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Welcome new students!Nov 2012

The Tsapatsis group welcomes new graduate students Yasmine Guefrachi, Prashant Kumar, Nitish Mittal, Mansi Shah, Meera Shete and Wanlu Zhang.

Congratulations Dr. Mallon and Dr. AtchisonNov 2012

Elizabeth Mallon and Nicole Atchison successfully defended their Ph.D. theses.

CEMS catalyst synthesis highlighted by the Department of EnergyAug 2012

The discovery of a new method to fabricate hierarchical zeolite catalysts (first made by graduate student Xueyi Zhang), which was recently reported by a CEMS team and collaborators, is highlighted by the US Department of Energy among Stories of Discovery and Innovation The work, which was reported in the journal Science¸ was supported by the Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation, a DOE Office of Science Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) led by the University of Delaware, in which U of M is a major partner, the Abu Dhabi–Minnesota Institute for Research Excellence, the National Science Foundation, and the University of Minnesota Initiative for Renewable Energy and the Environment. Zhang, X, et al. "Synthesis of self-pillared zeolite nanosheets by repetitive branching." 2012. Science 336: 1684-1687. DOI: 1-.1126/science.1221111 Other comments for this work can be found here.
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Kumar Varoon Agrawal Participates in DOE Workshop on MembranesAug 2012

DOE workshop on membrane focused on industrialization of membrane technology. DOE believes that inorganic and inorganic/polymer hybrid membrane has the best chances of success for industrialization. Kumar Varoon discussed the success story of thin nanosheet membrane which has a lot of potential for commercialization. He and many other from industry, national labs and academia brainstormed on the barriers to commercialization and possible actions to circumvent those barriers.

Xueyi Zhang presents talks on self-pillared zeolite nanosheets in China and JapanAug 2012

Xueyi Zhang presented seminars on “Synthesis of Self-Pillared Zeolite Nanosheets by Repetitive Branching” (Science 2012, 336, 1684) at Tsinghua University (Beijing, China), China University of Petroleum (Beijing, China), and the International Symposium on Zeolites and Microporous Crystals (ZMPC) 2012 (Hiroshima, Japan). The paper is freely available through the publication page.

U helps develop catalyst that may lower gas pricesJul 2012

Nanosheets — thin layers of silicon the size of a molecule — stacked like a house of cards could be the cure for rising gas prices. Read more...

Belated welcome to Cory Thomas, Zheyu Jiang, Kevin Nguenkam, Wey Yi Foo and Keoni SannyJun 2012

During the spring semester and summer, Tsapatsis group was bolstered by undergraduate students. Cory Thomas, Zheyu Jiang, Kevin Nguenkam, Wey Yi Foo and Keoni Sanny are working on developing high performance nanosheet membranes, characterizing membrane stability and catalysis for producing biofuel.

Belated welcome to Dr. Berna TopuzJun 2012

Dr. Berna Topuz joined Tsapatsis group as a postdoctoral associate after finishing her phD in chemical engineering from Izmir Institute of Technology in Turkey. Her work in Tsapatsis group focuses on high performance nanosheet membrane.

Congratulations Dr. StoegerApr 2012

Jared Stoeger successfully defended his PhD thesis on the preparation, characterization, and processing of oriented polycrystalline zeolite and aluminophosphate membranes. He will be joining Intel Corporation as a Process Technology Development Engineer.

Congratulations Dr. LeeJan 2012

Pyungsoo Lee defended his PhD thesis and will join Oak Ridge National laboratory as a postdoctoral fellow working on membrane technologies. During his PhD, Dr. Lee designed a high performance zeolite membrane using sub-40 nm zeolite suspensions.

Congratulations Prof. LiuJan 2012

Dongxia starts her academic career as an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland. Click here to visit her homepage.

Breakthrough of the YearJan 2012

Zeolites were runner up for breakthrough of the year by Science journal. Nanosheet paper was among the four cited papers in this field.

Professor Tsapatsis is elected Fellow of the AAASJan 2012

Professor Tsapatsis is elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) by the AAAS Council. Each year the Council elects members whose "efforts on behalf of the advancement of science or its applications are scientifically or socially distinguished."

Welcome, New Graduate Students!Nov 2011

Maryam Khaleel, Neel Rangnekar, Dandan Xu and Han Zhang join Tsapatsis group starting November 2011. A very warm welcome to them. See their profiles for more information about them.

Nanosheet Article in Science Now Freely AvailableOct 2011

The article "Dispersible Exfoliated Zeolite Nanosheets and Their Application as a Selective Membrane" published in Science magazine is now freely available through the Featured Articles in the publication page.

Zeolite nanosheet featured on local TV newsOct 2011

Benefits of zeolite nanosheets and its membrane was featured in the local TV news (KSTP TV, channel 5). Visit news page to see the video.

Smoothing Out Zeolite Nanosheet SynthesisOct 2011

US scientists have overcome a significant hurdle in the production of zeolite nanosheets, which should make these versatile materials simpler to synthesise. Zeolites nanosheets could potentially be used for a wide range of applications such as sieves that can separate molecules based on their size and catalytic membranes. Read more...

Congratulations Dr. Brewer!Aug 2011

Damien Brewer recently graduated from the group. He was co-advised by Professor Satish Kumar. Dr. Brewer was studying convective assembly of nanoparticles to form uniform, well packed structures. At the start of his studies, he was co-advised by Professor L.E. (Skip) Scriven.

Zeolites with Hierarchical Pore Structure by Hydrothermal SynthesisAug 2011

Zeolites with hierarchical pore structure is desirable for molecular traffic control for improved catalysis and separations. It is now achieved by the conventional hydrothermal synthesis as reported by Chen et al. in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Introducing Sub-40 nm Zeolite Nanoparticle SuspensionAug 2011

In the "Journal of the American Chemical Society", Lee et al. report the synthesis and characterization of sub-40 nm MFI nanoparticle suspensions and demonstrated its utility as a high performance zeolite membrane. Read more at ACS online

Congratulations Dr. Lee, Dr. Kumar and Dr. RanjanOct 2010

Alex J. Lee, Sandeep Kumar and Rajiv Ranjan recently graduated from our group. Dr. Lee was studying convective assembly of nanoparticles to form uniform, well packed structures. Apart from academics, he conceptualized and designed this webpage. Dr. Kumar, co-advised by Professor Lee Penn, was investigating the growth mechanism of zeolites. Dr. Ranjan was studying the fabrication of metal organic framework membranes and adsorbtion & separation of biofuels.

RTP Article in "Science" freely availableAug 2009

The article "Grain Boundary Defect Elimination in a Zeolite Membrane by Rapid Thermal Processing" published in Science magazine is now freely available through the publications page.

Membrane Breaks Through Performance BarrierJul 2009

Engineers have developed a new method for creating high-performance membranes from crystal sieves called zeolites; the method could increase the energy efficiency of chemical separations up to 50 times over conventional methods and enable higher production rates read more...

Prof. Tsapatsis receives George W. Taylor AwardJun 2008

Professor Tsapatsis received the George W. Taylor Award for 2008, granted by the University of Minnesota Institute of Technology. The award was established in 1982 to recognize younger faculty members who have shown outstanding ability in research.

Prof. Tsapatsis receives Stine AwardNov 2007

Professor Tsapatsis was awarded the Charles M. A. Stine Award, which is bestowed annually to a leading researcher in recognition of outstanding contributions to the field of materials science and engineering. The Stine Award is sponsored by E.I. duPont de Nemours & Co.

On the cover of LangmuirSep 2007

"Silica Nanoparticle Crystals and Ordered Coatings Using Lys-Sil and a Novel Coating Device" appears in Langmuir, The ACS Journal of Surfaces and Colloids 23(20) (see publications) featuring cover art submitted by the authors. Whether or not by accident, the cover's main colors are maroon and gold--our school colors! (click on image to enlarge)

Crystal Sieves, Born AnewApr 2006

In NSF news "...Now, however, a team of chemists, engineers and mathematicians, using some of the most advanced microscopes in the research arsenal, has uncovered new details for the step-by-step evolution from molecular soup to carefully engineered zeolite crystal..." read more!

Sowing The Seeds Of Oriented FilmsFeb 2006

In Chemical & Engineering News, "...Zeolite films in particular hold promise for practical applications, but their fabrication imposes challenges, including control of thickness, grain size, and pore orientation," says Michael Tsapatsis, professor of chemical engineering and materials science at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities..." read more!