Daniel Ben-Avraham is supported by a grant from the Theoretical and Computational Chemistry Program and the Materials Theory Program to study diffusion-limited reactions and heterogeneous catalysis. This research will help to elucidate the mechanism of heterogeneous catalysis which is important in the manufacture of a variety of chemicals including fuels, plastics and other synthetic materials. Dr. Ben-Avraham will conduct a detailed theoretical and numerical study of the kinetics of nonequilibrium processes, namely, diffusion-limited reactions and heterogeneous catalysis. Diffusion-limited reactions are the rate-determining step in heterogeneous catalysis, as well as in several other important processes such as carrier-hole recombination in semiconductors, and the formation of colloids and aerosols. The theoretical research to be performed by Dr. Ben-Avraham will focus on the kinetic effects of inhomogeneities on a microscopic scale as opposed to the traditional phenomonological approach which relies on rate equations that use system averages as variables. The results of this research will yield a better theoretical understanding of nonequilibrium kinetics and heterogeneous catalysts.
