RUI: CAS: Novel Carbon Nanosphere Encapsulated Bimetallic Catalysts and Metal-CeO2 Interfaces for CO2 Conversion to Value-added Chemicals

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With the support of the Chemical Catalysis program in the Division of Chemistry, Cheng Zhang of Long Island University (Post) is developing new catalysts for CO2 conversion to useful products. As a greenhouse gas, CO2 at elevated levels can give rise to significant environmental issues. There is an urgent need to mitigate CO2 emissions to alleviate the negative impact of elevated greenhouse gas levels on our planet. As such, efficient capture and utilization of CO2 to produce value-added chemicals is highly desirable. This research aims to convert CO2 by catalytic hydrogenation to valuable building blocks for polymers and plastics that are currently produced primarily from fossil carbon sources. A key significance of this project is to identify trends and dominant factors that can be utilized to design efficient catalysts for CO2 conversion. New discoveries from this work may enable the tunable control of catalyst properties for the systems under study, and facilitate the discovery of new catalysts for CO2 conversion. Dr. Zhang will incorporate undergraduate research and education as a significant component of this NSF-funded project. Dr. Zhang’s lab includes students of various ethnicity and majors. Involving undergraduates in research is a crucial element of their education, not only to hone their quantitative and critical thinking skills but also to build their practical appreciation and understanding of how scientific research is conducted. Through their work on this scientific project, students will experience important elements of taking responsibility, problem-solving, persistence, thoroughness, teamwork, commitment and patience, all useful traits for the research scientist. Under this project, the group of Cheng Zhang at Long Island University is working to understand the reaction mechanism and dominant factors affecting CO2 hydrogenation to light olefins as catalyzed by encapsulated transition metals and metal oxides within the confines of carbon nanospheres (CNS). The goal is to be able to use these parameters to tune catalyst functionality for efficient CO2 conversion. Specifically, the Zhang team will probe the effects of metal and/or metal carbide particle size, metal alloy formation, metal-metal oxide interaction and confinement effects on the catalyst activity, selectivity, and stability for CO2 conversion to value-added chemicals. Catalytic performance will be examined in light of structural characterization and in view of density functional theory (DFT) calculations to gain more insight. Particular goals of these investigations are (i) to take advantage of the confinement of the CNS to protect Fe-M nanoparticles from agglomeration and retain their reduced state, (ii) to exploit the abundant oxygen vacancies on CeO2, (iii) to take advantage of the hydrophobic and graphitic nature of CNS with defect sites, and (iv) to use the short diffusion length inside the CNS pores to minimize undesired olefin secondary reactions. The integration of synthesis, evaluation, advanced characterization, and DFT calculations is critical for the success of this science and highlights the multi-faceted nature of the study.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.