Sourav Biswas

State University of New York, USA

Title: Heterogeneous Oxidation Catalysis: A Sustainable Route for Fine Chemical Production

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Biography

Sourav is from Kolkata (known as 'city of joy'), India and completed his Masters from Indian Institute of Technology Madras. He moved to the United States in 2011 to pursue his Ph.D at the University of Connecticut under Prof. Steven L. Suib. Sourav's interest in the field of catalysis and material chemistry bloomed during his Ph.D, when he studied a unique type of nanomaterials, recognized as 'University of Connecticut' or 'UCT' materials. Sourav pursued his postdoctoral study under Prof. Shannon S. Stahl at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he utilized his material synthesis skills on developing a 'flow-cathode' based fuel cell technology as an alternate energy source. Before joining Buffalo State, Sourav was appointed as a postdoctoral researcher at the Catalysis Center of Energy Innovation at the University of Delaware, where his project was to investigate the surface of metal nanoparticles by spectroscopic techniques.

Sourav has started his independent research career at the SUNY Buffalo State from Spring 2021.

Apart from research and teaching, Sourav likes to travel and spend time with his family and friends. He has visited 10 national parks (here in USA) so far with a goal of visiting all 63 parks. Below are some of the pictures of him at different travel destinations. Sourav is also a sports (cricket and soccer) fan!

Abstract

Selective oxidation of organic molecules by molecular oxygen is a subject of considerable importance in the context of the environmentally benign synthesis of commodity chemicals. Heterogeneous materials have been established as fundamental pillars supporting the advances in ‘green chemistry’, from the perspective of cost and waste minimization. However, dependability on precious metals, promoters/ additives and harsh reaction conditions hinder the widespread use of heterogeneous catalysts over traditional pathways for chemical synthesis. This talk will introduce some of the fundamental and practical challenges facing this field, together with a presentation of efforts we have made to address these challenges, emphasizing the development of a unique type of mesoporous transition metal oxide and its application in a series of selective oxidation reactions. This will be followed by understanding the mechanistic aspects, especially the role of the surface oxygen species, oxygen vacancies and related oxygen transportation by the metal oxides.