Prof. Hadi Nur
(Prof. Hadi Nur, Ibnu Sina Institute for Fundamental Science Studies, UTM Skudai, Johor, Malaysia)
In this fast changing time, Malaysia should strive to emerge as one of the competitive nations in the world. To achieve this, several research universities have been established in Malaysia. Researches in universities are seen as a noble intellectual activity, which will benefit society greatly. As a result, all scientific researches, including researches in heterogeneous catalysis, is fast becoming more important in Malaysia. This includes Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), which has been announced as a Research University by the Prime Minister of Malaysia on 10 June 2010. In this context, the development of high performance and conceptually innovative catalytic processes is crucial for industry and for a sustainable future in Malaysia. It is generally accepted that heterogeneous catalysis is an important process in the transformation of energy, which is considered as an integral part of the solution of today’s and the future’s energy problems. The purpose of this presentation is to introduce several designs of heterogeneous catalytic systems which were compiled based on classification from the catalytic processes. These systems comprised of examples from researches that were carried out by the author together with his colleagues and students at UTM. The aim is to develop and understand the catalytic phenomena through the design and physicochemical properties of the solid catalysts. A basic feature common to all catalytic systems is that the catalytic reaction can be considered as a reaction cycle, in which catalytically active sites are initially consumed and at the end of the cycle are regenerated. There are many different catalytic systems and most of the basic mechanistic features are well understood. Here, an attempt will be made to introduce several catalytic reactions in order to design a better catalyst through chemical design. The catalytic reactions that will be discussed are the oxidation and acid catalysis by heterogeneous catalysts. These works are classified into six classes, namely phase-boundary catalysis, acid catalysis, oxidation catalyst, bifunctional catalyst, photocatalyst and shape controllable synthesis of solid catalyst assisted by magnetic field. Hopefully, the structure-catalytic properties of these several designs of heterogeneous catalytic system may assist in the further search for novel approaches to heterogeneous catalysis for environmentally-benign transformation of biomass and new efficient energy systems.
Biography of Prof. Hadi Nur
Hadi Nur was born on the 6th of May 1969. His main field in undergraduate and graduate studies at the Institut Teknologi Bandung was in chemistry and materials engineering. He obtained his B.Sc. and M.Eng. (cum laude) degrees in 1992 and 1995, respectively. Shortly after that, he continued his postgraduate studies in zeolite chemistry at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), where he received his Ph.D. degree in 1998. His postdoctoral studies started with a year as a UTM Postdoctoral Fellow and two years as a Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS) Postdoctoral Fellow at Catalysis Research Center (CRC), Hokkaido University, Japan. He continued as a Center of Excellence (COE) Visiting Researcher at CRC for another half a year. His academic career began with the appointment as a lecturer in the Ibnu Sina Institute for Fundamental Science Studies, UTM in 2003, after a year of working as a research officer in this institute. He was promoted to the rank of senior lecturer in 2007, associate professor in 2008 and to the current professor in 2010 at UTM.
He authored and co-authored a number of publications on various topics, focusing on heterogeneous catalysis and advanced materials. His research has been and is being funded by the Ministry of Science, Technology & Innovation, Malaysia (MOSTI), the Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia (MOHE), the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS), Nippon Sheet Glass Foundation for Materials Science and Engineering, and UTM. His researches center on heterogeneous catalyst and catalysis. Currently, he is the Head of Catalytic Science and Technology (CST) research group and Global Alliance Manager of UTM International at UTM.
Website: http://hadinur.com