Professor Brian Laird Named February 2026 Sutton Family Research Impact Award Recipient

The Department of Chemistry congratulates Professor Brian Laird on receiving the February 2026 Sutton Family Research Impact Award!

The Sutton Award is a monthly competition among chemistry faculty. Every month, the Chemistry Department Chair and Associate Chairs review the peer-reviewed papers published by chemistry faculty from the three previous months to select a winner. The recipient receives a $500 cash prize and is featured on the departmental website.

For a full list of winners, visit our Sutton Family Research Impact Award webpage.

Dependence of Water Adsorption on Aluminum Content in the BEA (Polymorph A) Zeolite Using Monte Carlo Simulations

By Micah L. Welsch and Brian B. Laird

J. Phys. Chem. C 2026, 130, 4, 1633–1644. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.5c04761

Zeolites are inexpensive, industrially relevant, microporous aluminosilicate materials that, because of their regular pore size and high surface area, have shown to be convenient media for a variety of chemical applications, including gas separation and adsorption, environmental remediation, catalysis – even cat litter! (Figure 1). There are over 250 naturally occurring and synthetic zeolite frameworks and each of these can be further tuned by varying the silicon to aluminum ratio (Si/Al) within the framework, as well as the size and charge of the positively charged ions that are added to the framework to balance the negative charge of the framework Al atoms.

In this work, Micah Welsch and Brian Laird use Monte Carlo computer modelling to systematically examine the effect of changing aluminum content on the adsorption of water. Zeolites have applications in the removal of environmental toxins from water, such as perfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS (also known as “forever chemicals”). For these systems a full understanding of the adsorption of water into is crucial to the selection of optimal zeolite candidates as the water adsorption properties are heavily influenced by the presence of Al in the framework – ranging from the typically hydrophobic pure Si zeolites to the very hydrophilic frameworks with upwards of 10-12% Al. Experimentally, it is often difficult to separate the effects of Al content from other effects, such as changes in pore size and topology; however, this is something that is easily done in simulation.

For the study, we use for our representative zeolite framework known as zeolite Beta (BEA) Polymorph A with Al mole percentages ranging from 0 to 16.67% and we calculate water adsorption as a function of pressure up to the saturation pressure of water at 298K. We also calculate the isosteric heat of adsorption, which is a measure of the energy released when water is adsorbed. As illustrated in Figure 2, water adsorption into the all-silica zeolite is extremely small, due to its strong hydrophobicity, whereas at the highest Al content (16.7%), the pores are saturated with confined liquid water. This is evidenced by the fact that the heat of adsorption at the highest Al fractions is nearly identical to that of bulk liquid water. Also included in the study is a detailed examination of hydrogen-bond formation as a function of pressure and loading.

It is hoped that this work will help to inform the optimal selection of zeolites for the removal of pollutants from aqueous solution and inspire additional systematic studies on the dependence of water adsorption in zeolites with respect to other parameters, such as zeolite topology, framework swelling or cation identity.

 Figure 1: Commercial zeolite pellets for highly absorbent cat litter.

Figure 2: Water adsorption in BEA (Polymorph A) zeolite as a function of Al content