Alex Mironenko

About

Dr. Alex Mironenko is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His research develops theory-driven quantum mechanical methods to lower the cost of structure and chemical reactivity predictions of molecules and materials. His work focuses on models, theories, and mechanisms of chemical reactions aimed at sustainable production of fuels and chemicals, with current interests including oxidation catalyzed by metal carbide surfaces, liquid-filled porous zeolite materials, carbonylation on single-atom catalysts, and alkane/alkene electroseparations. Dr. Mironenko has been recognized with several honors, including the ACS Petroleum Research Fund Doctoral Investigator Award, the Allan P. Colburn Outstanding Dissertation Prize, and the Kadanoff-Rice Postdoctoral Fellowship. He joined the department in August 2020 and has a background that includes a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Delaware, a MS from the University of Kansas, and a Diploma of Engineer from Omsk F.M. Dostoevsky State University in Russia.

Research topics

• Materials science
• Chemistry
• Organic chemistry
• Physical chemistry
• Inorganic chemistry
• Chemical engineering
• Combinatorial chemistry
• Photochemistry

Selected publications

• Electrochemical recycling of homogeneous catalysts

  Science Advances · 2022 · 47 citations

  up to 200 milligrams of platinum per gram of adsorbent) from product mixtures, with up to 99.5% recovery, while retaining full catalytic activity over multiple cycles. The combination of mechanistic studies and electronic structure calculations indicate that selective interactions with anionic intermediates during the catalytic cycle played a key role in the separations. Last, continuous flow cell studies support the scalability and favorable technoeconomics of electrochemical recycling.

  PublisherDOI

• Effect of Interactions between Alkyl Chains and Solvent Structures on Lewis Acid Catalyzed Epoxidations

  ACS Catalysis · 2022-10-18 · 22 citations

  articleCorresponding

  Solvent molecules within zeolite pores provide interactions that influence the stability of reactive intermediates and impact rates and selectivities for catalytic reactions. We show the kinetic and thermodynamic consequences of these interactions and reveal their origins using alkene epoxidations in titanium-substituted *BEA (Ti-BEA) zeolites. Epoxidation turnover rates vary widely among primary n-alkenes (C6–C18) in hydrophilic (Ti-BEA-OH) and hydrophobic (Ti-BEA-F) catalysts in aqueous aceton…

  PublisherDOI

• Redox-Responsive Halogen Bonding as a Highly Selective Interaction for Electrochemical Separations

  JACS Au · 2024-06-10 · 15 citations

  articleOpen access

  Leveraging specific noncovalent interactions can broaden the mechanims for selective electrochemical separations beyond solely electrostatic interactions. Here, we explore redox-responsive halogen bonding (XB) for selective electrosorption in nonaqueous media, by taking advantage of directional interactions of XB alongisde a cooperative and synergistic ferrocene redox-center. We designed and evaluated a new redox-active XB donor polymer, poly(5-iodo-4-ferrocenyl-1-(4-vinylbenzyl)-1H-1,2,3-triazo…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Defect Engineering of WO₃ by Rapid Flame Reduction for Efficient Photoelectrochemical Conversion of Methane into Liquid Oxygenates

  Nano Letters · 2023-12-07 · 13 citations

  articleOpen access

  Photoelectrochemical (PEC) conversion is a promising way to use methane (CH4) as a chemical building block without harsh conditions. However, the PEC conversion of CH4 to value-added chemicals remains challenging due to the thermodynamically favorable overoxidation of CH4. Here, we report WO3 nanotube (NT) photoelectrocatalysts for PEC CH4 conversion with high liquid product selectivity through defect engineering. By tuning the flame reduction treatment, we carefully controlled the oxygen vacanc…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Implication of surface oxidation of nanoscale molybdenum carbide on electrocatalytic activity

  Journal of Materials Chemistry A · 2024-01-01 · 8 citations

  articleCorresponding

  The surface oxidation of molybdenum carbide nanoparticles was controlled by the electrochemical method. The impact of surface oxidation on catalytic properties was studied by both spectroscopic and computational methods.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Dionisios G. Vlachos

  37 shared

• Bingjun Xu

  Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences

  17 shared

• Matthew J. Gilkey

  Center for Innovation

  16 shared

• Gregory A. Voth

  Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis

  15 shared

• Glen R. Jenness

  U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center

  9 shared

• Paraskevi Panagiotopoulou

  University of Patras

  8 shared

• Raymond J. Gorte

  7 shared

• Cong Wang

  Wenzhou University

  7 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Chemical Engineering

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  2005

• M.S., Chemical Engineering

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  2001

• B.S., Chemical Engineering

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  1999

Awards & honors

• ACS Petroleum Research Fund Doctoral Investigator Award (202…
• Allan P. Colburn Outstanding Dissertation Prize in Mathemati…
• Kadanoff-Rice Postdoctoral Fellowship (2018-2020)
• William Fulbright Fellowship, Master's Program at the Univer…
• Saurabh A. Palkar Graduate Award for Mentoring (2018)

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