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

这一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过程将不可能实现。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，而且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。乙炔化学在一个多世纪前就已经发展得很好，但它作为主要化学中间体的地位被从石油中提炼出来的易得的乙烯所取代。因此，乙炔化学目前是一个未开发的领域。然而，有可能从沼气中生产乙炔，沼气是一种可再生的碳源。因此，乙炔有可能成为新型绿色化工的关键中间体。我们的目标是设计和理解基于Au， Pt和AuPt的催化剂，这些催化剂将作为一种新型催化剂，从乙炔中生产关键化学品和中间体。该合作伙伴关系将汇集世界领先和互补的催化专业知识，卡迪夫催化研究所（CCI）与英国催化中心（Harwell），马克斯普朗克Kohlenforschung研究所（KOFO, Mulheim）， Quimica技术研究所（ITQ）和马克斯普朗克学会弗里茨-哈伯研究所（FHI，柏林）合作。这种伙伴关系的一个关键好处是它提供了额外的好处。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，哈维尔和富力hi的基础表面科学和先进表征技术，富力hi的先进计算方法以及有关ITQ纳米颗粒的合成专业知识。这种伙伴关系将使英国研究人员能够获得这种专业知识和尖端设施，以解决制造和表征新催化剂的复杂挑战。这项研究的重点将是获得对在特定反应中控制这些催化剂活性的基本理解，例如乙炔氢氯化和乙炔氢化。负载型Au和Pt催化剂表现出一系列的形态，通常具有单个原子/阳离子、簇和纳米颗粒。在一些反应中，分散良好的Au+阳离子是活跃的，而在另一些反应中，纳米粒子是活跃的。这项研究将寻求更深入地了解是什么控制了这些反应的活性，并利用这些知识来设计新的和改进的催化剂。为了实现这些目标，我们将利用现场/操作技术和通过合作伙伴关系提供的互补能力来研究这些新的催化剂。此次召集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能够可持续地生产，有助于发展更加可持续和对环境友好的化学工业。

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.