Metal nitrides - catalyst and process development towards value added chemicals.

甲烷无疑将改变化学工业，并在未来几年取代石油，成为合成化学品的主要碳氢化合物原料。此外，使用回收/捕获的二氧化碳和可再生电力产生的氢气，不仅可以显著减少相关的温室气体排放，还可以关闭物质循环，这是向循环经济过渡的关键要务。催化剂的使用是开发环境友好和经济可行的转化工艺的关键。毫无疑问，催化起着关键作用。因此，我的长期愿景和计划是开发和理解致力于CH4和CO2可持续转化的催化过程和反应器工程概念，这也被确定为催化和绿色化学中的重大挑战之一。拟议的这一领域的研究计划具有原创性和创新性，因为它将专注于新的金属氮化物催化剂系统。大多数研究集中在贵金属和金属氧化物上，这两种材料是研究最多的催化剂材料。另一方面，金属氮化物是一类很新的多相催化剂，人们对它的了解还不是很充分。它们具有独特的性质，人们认为简单的金属氮化物可以取代贵金属进行各种反应。我的总体目标是更深入地了解催化剂活性中心和表面中间体的作用，以便设计更好的催化剂和工艺。有了发现基金，我可以自由探索新的想法，开发具有明确结构的新催化剂，以便对结构-活性关系进行全面评估。具体地说，我们将(1)开发新的金属氮化物结构，并评估它们(2)催化和(3)等离子体催化CH4和CO2直接转化的反应活性。这项工作将由3名博士、3名硕士和5名本科生在一个由全面的实验和建模程序组成的框架下进行。综上所述，金属氮化物是一类很有前途的催化剂，这一研究计划将有助于促进催化基础知识的发展，但它也提供了巨大的大规模应用潜力。考虑到这一点，我希望不仅为科学出版物和学生培训做出贡献，而且还为专利申请和向加拿大工业转让技术做出贡献。

Methane will undoubtedly change the chemical industry and replace petroleum as main hydrocarbon feedstock for the synthesis of chemicals in the years to come. In addition, using recycled/captured carbon dioxide and hydrogen generated by renewable electricity would allow not only to significantly reduce the associated greenhouse gas emission but also to close the material loops, a key imperative in the transition to a circular economy. The use of a catalyst is key to the development of environmentally friendly and economically feasible conversion processes. There is no doubt that catalysis plays a critical role. Therefore, my long-term vision and plan are to develop and understand catalyzed processes and reactor engineering concepts dedicated to the sustainable conversion of CH4 and CO2, which also has been identified as one of the grand challenges in catalysis and green chemistry. The proposed research program in this field is original and innovative as it will concentrate on new metal-nitride based catalyst systems. Most research is focused on precious metals and metal oxides, which are the most investigated catalyst materials. Metal nitride, on the other hand, is a rather new class of heterogeneous catalysts that is still not very well understood. They have unique properties, and it is suggested that simple metal nitrides can replace precious metals for various reactions. My overall aim is to gain deeper fundamental understanding of the role of the catalyst active sites and surface intermediates in order to design better catalysts and processes. With the Discovery Grant I can freely explore new ideas and develop new catalysts with well-defined structures in order to get a comprehensive assessment of the structure-activity relationship. In detail, we will (1) develop new metal nitride structures, and assess their (2) catalytic and (3) plasma-catalytic reactivity towards the direct conversion of CH4 and CO2. The work will be conducted by 3 PhD, 3 Master's and 5 undergraduate students following a framework consisting of comprehensive experimental and modeling procedures. In summary, metal nitrides are a promising class of catalysts and this research program will contribute to the advancement of fundamental knowledge in catalysis but it also offers great potential for large scale applications. With this in mind, I expect to contribute not only to scientific publications and students training but also to patent applications as well as to technology transfer to the Canadian industry.