FACt Group

A postdoctoral or Ph.D. position is available in our group, focusing on non-thermal plasma catalysis for converting methane with water or air into methanol and other value-added products. Applicants should have a Ph.D. and strong hands-on experience in the design, construction, and operation of non-thermal plasma reactors, particularly DBD systems. Interested applicants should send a cover letter, CV, and contact information for three references to zihaozhang@utk.edu.

Welcome to the Fundamental and Applied CaTalysis (FACt) group at the Center for Renewable Carbon, School of Natural Resources, University of Tennessee, Knoxville!

We design efficient catalysts for valorizing biomass and renewable small molecules (e.g., biomass-derived CH4 and CO2) into value-added chemicals, materials and fuels. Our work integrates catalyst material synthesis, catalytic kinetics, and operando/in situ spectroscopy to uncover reaction mechanisms and enable mechanism-guided catalyst design—moving beyond traditional “trial-and-error” approaches. We actively seek collaborations in advanced characterization and theory/modeling (DFT, microkinetics, AI-driven, etc.) to accelerate translation from fundamental understanding to practical catalytic technologies.

“A catalyst is a substance which affects the rate of a chemical reaction without being part of its end products.” — Wilhelm Ostwald (1853–1932), Nobel Laureate in Chemistry (1909)

“The interactions between the catalyst and the reactants should be 'just right'; that is, neither too strong nor too weak.” — Paul Sabatier (1854–1941)

“The atoms in the surface of a crystal must tend to arrange themselves so that the total energy will be a munimum.” — Irving Langmuir (1881–1957), Nobel Laureate in Chemistry (1932)

“A catalysed chemical reaction is not catalysed over the entire solid surface of the catalyst but only at certain 'active sites' or centres.” — Hugh Stott Taylor (1890–1974)

“A catalyst is a complex and resilient self-assembly in space and time…..To treat a catalyst a dead object in time with a fixed structure in space is wrong model of catalytic cycle.” — Michel Boudart (1924–2012)

“How can the two-dimentional chemistry taking place in the chemsorbed overlayer be investigated in the atomic scale?” — Gerhard Ertl, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry (2007)

Catalytic processes are akin to seasonal changes, where everything is in constant flux, from active sites to intermediates. However, unlike the year-long seasonal cycle, catalytic cycles occur much more rapidly.

Join FACt: Be a FACter, Uncovering the Truth in Catalysis.

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