen storage”, 230th ACS National Meeting, Washington, DC, August, 2005.

W. Partenheimer, Y. Chen, J. L. Fulton, “The selective aerobic oxidation of p-xylene to terephthalic acid in supercritical water (scH₂O) and the structure of the MnBr₂ catalyst using EXAFS”, International Symposium on Supercritical Fluids, Orlando, FL, May, 2005.

J. C. Linehan, J. L. Fulton, T. Autrey, Y. Chen, “In situ XAFS and NMR studies of catalyzed dehydrogenation from amine boranes”, 229th ACS National Meeting, San Diego, CA, March, 2005.

Y. Chen, J. C. Linehan, T. Autrey, J. F. Fulton. “In Situ XAFS/NMR Studies of Transition Metal Catalysts for Dehydrocoupling of Amino Boranes:Homogenous Complexes or Heterogeneous Nanoparticles?”, Nanoscale Science and Technology Workshop, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, September, 2004

Y. Chen, J. L. Fulton, J. C. Linehan, T. Autrey. “In-situ spectroscopic studies of rhodium catalyzed production of hydrogen from dimethylamine borane: Homogeneous or heterogeneous catalysis?”, 228th ACS National Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, August, 2004

Y. Chen, I. E. Wachs. “Tantalum oxide supported metal oxide catalysts”, Spring Symposium of The Catalysis Society of Metropolitan New York, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA; 2003

Y. Chen, I. E. Wachs. “Characterization and catalysis of supported tantalum oxide catalysts ”, 17th North American Catalysis Meeting, Toronto, Canada; 2001

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