/College of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Materials Science and Chemical Engineering

Tae Jin Kim

Associate Professor, Graduate Program Director (CME)

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Dr. Tae Jin Kim’s research focuses on understanding heterogeneous catalysts and developing innovative catalyst synthesis methods. His group conducts extensive studies on oxidation and reduction reactions, including CO oxidation, NO reduction by CO, CO₂ hydrogenation, and ammonia-to-hydrogen conversion. By employing in-situ and operando characterization techniques, Dr. Kim’s research aims to unravel reaction mechanisms and identify intermediate molecular structures under realistic reaction conditions, thereby providing fundamental insights into the relationship between catalyst structure and catalytic performance. To advance these studies, Dr. Kim’s group has been actively collaborating with researchers at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), utilizing state-of-the-art facilities such as the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) and the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) for advanced catalyst characterization.

 

Reserach Interests 

  • Synthesis of Heterogeneous Catalysts: Development of supported metal oxide catalysts (MOₓ/S) and mixed metal oxides (M₁OₓM₂Oₓ/S), where M represents PGM or TM and S denotes 1D, 2D, or 3D support materials. Current efforts focus on developing new synthesis strategies, such as one-pot chemical vapor deposition, to achieve precise control over active site formation.
  • Ex-/In-situ and Operando Characterization: Investigation of molecular and electronic structures, identification of intermediate species and active sites, and determination of reaction mechanisms under realistic reaction conditions.
  • Catalytic Performance: Elucidation of the relationship between catalytic activity and structure, along with evaluation of kinetic parameters to understand reaction pathways and rate-determining steps.
  • Integration of Experimental and Computational Approaches (Collaboration): Combining advanced spectroscopic, microscopic, and kinetic analyses with computational modeling to gain insight into thermodynamic properties and molecular-level structures of catalytic systems.

 

Education

  • Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, 2007, Lehigh University, US.
  • M.S, Chemical engineering, 1994-1996, Hong Ik University, Korea
  • B.A, Chemical engineering, 1990-1994, Hong Ik University, Korea

 

Career

 

Research group