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Welcome to the Flaherty Research Group!

The Flaherty Group will move to Georgia Tech in Summer 2023!

Our research focuses on the overlapping topics of catalysis, surface science, and materials synthesis. The goal is to determine the mechanisms of individual elementary steps and competing pathways for chemical reactions important for best utilizing our limited fossil resources and biomass. To unravel complicated networks of reactions, we utilize steady-state kinetic measurements, transient and perturbation techniques, and in situ spectroscopy. With detailed knowledge of how a reaction proceeds we can better design processes and catalysts to selectively promote desirable reactions over the undesirable pathways.

In order to construct develop clear relationships between the composition and structure of catalytic sites and the chemistry they promote, it is critical to use uniform and well-characterized materials. This is achieved using advanced synthetic methods which take advantage of strong chemical driving forces to self-assemble the desired catalytic site.

Projects in our group are motivated by the need to efficiently process recalcitrant petrochemicals, selectively transform biomass, develop alternatives for harmful oxidants, and produce clean burning fuels. Our intention is to make insightful contributions to the scientific community; to explore possible solutions to industrially and socially relevant problems, and to educate and train young researchers.

Recent News

(2/11/2023) Happy International Women in Science Day! Four of the amazing women of the Flaherty Group (Suchi, Richa, Yu, and Jieun) attended the weSTEM 2023 conference hosted by Illinois GradSWE - including Suchi and Richa on the planning committee!

(12/10/2022) After a 2 year hiatus, the Flaherty Holiday Party is back! We had a friendly competition at Target where we bought toys for Toys for Tots using money raised by the group. The undergraduate team was victorious. Afterward, we had a lovely group dinner. It was wonderful to celebrate the group and the end of the year!

(11/18/2022) Jason, Ohsung, David, and and Dave gave talks and Chris presented a poster at the 2022 AIChE Annual Meeting. Great work everyone!

(10/19/2022) Welcome to Huston, our newest PhD student addition to the group! He received his undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Florida.

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Recent Publications

[90] David S. Potts, Chris Torres, Ohsung Kwon, David W. Flaherty, "Engineering Intraporous Solvent Environments: Effects of Aqueous-Organic Solvent Mixtures on Competition Between Zeolite-Catalyzed Epoxidation and H2O2 Decomposition Pathways", Chem. Sci. 2023, 14, 3160–3181.

[89] Claudia E. Berdugo-Díaz, Melissa T. Manetsch, Yang Sik Yun, Jieun Lee, Jing Luo, Xue Chen, David W. Flaherty, "Ester Reduction with H2 on Bifunctional Metal-Acid Catalysts: Implications of Metal Identity on Rates and Selectivities", Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2023.

[87] David S. Potts, Vijaya Jeyaraj, Ohsung Kwon, Richa Ghosh, Alexander M. Mironenko, David W. Flaherty, "Effect of Interactions Between Alkyl Chains and Solvent Structures on Lewis-Acid Catalyzed Epoxidations", ACS Catal. 2022, 12, 21, 13372–13393.


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