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Washington State University
The Gene and Linda Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering

Faculty & Staff

Zdenek Dohnalek, PhD

Zdenek Dohnalek

Zdenek Dohnalek, Ph.D.
Adjoint Professor, PNNL

Experimental studies of fundamental model systems that are necessary to understand complex processes that take place in heterogeneous catalysis and environment

Dr. Dohnalek’s web page at PNNL

Office: PNNL

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
PO Box 999
Richland, WA 99352

Education & Credentials

  • 2000–Present, Senior Research Scientist II, Chemical Structure and Dynamics Department, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA
  • 1998–2000, Postdoctoral Fellow, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, W. R. Wiley Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Richland, WA
  • Ph.D., Physical Chemistry, University of Pittsburgh, 1997
  • M.S., Chemical Engineering, Institute of Chemical Engineering, Prague, Czech Republic, 1991

Biography

My research focused on experimental studies of fundamental model systems that are necessary to understand complex processes that take place in heterogeneous catalysis and environment. The work concentrates on adsorption, diffusion, and desorption dynamics and kinetics, binding, and reactivity of adsorbates on model well characterized surfaces and clusters. A combined experimental approach involving both atomically resolved imaging and ensemble averaged methods is employed to provide a detailed, molecular-level understanding of catalyst structure and reactivity. Novel deposition methods, developed in our laboratory, are further used to prepare clusters and nanoporous films of model oxide catalysts with tailored chemical properties. All studies are complemented by theoretical investigations carried out by collaborators and are intended to provide general structure-reactivity relationships. Systems recently investigated include a partial oxidation of alcohols on supported WO3 clusters and on rutile TiO2(110) surface, water-oxygen reactions on TiO2(110), numerous adsorbates on epitaxial MgO(100) and nanoporous MgO films, ethylene hydrogenation on thin epitaxial and nanoporous Pd films, and most recently CO2 on TiO2(110).