CBE faculty are using an NSF DMREF award to find new dynamic catalysts for producing ammonia fertilizer

A team of chemical and biological engineering researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are part of a four-year project selected by the National Science Foundation Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future (DMREF) program.

Duane H. and Dorothy M. Bluemke Assistant Professor Siddarth Krishna will serve as lead principal investigator on the project, titled “Accelerated Discovery and Design of Dynamically Evolving Catalyst Material Surfaces,” which also includes Ernest Micek Distinguished Chair, James A. Dumesic Professor, and Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor Manos Mavrikakis and Paul A. Elfers Professor Jeff Greeley. Professor Jennifer Lee at the University of California, Merced, is also part of the team. 

Catalyst materials play a critical role in the production of energy and chemicals, speeding up reactions and making them more efficient. Catalysts often change during this process, with atoms rearranging on the nanoscale, forming new structures with distinct properties and performance. Understanding and manipulating these changes could lead to new materials for industrial reactions; however, researchers don’t fully understand these dynamics and how to control them.  

To address this challenge, researchers in this project will use advanced computer modeling accelerated by artificial intelligence and machine learning along with experimental tools to study how catalyst structures evolve during reactions. They will use these tools to look at the production of ammonia fertilizer, which uses huge amounts of the world’s energy to produce, and try to find new energy-efficient catalysts for ammonia production. They will also study the possibility of using earth-abundant catalysts to “crack” or break the bonds in ammonia to make hydrogen, a potential alternative energy carrier.  

The project is one of 25 DMREF projects awarded in 2025 to 104 researchers at 44 universities across 25 states. The goal of DMREF is to get new materials to market faster and cheaper than what is possible through traditional research methods. This involves seamless partnerships within the DMREF teams and across four directorates at NSF. The translation of fundamental research toward manufacturing and application is facilitated through valuable partnerships with a variety of federal research programs and international partners.

DMREF teams couple theory, data science and artificial intelligence with advanced synthetic and characterization techniques to discover materials and optimize their properties for the next generation of applications including semiconductors, quantum devices, wireless technology, biotechnology, energy efficiency and resilient structural materials. 

Featured Image: Siddarth Krishna