Mark E. Davis Research Group

California Institute of Technology

Yashodhan Bhawe

Ph.D. student in Chemical Engineering

Education:

B.S. in Chemical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, 2008

Research Overview :

I currently work on two projects aimed at exploring the catalytic applications of zeolites. My first project involves the utilization of metal oxide particles impregnated on zeolites to conduct thermochemical water splitting. The usage of metals / metal oxide pairs to do two or three step thermochemical water splitting cycles is well known. Through this approach we aim to lower the thermal reduction temperature while maintaining a heterogeneous catalyst.

The second project that I am involved in is the synthesis and characterization of zeolitic acid catalysts for the purpose of converting methanol to olefins. We are exploring framework and acidity effects to tune the selectivity of this reaction to one of the olefinic products over the others.