NSERC-DFG SUSTAIN: Development of Organic Photocatalyst Materials to Broaden the Use of Sustainable Photocatalysis in Organic Syntheses

NSERC-DFG SUSTAIN：开发有机光催化剂材料以拓宽可持续光催化在有机合成中的应用

• 批准号: 534235866
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Burkhard König
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Institut für Organische Chemie
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 资助国家: 德国
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/534235866?language=en
• 关键词: NSERC; DFG; SUSTAIN; Development; Organic

The chemical synthesis industry is an important pillar of Canadian and German economies and underpins the production of high-value commodities such as pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, cosmetics, coatings, and polymers. Germany’s chemical industry is the 3rd largest internationally with a revenue of 160 billion EURO in 2020. In 2021, the chemical manufacturing industry in Canada was worth $64 billion CAD, directly employed 78,500 people, and indirectly supported an additional 392,500 jobs. However, today’s chemical syntheses are energy and material intensive and new approaches are needed to improve their sustainability. Sustainability of the chemical sector requires the exploration of different approaches that can lead to significant reductions in energy consumption. Compared to other industrial subsectors, the chemical industry is the largest energy consumer and third largest direct source of CO2 emissions. To reach Net Zero goals, CO2 emissions must decouple from production by 2030, which is not the direction we are currently heading in. New synthetic tools critically are needed to ensure the continuity of the chemical synthesis industry during the transition to a new low carbon economy. Photocatalysis, a way of making unreactive molecules react using the energy of light, is being developed to access more benign and sustainable chemical reaction conditions. Importantly, photocatalysis can make use of sustainable solar energy, either directly or through solar cells powering artificial lighting. However, broad application of photocatalysis in chemical transformations is hampered by the narrow range of effective light-driven reactions and the difficulty of using simple, unactivated chemical feedstocks. This international collaboration aims to establish new tools to decarbonize industrial chemical synthesis processes using photocatalysis. By bringing together chemical synthesis expertise from Germany and materials expertise in Canada, we aim to develop new, more sustainable synthetic processes that make better use of materials, consume less energy, and reduce CO2 emissions. Our starting point is carbon nitride, a polymeric photocatalysts made from simple and inexpensive precursors such as urea. Typical carbon nitride has proved to be useful for some photocatalytic transformations, but more extreme oxidative and reductive potentials are needed to fully utilize simple, widely accessible chemical feedstocks. By leveraging chemical synthesis expertise from Germany and materials expertise in Canada, we will advance fundamental research and generate novel photocatalysts and photocatalytic reactions. These can be used by Canadian and German industries to improve the energy and material efficiencies of their chemical synthesis processes, leading to a more environmentally sustainable chemical sector.

化学合成行业是加拿大和德国经济的重要支柱，并支撑着高价值商品，例如药品，农业化学，化妆品，涂料和聚合物。德国的化学工业是国际第三大的，2020年的收入为1600亿欧元。2021年，加拿大的化学制造业价值640亿加元，直接雇用了78,500名员工，并间接支持了392,500个工作岗位。但是，当今的化学合成是能量和材料密集型的，需要新的方法来改善其可持续性。化学部门的可持续性需要探索不同的方法，这可能会导致能源消耗大量降低。与其他工业子行业相比，化学工业是最大的能源消费者，也是二氧化碳排放的第三大直接来源。为了实现净零目标，到2030年，二氧化碳排放必须从生产中解散，这并不是我们目前正在迈进的方向。需要在过渡到新的低碳经济期间的化学合成行业的连续性，以确保化学合成行业的连续性。光催化是一种使用光能反应反应性分子反应的方法，正在开发出来，以获取更良性和可持续的化学反应条件。重要的是，光催化可以直接或通过为人工照明供电的太阳能电池来利用可持续的太阳能。但是，光催化在化学转化中的广泛应用受到狭窄的有效照明反应的范围，以及使用简单的，未激活的化学原料的困难。这项国际合作旨在建立新工具，以使用光催化来脱碳化工业化学合成过程。通过将德国的化学合成专业知识和加拿大的材料专业知识汇总在一起，我们旨在开发新的，更可持续的合成过程，以更好地利用材料，减少能源并减少CO2排放。我们的起点是氮化碳，这是一种由简单且廉价的前体（例如尿素）制成的聚合物光催化剂。事实证明，典型的氮化碳对于某些光催化转化很有用，但是需要更多的极端氧化物和降低的电位来充分利用简单，广泛可用的化学原料。通过利用德国的化学合成专家和加拿大的材料专家，我们将进步基础研究，并产生新颖的光催化剂和光催化反应。这些可以由加拿大和德国行业使用来提高其化学合成过程的能源和材料效率，从而导致更环保的化学部门。