The catalysis group is a conglomeration of the research groups of Professors W. Nicholas Delgass, Fabio Ribeiro, Kendall Thomson and Chelsey Baertsch.
While each individual group expertly represents specific subsets of catalysis, the interaction of these groups results in a research entity capable of tackling fundamental questions of catalytic activity with expertise in areas ranging from kinetic modeling to ab initio computations, model catalyst to real world catalysts, and a number of characterization techniques. The combined facilities allow for catalyst characterization and analysis via x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), atomic force and scanning tunneling microscopy (AFM/STM), ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-vis), fourier transform IR spectroscopy (FTIR), porosimetry, transient isotope switching, atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS), powder x-ray diffraction (XRD), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) as well as in situ characterization via diffuse reflectance fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (DRIFTS), diffuse reflectance ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (DRUV-vis), transmission fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and attenuated total reflectance fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR). Quantum mechanical calculations have centered around cluster and periodic calculations using density functional theory; however, many of the computations have progressed to hybridized quantum mechanical/molecular modeling (QM/MM) techniques.