Dmitry Lukyanov

Dr Dmitry Lukyanov studied for an MSc in Chemistry at Lomonosov Moscow State University and a PhD at the Karpov Institute of Physical Chemistry (Moscow).

Dmitry has visiting research fellowships at the University of Poitiers with Professor Michel Guisnet (1992-93), University of Pittsburgh with Professor Keith Hall (1994), University of Manchester with Professor John Dwyer (1995-1997), and EPSRC Advanced Research Fellowship at the Universities of Manchester and Bath (1998-2001).

He joined the University of Bath in March 2000.

Research

Dmitry's research aims to:

1. generate new insights into mechanisms of  heterogeneous catalytic reactions and 
2. apply these insights for the design (engineering) of new catalysts and reactions, which could form a basis for the development of cleaner chemical technologies including conversion of biomass into transportation fuels and valuable chemicals.

This research combines thorough kinetic and IR spectroscopic studies with kinetic modelling of reactions.

During the last eight years, his research has been focused on reactions of light alkanes over bifunctional zeolite catalysts. The most interesting results include:

• Development of original kinetic method for quantitative analysis of the acid sites in working catalysts (2006)
• New insights into the effect of the zeolite structure on alkane aromatisation mechanisms (2006)
• Demonstration of the feasibility of the environmentally benign process of ethylbenzene production via benzene alkylation with ethane (instead of ethene) using bifunctional zeolite catalysts (2008).

The concept of bifunctional catalysis was also applied to the activation of methane, and this research has led to the discovery of the selective alkylation of benzene with methane into toluene (2009) and, later on, to demonstration of the stable methane conversion into ethane over platinum supported. catalysts at moderate temperatures (2011).

Dmitry's current research is focused on investigation of the effects of the zeolite structure (micro-meso-porous materials) on the conversions of light alkanes and biomass in such valuable products as light alkenes and transportation fuels.

Interested in supervising students studying;

• Catalysis in sustainable production of valuable chemicals and transportation fuels from renewable sources
• Hydrocarbon reactions over acidic and bi-functional zeolite catalysts
• Characterisation of active sites in solid catalysts using spectroscopic and kinetic techniques.