UNS:Collaborative Reasearch: Hydrocarbon conversion on oxysulfide surfaces: Towards the design of sulfur-tolerant reforming catalysts

含硫化合物是石油资源中普遍存在的杂质，它们会毒害用于原油和天然气精炼和升级为燃料和化学品的催化剂。拟议的研究旨在开发和了解新的耐硫催化剂，用于将天然气转化为用于合成液体燃料和化学品的气体。为此，这项工作有可能开发出一种简化、高效的天然气转化过程，而不需要昂贵的“上游”脱硫。研究人员还将通过让本科生参与他们的研究，重点关注少数民族、女性和第一代学生，从而提高教育和科学意识。页岩资源正在生产大量天然气，这为通过重整反应将天然气转化为液体燃料提供了机会。这项研究通过与二氧化碳反应来改造甲烷，从而产生液体燃料的原料，同时减少大气中二氧化碳（一种温室气体）的负荷。实验和理论工具的结合将用于设计混合金属氧化物催化剂（结合过渡金属和稀土氧化物），这种催化剂既耐硫又不容易因焦化而中毒。具体来说，这项工作解决了这样一个假设，即混合过渡金属和稀土氧化物催化剂在反应条件下形成稳定和活性的硫化氧，硫化氧使焦炭前体不稳定。计算方法将用于预测候选氧化硫化催化剂材料，然后将其合成，测试和表征，结果用于改进理论预测。除了直接研究之外，该项目的两位pi在各自机构的教育推广方面有着良好的记录，包括本科生参与他们的研究项目和Dooley与路易斯安那化学教育基金会的“你是化学家挑战”（专注于中学生和高中生）的合作。

1510435 (Dooley), 1510541(Janik)Sulfur-containing compounds are ubiquitous impurities in petroleum resources that poison catalysts used for the refining and upgrading of both crude oil and natural gas to fuels and chemicals. The proposed research seeks to develop and understand novel sulfur-tolerant catalysts for the conversion of natural gas to gases used to synthesize liquid fuels and chemicals. To this end, the work has potential to develop a simplified, efficient process for natural gas conversion without the need for expensive "upstream" desulfurization. The researchers will also advance education and scientific awareness by involving undergraduate students in their research with an emphasis on minority, women, and first-generation students.Large quantities of natural gas are being produced from shale resources, providing opportunities to convert the gas to liquid fuels via reforming reactions. This study reforms methane by reacting it with carbon dioxide, thus generating feedstocks for liquid fuels while reducing the atmospheric loading of carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas). A combination of experimental and theoretical tools will be used to design mixed metal oxide catalysts (combining transition metals and rare earth oxides) that are both sulfur tolerant and less prone to poisoning by coking than current catalysts. Specifically, the work addresses the hypothesis that the mixed transition metal and rare earth oxide catalysts form stable and active oxysulfides under reaction conditions, with the benefit that the oxysulfides destabilize coke precursors. Computational methods will be used to predict candidate oxysulfided catalyst materials that will then be synthesized, tested, and characterized, with results used to refine the theoretical predictions. Beyond the direct research, the two PIs on this project have a strong track record of educational outreach at their respective institutions including involvement of undergraduates in their research programs and Dooley's work with the "You be the Chemist Challenge" of the Louisiana Chemical Education Foundation (focused on middle- and high-school students).