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Author: Kayla Benson

Dai Group Published in Nature Communications

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The Dai Group published their latest research “Intra-crystalline mesoporous zeolite encapsulation-derived thermally robust metal nanocatalyst in deep oxidation of light alkanes” in Nature Communications.

Zeolite-confined metal nanoparticles (NPs) have attracted much attention owing to their superior sintering resistance and broad applications for thermal and environmental catalytic reactions. However, the pore size of the conventional zeolites is usually below 2 nm, and reactants are easily blocked to access the active sites.

In this work, a facile in situ mesoporogen-free strategy is developed to design and synthesize palladium (Pd) NPs enveloped in a single-crystalline zeolite (silicalite-1, S-1) with intra-mesopores (termed Pd@IM-S-1). Pd@IM-S-1 exhibited remarkable light alkanes deep oxidation performances, and it should be attributed to the confinement and guarding effect of the zeolite shell and the improvement in mass-transfer efficiency and active metal sites accessibility. The Pd–PdO interfaces as a new active site can provide active oxygen species to the first C-H cleavage of light alkanes. “This work exemplifies a promising strategy to design other high-performance intra-crystalline mesoporous zeolite-confined metal/metal oxide catalysts for high-temperature industrial thermal catalysis”, said Honggen Peng, a previous visiting scholar in the Dai Group.

Filed Under: Dai

Dai Highly Cited Researcher – 2021

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Sheng DaiEach year, Clarivate™ identifies the world’s most influential researchers ─ the select few who have been most frequently cited by their peers over the last decade. In 2021, fewer than 6,700, or about 0.1%, of the world’s researchers, in 21 research fields and across multiple fields, have earned this exclusive distinction.Dai is among this elite group recognized for your exceptional research influence, demonstrated by the production of multiple highly-cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and year in the Web of Science™.

SMaRT Internship Program

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Eighteen undergraduate students from across the country have been here this summer working side-by-side in the labs with University of Tennessee, Knoxville faculty and grad assistants, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers.

SMaRT Internship Program

Many of UT’s faculty work in conjunction with Oak Ridge National Lab and contribute to the world-class research that is being done there. The Student Mentoring and Research Training program (SMaRT) seeks to further promote research and utilize our unique partnership with ORNL by funding multiple paid 10-week undergraduate internships that focus on ORNL-related research with a UT faculty member.

About the Program

This research experience is an eleven-month commitment from February to December that is comprised of a training period in the spring, a full-time paid internship in the summer, and a reporting period (presentation of your research) in the fall.

During the summer internship component, students will work alongside a UT faculty mentor in an ORNL-related lab on UT’s campus or at ORNL. Applicants must choose to do research within one of ORNL’s six main research divisions:

Learn more about the programhttps://ugresearch.utk.edu/students/find-opportunities/smart-internship-program/

Alum Spotlight – Neal

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Sabine Neal, born and raised in western Montana, graduated with her PhD working with the Musfeldt Lab in May 2021.

“The Musfeldt lab provided me with a lot of opportunity. Musfeldt knew I was a single parent and looked past that, believing in me, and giving me so many invaluable experiences,” Neal said. “I had a chance to work at two national labs, collaborate with scientists all over the world, travel to conferences, and employ cutting edge technology to study two-dimensional systems.”

Neal began working at Brookhaven National Lab in January 2021 as a Research Associate in Materials Science as a part of the Interface Science and Catalysis group at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials.

Neal’s expertise primarily lies in infrared and Raman spectroscopy and currently works on a broad array of instrumentation including both NanoIR, Photothermal, and nanoprobe systems to study high energy materials. She also uses LEEM and LEED to grow and characterize thin films. 

“UT’s chemistry graduate program helped me prepare in several ways. First, the hands-on training in the lab was crucial. I know how to trouble shoot, maintain lab equipment, and work independently.  Second, the many conferences, visitor presentations, and group talks helped to cultivate my communication skills,” Neal said. “Being a TA also helped me learn how to communicate effectively to different groups/skill levels of people. I really enjoyed working with the students and general chemistry staff.  Finally, I had three stand-out professors that aided in my personal journey to obtain my degree: Musfeldt, Sharma, and Kilbey.”

“As a single parent, most people have told me what I couldn’t do. I couldn’t get a bachelor’s degree. I did. I couldn’t get a master’s. I did. And most wouldn’t have believed I could earn a PhD. But I did,” Neal said. “You can do anything that you want if you put your mind to it and work hard. Stand up for yourself. Do what makes you happy. There is no limit!”

Graduate Student Spotlight – Halstenberg

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Phillip Halstenberg is a chemistry graduate student currently conducting research in the Dai Group.

Halstenberg is originally from Kannapolis, North Carolina and attended the University of North Carolina at Wilmington for his BS in chemistry where he began working in the chemistry laboratories under the guidance of Dr. S. Bart Jones and Dr. Robert Hancock.

Sheng Dai, Professor and ORNL-UT Joint Faculty was invited to give a presentation during the UNCW’s guests lecture series. Dai visited the labs and met Halstenberg as their lab was collaborating with Dai on complexometric titrations related to the Uranium from Seawater Project. “We spoke about my efforts toward the research objectives and my plans for medical school and my intention to work for a year or so prior to applying,” Halstenberg said. “He told me that if I was interested, I could continue my work toward the Uranium from Seawater Project at Oak Ridge National Laboratory during my gap year. I quickly expressed interest in the opportunity and subsequently began work as an intern via the Higher Education Research Experience program offered by Oak Ridge Associated Universities.”

“A few years later I was still working at ORNL now a Post Bachelor Research Associate long since deciding my calling was not toward medical, but chemical sciences,” Halstenberg said. “I soon realized that in competitive research environments, such as a national laboratory, a PhD can be a requirement for certain advancement opportunities.

Halstenberg had been working on projects related to the most recently developed, generation IV, nuclear reactors for about a year when he decided to apply to chemistry PhD programs. “I feel strongly that technology related to the latest molten salt reactors will have a substantial societal impact if developed and implemented correctly,” Halstenberg said “My goal was to enter a graduate program where I could work toward furthering our understanding of these systems from a fundamental chemistry perspective.”

Sheng Dai had joined the efforts of recently established Energy Frontier Research Center: Molten Salts in Extreme Environments and the Nuclear Energy University Program. “We spoke about my efforts toward molten salt, and I decided to attend UTK and complete my PhD working for these programs,” Halstenberg said. “It helped my decision when I realized that UTK was home to Gleb Mamantov, who made many of the first breakthroughs in molten salt research ~60 years ago. ORNL has also always been on the cutting edge of these molten salt reactors.”

Halstenberg’s research focus is molten chloride salts. Over the last three years, he has built a world class experimental salt chemistry facility in Buehler Hall on UTK’s main campus. These labs support research efforts related to molten chloride salts  worldwide. All the experiments are related to understanding the fundamental chemical interaction in molten chloride systems. The facility provides the salt matrices required across all of the collaborating institutions and assist in the development of their experimental methodology.

“In addition to providing the salt mixtures, the focus of my molten salt work in the UTK laboratory is the quantifying impurities, spectroscopic speciation studies, characterization of thermophysical properties, characterization of colloidal mixture properties, development of ultra-high temperature magnets, bulk metallic glass formation and analysis, containment corrosion studies, and novel synthetic pathways,” Halstenberg said.

“I enjoy the diversity of research being conducted within the Dai group,” Halstenberg said.  “This coupled with the encouragement of a collaborative group effort results in an environment that is very conducive to research progress.”

“Much of my work prior to graduate school was covered under various confidentiality agreements that prohibited its open publishing,” Halstenberg said. “Although, I have coauthored 16 peer reviewed journal articles since entering graduate school in 2018.”

“Upon graduation, I will continue working with national laboratories on research toward advancing the fundamental chemical understanding of these molten chloride systems. After proper technological maturation, I intend to move from research to development,” Halstenberg said. “I will take the knowledge I have gained synthesizing and purifying these materials on a laboratory scale and use it to build the supply chains needed to provide materials for industrial scale production of molten salt reactors.”

Passing of Gerald G. Gibson

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Gerald W. Gibson

October 27, 1937 – May 20, 2021

Dr. Gerald W. Gibson, father, husband, granddaddy, and President Emeritus of Maryville College, passed away on Thursday, May 20, 2021, following an extended illness. He was 83. He was a member of New Providence Presbyterian Church in Maryville, Tenn.

Gibson enjoyed a 45 year career in higher education and often reminded his family, “Knowledge is power.” A native of Saluda County, S.C., he spent much of his childhood in Spartanburg. He studied chemistry and earned degrees at Wofford College (BS) and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (PhD) and served as a member of the United States Army Chemical Corps prior to joining the faculty at the College of Charleston in 1965. He served as chair of the chemistry department at the College of Charleston from 1968 until 1982, when he was named associate provost for academic affairs at the College. In 1984, he left to become vice president and dean of Roanoke College in Salem, Va., where he served for the next nine years.

Gibson was inaugurated as Maryville College’s 10th president in 1993 and retired in 2010. Credited with leading the College into its current state of historic strength, he took the helm when enrollment at MC was 752 students, and the College’s endowment was valued at around $12.5 million. At the conclusion of his 17 year tenure, the College had celebrated a record enrollment of 1,176 undergraduates and an endowment value of $55 million.

Arrangements by Smith Funeral & Cremation Service, Maryville, Tenn. 

Dai Group Published in Nature Communications

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The Dai Group published their collaborative research “Formation of three-dimensional bicontinuous structures via molten salt dealloying studied in real-time by in situ synchrotron X-ray nano-tomography” in Nature Communications.

Three-dimensional bicontinuous porous materials formed by dealloying contribute significantly to various applications including catalysis, sensor development and energy storage. This work studies a method of molten salt dealloying via real-time in situ synchrotron three-dimensional X-ray nano-tomography.

Quantification of morphological parameters determined that long-range diffusion is the rate-determining step for the dealloying process. The subsequent coarsening rate was primarily surface diffusion controlled, with Rayleigh instability leading to ligament pinch-off and creating isolated bubbles in ligaments, while bulk diffusion leads to a slight densification. Chemical environments characterized by X-ray absorption near edge structure spectroscopic imaging show that molten salt dealloying prevents surface oxidation of the metal.

“In this work, gaining a fundamental mechanistic understanding of the molten salt dealloying process in forming porous structures provides a nontoxic, tunable dealloying technique and has important implications for molten salt corrosion processes, which is one of the major challenges in molten salt reactors and concentrated solar power plants,” said Phillip Halstenberg, graduate student in the Dai Group.