Jason Hicks

Education

Ph.D, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2007

B.E., Chemical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, 2003

B.S., Chemistry, Kentucky Wesleyan College, 2003

Biography

Associate Professor, University of Notre Dame (2016-present)

Assistant Professor, University of Notre Dame (2010-2016)

Lead Research Engineer, Chevron Energy Technology Company (2010)

Research Engineer, Chevron Energy Technology Company (2007-2010)

Selected Publications

Barboun, P.; Mehta, P.; Go, D.B.; Schneider, W.F.; and Hicks, J.C.*, "Distinguishing Plasma Contributions to Catalyst Performance in Plasma-Assisted Ammonia Synthesis", ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng., 2019, 7, 9, 8621-8630.

Mehta, P.; Barboun, P.; Herrera, F.A.; Kim, J.; Rumbach, P.; Go, D.B.*; Hicks, J.C.*; and Schneider, W.F.*, "Catalysis Enabled by Plasma Activation of Strong Chemical Bonds: a Review", ACS Energy Letters, 2019, DOI: 10.1021/acsenergylett.9b00263.

Herrera, F.; Brown, G.; Barboun, P.; Turan, N.; Mehta, P.; Schneider, W.; Hicks , J.; Go, D.*, “The Impact of Transition Metal Catalysts on Macroscopic Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) Characteristics in an Ammonia Synthesis Plasma Catalysis Reactor,” Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, 2019, 52 224002. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6463/ab0c58

Bonita, Y.; O'Connell, T. P.; Miller, H. E. and Hicks, J. C.*, "Revealing The Hydrogenation Performance of RuMo Phosphide For Chemoselective Reduction of Functionalized Aromatic Hydrocarbons", Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 2019, 58 (9), pp 3650–3658; DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.8b06295

Jain, V.; Bonita, Y.; Brown, A.; Taconi, A.; Hicks, J.C., and Rai, N.*, "Mechanistic Insights into Hydrodeoxygenation of Phenol on Bimetallic Phosphide Catalysts", Catalysis Science & Technology, 2018, DOI: 10.1039/C8CY00977E

Mehta, P.; Barboun, P.; Herrera, F.A.; Kim, J.; Rumbach, P.; Go, D.B.; Hicks, J.C.; and Schneider, W.F.*, “Overcoming Ammonia Synthesis Scaling Relations with Plasma-enabled Catalysis”, Nature Catalysis, 2018, 1 (4), 269.

Bonita, Y.; Hicks, J.C.*, “Periodic Trends from Metal Substitution in Bimetallic Mo-Based Phosphides for Hydrodeoxygenation and Hydrogenation Reactions”, J. Phys. Chem. C, 2018, 122 (25), pp 13322–13332. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.7b09363

Kim, J.; Go, D.B.; Hicks, J.C.*, “Synergistic effects of plasma–catalyst interactions for CH4 activation”, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2017, 19, 13010-13021, DOI:10.1039/C7CP01322A.

Rensel, D.J.; Kim, J.; Jain, V.; Bonita, Y.; Rai, N.* and Hicks, J.C.*, “Composition-directed FeXMo2−XP bimetallic catalysts for hydrodeoxygenation reactions”, Catal. Sci. Technol., 2017, 7, 1857-1867, DOI:10.1039/C7CY00324B

Awards

Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C., Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (2017)

National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2014)

ACS PRF Doctoral New Investigator Award (2013)

Frank O'Malley Undergraduate Teaching Award (2013)

Summary of Activities/Interests

Our research group is primarily focused in the area of heterogeneous catalysis.  We apply concepts from materials science, inorganic chemistry, and chemical reaction engineering to design new catalytic materials for energy applications.  We focus primarily on the synthesis and optimization of new types of bimetallic catalysts, zeolites, tethered organic/inorganic catalysts, and metal-organic frameworks, classes of catalysts, which are industrially relevant or have high potential for societal impact by enabling new technologies.  We have selected these classes of catalysts due to their well-defined structures at the molecular scale and the ability to tailor their properties to target the desired transformations by varying synthesis parameters or material composition.  Ultimately, we strive to create materials that lead to sustainable energy processes and pathways to produce fuels and chemicals more cleanly than current methods.  Additionally, we have focused on using renewable resources (non-food based lignocellulosic biomass) or deleterious greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide) as reactants to produce liquid chemicals or fuels.  Because of the critical importance of energy generation in modern society, this area of research is of high interest to graduate and undergraduate students, providing many opportunities for scientific and societal impact.