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

RUI：CAS：新型碳纳米球封装双金属催化剂和金属-CeO2 界面，用于将二氧化碳转化为增值化学品

• 批准号: 2247399
• 负责人: Cheng Zhang
• 金额: $ 31.66万
• 依托单位: Long Island University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-01 至 2026-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2247399&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RUI; CAS; Novel; Carbon; Nanosphere

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.

在化学系化学催化项目的支持下，长岛大学（Post）的Cheng Zhang正在开发将CO2转化为有用产品的新催化剂。 作为一种温室气体，CO2浓度升高会导致严重的环境问题。迫切需要减少二氧化碳排放，以减轻温室气体水平升高对我们星球的负面影响。 因此，非常需要有效捕获和利用CO2来生产增值化学品。这项研究旨在通过催化氢化将二氧化碳转化为目前主要由化石碳源生产的聚合物和塑料的有价值的构建单元。该项目的一个关键意义是确定可用于设计高效CO2转化催化剂的趋势和主导因素。这项工作的新发现可能使研究中的系统的催化剂性能的可调控制，并促进新的催化剂的CO2转化的发现。张博士将把本科研究和教育作为这个NSF资助项目的重要组成部分。张博士的实验室包括不同种族和专业的学生。让本科生参与研究是他们教育的一个关键因素，不仅要磨练他们的定量和批判性思维能力，还要建立他们对科学研究如何进行的实际欣赏和理解。通过他们在这个科学项目的工作，学生将体验承担责任，解决问题，坚持，彻底，团队合作，承诺和耐心，所有有用的研究科学家的特质的重要因素。在该项目下，长岛大学的Cheng Zhang小组正在努力了解影响碳纳米球（CNS）范围内的封装过渡金属和金属氧化物催化的CO2加氢制低碳烯烃的反应机理和主导因素。目标是能够使用这些参数来调整催化剂功能，以实现高效的二氧化碳转化。具体而言，Zhang团队将探索金属和/或金属碳化物粒度，金属合金形成，金属-金属氧化物相互作用和限制效应对CO2转化为增值化学品的催化剂活性，选择性和稳定性的影响。催化性能将根据结构表征和密度泛函理论（DFT）计算进行检查，以获得更多的见解。这些研究的具体目标是（i）利用CNS的限制来保护Fe-M纳米颗粒免于团聚并保持其还原状态，（ii）利用CeO 2上丰富的氧空位，（iii）利用具有缺陷位点的CNS的疏水性和石墨性，和（iv）使用CNS孔内的短扩散长度以使不希望的烯烃副反应最小化。综合、评估、高级表征和DFT计算的集成对于这一科学的成功至关重要，并突出了研究的多方面性质。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得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来支持。