Catalysis—Focusing in to see the action

This Cornell Research story focuses on the work of Rong Ye,  one of the first Cornell Presidential Postdoctoral Fellows, who is working in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology.

Re works on catalysis—an essential industrial and biological process whereby chemical drivers called catalysts accelerate reactions. Developing better industrial catalysts could lead to new fuels, more efficient solar energy conversions, improved chemical processing, and more, the story says.

When Ye heard about the Cornell Presidential Postdoctoral Fellows program, initiated in 2017 to bring the best and brightest to Cornell, he started researching faculty. He became very intrigued by catalysis research techniques used by Peng Chen, Chemistry and Chemical Biology. Chen has made innovative discoveries by applying a single-molecule imaging technique, developed for use in biological applications, to nanocatalysts. This allows his group to better understand and see exactly what’s happening on individual particles as catalysis occurs.

Read the entire Cornell Research story.