Research in Dr. Agapie’s laboratory is targeted toward developing new, practical catalysts inspired by biological systems. Some of the most fascinating catalysts in nature display complex inorganic cofactors and perform chemical transformations (water reduction and oxidation, carbon dioxide reduction, dinitrogen reduction, dioxygen reduction) that are arguably prerequisites for the advance of society in the current context of limiting energy resources and environmental concerns. The group’s approach to these chemical transformations is centered on the synthesis and study of metal complexes and materials relevant to catalysis. Given the scale of the potential applications, they focus on studies of inexpensive and abundant transition metals.
Dr. Agapie’s research in JCAP is focused on electrocatalytic reduction of CO2 to deoxygenated products (e.g., MeOH, CH4, C>1products) and understanding of mechanisms for CO2 reduction and factors that control product selectivity. Dr. Agapie’s research includes synthesis of new, metastable phases that may hold promise for altering product selectivity and overall efficiency.
Selected Publications
Han, Z., Kortlever, R., Chen H.-Y., Peters, J. C., and Agapie, T. CO2 Reduction Selective for C≥2 Products on Polycrystalline Copper with N-Substituted Pyridinium Additives. ACS Central Science, DOI: 10.1021/acscentsci.7b00180 (2017).
Jung, S. et al. Gastight Hydrodynamic Electrochemistry: Design for a Hermetically Sealed Rotating Disk Electrode Cell. Analytical Chemistry, 89(1), 581-585, DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.6b04228 (2017).
Suseno, S. et al. Molecular Mixed-Metal Manganese Oxido Cubanes as Precursors to Heterogeneous Oxygen Evolution Catalysts. Chemistry: a European Journal 21, 13420-13430, DOI: 10.1002/chem.201501104 (2015).
For the full list of publications, see JCAP publications page.
Additional Information
Agapie Group: http://agapie.caltech.edu/