Porous heterogeneous hierarchical engineered materials have a ubiquitous presence across applications as varied as antibacterial agents for biomedical applications, catalysts for fuel upgrading, sorbents for CO2, photocatalysts for H2O treatment, and electrodes for lithium batteries. These materials comprise an organic and/or inorganic scaffold designed with multiple levels and distributions of porosities, tortuosities and particle sizes, which are decorated with active sites (often nanoscale inorganic compounds) that can be incorporated during or after “construction” of the scaffold. Designing hierarchical porous materials encompasses a large and interconnected design space. In our research we work with experimental and data science researchers to develop computational tools and paradigms for the efficient design of novel material systems for applications across the energy and sustainability field, and model porous architectures to understand their impact on energy systems such as batteries and fuel upgrading.

Work in this area has been sponsored by the National Science Foundation (1727316, 1932922)

• Z. Pollard, A. Roshandelpoor, P. Vakili, E.M. Ryan, J. Goldfarb. Towards tunable polymer foam fabrication: A case study to advance green materials development in limited data scenarios, AIChE Journal.
• Z. Pollard, A. Cannon, E.M. Ryan, J. Goldfarb. Capturing the effects of particle heterogeneity on adsorption in a fixed bed, AIChE Journal.
• A. Hubble, E.M. Ryan, J. Goldfrab. Enhancing pyrolysis gas and bio-oil formation through transition metals as in situ catalysts, Fuel.
• S. Gao, A. Cannon, F. Sun, Y. Pan, D. Yang, S. Ge, N. Liu, A. P. Sokolov, E.M. Ryan, H. Yang, and P. Cao. Glass-fiber-reinforced polymeric film as an efficient protecting layer for stable Li metal electrodes, Cell Reports Physical Science.
• S. Rajendran, Z. Tang, A. George, A. Cannon , C. Neumann, A. Sawas, E. M. Ryan, A. Turchanin, L.M. Reddy Arava. Inhibition of Lithium Dendrite Formation in Lithium Metal Batteries via Regulated Cation Transport through Ultrathin Sub-Nanometer Porous Carbon Nanomembranes, Advanced Energy Materials.
• A. Cannon, E.M. Ryan. Characterizing the Microstructure of Separators in Lithium Batteries and Their Effects on Dendritic Growth. ACS Applied Energy Materials.
• E.M. Ryan, Z. Pollard, A. Roshandelpoor, Q. Ha, P. Vakili, J. Goldfarb. Designing Heterogeneous Hierarchical Material Systems: A Holistic Approach to Structural and Materials Design. MRS Communications, 9, 2, 628-636.
• K. R. Dupre, A. Vyas, J.L. Goldfard, E.M. Ryan Investigation of Computational Upscaling of Adsorption of SO2 and CO2 in Fixed Bed Columns. Adsorption, 25, 4: 773-782.