Dr. Vitaly Sushkevich

Scientist

Paul Scherrer Institut
Forschungsstrasse 111
5232 Villigen PSI
Schweiz


My research focuses on the surface and bulk chemistry of active sites in solid materials and catalysts. I combine the state-of-the-art spectroscopic techniques including in situ infrared spectroscopy, NMR spectroscopy and X-ray spectroscopy with precise micro-kinetic experiments, which enables establishing the reaction mechanisms. The knowledge about the active sites and reaction mechanisms I exploit for the rational design of novel materials or improvement of known catalysts. I give specific attention to the elucidation and modelling of reaction kinetics under steady-state; with that I extensively work with isotope labels and tracers.

2019 - present Scientist, Paul Scherrer Institut, Villigen, Switzerland
2016 - 2019 Postdoctoral fellow, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
2015 - 2017 Principal research engineer, LLC "ETBCat", Russia
2013 - 2016 Researcher, Department of Chemistry, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia
  • V.L. Sushkevich*, D. Palagin, M. Ranocchiari, J.A. van Bokhoven, «Selective anaerobic oxidation of methane enables direct synthesis of methanol», Science, 356 (2017) 523-527.
  • V.L. Sushkevich*, A.G. Popov, I.I. Ivanova, «Sulfur-33 Isotope Tracing of the Hydrodesulfurization Process: Insights into the Reaction Mechanism, Catalyst Characterization and Improvement», Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 56 (2017) 10872-10876.
  • V.L. Sushkevich*, D. Palagin, J.A. van Bokhoven, « Effect of Active Sites Structure on Activity of Copper Mordenite in Aerobic and Anaerobic Conversion of Methane to Methanol», Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 57 (2018) 8906-8910.
  • I.I. Ivanova, V.L. Sushkevich, Yu. G. Kolyagin, V.V. Ordomsky, «Catalysis by Coke Deposits: Synthesis of Isoprene over Solid Catalysts», Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 52 (2013) 12961-12964.
  • V.L. Sushkevich, Dennis Palagin, I.I. Ivanova, «With Open Arms: Open Sites of ZrBEA Zeolite Facilitate Selective Synthesis of Butadiene from Ethanol» ACS Catal., 5 (2015) 4833-4836.
  • S.V. Konnov, V.L. Sushkevich, Yu.V. Monachova, V.V. Yushcenko, O.A. Ponomareva, I.I. Ivanova, «Hydroisomerization of n-octane over Pt-containing micro/mesoporous molecular sieves», Stud. Surf. Sci. Catal., 174 (2008) 1167-1170.
  • V.V. Ordomsky, V.L. Sushkevich, I.I. Ivanova, «Study of acetaldehyde condensation chemistry over magnesia and zirconia supported on silica», J. Mol. Catal. A, 333 (2010) 85-93.
  • V.L. Sushkevich, V.V. Ordomsky, I.I. Ivanova, «Synthesis of isoprene from formaldehyde and isobutene over phosphate catalysts», Appl. Catal. A: Gen., 441– 442 (2012) 21– 29.
  • V.L. Sushkevich, I.I. Ivanova, E. Taarning, «Mechanistic Study of Ethanol Dehydrogenation over Silica-Supported Silver» ChemCatChem, 5 (2013) 2367-2373.
  • V.V. Ordomsky, V.L. Sushkevich, J.C. Schouten, J. van der Schaaf, T.A. Nijhuis, «Glucose dehydration to 5-hydroxymethylfurfural over phosphate catalysts» J. Catal., 300 (2013) 37-46.
  • V.L. Sushkevich, I.I. Ivanova, S. Tolborg, E. Taarning, «Meerwein–Ponndorf–Verley–Oppenauer reaction of crotonaldehyde with ethanol over Zr-containing catalysts» J. Catal., 316 (2014) 121-129.
  • V.L. Sushkevich, I.I. Ivanova, V.V. Ordomsky, E. Taarning, «Design of a Metal-Promoted Oxide Catalyst for the Selective Synthesis of Butadiene from Ethanol» ChemSusChem, 9 (2014) 2527-2536.
  • V.V. Ordomsky, M. Cai, V. Sushkevich, S. Moldovan, O. Ersen, C. Lancelot, V. Valtchev, A.Y. Khodakov, «The role of external acid sites of ZSM-5 in deactivation of hybrid CuZnAl/ZSM-5 catalyst for direct dimethyl ether synthesis from syngas», Appl. Catal. A: Gen., 486 (2014) 266-275.
  • V.L. Sushkevich, I.I. Ivanova, E. Taarning, «Ethanol Conversion into Butadiene over Zr-containing Molecular Sieves Doped with Silver» Green Chem., 17 (2015) 2552-2559.
  • V. Paunovic, V.V. Ordomsky, V.L. Sushkevich, J.C. Schouten, T.A. Nijhuis, «Direct Synthesis of Hydrogen Peroxide over AuPd Catalyst—The Effect of CoSolvent Addition» ChemCatChem, 7 (2015) 1161-1176.
  • V.L. Sushkevich, A. Vimont, A. Travert, I.I. Ivanova, «Spectroscopic Evidence for Open and Closed Lewis Acid Sites in ZrBEA Zeolites» J. Phys. Chem. C., 119 (2015) 17633-17639.
  • M. Cai, V. Subramanian, V.L. Sushkevich, V.V. Ordomsky, A.Y. Khodakov, «Effect of Sn additives on the CuZnAl–HZSM-5 hybrid catalysts for the direct DME synthesis from syngas» Appl. Catal. A: Gen., 502 (2015) 370-379.
  • V.L. Sushkevich, I.I. Ivanova, C. Lancelot, S. Moldovan, O. Ersen, V. Ordomsky, «“Fishing” of heteropolyacids into carbonaceous seine via coking» Chem. Commun., 51 (2015) 17120-17123.
  • V.L. Sushkevich*, V. Ordomsky, I.I. Ivanova, «Isoprene Synthesis from Formaldehyde and Isobutene over Keggin-type Heteropolyacids Supported on Silica» Catal. Sci. Technol., 6 (2016) 6354-6364.
  • V.V. Ordomsky, A. Carvalho, B. Legras, S. Paul, M. Virginie, V.L Sushkevich, A. Y Khodakov, «Effects of co-feeding with nitrogen-containing compounds on the performance of supported cobalt and iron catalysts in Fischer–Tropsch synthesis» Cat. Today, 275 (2016) 84-93.
  • V.L. Sushkevich, I.I. Ivanova, «AgPromoted ZrBEA Zeolites Obtained by PostSynthetic Modification for Conversion of Ethanol to Butadiene» ChemSusChem, 9 (2016) 2216-2225.
  • D. Palagin, V.L. Sushkevich, I.I. Ivanova, «C–C Coupling Catalyzed by Zeolites: is Enolization the Only Possible Pathway for Aldol Condensation?» J. Phys. Chem. C., 120 (2016) 23566-23575.
  • P.A. Kots, V.L. Sushkevich, O.A. Tyablikov, I.I. Ivanova, «Synthesis of Zr-containing BEC-type germanosilicate with high Lewis acidity», Micropor. Mesopor. Mater., 243 (2017) 186-192.
  • V.L. Sushkevich, P.A. Kots, I.I. Ivanova, M. Marinova, S. Moldovan, O. Ersen, V. Ordomsky, «Self-Encapsulation of Heteropolyacids in a 3D-Ordered Coke Framework for Heterogeneous Catalysis in Homogeneous Way», Chem. Mater., 29 (2017) 2676-2680.
  • V.L. Sushkevich*, I.I. Ivanova, A.V. Yakimov, «Revisiting Acidity of SnBEA Catalysts by Combined Application of FTIR Spectroscopy of Different Probe Molecules», J. Phys. Chem. C., 121 (2017) 11437-11447.
  • V.L. Sushkevich*, I.I. Ivanova, «Mechanistic Study of Ethanol Conversion into Butadiene over Silver promoted Zirconia Catalysts», Appl. Catal. B.: Environmental, 215 (2017) 36-49.
  • P.A. Kots, A. Kurkin, V.L. Sushkevich, A.N. Fitch, V.V. Chernyshev, I.I. Ivanova, «Synchrotron XRD and NMR evidence of germanium redistribution during silylation of BEC-type germanosilicate», CrystEngComm, 19 (2017) 5982-5988. 
  • V.L. Sushkevich*, D. Palagin, M. Ranocchiari, J.A. van Bokhoven, «Response to Comment on “Selective anaerobic oxidation of methane enables direct synthesis of methanol”», Science, 358 (2017) eaan6083.
  • V.L. Sushkevich*, J.A. van Bokhoven, «Revisiting Copper Reduction in Zeolites: The Impact of Autoreduction and Sample Synthesis Procedure» Chem. Commun., 54 (2018) 7447-7450.
  •  V.L. Sushkevich*, D. Palagin, M. Ranocchiari, J.A. van Bokhoven, «Response to Comment on “Selective anaerobic oxidation of methane enables direct synthesis of methanol”», Science, 359 (2018) eaar6868.
  • V.L. Sushkevich*, J.A. van Bokhoven, « Effect of Brønsted acid sites on the direct conversion of methane into methanol over copper-exchanged mordenite» Catal. Sci. Technol., 8 (2018) 4141-4150.
  • M.A. Newton, A.J. Knorpp, A.B. Pinar, V.L. Sushkevich, D. Palagin, J.A. van Bokhoven, «On the Mechanism Underlying the Direct Conversion of Methane to Methanol by Copper Hosted in Zeolites; Braiding Cu K-Edge XANES and Reactivity Studies», J. Am. Chem. Soc., 140 (2018) 10090-10093.
  • P. Tomkins, A. Mansouri, V.L. Sushkevich, L.I. van der Wal, S.E. Bozbag, F. Krumeich, M. Ranocchiari, J.A. van Bokhoven, «Increasing the activity of copper exchanged mordenite in the direct isothermal conversion of methane to methanol by Pt and Pd doping», Chem. Sci., 10 (2019) 167-171.
  • A.J. Knorpp, A.B. Pinar, M.A. Newton, V.L. Sushkevich, J.A. van Bokhoven «Copperexchanged omega (MAZ) zeolite: copperconcentration dependent active sites and its unprecedented methane to methanol conversion», ChemCatChem, 24 (2018) 5593-5596.
  • V.L. Sushkevich*, P. Kots, Yu. Kolyagin, A. Yakimov, A. Marikutsa, I. Ivanova, «Origin of water-induced Brønsted acid sites in Sn-BEA zeolites», J. Phys. Chem. C., 123 (2019) 5540-5548.
  • M. Ravi, V.L. Sushkevich, A. J. Knorpp, M.A. Newton, D. Palagin, A.B. Pinar, M. Ranocchiari, J. A. van Bokhoven, «Misconceptions and challenges in methane-to-methanol over transition metal-exchanged zeolites», Nature Catal, 2 (2019) 485-494.
  • V.L. Sushkevich*, J.A. van Bokhoven, «Methane-to-methanol: activity descriptors in copper-exchanged zeolites for the rational design of materials», ACS Catal., 9 (2019) 6293-6204.
  • V.L. Sushkevich*, A.V. Smirnov, J.A. van Bokhoven, «Autoreduction of copper in zeolites: role of topology, Si/Al ratio and copper loading», J. Phys. Chem. C., 123 (2019) 9926-9934.
  • L. Artiglia, V.L. Sushkevich, D. Palagin, A. Knorpp, K. Roy, J.A. van Bokhoven, «In situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy detects multiple active sites involved in the selective oxidation of methane over copper-exchanged zeolites», ACS Catal., 9 (2019) 6728-6737.
  • A.J. Knorpp, M.A. Newton, V.L. Sushkevich, P.P. Zimmermann, A.B. Pinar, J.A. van Bokhoven, « The influence of zeolite morphology on the conversion of methane to methanol on copper-exchanged omega zeolite (MAZ)» Catal. Sci. Technol., 9 (2019) 2806-2811.
  • J.-P. Lange, V.L. Sushkevich, A. Knorpp, J. A. van Bokhoven, «Methane-to-Methanol via chemical looping–economic potential and guidance for future research» Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 58 (2019) 8674-8680.
  • M. Ravi., V.L. Sushkevich, J.A. van Bokhoven, «Lewis Acidity Inherent to the Framework of Zeolite Mordenite» J. Phys. Chem. C., 123 (2019) 15139-15144.
  • D. Palagin, V.L. Sushkevich, J.A. van Bokhoven, «Water Molecules Facilitate Hydrogen Release in Anaerobic Oxidation of Methane to Methanol over Cu/Mordenite», ACS Catal., 2019, DOI: 10.1021/acscatal.9b02702.
  • A.G. Popov, A.I. Nikiforov, V.L. Sushkevich, I.A. Tyablikov, I.I. Ivanova, «Using the 33S Nuclide for Determining the Particle Size of the Molybdenum Disulfide Phase Supported on Mesoporous Silica», Petroleum Chem., 59 (2019) 756-760.