Home >> Research Overview >> Research by Faculty Member
Alan W. Weimer

Sears Professor and C2B2 Executive Director

DLC 1B79

(303) 492-3759
alan.weimer@colorado.edu

Education:

B.S., University of Cincinnati (1976)
M.S., Ph.D., University of Colorado (1978, 1980)
Dow Chemical Company(1980-1996)

Awards:

• 2006 Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award (University of Colorado)

• 2005 Boulder Faculty Assembly Campus-wide Research Award (University of Colorado)
• 2005 College of Engineering and Applied Science Faculty Research Award (University of Colorado)
• 2005 United States Department of Energy Hydrogen Program R&D Award
• 2005 Keynote Address – Chemical Reactor Engineering X (Zacatecas, MX)
• 2004 R & D 100 Award (Particle-ALDTM)
• 2004 University of Colorado (Boulder) Inventor of the Year Award
• 2004 Keynote Address – World PARTEC 2004 (Nuremberg, Germany)
• 2004 AIChE Fellow
• AIChE PTF Fluidized Process Recognition Award (1997)
• Dow Excellence in Science Award (1995)
• Dow Inventor of the Year Award (1993)

Selected Publications:

Shiju, N.R., X. Liang, A.W. Weimer, C. Liang, S. Dai, S.H. Overbury, and V. V. Guliants, “The Role of Surface Basal Planes of Layered Mixed Oxides in Selective Transformation of Lower Alkanes:  Propane Ammoxidation  over Surface AB Planes of Mo-V-Te-Nb-O M1 Phase," Journal of the American Chemical Society, 130 (18), 5850 (2008).

Weimer, M.A., M.D. Groner, X. Liang, D.M. King, L.F. Hakim, P. Li, S.M. George, and A.W. Weimer, “Ultrafast Metal-Insulator Varistors Based on Tunable Al₂O₃ Tunnel Junctions," Applied Physics Letters, 92, 164101 (2008).

King, D.M., X.H. Liang, C.S. Carney, L.F. Hakim, P. Li, and A.W. Weimer, “Atomic Layer Deposition of UV-absorbing ZnO Films on SiO₂ and TiO₂ Nanoparticles Using a Fluidized Bed Reactor,” Advanced Functional Materials, 18 (4), 607-615 (2008).

Perkins, C., P.R. Lichty, and A.W. Weimer, “Thermal ZnO Dissociation in a Rapid Aerosol Reactor as part of a Solar Hydrogen Production Cycle,” Int.J. of Hydrogen Energy, 33 (2), 499-510 (2008).

Zhan, G.-D., X. Du, D.M. King, L.F. Hakim, J.A. McCormick,  and A.W. Weimer, “Atomic Layer Deposition of Bulk Quantities of Surfactant – modified Single-walled Carbon Nanotubes,” Journal of the American Ceramic Society, 91 (3), 831-835 (2008).

 

Liang, X.H., S.M. George, A.W. Weimer, N.H. Li, J.H. Blackson, J.D. Harris, and P. Li, “Synthesis of Novel Porous Polymer/Ceramic Composite Materials by Low-Temperature Atomic Layer Deposition,” Chemistry of Materials, 19, 5388-5394 (2007).

 

Perkins, C., P.R. Lichty, and A.W. Weimer, “Determination of Aerosol Kinetics of Thermal ZnO Dissociation by Thermogravimetry,” Chemical Engineering Science 62, 5952-962 (2007).

 

Hakim, L.F., D.M. King, Y. Zhou, C.J. Gump, S.M. George, and A.W. Weimer, “Nanoparticle Coating for Advanced Optical, Mechanical and Rheological Properties,”  Advanced Functional Materials, 17, 3175-3181 (2007).

Research Interests:

Research Interests:Nano-materials Synthesis; Solar-thermal Processing; High-TemperatureFluid-Particle Reactors

Conformal Encapsulation of Fine Particles with Ceramic Nano-layers:There is an interest in controlling the surface chemistry of fine particles,while maintaining their bulk properties. One application includes theactivation of surfaces of high thermal conductivity and relatively inertfiller materials to improve chemical reactivity with coupling agents used forpolymeric electronic packages. Another application includes the coating ofconductive metal particles with a non-conducting layer for electrical surgeprotection of electronic components. Some additional applications includesurface modification of nano-particles used for drug delivery, advancedceramic component fabrication, defense, and polymer nano-composites, amongothers. Current research is focused on understanding the kinetics of nano-layerdeposition using sequential surface chemistry and the processing of ultra-fineparticles in fluidized bed systems with vibration and at low pressure.

Rapid Solar-thermal Dissociation of Natural Gas for BenignHydrogen Synthesis: Ultra-high temperatures above2000^oC can be achieved using concentrated sunlight. Such heatingcan be used to drive dissociation type chemical reactions where intermediateproducts are undesirable and where such high temperatures thermodynamicallyfavor the desired reaction products. Two such reactions are the thermaldissociation of natural gas to produce hydrogen andcarbon black and the dry reforming of natural gas with carbon dioxide toproduce syngas. Current research is focused on solar-thermal heating of agraphite transport reactor to carry out the high-temperature reactions.Experiments are carried out at the High-Flux-Solar-Furnace at the NationalRenewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Models are being developed to complementthe experiments and to develop an understanding of the reaction kinetics andheat transfer in such processes. One targeted application includes adistributed hydrogen synthesis system to synthesize hydrogen on-site forservicing fuel cell powered vehicles. Another targeted application is acentralized solar-thermal facility for supplying hydrogen to a pipeline and toan on-site fuel cell for electrical power generation.

Aerosol Synthesis of Fine Materials:Ultra-fine carbide, nitride, boride, and metallic powders are being consideredfor advanced structural and electronic materials applications. Currentresearch is directed towards low cost methods for synthesizing Ni, Co, AlN,TiC, B₄C, Ni₃Al/TiC cermets, and other inorganicmaterials by rapid heating aerosol reactor processing. Fundamentalconsiderations include reaction kinetics and reactor modeling withexperimental validation. We are also interested in understanding particlegrowth and a phenomena called thermophoresis (a thermal force moving particlesdown a temperature gradient resulting in wall deposition). The types ofprocessing considered include "rapid carbothermal reduction, " rapidhydrogen reduction, and rapid direct nitridation processing. The hightemperature processing lab includes a 2300° C graphite tube furnace and2300° C large capacity TGA/DTA with GC/MS for reactor engineering and hightemperature kinetics research. A complete pulsed laser imaging system isavailable for investigating powder flow within transport tubes.State-of-the-art LECO analyzers for characterizing the composition of thesynthesized materials are also available.