Katherine Mccullough Email & Phone Number

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States

Chicago, Illinois, United States

-High throughput experimentation for catalyst synthesis, batch and flow reactor systems-Surface organometallic chemistry and post synthesis modification of MOF based catalysts -Polyolefin hydrogenolysis to produce lubricants and waxes for a circular economy-Semi hydrogenation of alkynes

My work has focused on developing low cost, energy efficient heterogeneous catalysts for hydrogen generation from ammonia. This has been achieved through high throughput experimentation coupled with machine learning algorithms. We have tested over 100 catalyst combinations and discovered over 10 novel catalysts for ammonia decomposition while lowering the precious metal content by 75% by alleviating hydrogen poisoning over the active metal.We used this experimental data set generated from high throughput experimentation as an input for a random forest machine learning algorithm to provide insight into which combination of features, or catalyst descriptors, are most important in determining catalyst activity under certain conditions as well as to make catalyst predictions. This can guide further iterations of catalyst design and for more efficient catalyst screening. My area of expertise encompasses a variety of in-situ and ex-situ spectroscopic techniques including FT-IR and Raman, catalyst synthesis and characterization, and high throughput experimentation.Selected Publications:McCullough K., Williams, T., Lauterbach J. "Enabling catalyst discovery through machine learning and high throughput experimentation" Chemistry of Materials. 32, 2020, 157-165.McCullough K., et al., "Material discovery and high throughput exploration of Ru based catalysts for low temperature ammonia decomposition" Materials. 13, 2020, 1-19.

• Documented molecular composition of cracked jet fuel propellant that was analyzed through GC/MS and produced through a high-throughput catalytic process• Synthesized catalysts for the fluid catalytic cracking of jet fuel propellant to liquefied petroleum gas

Doctor Of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Chemical Engineering

PI: Jochen Lauterbach

Bachelor'S Degree, Chemical Engineering

Activities and Societies: Theta Tau, Professional Engineering Fraternity