Tailored Carbon-Supported Catalysts for the Conversion of Biomass in the Condensed Phase

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Biomass, produced from agricultural waste and non-edible plants, offers an abundant, cheap, and renewable source of chemical raw materials that can be upgraded to a wide range of chemical products. The complexity of the biomass-derived raw materials necessitates finely tuned catalysts that can attack specific chemical bonds to form desired products. In this study, catalysts consisting of noble metals dispersed on carbon supports will be tuned to produce specific chemicals, with emphasis on engineering the carbon materials in ways that direct the chemistry towards the targeted chemical products. The science and engineering generated by the study will promote the production of chemicals from renewable feedstocks, thereby decreasing dependence on fossil resources, reducing global carbon footprint, stimulating and diversifying rural economies, and promoting a range of educational opportunities. Metal-support interactions provide a suitable handle to engineer the catalytic activity of a chosen metal function through both chemical and electronic effects. Such interactions have been generally overlooked in the case of carbon as this material is usually considered to be inert in catalysis. Yet, there is ample evidence in materials science that the electronic properties of carbons can be tailored by varying the nature and concentration of the oxygen moieties that cover their surface. As a result, the work function of conventional carbon scaffolds can be modulated between 4.4 and 5.4 eV, providing an ideal platform for studying and harnessing electronic metal-support interactions without the challenges associated with atom mobility that are common for oxides. The project will decouple the chemical and electronic interactions introduced by oxygen moieties and reveal their true effects on the hydrogenation performance of supported palladium (Pd) and platinum (Pt) nanoparticles. Cinnamaldehyde and furfural will be utilized as probe molecules as they present both carbon-carbon and carbon-oxygen double bonds - two functionalities common in bio-based chemicals. The associated fundamental understanding will yield transformative concepts for manipulating the performance of carbon-supported catalysts, in particular Pd/C and Pt/C, two catalysts with broad applications in the chemical industry. Broader aspects of the project will include several educational and outreach activities highlighted by a student-led community-based program "Be Iowa Smart" that will attract a diverse group of students to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, and build a competitive and globally engaged workforce in Iowa and the Midwest.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.