Personnel:

Nan Yi, Ph.D. Student

Education:
2005 M.Sc., Chemistry, Fudan University
2000 B. S., Chemical Engineering, Qingdao Institute of Chemical Engineering

Research Interests:

• Energy-related heterogeneous catalysis
• Design of functional nanomaterials
• Operando spectroscopy

Research Activities:

• Investigation on the application of noble metals (Au, Pt, Pd) to energy catalysis (methanol steam reforming, decomposition of formic acid, water-gas shift), and environmental catalysis (methane catalytic combustion, CO oxidation).
• Synthesis of precious metal nanoparticles and supported catalysts, and functionalized catalysts using different preparation methods.
• Utilization of various spectroscopy methods (UV-Vis spectroscopy, Temperature-programmed reactions, Infrared spectroscopy and synchrotron in-situ techniques etc.) to correlate molecular/electronic structures with catalyst performance (activity & selectivity) and reaction kinetics.

Awards and Honors:
2010 Johnson Matthey Student Award, The International Precious Metals Institute
2010 Honorable Mentions, Dow Sustainability Innovation Student Challenge
2010 Chair Fund Student Travel Award, Gordon Research Conference (Catalysis)
2010 Full Membership, SIGMA XI, The Scientific Research Society
2009 Graduate Student Research Award, Tufts University
2009 Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Division Student Travel Award, AIChE
2009 Kokes Student Award, North American Catalysis Society
2008-2010 Travel Funds from School of Engineering & Graduate School of Art and Science, Tufts University
2005 Distinguished Graduate Student, Fudan University
2000 Distinguished Graduate Student, Shandong Province

Selected Publications:

1. Boucher M*, Yi N*, Gittleson F, Zugic B, Saltsburg H, Flytzani-Stephanopoulos M. "Hydrogen production from methanol over gold supported on ZnO and CeO₂ nanoshapes", Journal of Physical Chemistry C 115 (2011)1261-1268. (*equal contributions)
2. Yi N, Si R, Saltsburg H, Flytzani-Stephanopoulos M. "Active gold species over cerium oxides for methanol steam reforming and the water gas shift reactions," Energy & Environmental Science 3 (2010) 831-837.
3. Yi N, Si R, Saltsburg H, Flytzani-Stephanopoulos M. "Steam reforming of methanol over Ceria and Au-Ceria catalyst," Applied Catalysis B 95(2010)87-92.
4. Yi N, Cao Y, Su Y, Dai WL, He HY, Fan KN. " Nanocrystalline LaCoO₃ perovskites confined in SBA-15 silica as new efficient catalysts for hydrocarbon oxidation, " Journal of Catalysis 230(2005)249-253.
5. Yi N, Cao Y, Feng WL, Dai WL, He HY, Fan KN. "Catalytic oxidation of methane over novel Ce-Ni-O mixed oxide catalysts prepared by oxalate gel-coprecipitation," Catalysis Letters 99(2005)207-213.
6. Yi N, Cao Y, Feng WL, Dai WL, He HY, Fan KN. "Synthesis and characterization of thermally stable mesostructured sulfated zirconia by a novel sulfate-assisted alcohothermal route," Catalysis Letters 99(2005)73-78.
7. Yi N, Cao Y, Liu YM, Dai WL, Fan KN. "Highly efficient Ni-Ce-O mixed oxide catalysts via gel-coprecipitation of oxalate precursors for catalytic combustion of methane, " Chemistry Letters 34 (2005)108-109.
8. Boucher M, Goergen S, Yi N, Flytzani-Stephanopoulos M. "‘Shape Effects’ in metal oxide supported gold catalysts", Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 13(2011) 2517-2527.
9. Deng WL, Carpenter C, Yi N, Flytzani-Stephanopoulos M. "Comparison of the activity of Au/CeO2 and Au/Fe2O3 catalyst for CO oxidation and the water-gas shift reaction," Topics in Catalysis 44(2007)199-208.
10. Liu YM, Cao Y, Yi N, Feng WL, Yan SR, He HY, Fan KN. "Vanadium oxide supported on mesoporous SBA-15 as highly selectivity catalysts in the oxidative dehydrogenation of propane," Journal of Catalysis 224 (2004) 417-428.
11. Feng WL, Cao Y, Yi N, Dai WL, Fan KN. "Direct production of hydrogen peroxide from CO, O₂, and H₂O over a novel alumina-supported Cu catalyst," New Journal of Chemistry 28 (2004) 1431-1433.
12. Cao Y, Yang P, Yao CZ, Yi N, Feng WL, Dai WL, Fan KN. "Impact of preparation strategy on the properties of carbon-supported Wacker-type catalysts in vapor-phase dimethyl carbonate synthesis", Applied Catalysis A 271 (2004) 15-22.