The industrial revolution was largely driven by advances in chemistry while the green revolution requires scientists to rethink and retool how materials are produced with everything from fuels to plastics, drugs to dyes, and computer chips to solar cells. Dr. Adam Hock, Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the Illinois Institute of Technology and Assistant Scientists at Argonne National Laboratory, is a leader in the next generation of materials revolution. He and his team are developing new ways to make materials for more efficient energy and for improved computing devices. With the unique skill of chemical synthesis, he and his team make novel catalysts that are advancing environmental solutions as well as helping to develop new electronic materials and scalable routes to them. Their impressive ability to assemble novel molecules with near atom-like precision in addition to their strong focus on societal impact, has resulted and is likely to continue to lead, to the reduction of byproducts and energy demand in the chemicals industry as well as new synthetic methods for other electronic materials used in computing, memory, and other components of future computer systems.

Dr. Hock’s diverse training gives him the ability to bridge gaps and develop new areas of research at the interface between chemistry, materials science, engineering, and other branches of science. In this way, he and his team have the vocabulary and the knowledge necessary to work closely with people in a variety of fields while providing sustainable solutions to next-generation energy and computing applications. In addition, Dr. Hock and his team have access to world-leading facilities at Argonne National Laboratory, where they can make measurements that are extremely precise, to understand how reaction chemistry is proceeding. In this way, although Dr. Hock’s group is a basic science group, close collaborations with industrial partners, sophisticated lab facilities, and a diverse research team enable them to seek out opportunities for basic science “to make a real leap forward in technology with the appropriate development” to bring research to the market.

Current research includes:

• Industry Carbon Emissions: Carbon emissions from industry were not a concern in the past but recently have become cause for increased concern. Dr. Hock is working on ways to reduce byproducts and energy demand in the chemical industry by retooling chemicals and fuels infrastructure to be more efficient, flexible, and robust. His research is helping to promote the industry’s movement away from ‘dirty’ technology while rethinking the use or recycling for other technologies.
• Solar Energy: Although photovoltaic research has exploded in recent years, relatively few materials have actually been studied in detail. Part of the challenge has been the difficulty in synthesizing these new materials. Dr. Hock is directly developing new sources of energy from sunlight using his expertise in synthesis methods for photovoltaics.
• Materials for Computing: Dr. Hock is working on new synthetic methods for electronic materials used in computing, memory, and other components of future computer systems. In this way, his research may help pave the way for next-generation technologies.