Chemistry People: Faculty by Name:

Research Interests:

Physical Chemistry, Solid State Chemistry, Surface Science and Catalysis -- An atomic and molecular level understanding of surfaces is the key to understanding macroscopic surface phenomena like catalysis, adhesion, lubrication, and biocompatibility 

Professor Somorjai’s research interests are in the field of surface science. His group is studying the structure, bonding, and reactivity at solid surfaces on the molecular scale. This knowledge is then utilized to understand macroscopic surface phenomena; adsorption, heterogeneous catalysis, friction, lubrication, and biocompatibility on the molecular level. To this end, he also develops instruments for nanoscale characterization of surfaces. These include sum frequency generation surface vibrational spectroscopy (SFG) and high pressure scanning tunneling microscopy (high pressure STM).

Research is carried out in the following areas:

• Studies of catalytic reactions on single crystals, nano-particles, or other well-characterized surfaces. The rate and product distribution of catalyzed reactions are correlated to surface composition, valency, and atomic structure. As part of these studies, hydrocarbon reactions on platinum and rhodium single crystal surfaces are investigated. Monodispersed metal nanoparticles in the 1-10 nm range are synthesized in solution and deposited on oxide films as two-dimensional arrays using the Langmuir-Blodgett technique and used as model catalysts. A combination of SFG and high pressure STM is used in these studies.
  
  Encapsulation of metal nanoparticles in mezoporous oxide channels is used to produce high surface area catalysts that exhibit high reaction selectivity.
  
• Polymer surfaces, both hydrophobic and hydrophilic are utilized to study the adsorption, structures and transformations of polypeptide monolayers. The adsorption of peptides with increasing molecular weight and different amino acid compositions is investigated. A combination of SFG and atomic force microscopy (AFM) is used in most of these studies.

Biography:

Professor, born 1935; B.S. University of Technical Sciences, Budapest (1956); Ph.D. Physical Chemistry, University of California at Berkeley (1960); Guggenheim Fellow (1969); Unilever Professor, University of Bristol (1972); Chairman, Division of Colloid and Surface Chemistry of the ACS (1975); Kokes Award, Johns Hopkins University (1976); Emmett Award of the American Catalysis Society (1977); Baker Lecturer, Cornell University (1977); Miller Professor, Berkeley (1978); Member, National Academy of Sciences (1979); Colloid and Surface Chemistry Award of the American Chemical Society (1981); Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1983); Henry Albert Palladium Medal (1986); Peter Debye Award in Physical Chemistry of the American Chemical Society (1989); Adamson Award in Surface Chemistry of the American Chemical Society (1994); Van Hippel Award of the Materials Research Society (1997); Wolf Prize in chemistry (1998); Creative Research Award in Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Catalysis of the American Chemical Society (2000); Linus Pauling Award (2000); National Medal of Science (2002); Honorary Doctorates: Technical University, Budapest (1989); Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris (1990); Université Libre de Bruxelles (1992); University of Ferrara, Italy; Honorary Doctorate, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden (2000); University of Manchester, United Kingdom (2001); ETH-Zürich, Switzerland (2003). Member, Hungarian Academy of Science (1992); Faculty Senior Scientist, Materials Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Faculty Senior Scientist, Materials Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. University Professor of the UC system (2002); Commencement Speaker, (2003); Honorary Fellow, Cardiff University, UK, (2006); Remsen Award from the Maryland Section of the ACS, (2006); Langmuir Prize from the American Physical Society (2007); Priestley Medal (2008).