Che, Fanglin - University of Massachusetts Amherst - Department of Chemical Engineering

个人简介

Dr. Fanglin Che joined in Chemical Engineering department at University of Massachusetts Lowell as an Assistant Professor in September, 2019. Dr. Che earned her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at Washington State University in 2016, under the advisement of Professor Jean-Sabin McEwen. From January 2017 to September 2018, she worked with Professor Edward Sargent at University of Toronto as a Postdoctoral Researcher. From October 2018 to July 2019, she worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at University of Delaware in Professor Dionisios G. Vlachos’s laboratory. The overarching goal of Dr. Che’s research is to develop innovative strategies to produce renewable energy, fuel and chemicals via the computational design of efficient thermo- and electro-catalytic processes.

研究领域

(1) Light-Alkane Activation Methane, the principle component of natural gas, plays a significant role as a feedstock for energy production and chemicals. Over a century of research, it still remains a major challenge that no established commercial process for direct partial oxidation of methane to methanol. Generally, this is due to the fact that methane requires high kinetic barriers to break its first C-H bond and the reactivity of methanol is higher than methane (in other words, it is hard to locally stabilize methanol from being further oxidize). The significance of this project is to provide a unique solution to directly convert natural gas to the highest energy density liquid fuel. (2) Carbon Dioxide Electroreduction to Multicarbon Hydrocarbons. One of the most critical long-term global challenges at present is ensuring a sustainable supply of energy, creating sustainable energy storage, and improving the energy efficiency in the fuel production, transformation and final use of energy. A potential solution lies in the electrochemical conversion of CO2 emissions, which have been rising at unprecedented rates, into chemical fuels. The primary goal of my research is to develop catalysts that can directly convert CO2 into storable, energy-rich liquid fuels by electro-catalysis and drive the U.S. to become a more energy independent nation. The long-term goal of this work is to advance our understanding on the key features of enhancing the electrocatalytic current density and Faradic efficiency of CO2RR to valuable liquid fuels over modified Cu-based catalysts via performing multi-scale simulations. We will develop a widely marketable and valuable Vitro Simulation Laboratories for multi-scale simulations from atomic level to reactor level to analyze the electrocatalytic performance of CO2RR in an electrochemical flow cell for sustainable energy and storage applications. (3) Scaling Relationship and Microkinetic Modeling of Heterogeneous Catalysis. Linear Scaling Relationship for adsorbate adsorption, or in between transition states and reactants (or products) can be established for a transition-metal system. We would like to use density functional theory calculations combining with machine learning technics to understand the key descriptors to of the scaling relationships. (4) Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulations of Heterogeneous Catalysis Reactor. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations involves multi-physics coupling (i.e., fluid mechanics, heat transfer, mass transfer) and detailed chemistry. CFD is of importance during experimental design and reactor optimization process. In our group we will combine the detailed chemistry obtaining from microkinetic modeling with multi-physcis coupling CFD technics to study energy-related, environmental-related topics.

近期论文

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Y. Kim*, F. Che*, etc., S. Edward, A Facet‐Specific Quantum Dot Passivation Strategy for Colloid Management and Efficient Infrared Photovoltaics, Adv. Mater., 2019, 31 (17),1805580. Y. Zhou*, F. Che*, etc., S. Edward, Dopant-induced electron localization drives CO2 reduction to C2 hydrocarbons. Nature Chem., 10, 974–980, 2018. H. Tan*, F. Che*, etc., S. Edward, Dipolar cations confer defect tolerance in wide-bandgap metal halide perovskites, Nature Comm., 9, 3100, 2018. F. Che, J. T. Gray, S. Ha, N. Kruse, S. L. Scott, J.-S. McEwen, Elucidating the Roles of the Electric Fields in Catalysis: A Perspective. ACS Catal., 8, 5153–5174, 2018. F. Che, J. T. Gray, S. Ha, J.-S. McEwen, Reducing Reaction Temperature, Steam Requirements, and Coke Formation During Methane Steam Reforming Using Electric Fields: A Microkinetic Modeling and Experimental Study. ACS Catal., 7, 6957-6968, 2017. F. Che, S. Ha, J.-S. McEwen, Oxidation State Controlled Catalytic Reaction Rates: A Case Study of the C-H Bond Cleavage in Methane over Ni-Based Catalysts, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 129, 3611, 2017. Selected as the cover art and a hot paper. F. Che, S. Ha, J.-S. McEwen, Mitigating the Role of the Electric Field at the Ni/YSZ Anode: A DFT study, J. Phys. Chem. C, 120, 14608-14620, 2016. Selected as the cover art.