Speaker Name: Prof. Abhijit Chatterjee 

Date: 01-10-2025 (Wednesday)

Time: 2:30 PM

Venue: LC002

Abstract: The principle of mass conservation is an important concept in chemical engineering and allied fields. Needless to say, its applications are very far-reaching. One of the first concepts our undergraduate students are taught is the general form of the species balance equation (∂c_i)/∂t=f(c_i). Here c_i is the species concentration and f contains inflow, outflow and reaction terms. In applications like heterogeneous catalysis, fuel cell and battery modeling, this continuum-scale equation forms the starting-point for device-level modeling, design, and control. To do so, the mean-field approximation is invoked, i.e., the rates/flux terms in the equation are evaluated using the local species concentration, which provides a key statistical closure. Unfortunately, the approximation is often rendered grossly inaccurate in the above applications by the underlying microscopic interactions and spatial correlations. He will discuss a new type of material balance equation with built-in atomistic-scale complexity for modelling catalysts/materials used in energy generation, storage and utilization applications.