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Featured Publications

“Conformations of polyolefins on platinum catalysts control product distribution in plastics recycling”


Zare, M.; Kots, P. A.; Caratzoulas, S.; Vlachos, D. G., Chemical Science, 14, 1966-1977 (2023).
DOI: 10.1039/D2SC04772A

“Circularity in polymers: addressing performance and sustainability challenges using dynamic covalent chemistries”


Yan, T.; Balzer, A. H.; Herbert, K. M.; Epps, T. H., III; Korley, L. T. J., Chemical Science, 14, 5243-5265 (2023).
DOI: 10.1039/D3SC00551H

All Publications

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2024
  • Britton, D.; Liu, C.; Xiao, Y.; Jia, S.; Legocki, J.; Kronenberg, J.; Montclare, J. K. “Protein-engineered leaf and branch compost cutinase variants using computational screening and IsPETase homology” Catalysis Today, 433, 114659, (2024), DOI: 10.1016/j.cattod.2024.114659
  • Gopal, M. R; Kunjapur, A. M. “Harnessing biocatalysis to achieve selective functional group interconversion of monomers” Current Opinion in Biotechnology, 86, 103093, (2024), DOI: 10.1016/j.copbio.2024.103093
  • Ley-Flores, M.; Alessandri, R.; Najmi, S.; Valsecchi, M.; Jackson, G.; Galindo, A.; Epps, T. H., III; Korley, L. T. J.; Vlachos, D. G.; de Pablo, J. J. “Thermodynamic and Transport Properties of Binary Mixtures of Polyethylene and Higher n-Alkanes from Physics-Informed and Machine-Learned Models” preprint, , , (2024), DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.2404.09676
  • Vance, B. C.; Najmi, S.; Vlachos, D. G. “Polystyrene Hydrogenolysis to High-Quality Lubricants Using Ni/SiO2” ACS Catalysis, 14, 7, 5389-5402, (2024), DOI: 10.1021/acscatal.3c05900
  • Vance, B. C.; Yuliu, Z.; Najmi, S.; Selvam, E.; Granite, J. E.; Yu, K.; Ierapetritou, M. G.; Vlachos, D. G. “Unlocking naphtha from polyolefins using Ni-based hydrocracking catalysts” Chemical Engineering Journal, 487, 150468, (2024), DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2024.150468
  • Ley-Flores, M.; Chabbi, A.; Alessandri, R.; Marsden, S.; Vettese, I.; Rowan, S. J.; de Pablo, J. J. “Numerical Study of Cleavable Bond-Modified Polyethylene for Circular Polymer Design” preprint, XXX, XXX-XXX, (2024), DOI: 10.48550/arXiv.2404.09341
  • Dickey, R. M.; Gopal, M. R.; Nain, P.; Kunjapur, A. M. “Recent Developments in Enzymatic and Microbial Biosynthesis of Flavor and Fragrance Molecules” Journal of Biotechnology, XXX, XXX-XXX, (2024), DOI: 10.1016/j.jbiotec.2024.04.004
  • O’Dea, R. M.; Nandi, M.; Kroll, G.; Arnold, J. R.; Korley, L. T. J.; Epps, T. H. III “Toward Circular Recycling of Polyurethanes: Depolymerization and Recovery of Isocyanates” JACS Au, XXX, XXX-XXX, (2024), DOI: 10.1021/jacsau.4c00013
  • Oberhausen, C. M.; Mahajan, J. s.; Sun, J. A.; Epps, T. H., III; Korley, L. T. J.; Vlachos, D. G. “Hydrogenolysis of Poly(Ethylene-co-Vinyl Alcohol) and Related Polymer Blends over Ruthenium Heterogeneous Catalysts” ChemSusChem, e202400238, , (2024), DOI: 10.1002/cssc.202400238
  • Zare, M.; Kots, P. A.; Hinton, Z. R.; Epps, T. H., III; Korley, L. T. J.; Caratzoulas, S.; Vlachos, D. G. “Effect of reaction media on hydrogenolysis of polyethylene plastic waste: Polymer-surface interactions in small alkane/polymer blends” Applied Catalysis B: Environment and Energy, 351, 123969, (2024), DOI: 10.1016/j.apcatb.2024.123969
  • Sun, J. A.; Kots, P. A.; Hinton, Z. R.; Marinkovic, N. S.; Ma, L.; Ehrlich, S. N.; Zheng, W.; Epps, T. H., III; Korley, L. T. J.; Vlachos, D. G. “Size and structure effects of carbon-supported ruthenium nanoparticles on waste polypropylene hydrogenolysis activity, selectivity, and product microstructure” ACS Catalysis, 14, 3228-3240, (2024), DOI: 10.1021/acscatal.3c05927
  • Ren, T.; Hinton, Z. R.; Huang, R.; Epps, T. H., III; Korley, L.T.J.; Gorte, R. J.; Lee, D. “Increase in the effective viscosity of polyethylene under extreme nanoconfinement” The Journal of Chemical Physics, 160, 024909, (2024), DOI: 10.1063/5.0185144
2023
  • Hernández, B.; Kots, P.; Vlachos, D. G.; Ierapetritou, M. G. “Techno-Economic and Life Cycle Analyses of Thermochemical Upcycling Technologies of Low-Density Polyethylene Waste” ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng., 11, 7170-7181, (2023), DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.3c00636
  • Le, A. V.; Rajbanshi, B.; Lobo, R. F.; Bai, P. “Mechanistic study of heterogeneous propene metathesis on WOx/SiO2 catalysts” Journal of Catalysis, 427, 115117, (2023), DOI: 10.1016/j.jcat.2023.115117
  • Dickey, R. M.; Jones, M. A.; Butler, N.D.; Govil, I.; Kunjapur, A. M. “Genome engineering allows selective conversions of terephthalaldehyde to multiple valorized products in bacterial cells” AIChE Journal, , e18230, (2023), DOI: 10.1002/aic.18230
  • Shapiro, A. J.; O’Dea, R. M.; Li, S. C.; Ajah, J. C.; Bass, G. F.; Epps, T. H., III “Engineering innovations, challenges, and opportunities for lignocellulosic biorefineries: leveraging biobased polymer production” Annual Review of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, 14, 109-140, (2023), DOI: 10.1146/annurev-chembioeng-101121-084152
  • Zhang, Y.; Fang, H. “Less is more: a prototypical framework for efficient few-shot named entity recognition” Natural Language Processing and Information Systems, XX, 33-46, (2023), DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-35320-8_3
  • Ren, T.; Wang, C-Y.; Huang, R.; Deng, C.; Xu, Y.; Majumder, A.; Ra, J.; Shen, K.; Vohs, J. M.; de Pablo, J. J.; Gorte, R. J.; Lee, D. “Understanding polymer-porous solid interactions based on small gas molecule adsorption behavior” Chemical Engineering Journal, 473, 145220, (2023), DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2023.145220
  • Butler, N. D.; Anderson, S. R.; Dickey, R. M.; Nain, P.; Kunjapur, A. M. “Combinatorial gene inactivation of aldehyde dehydrogenases mitigates aldehyde oxidation catalyzed by E. coli resting cells” Metabolic Engineering, 77, 294-305, (2023), DOI: 10.1016/j.ymben.2023.04.014
  • Najmi, S.; Vance, B. C.; Selvam, E.; Huang, D.; Vlachos, D. G. “Controlling PET oligomers vs monomers via microwave-induced heating and swelling” Chemical Engineering Journal, 471, 144712, (2023), DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2023.144712
  • Kots, P. A.; Vance, B. C.; Quinn, C. M.; Wang, C.; Vlachos, D. G. “A two-stage strategy for upcycling chlorine-contaminated plastic waste” Nature Sustainability, , 44936, (2023), DOI: 10.1038/s41893-023-01147-z
  • Kots, P. A.; Doika, P. A.; Vance, B. C.; Najmi, S.; Vlachos, D. G. “Tuning High-Density Polyethylene Hydrocracking through Mordenite Zeolite Crystal Engineering” ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, 11, 9000-9009, (2023), DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.3c01515
  • Vance, B. C.; Najmi, S.; Kots, P. A.; Wang, C.; Jeon, S.; Stach, E. A.; Zakharov, D. N.; Marinkovic, N.; Ehrlich, S. N.; Ma, L.; Vlachos, D. G. “Structure–Property Relationships for Nickel Aluminate Catalysts in Polyethylene Hydrogenolysis with Low Methane Selectivity” JACS Au, 3, 2156-2165, (2023), DOI: 10.1021/jacsau.3c00232
  • Yan, T.; Balzer, A. H.; Herbert, K. M.; Epps, T. H., III; Korley, L. T. J. “Circularity in polymers: addressing performance and sustainability challenges using dynamic covalent chemistries” Chemical Science, 14, 5243-5265, (2023), DOI: 10.1039/D3SC00551H
  • Gopal, M. R.; Dickey, R. M.; Butler, N. D.; Talley, M. R.; Nakamura, D. T.; Mohapatra, A.; Watson, M. P.; Chen, W.; Kunjapur, A. M. “Reductive Enzyme Cascades for Valorization of Polyethylene Terephthalate Deconstruction Products” ACS Catalysis, 13, 4778-4789, (2023), DOI: 10.1021/acscatal.2c06219
  • Selvam, E.; Luo, Y.; Ierapetritou, M.; Lobo, R. F.; Vlachos, D. G. “Microwave-assisted depolymerization of PET over heterogeneous catalysts” Catalysis Today, 418, 114124, (2023), DOI: 10.1016/j.cattod.2023.114124
  • Luo, Y.; Selvam, E.; Vlachos, D. G.; Ierapetritou, M. “Economic and Environmental Benefits of Modular Microwave-Assisted Polyethylene Terephthalate Depolymerization” ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, 11, 4209-4218, (2023), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.2c07203
  • Butler, N. D.; Anderson, S. R.; Dickey, R. M.; Nain, P.; Kunjapur, A. M. “Combinatorial gene inactivation of aldehyde dehydrogenases mitigates aldehyde oxidation catalyzed by resting cells of E. coli RARE strains” bioRxiv (Preprint), , , (2023), DOI: 10.1101/2023.01.16.524286
  • Gregory, G. J.; Wang, C.; Sadula, S.; Koval, S.; Lobo, R. F.; Vlachos, D. G.; Papoutsakis, E. T. “Polyethylene Valorization by Combined Chemical Catalysis with Bioconversion by Plastic-Enriched Microbial Consortia” ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, 11, 3494–3505, (2023), DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.2c07461
  • Zare, M.; Kots, P. A.; Caratzoulas, S.; Vlachos, D. G. “Conformations of polyolefins on platinum catalysts control product distribution in plastics recycling” Chemical Science, 14, 1966-1977, (2023), DOI: 10.1039/D2SC04772A
  • Malviya, S.; Bai, P. “Computational Investigation of Site-Dependent Activation Barriers of Zeolite-Catalyzed Protolytic Cracking Reactions” ACS Catalysis, 13, 179-190, (2023), DOI: 10.1021/acscatal.2c04192
  • Selvam, E.; Kots, P. A.; Hernandez, B.; Malhotra, A.; Chen, W.; Catala-Civera, J. M.; Santamaria, J.; Ierapetritou, M.; Vlachos, D. G. “Plastic waste upgrade to olefins via mild slurry microwave pyrolysis over solid acids” Chemical Engineering Journal, 454, 140332, (2023), DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2022.140332
  • Vance, B. C.; Kots, P. A.; Wang, C.; Granite, J. E.; Vlachos, D. G. “Ni/SiO2 catalysts for polyolefin deconstruction via the divergent hydrogenolysis mechanism” Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, 322, 122138, (2023), DOI: 10.1016/j.apcatb.2022.122138
2022
  • Gopal, M. R.; Dickey, R. M.; Butler, N. D.; Talley, M. R.; Mohapatra, A.; Watson, M. P.; Chen, W.; Kunjapur, A. M. “Reductive Enzyme Cascades for Valorization of PET Deconstruction Products” bioRxiv (Preprint), , , (2022), DOI: 10.1101/2022.12.16.520786
  • Nguyen, D. K.; Dimitrakellis, P.; Talley, M. R.; O’Dea, R. M.; Epps, T. H. III; Watson, M. P.; Vlachos, D. G. “Oxidative functionalization of long-chain liquid alkanes by pulsed plasma discharges at atmospheric pressure” ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, 10, 15749-15759, (2022), DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.2c04269
  • Reddy, B. R.; Malhotra, A.; Najmi, S.; Baker-Fales, M.; Coasey, K.; Mackay, M.; Vlachos, D. G. “Microwave assisted heating of plastic waste: Effect of plastic/susceptor (SiC) contacting patterns” Chemical Engineering and Processing – Process Intensification, 182, 109202, (2022), DOI: 10.1016/j.cep.2022.109202
  • Wang, C.; Yu, K.; Sheludko, B.; Xie, T.; Kots, P. A.; Vance, B. C.; Kumar, P.; Stach, E. A.; Zheng, W.; Vlachos, D. G. “A general strategy and a consolidated mechanism for low-methane hydrogenolysis of polyethylene over ruthenium” Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, 319, 121899, (2022), DOI: 10.1016/j.apcatb.2022.121899
  • Hinton, Z. R.; Kots, P. A.; Soukaseum, M.; Vance, B. C.; Vlachos, D. G.; Epps, T. H., III; Korley, L. T. J. “Antioxidant-induced transformations of a metal-acid hydrocracking catalyst in the deconstruction of polyethylene waste” Green Chemistry, 24, 7332-7339, (2022), DOI: 10.1039/d2gc02503e
  • Xie, T.; Wittreich, G.R.; Vlachos, D.G. “Multiscale modeling of hydrogenolysis of ethane and propane on Ru(0001): Implications for plastics recycling” Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, 316, 121597, (2022), DOI: 10.1016/j.apcatb.2022.121597
  • Kots, P.A.; Xie, T.; Vance, B.C.; Quinn, C.M.; de Mello, M.D.; Boscoboinik, J. A.; Wang, C.; Kumar, P.; Stach, E.A.; Marinkovic, N.S.; Ma, L.; Ehrlich, S.N.; Vlachos, D.G. “Electronic Modulation of Metal-Support Interactions Improves Polypropylene Hydrogenolysis Over Ruthenium Catalysts” Nature Communications, 13, 5186, (2022), DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-32934-5
  • Kim, D.; Hinton, Z.R.; Bai, P.; Korley, L.T.J.; Epps, T.H., III, Lobo, R.F. “Metathesis, Molecular Redistribution of Alkanes, and the Chemical Upgrading of Low-Density Polyethylene” Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, 318, 121873, (2022), DOI: 10.1016/j.apcatb.2022.121873
  • Malviya, S.; Tapia, J.C., Bai, P. “Calculating Adsorption Isotherms using the Two-Phase Thermodynamic Method and Molecular Dynamics Simulations” Journal of Applied Physics, 132, 034701, (2022), DOI: 10.1063/5.0099790
  • Hinton, Z.R.; Talley, M.R.; Kots, P.A.; Le, A.V.; Zhang, T.; Mackay, M.E.; Kunjapur, A.M.; Bai, P.; Vlachos, D.G.; Watson, M.P.; Berg, M.C.; Epps, T.H.,III; Korley, L.T.J. “Innovations Toward the Valorization of Plastics Waste” Annual Review of Materials Research, 52, 249-280, (2022), DOI: 10.1146/annurev-matsci-081320-032344
  • Zhang, Y.; Wang, C.; Soukaseum, M.; Vlachos, D.G.; Fang, H. “Unleashing the Power of Knowledge Extraction from Scientific Literature in Catalysis” Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling, 62, 3316-3330, (2022), DOI: 10.1021/acs.jcim.2c00359
  • Gottlieb, E. R.; Dimitrakellis, P.; Vlachos, D. G.; Epps, T. H., III “Inline Rolling Shear Alignment: Long-range Order of Block Polymers via a Fast, Continuous, Single-Step Process” ACS Applied Polymer Materials, 4, 682-691, (2022), DOI: 10.1021/acsapm.1c01580
  • Kots, P.A.; Vance, B.C.; Vlachos, D.G. “Polyolefin plastic waste hydroconversion to fuels, lubricants, and waxes: A comparative study” Reaction Chemistry and Engineering, 7, 41-54, (2022), DOI: 10.1039/D1RE00447F
  • Epps, T.H., III; Korley, L.T.J.; Yan, T.; Beers, K.L.; Burt, T.M. “Sustainability of Plastics: Considerations in Materials Life-Cycle Management” JACS Au, 2, 3-11, (2022), DOI: 10.1021/jacsau.1c00191
2021
  • Zhang, Y.; Hu, C.; Liu, Y.; Fang, H.; Lin, J. “Learning to Rank in the Age of Muppets: Effectiveness-Efficiency Tradeoffs in Multi-Stage Ranking” Proceedings of the Second Workshop on Simple and Efficient Natural Language Processing, 1, 64 – 73, (2021), DOI: 10.18653/v1/2021.sustainlp-1.8
  • Ren, T.; Huang, R.; Gorte, R.J.; Lee, D. “Modulating interactions between molten polystyrene and porous solids using atomic layer deposition” Langmuir, 37, 14520-14526, (2021), DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.1c02604
  • Dickey, R.M.; Forti, A.M.; Kunjapur, A.M “Advances in engineering microbial biosynthesis of aromatic compounds and related compounds” Bioresources and Bioprocessing, 8, 91, (2021), DOI: 10.1186/s40643-021-00434-x
  • Liu, S.; Kots, P.A.; Vance, B.C.; Danielson, A.; Vlachos, D.G. “Plastic waste to fuels by hydrocracking at mild conditions” Science Advances, 7, eabf8283, (2021), DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abf8283
  • Vance, B.C.; Kots, P.A.; Wang C.; Hinton, Z.R.; Quinn, C. M.; Epps, T.H.; Korley, L.T.J.; Vlachos, D.G. “Single pot catalyst strategy to branched products via adhesive isomerization and hydrocracking of polyethylene over platinum tungstated zirconia” Applied Catalysis B: Environmental, 299, 120483, (2021), DOI: 10.1016/j.apcatb.2021.120483
  • Wang, C.; Xie, T.; Kots, P.A.; Vance, B.C.; Yu, K.; Kumar, P.; Fu, J.; Liu, S.; Tslomelekis, G.; Stach, E.A.; Zheng, W.; Vlachos, D.G. “Polyethylene Hydrogenolysis at Mild Conditions over Ruthenium on Tungstated Zirconia” JACS Au, 1, 1422-1434, (2021), DOI: 10.1021/jacsau.1c00200
  • Kots, P. A.; Liu, S.; Vance, B. C.; Wang, C.; Sheehan, J. D.; Vlachos, D. G. “Polypropylene Plastic Waste Conversion to Lubricants over Ru/TiO2 Catalysts.” ACS Catalysis, 11, 8104-8115, (2021), DOI: 10.1021/acscatal.1c00874
  • Korley, L. T. J.; Epps, T. H., III; Helms, B. A.; Ryan, A. J. “Polymer Upcycling – Adding Value and Tackling Circularity.” Science, 373, 66-69, (2021), DOI: 10.1126/science.abg4503
2020
  • Narayan, R.; Saltzberg, M.; Epps, T. H., III; Korley, L.; Van Trump, P.; Powell, B.; Kettner, D.; Zieler, H.; Atkinson, D. “Virtual Congressional Education Briefing: End of Life for Bioplastics.” Industrial Biotechnology, 16, 349-358, (2020), DOI: 10.1089/ind.2020.29228.rna