Rachel A. Yang

Rachel A. Yang is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Princeton University under the guidance of Professor Michele L. Sarazen. She received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Rutgers University in 2018. Her current thesis work focuses on metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) as modular heterogeneous transition metal catalysts for selective oxidative chemistries that are ubiquitous in industrial chemical synthesis applications. More specifically, her research explores green syntheses of earth-abundant transition metal (Cr, Fe) MOFs and couples spectroscopic methods with kinetic experiments to probe the evolution of key material properties and the implications for reactivity, selectivity, and material stability throughout catalyst life cycles. Other projects include MOF crystal size modulation to investigate the interplay of kinetic and mass transport phenomena in liquid-phase reaction systems and the synthesis of MOF-supported animopolymer adsorbents for CO2 capture.