SSEFR · Single-Site Electrocatalytic Flow Reactor for C-C Coupling
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2021-05-01 → 2023-05-31
- EU contribution
- €171,473
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Single-Site Electrocatalytic Flow Reactor for C-C Coupling
Catalysis is a fundamental cornerstone of modern society and is used in many industrial processes to accelerate chemical reactions and increase their efficiency. Numerous essential products, such as fuels, pharmaceuticals, fertilizers, and fine chemicals, are made using catalysts. However, certain catalytic processes still rely on methods that involve the use of heat derived from burning fossil fuels, or the use of expensive metals that are being rapidly depleted. In this Fellowship, we aimed to address these challenges in two ways. Firstly, we wanted to investigate a new class of catalysts, named single-atom catalysts (SACs), in which single metal atoms are entrapped within a ‘support’ material. In particular, we focused on designing SACs that could be activated by electricity or solar irradiation, using conductive or light-activated scaffolds. This approach offers promising alternatives to heat-activated catalysis. Secondly, we chose to work with metals that are more earth-abundant and ubiquitous on our planet. For this reason, this fellowship focused on the use of nickel single-atom catalysts. Our research provided us with a strategic approach to address some of the pressing challenges facing our society today, such as minimizing the use of precious natural resources (like commonly used transition metals including platinum, palladium, and iridium), while simultaneously embracing the adoption of renewable power sources to drive catalytic processes and meet society's growing demand for essential chemical products.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
One of the greatest challenges of our generation is to implement sustainable and ‘energy smart’ chemical manufacturing processes. This can be accomplished via the electrification of the chemical industry, where electrons serve as a clean redox reagent to drive processes under mild conditions. This would avoid stoichiometric amounts of reagent waste from toxic chemical oxidants/reductants, and help resolve intermittency issues associated with renewables, as excess supply could be directed and stored into a stable chemical bond. However, to reach this goal, efficient and selective electrocatalysts are required. ‘Single-site catalysts’ today represent a new frontier, devised as a means to circumvent the issues regarding the non-uniformity and multi-faceted nature of conventional heterogeneous catalysts, which often experience poor selectivity towards the targeted reaction. Merging the benefits of electro- and single-site catalysis into a complete heterogeneous system is thus a highly innovative and sustainable approach towards modernising synthetic processes. In this MSCA action, I will therefore design novel, single-site, heterogeneous electrocatalysts, comprised of earth-abundant components, for conducting valorised and energy-storing C-C coupling reactions under continuous-flow conditions. In particular, my first objective will be to acquire fundamental insight into the design, development and understanding of precious-metal-free single-site electrocatalytic systems for the purposes of conducting such organic transformations. This project will then go a step further, to rationally engineer and manufacture catalytic flow reactors, in order to intensify the targeted process via the numerous benefits that flow chemistry offers in place of conventional batch electrochemical cells.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- POLITECNICO DI MILANO · MilanoCoordinatorItaly
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union