Michael Trenary: Observing and controlling chemical reactions on metal surfaces  

How chemicals behave on metal surfaces is what drives many of today’s most important technologies, from catalytic converters in cars to semiconductors in electronics.  

For over four decades at UIC, Michael Trenary has studied these critical phenomena at the atomic scale. By designing and using new scientific instruments to observe and control these reactions, he has significantly advanced the fields of surface science and physical chemistry.  

“We try to make measurements that nobody else has been able to do before, so we make new kinds of machines,” said Trenary, professor of chemistry at UIC. “When we discover something that no one else thought about before, it’s very gratifying.” 

Almost every modern gas-powered vehicle has a catalytic converter, which changes toxic exhaust into less harmful emissions. These devices rely on rare metals such as platinum, rhodium and palladium to alter pollutant molecules by adding or removing oxygen atoms.  

To study this and similar processes, Trenary uses specialized instruments he built for a technique called reflection absorption infrared spectroscopy, or RAIRS. Infrared spectroscopy is widely used by chemists to probe molecular properties. With RAIRS, scientists can gather information about chemical bonds and structures by reflecting infrared light off metal surfaces on which molecules are attached and measuring how much light is absorbed. 

Since he arrived at UIC in 1984, Trenary has worked with the Liberal Arts and Sciences Physical Sciences Machine Shop to make and improve this unique tool, which he has used in over 200 published studies. 

Currently, he is using RAIRS to study single-atom alloys, which can perform catalytic conversions with just a small amount of rare metals. Such metals are expensive, and using less of them could make catalytic converters and other industrial devices cheaper and less prone to theft, Trenary said. 

Trenary’s group has also explored the use of scanning tunneling microscopy to manipulate individual molecules on metal surfaces. In 2015, his student Zhu Liang used this method to write the letters “UIC” with nitrogen atoms on a platinum surface — a demonstration of the incredibly precise level of control possible. 

That experiment was conducted with Trenary’s collaborators in Japan, a country he has visited frequently for research sabbaticals. He is a fellow of both the American Chemical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science — the only faculty member in the UIC Department of Chemistry to receive both career honors.

After 41 years at UIC, Trenary is still passionate about his research.

“I keep saying, ‘Well, it’s just one more experiment I want to get done,’” he said. He also believes strongly in the role of the university to bring new students into careers at the frontiers of chemistry.

“I went to a big urban public university myself as an undergraduate, and I really believe in public higher education and making it accessible to students,” Trenary said. “I wouldn’t be where I am today if it hadn’t been for the availability of low-cost, high-quality public education. So I believe in the mission of UIC.”