2021
- Our DOE-BES grant titled "Catalyst Design Stategies for Multifunctional Metal-Promoted Zeolites for Direct Valorization of Methane" has been renewed for three more years.
- Two new postdocs, Gagandeep Dhillon and Adriano Braga, join the Khatib Lab.
- The Khatib Lab receives a DOE-EERE-AMO award titled "Designing a Methane Dehydroaromatization Process for Feedstock Flexibility and High-On-Stream Time via Dynamic Kinetic and Thermodynamic Control". This project is a collaboration between Texas Tech University (PI Khatib, co-PI Chen), Idaho National Laboratory (co-PI Fushimi), Shepherd Chemical (co-PI Hart), and the CO-ACCESS group at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (Bare). To learn more, visit: https://today.ttu.edu/posts/2021/08/Stories/assistant-professor-developing-new-technology-to-improve-benzene-production
- Andrew Gearin receives an AICHE student chapter travel award to attend and present his work at trhe 2021 AIChE Annual Meeting in Boston.
- Hannah Harbin and Noel Joy present their research for the first time at the 2021 AIChE Annual Meeting in Boston.
- Hannah Harbin, Noel Joy, and Sifat Hossain pass their qualifying exams and become PhD candidates in the Khatib Lab. We are looking forward to their next accomplishments.
- Carlos Hernandez and Andrew Gearin, two undergraduate researchers, join the Khatib Lab
- Syed Nouman Azhar rerceives 1st place award in the TTU Undergraduate Research Conference. Congratulations!
- Dr. Khatib receives the Apple Polishing Award from Texas Tech’s Mortar Board, in recognition for impact on a member’s undergraduate education.
2020
- The Khatib Lab receives an NSF grant for a collaborative project with the Howe group at Texas Tech University. The project integrates experimental work performed by the Khatib group with DFT calculations performed in the Howe group to reach a better fundamental understanding of processes in methane dehydroaromatization.
- Our paper published in Journal of Catalysis (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcat.2019.06.002) is selected as an editor highlight for the 2020 May edition.
- Dr. Khatib gives an invited talk at the Catalysis Club of Philadelphia in June.
- Dr. Khatib becomes co-chair of the AICHE CRE Division Diversity and Inclusion Task Force.
- Unmesh Menon joins the Khatib Lab as a postdoc and publishes a review paper in multifunctional catalysts for methane dehydroaromatization (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apcata.2020.117870).
- Three new PhD students, Noel Joy, Md Sifat Hossain, George Hana join the Khatib Lab.
- Dr. Khatib receives the Whitacre Research Award at TTU.
- Two new undergraduate researchers, Syed Nouman Azhar and Hunter Yeagle, join the Khatib Lab.
2019
- Dr. Khatib receives the NSF CAREER Award titled "CAREER: Tailoring the Synergy between Catalyst Design and Reaction Engineering for Direct Conversion of Methane to Aromatics". To learn more, visit: https://today.ttu.edu/posts/2019/12/Stories/khatib-nsf-career-award
- Apoorva Sridhar defends her PhD thesis successfully and graduates in August. Congratulations Apoorva!
- Mustafizur Rahman defends his PhD thesis dissertation successfully in December and graduates. Congratulations Mustafiz!
- Hannah Harbin joins the Khatib Lab as a PhD student.
- Dr. Khatib receives the Texas Tech Alumni Association Award.
2018-2016
September 2018, Dr. Khatib awarded with her first federal grant from the Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Science
The new grant funds our work on studying new catalysts employed in methane dehydroaromatization
March 2018, Our paper is published in Applied Catalysis A: General
We present here our first results that show that forming zeolite-supported Mo carbides ex situ results in significant improvement in catalysts stability compared to the traditionally used Mo oxide catalysts, where the Mo carbide actove phases are formed in situ. To learn more, visit: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0926860X1830142X
December 2017, NSLS-2 beamtime request has been approved
The Khatib group has been granted beamtime at National Synchrotron Light Source-2 (NSLS-2) at Brookhaven National Lab (BNL) to perform operando X-Ray Absorption experiments in during the 2018 Spring cycle. Dr. Khatib will be traveling to BNL along with her PhD students, Apoorva and Mustafiz, to carry out opernado experiments that will shed light on the nature of the active sites in metal carbide based catalysts in working conditions for methane aromatization.
November 2017, 2017 AIChE Annual Meeting
Dr. Khatib presents our work and chairs the Unconventionals: Shale Gas, LNG, CNG, and LPG session of the Fuels and Petrochemicals Division at the 2017 AIChE Meeting in Minneapolis, MN.
August 2017, Summer VFP at BNL completed
Two summer students from the Khatib group, Leah Harper and Jim Tata successfully complete their summer internship at Brookhaven National Lab (BNL). Leah and Jim spent 10 weeks at BNL under Dr. Khatib's supervision as part of the Visiting Faculty Program (VFP) funded by the DOE. Leah focused on performing Soft X-Ray Absorption measurements at NSLS-2 with the aim to characterize carbon species on methane aromatization catalysts prepared at TTU. Jim spent his efforts on preparing and testing Cu-based catalysts employed in water-gas shift reaction. The Khatib group is grateful to all the BNL collaborators who participated in the work, including: Jose Rodriguez, Sanjaya Senanayake, Robert Palomino, Dimitriy Vovchok. Leah and Jim recently obtained their Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering at TTU and are now ready to pursue their graduate studies at TTU. Thank you for your hard work (and play) this summer and good luck!
June 2017, Khatib group selected for the DOE-VFP at BNL
Dr. Khatib has been selected for the 2017 Visiting Faculty Program funded by the DOE. Under this program Dr. Khatib will be taking three senior Chemical Engineering students, Leah Harper, Eva Osoro and Jim Tata, to perform research with her for 10 weeks at Brookhaven National Lab.
May 2017, Dr. Khatib receives two teaching awards
Dr. Khatib has receives two teachng awards:
2017 TLPDC Faculty Spotlight Award for her involvement with the center and her effort to employ evidence-based teaching methods to creatlively enhance students' learning in her classes, 2017 AIChE Student Chapter Best Professor Award, elected by AIChE member Chemical Engineering senior students at TTU.
August 2016, Summer VFP at BNL completed
Tate Harvey, a TTU Chemical Engineering undergraduate student completes a 10-week internship ant Brookhaven National Lab (BNL) as part of the Visiting Faculty Program (VFP) funded by the DOE. Tate was supervised by Dr. Khatib during the summer and performed advanced structural characterization of metal modified zeolites for methane aromatization, including IR-Drifts, XPS, Raman spectroscopy and STEM imaging. Tate presented all his results in the closing ceremony of the 2016 VFP program at BNL.
June 2018, The Khatib group receives the best poster award at the 2018 Catalysis Gordon Research Conference for the work on Methane Dehydroaromatization
February 2018, Our first paper was published and features on the cover of ChemCatChem
In the work we demonstrate how methane from natural gas can be upgraded directly into benzene and hydrogen using Fe-modified Mo/ZSM-5 catalysts. Benzene yield and catalyst stability are both enhanced by precarburizatin of the catalysts, forming modified Mo carbide species before reaction. To learn more, visit: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/cctc.201800906
December 2017, Dr. Khatib receives a teaching award at TTU
Dr. Khatib is the recipient of the 2017-2018 Whitacre College of Engineering George T. and Gladys Abell - Hanger Award for excellence in teaching at TTU.
August 2017, Fall 2017 ACS Meeting
Dr. Khatib presents the group's latest research results in an invited talk at symposium: "Metal-Support Interactions in Catalysis: Synthesis, Characterization, and Design" held at the 254th ACS National Meeting in Washington D.C.
May 2017, Teja Adepu graduates!
Teja Adepu graduated with a Master of Science in Chemical Engineering from the Khatib Laboratory.
Thesis:
"Kinetic Regime Determination and Metal Loading Effects in Methane Aromatization"
Congratulations Teja!
April 2017, Khatib group members present their results at the 2017 SWCS Spring Symposium
PhD candidates Mustafiz Rahman and Apoorva Sridhar present their work for the first time at the 2017 Southwest Catalysis Society Spring Symposium.
May 2016, Farah Jacob graduates!
PhD candidates Mustafiz Rahman and Apoorva Farah Jacob is the first student to graduate with a Master of Science in Chemical Engineering from the Khatib group. She currently holds a position at Chempoint. Congratulations Farah!
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