Towards Zero Carbon - Catalytic Architectures

CA Project 1: Capture CO₂ using porous materials

Project Leader:

Shane Telfer

Lead Principal Investigators:

Shane Telfer, Paul Kruger.

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are three dimensional porous materials with exceptionally large surface areas and huge potential for use in CO₂ capture, separation, storage and conversion. We’ll investigate new MOFs for their ability to adsorb gases of interest, especially carbon dioxide (using synthetic chemistry and X-Ray diffraction). We will work on improving the MOFs’ gas-binding capacity, speed and specificity, as well as stability over repetitive cycling. We’ll also look at the underlying mechanisms governing the properties and behaviours of nanoscale MOFs (nMOFs). We’ll design and develop stable nMOFs, using new colloidal-based techniques to study nanocrystal formation, growth and structure.

CA Project 2: Make catalysts for CO₂ reduction

Project Leader:

Anna Garden

Lead Principal Investigators:

Sally Brooker, Nigel Lucas, Anna Garden.

We’ll develop new molecular catalysts for CO₂ reduction, focusing on single-atom reaction sites and incorporating these new molecular catalysts within porous frameworks. We’ll design new polydentate ligand complexes with optimal electrocatalytic CO₂ reduction ability (a key potential step in carbon capture and use). We’ll also use computational modelling of copper nanocatalysts to find unique nanoparticle structures, using in-house global optimisation algorithms together with established electronic structure codes.

CA Project 3: Develop thermal CO₂ reduction

Project Leader:

Geoff Waterhouse

Lead Principal Investigators:

Geoff Waterhouse, Chris Bumby, John Kennedy.

Catalytic CO₂ conversion is an emerging technology with potential to ease the environmental effects of greenhouse gas emissions while simultaneously producing higher value chemical feedstocks. Industrial CO₂ hydrogenation processes, despite being well established and selective towards longer chain hydrocarbons, are thermal catalytic processes requiring high temperature and pressure conditions. We will focus on the development of photothermal and photocatalytic materials for CO₂ hydrogenation – materials which are capable of effectively harnessing the vast amounts of solar energy interacting with the Earth’s surface, for chemical conversion processes. We aim to make high-value light alkanes and olefins. Plus, we’ll make and assess catalytic processes, translate the best catalytic materials into nano-catalytic architectures, and then evaluate the performance of these new materials (using novel CO₂ hydrogenation reactors).

CA Project 4: Exploit kinetics and transport in catalytic architectures 

Project Leader:

Aaron Marshall

Lead Principal Investigators:

Justin Hodgkiss, Keith Gordon, Aaron Marshall.

We’ll disentangle kinetic and mass transport effects on the CO₂ reduction reaction at model porous electrode structures in order to better understand and suggest new materials and structures to make. We’ll be looking at the way light and electricity is delivered to catalytic sites within porous frameworks. We will explore structure-function relationships by measuring exciton and charge diffusion coefficients, using ultrafast optical spectroscopy. Plus, we’ll examine catalytic turnover and degradation by measuring the spectra of short-lived species (i.e., exist for nanoseconds) and characterising these using Raman and computational methods - and also observe the changes in phone modes via low frequency Raman. 

PhD Scholarships available in Catalytic Architectures

See here for the full list of PhD Scholarships available in Catalytic Architectures funded by the MacDiarmid Institute and how to apply.

In the news

Videos

Tags: Towards Zero Carbon - Catalytic Architectures