Faculty Directory
Randall Q. Snurr

John G. Searle Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering

Contact

2145 Sheridan Road
CAT 121
Evanston, IL 60208-3109

847-467-2977Email Randall Snurr

Website

Snurr Research Group

Departments

Chemical and Biological Engineering

Education

Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA

B.S.E. Chemical Engineering (magna cum laude), University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA


Research Interests

Molecular modeling, adsorption, separations, catalysis, energy and sustainability

Our research focuses on adsorption, diffusion, and catalysis in nanoporous materials. We are interested in novel materials such as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), as well as traditional materials such as zeolites that are already widely used in industry. Porous materials with well-controlled structures at the nanoscale can be extremely useful because of their ability to recognize and discriminate between adsorbed molecules. This leads to applications of nanoporous materials in adsorption separations, catalysis, membrane processes, sensing, and energy storage. Most of the projects in our group are aimed at solving problems related to energy and sustainability. Examples include development of materials to store hydrogen for fuel cell vehicles, development of materials for capturing carbon dioxide from power plant flue gas (carbon capture and sequestration), development of energy-efficient separations, development of highly selective catalysts for green chemistry processes, and harvesting water from air.

To address these problems, we use powerful molecular modeling and machine learning techniques. Our goal is to develop a better understanding of surface interactions and dynamics in nanoporous materials and to exploit this molecular-level information to develop new, highly-selective processes in adsorption separations, catalysis, and energy storage. Another goal of our research is to develop new simulation methods that can handle an ever-broader range of time and length scales to address important problems that cannot be simulated with current techniques. We also collaborate closely with experimental research groups.


Selected Publications

  • Osterrieth, Johannes W.M.; Rampersad, James; Madden, David; Rampal, Nakul; Skoric, Luka; Connolly, Bethany; Allendorf, Mark D.; Stavila, Vitalie; Snider, Jonathan L.; Ameloot, Rob; Marreiros, João; Ania, Conchi; Azevedo, Diana; Vilarrasa-Garcia, Enrique; Santos, Bianca F.; Bu, Xian He; Chang, Ze; Bunzen, Hana; Champness, Neil R.; Griffin, Sarah L.; Chen, Banglin; Lin, Rui Biao; Coasne, Benoit; Cohen, Seth; Moreton, Jessica C.; Colón, Yamil J.; Chen, Linjiang; Clowes, Rob; Coudert, François Xavier; Cui, Yong; Hou, Bang; D'Alessandro, Deanna M.; Doheny, Patrick W.; Dincă, Mircea; Sun, Chenyue; Doonan, Christian; Huxley, Michael Thomas; Evans, Jack D.; Falcaro, Paolo; Ricco, Raffaele; Farha, Omar; Idrees, Karam B.; Islamoglu, Timur; Feng, Pingyun; Yang, Huajun; Forgan, Ross S.; Bara, Dominic; Furukawa, Shuhei; Sanchez, Eli; Gascon, Jorge; Telalović, Selvedin; Ghosh, Sujit K.; Mukherjee, Soumya; Hill, Matthew R.; Sadiq, Muhammed Munir; Horcajada, Patricia; Salcedo-Abraira, Pablo; Kaneko, Katsumi; Kukobat, Radovan; Kenvin, Jeff; Keskin, Seda; Kitagawa, Susumu; Otake, Ken ichi; Lively, Ryan P.; DeWitt, Stephen J.A.; Llewellyn, Phillip; Lotsch, Bettina V.; Emmerling, Sebastian T.; Pütz, Alexander M.; Martí-Gastaldo, Carlos; Padial, Natalia M.; García-Martínez, Javier; Linares, Noemi; Maspoch, Daniel; Suárez del Pino, Jose A.; Moghadam, Peyman; Oktavian, Rama; Morris, Russel E.; Wheatley, Paul S.; Navarro, Jorge; Petit, Camille; Danaci, David; Rosseinsky, Matthew J.; Katsoulidis, Alexandros P.; Schröder, Martin; Han, Xue; Yang, Sihai; Serre, Christian; Mouchaham, Georges; Sholl, David S.; Thyagarajan, Raghuram; Siderius, Daniel; Snurr, Randall Q.; Goncalves, Rebecca B.; Telfer, Shane; Lee, Seok J.; Ting, Valeska P.; Rowlandson, Jemma L.; Uemura, Takashi; Iiyuka, Tomoya; van der Veen, Monique A.; Rega, Davide; Van Speybroeck, Veronique; Rogge, Sven M.J.; Lamaire, Aran; Walton, Krista S.; Bingel, Lukas W.; Wuttke, Stefan; Andreo, Jacopo; Yaghi, Omar; Zhang, Bing; Yavuz, Cafer T.; Nguyen, Thien S.; Zamora, Felix; Montoro, Carmen; Zhou, Hongcai; Kirchon, Angelo; Fairen-Jimenez, David, How Reproducible are Surface Areas Calculated from the BET Equation?, Advanced Materials (2022).
  • Idrees, Karam B.; Li, Zhao; Xie, Haomiao; Kirlikovali, Kent O.; Kazem-Rostami, Masoud; Wang, Xingjie; Wang, Xijun; Tai, Tzu Yi; Islamoglu, Timur; Stoddart, J. Fraser; Snurr, Randall Q.; Farha, Omar K., Separation of Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Porous Materials, Journal of the American Chemical Society (2022).
  • Anstine, Dylan M.; Sholl, David S.; Siepmann, Joern Ilja; Snurr, Randall Q.; Aspuru-Guzik, Alán; Colina, Coray M., In silico design of microporous polymers for chemical separations and storage, Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering (2022).
  • Rosen, Andrew S.; Notestein, Justin M.; Snurr, Randall Q., Exploring mechanistic routes for light alkane oxidation with an iron-triazolate metal-organic framework, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (2022).
  • Rosen, Andrew S.; Notestein, Justin M.; Snurr, Randall Q., Realizing the data-driven, computational discovery of metal-organic framework catalysts, Current Opinion in Chemical Engineering (2022).
  • Gong, Wei; Xie, Yi; Pham, Thang Duc; Shetty, Suchetha; Son, Florencia A.; Idrees, Karam B.; Chen, Zhijie; Xie, Haomiao; Liu, Yan; Snurr, Randall Q.; Chen, Banglin; Alameddine, Bassam; Cui, Yong; Farha, Omar K., Creating Optimal Pockets in a Clathrochelate-Based Metal-Organic Framework for Gas Adsorption and Separation, Journal of the American Chemical Society (2022).
  • Chen, Kaifei; Mousavi, Seyed Hesam; Singh, Ranjeet; Snurr, Randall Q.; Li, Gang; Webley, Paul A., Gating effect for gas adsorption in microporous materials - Mechanisms and applications, Chemical Society Reviews (2022).
  • Son, Florencia A.; Bukowski, Brandon C.; Islamoglu, Timur; Snurr, Randall Q.; Farha, Omar K., Rapid Quantification of Mass Transfer Barriers in Metal-Organic Framework Crystals, Chemistry of Materials (2021).