CAS: Catalytic funneling and upgrading of biomass-derived phenols and polyols

在化学系化学催化项目的支持下，加州大学圣巴巴拉分校的阿布-奥马尔教授正在研究用于制造可再生化学原料的催化剂的开发。目前，绝大多数用于制造聚合物的化学材料都来自不可再生的石油。生物质是最丰富的可再生碳源，为生产原料化学品提供了石油的潜在替代品。目前使用生物质作为工业相关单体的可再生能源的一个障碍是，生物质的解构导致分子的混合物，这需要高能量输入来分离和进一步转化。Abu-Omar教授和他的研究团队正在设计金属氧化物催化剂，并在分子水平上研究它们与生物质衍生化学物质的反应化学，以更好地理解和提高这些过程的选择性，从而选择性地提供重要的单体。与此同时，一门新生水平的本科化学课程正在开发中，名为“数字的可持续性”，重点是为来自广泛学科的学生提供分析技能，通过化学和系统级方法的结合来评估日常生活中做出的选择的可持续性。需要新的催化剂来提高反应活性和控制生物质衍生分子的加氢脱氧和脱水的选择性。阿布-奥马尔教授和他的研究小组正在解决这个问题，他们将过渡金属位点与金属氧化物上受控的酸性位点结合起来，以定制产品的选择性。具体来说，在氧化钨上沉积定义明确的铂纳米颗粒被用于评估影响这些体系选择性的结构-功能关系，并且正在研究硫酸氧化锆催化山梨醇转化为异山梨醇的过程，以更好地了解该过程的机制并进一步优化反应活性。这两个项目的共同实验方法是通过反应机制的动力学研究、同位素标记实验和建立自由能关系来研究结构-功能关系。这些活动同时也为研究生提供跨学科化学领域的培训，包括合成、催化、化学动力学和绿色化学。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

With the support of the Chemical Catalysis Program in the Division of Chemistry, Professor Abu-Omar of the University of California, Santa Barbara is studying the development of catalysts for making renewable chemical feedstocks. Currently, the vast majority of chemical building blocks used to make polymers come from nonrenewable petroleum. Biomass is the most abundant renewable carbon source and offers a potential alternative to petroleum for producing feedstock chemicals. A current barrier to using biomass as a renewable source for industrially relevant monomers is that the deconstruction of biomass leads to mixtures of molecules, which require high energy input for separation and further transformation. Professor Abu-Omar and his research team are designing metal oxide catalysts and investigating their reaction chemistries on the molecular level with biomass-derived chemicals to better understand and improve the selectivity of these processes for selectively providing important monomers. Synergistically, a freshman-level undergraduate chemistry course is being developed called "Sustainability by the Numbers" and is focused on providing students from a broad range of disciplines with the analytical skills to evaluate the sustainability of choices made in daily life using a combination of chemistry and a systems level approach.New catalysts are needed to improve reactivity and control selectivity in the hydrodeoxygenation and dehydration of biomass-derived molecules. Professor Abu-Omar and his research group are addressing this problem by combining transition metal sites with controlled acidic sites on metal oxides to tailor product selectivity. Specifically, the deposition of well-defined platinum nanoparticles on tungsten oxide is being used to evaluate structure-function relationships that effect selectivity in these systems and sulfated zirconia-catalyzed conversion of sorbitol to isosorbide is being interrogated to better understand the mechanism of the process and further optimize reactivity. Experimental approaches common to both projects are the study of structure-function relationships through kinetic studies of reaction mechanisms, isotope labeling experiments, and establishing free energy relationships. These activities are also simultaneously providing graduate student training in multidisciplinary fields of chemistry spanning synthesis, catalysis, chemical kinetics, and green chemistry.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.