Max Kessler

All Publications

• A Humidity-Tolerant Photocatalyst for Methane Removal. Environmental science & technology Kessler, M. I., Randall, R., Wan, G., Xu, K., Zhang, Y., Dionne, J. A., Jackson, R. B., Majumdar, A. 2026

  Abstract

  To mitigate the climate impacts of methane, there has been substantial interest in the complete oxidation of methane to carbon dioxide by using photocatalysis at ambient temperatures. However, previous studies have primarily examined methane concentrations well above those found at most emission sources and have overlooked the role of realistic humidity. This work reports methane oxidation rates at 25 °C for oxide-based photocatalysts for methane concentrations ranging from 2 to 5000 ppm. Even under dry conditions with less than 2% relative humidity, residual water attracted to the hydrophilic surfaces of these photocatalysts severely inhibits methane oxidation. Thinning this water layer boosts methane oxidation rates by up to 1 order of magnitude. Furthermore, surface modification of titanium dioxide with a hydrophobic fluorosilane coating (1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorooctyltriethoxysilane) enables room temperature photocatalytic removal of dilute methane even under conditions with up to 80% relative humidity. These findings and engineering solutions offer guidance for the development of light-driven approaches for scalable methane removal.

  View details for DOI 10.1021/acs.est.5c16764

  View details for PubMedID 41665929

• Temperature responses from methane mitigation approaches vary widely due to non-methane impacts ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS Abernethy, S., Buechler, R., Kessler, M., Jackson, R. B. 2024; 19 (8)

  View details for DOI 10.1088/1748-9326/ad60e0

  View details for Web of Science ID 001280725800001

• A semi-continuous process for co-production of CO2-free hydrogen and carbon nanotubes via methane pyrolysis CELL REPORTS PHYSICAL SCIENCE Sun, E., Zhai, S., Kim, D., Gigantino, M., Haribal, V., Dewey, O. S., Williams, S. M., Wan, G., Nelson, A., Marin-Quiros, S., Martis, J., Zhou, C., Oh, J., Randall, R., Kessler, M., Kong, D., Rojas, J., Tong, A., Xu, X., Huff, C., Pasquali, M., Gupta, R., Cargnello, M., Majumdar, A. 2023; 4 (4)

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.xcrp.2023.101338

  View details for Web of Science ID 001000123600001

• Assessing the potential benefits of methane oxidation technologies using a concentration-based framework ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS Abernethy, S., Kessler, M. I., Jackson, R. B. 2023; 18 (094064)

  View details for DOI 10.1088/1748-9326/acf603