Jim joined CMU in February 2006 after over 25 years in industry as a developer of catalysts, catalytic processes and chemical sensors.
Research Interests
Currently, Jim is working with Professor Andy Gellman on fundamental understanding of surface segregation phenomena in alloys.
The surface composition of an alloy is rarely the same as its bulk; this difference has important implications for surface
processes and properties, like corrosion and catalytic activity. The focus of the current work, a collaboration with the
National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), is Palladium-Copper, an alloy of interest for hydrogen separation in fossil fuel
processing. X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and Low Energy Ion Scattering (LEIS) are the primary tools that Jim and his
co-workers use to characterize composition in the surface region (about 3-10 atomic layers deep) and the very top layer.
Jim's interests include application of these tools to other important binary and multi-component systems for applications
in fuels conversion and chemical sensing. He also plans to compliment the UHV tool-kit with high-temperature/pressure
capability for assessment of heterogeneous catalysts and to provide data for scale-up and economic evaluation.
Selected Publications
"Catalytic Sensors for Monitoring Explosive Atmospheres," J.B. Miller, IEEE Sensors Journal 1(1) (2001), 88.
"A Homogeneously Dispersed Silica Dopant for Control of the Textural and Structural Evolution of an Alumina Aerogel,"
J.B. Miller and E.I. Ko, Catalysis Today 43 (1998), 51.
"Control of Mixed Oxide Textural and Acidic Properties by the Sol-Gel Method," J.B. Miller and E.I. Ko, Catalysis Today 35 (1997), 269.
"The Role of Prehydrolysis in the Preparation of Zirconia-Silica Aerogels," J.B. Miller and E.I. Ko, in "Advanced Catalyst
and Nanostructured Materials: Modern Synthetic Methods" (W. Moser, ed.), Academic Press, 1996.
"Acidic Properties of Silica-Containing Mixed Oxide Aerogels: Preparation of Zirconia-Silica and Comparison to
Titania-Silica," J.B. Miller and E.I. Ko, Journal of Catalysis 159 (1996), 58.
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