Date of Graduation
5-2026
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Science in Chemistry
Degree Level
Undergraduate
Department
Chemistry & Biochemistry
Advisor/Mentor
Bin Dong
Committee Member
Michael McGraw
Second Committee Member
Jingyi Chen
Abstract
The aim of these experiments is to investigate the effects of porous silica oxide nanoparticles on catalytic activity. Nanoparticle catalysis has a wide range of industrial applications and is a key area for future research in the design of catalysts. Nano-confinement itself is a useful technique that can stabilize catalytic nanoparticles. For these experiments, ensemble and single-particle experimental techniques were employed to investigate the effects of nanoconfinement on reaction rates. Using a fluorimeter, reaction rates were measured under different conditions to determine the effects of confinement on reaction rate. The initial hypothesis was that increasing confinement would decrease reaction activity, as reactants would have restricted access to the nanoparticles' catalytic centers, thereby decreasing the reaction rate. However, after the experiments were run, it was found that the reaction rate decreased initially, then increased suddenly and finally decreased again. The main conclusion from our experiments is that activity depended on three factors: constrained molecular orientation, intermediate enrichment, and mass transfer limit.
Keywords
resazurin, single particle imaging; amplex red
Citation
Fetsch, J. T. (2026). Investigating Catalytic Activity of Porous Silica Oxide Nanoparticles. Chemistry & Biochemistry Undergraduate Honors Theses Retrieved from https://scholarworks.uark.edu/chbcuht/62
