Hicks Research Group

Welcome to the Hicks Group Website! We are primarily focused in the area of heterogeneous catalysis. We seek to understand how the properties and structures of catalysts affect activity and selectivity for specific reactions. We couple our experimental results with detailed characterization of the heterogeneous catalysts to develop relationships between the catalyst structure and the resulting catalytic activity. We also study catalyst stability at reaction conditions, as fundamental understanding of stability is required for advanced catalyst development and for process commercialization. We currently have projects focused on the synthesis and characterization of new catalytic materials for biofuels applications, carbon dioxide conversion, ammonia synthesis, methane activation, catalytic dehydrogenation, and olefin oligomerizations. Using kinetic studies and in situ characterization methods, we are studying how non-thermal plasma activates reactants and/or catalyst surfaces to enhance catalyst performance.