International Centre-to-Centre Collaboration: New catalysts for acetylene processes enabling a sustainable future

该合作伙伴关系的目标是为可持续的化学反应创造新的催化剂，并帮助生产重要的化学品和中间体。催化剂是使化学反应更有效地发生的基本物质，它们是支持我们现代社会的许多关键过程的基础。如果没有有效的催化剂，我们所依赖的许多产品和工艺都将无法实现。目前，化学工业主要使用天然气，石油和煤炭等化石碳源。然而，这种方法从长远来看是不可持续的，它会导致气候变化和其他环境问题。因此，研究人员正在寻找新的方法来制造依赖于绿色和可持续碳源的化学品。乙炔就是这样一种分子，它有可能成为可持续化学工业的重要中间体。乙炔化学在世纪前发展得很好，但它作为核心化学中间体的地位被容易获得的来自石油的乙烯所取代。因此，乙炔化学目前是一个探索不足的领域。然而，从沼气中产生的甲烷是一种可再生的碳源，可以从甲烷中生产乙炔。因此，乙炔可能成为一个新的绿色化学工业的关键中间体。我们的目标是设计和理解催化剂的基础上Au，Pt和AuPt，将作为一个新的一类催化剂，以生产关键化学品和中间体乙炔。该合作伙伴关系将汇集世界领先和互补的催化专业知识，与卡迪夫催化研究所（CCI与英国催化中心（Harwell）合作），马克斯普朗克研究所fur Kohlenforschung（KOFO，穆尔海姆），Instituto de Tecnologia Quimica（ITQ）和马克斯普朗克学会弗里茨-哈伯研究所（FHI，柏林）。该合作伙伴关系的一个主要好处是它提供的额外性。通过汇集专业知识和资源，研究人员可以更有效地解决重大挑战问题。该合作项目汇集了具有独特和关键专业知识的中心，例如MPI KOFO的乙炔催化高压设施，Harwell和FHI的基础表面科学和先进表征技术，FHI的先进计算方法以及ITQ的纳米颗粒合成专业知识。该合作伙伴关系将使英国研究人员能够获得这些专业知识和尖端设施，以应对制造和表征新催化剂的复杂挑战。研究将侧重于从根本上了解在乙炔氢氯化和乙炔氢化等特定反应中控制这些催化剂活性的因素。负载型Au和Pt催化剂显示出一系列形态，并且通常具有单个原子/阳离子、簇和纳米颗粒。在某些反应中，分散良好的Au+阳离子是活性的，而在其他反应中，纳米颗粒是活性的。该研究将寻求更深入地了解是什么控制了这些反应的活性，并利用这些知识设计新的和改进的催化剂。为了实现这些目标，我们将使用原位/操作技术和合作伙伴关系提供的互补能力来研究这些新催化剂。所组成的专家小组以前曾以各种组合方式共同工作，这将促进有效的协作和沟通。这一伙伴关系的最终目标是创造新的催化剂，使重要化学品和中间体的可持续生产成为可能，为发展更加可持续和环境友好的化学工业做出贡献。

The goal of this partnership is to create new catalysts for chemical reactions that are sustainable and help produce important chemicals and intermediates. Catalysts are essential substances that make chemical reactions happen more efficiently, and they are fundamental to many of the key processes that support our modern society. Without effective catalysts, many of the products and processes that we rely on would not be possible.At present, the chemical industry primarily uses fossil carbon sources like natural gas, oil, and coal. However, this approach is not sustainable in the long term, and it contributes to climate change and other environmental problems. As a result, researchers are looking for new ways to make chemicals that rely on green and sustainable carbon sources. Acetylene is one such molecule that has the potential to be an essential intermediate for a sustainable chemical industry.Acetylene chemistry was well developed over a century ago, but it was displaced as a central chemical intermediate by readily available ethene derived from oil. As a result, acetylene chemistry is currently an underexplored field. However, it is possible to produce acetylene from methane, which from biogas is a renewable source of carbon. Therefore, acetylene could become a crucial central intermediate for a new green chemical industry.We aim to design and understand catalysts based on Au, Pt, and AuPt that will act as a new class of catalysts to produce key chemicals and intermediates from acetylene. The partnership will bring together world-leading and complementary catalysis expertise, with the Cardiff Catalysis Institute (CCI collaborating with the UK Catalysis Hub (Harwell), the Max Planck Institute fur Kohlenforschung (KOFO, Mulheim), the Instituto de Tecnologia Quimica (ITQ), and the Fritz-Haber-Institute of the Max Planck Society (FHI, Berlin).A key benefit of this partnership is the additionality that it provides. By pooling expertise and resources, researchers can tackle grand challenge problems more effectively. The collaborative project brings together centres with unique and crucial expertise, such as the high-pressure facilities for acetylene catalysis at MPI KOFO, the fundamental surface science and advanced characterization techniques available at Harwell and FHI, the advanced computational methodologies of the FHI and the synthetic expertise concerning nanoparticles of ITQ. This partnership will enable UK researchers to access this expertise and cutting-edge facilities to tackle the complex challenge of making and characterizing new catalysts.The research will focus on gaining a fundamental understanding of what controls the activity of these catalysts in specific reactions, such as acetylene hydrochlorination and acetylene hydrogenation. Supported Au and Pt catalysts display a range of morphologies and often have individual atoms/cations, clusters, and nanoparticles. In some reactions, it is the well-dispersed Au+ cations that are active, while in others, nanoparticles are active. The research will seek to gain a deeper understanding of what controls the activity in these reactions and use this knowledge to design new and improved catalysts.To achieve these goals, we will use in situ/operando techniques and complementary capabilities available through the partnership to study these new catalysts. The team of experts assembled has worked together previously in various combinations, which will facilitate effective collaboration and communication. The ultimate goal of this partnership is to create new catalysts that will enable the sustainable production of important chemicals and intermediates, contributing to the development of a more sustainable and environmentally friendly chemical industry.