9505474 Lowenthal The International Junior Investigator and Postdoctoral Fellows Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad. This award will support a twelve-month postdoctoral research visit by Dr. Eric E. Lowenthal to work with Dr. Paul Ratnasamy of the National Chemical Laboratory in Pune, India. The initial research under this award will focus on the evaluation of Ti- and V-metallosilicates, specifically, the larger pore materials, V-NCL-1 and amorphous titanosilicates, for the catalytic, gas-phase partial oxidation of propylene using molecular oxygen diluted in an inert gas such as argon or helium. Experiments to assess the activity and product selectivity of these catalysts, as well as to collect reaction data suitable for micro kinetic analysis of relative reaction rates will be carried out in fixed-bed microreactors. Product identification and analysis will be carried out using a combination of gas chromotography and mass spectrometry. The production of deeper oxidation products than epoxides such as alcohols, aldehydes, and ketones will be of scientific and industrial interest. Such products could indirectly establish the nature of the surface intermediates in the propylene-oxygen reaction network on these metallosilicate materials. The nature of the partial oxidation product slate could direct readily implemented catalyst or reaction condition modifications. ***
