RUI: CAS: Carbon Dioxide Hydrogenation to Light Olefins over Carbon Nanosphere Encapsulated Metal/Metal Carbide Core-Shell Catalysts

Long Island University, Greenvale NY

Investigators

Abstract

Carbon-rich fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and natural gas, have been heavily utilized to power human civilization. This has resulted in massive emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), a potent greenhouse gas, to the environment. There is an urgent need to mitigate the negative impacts of these emissions on the environment. Efficient utilization of CO2 to produce chemicals and fuels is one potential solution. This research project is examining the conversion of CO2 to light olefins. Olefins are important chemicals and raw materials heavily used for the packaging, plastic processing, construction, and textile industries. The huge market demand for light olefins offers a great opportunity for this project to significantly impact CO2 utilization technology. While significant advances have been made, considerable challenges remain for the discovery and development of practical catalysts for this transformation. In this project, Professor Cheng Zhang of the Long Island University (Post), New York is developing a new approach using carbon nanosphere (CNS) encapsulated metal catalysts for CO2 conversion to light olefins. Dr. Zhang is studying CNS encapsulated iron-cobalt catalysts and investigating their fundamental reaction mechanisms. These fundamental insights are being used to design new catalysts that perform much more efficiently. Dr. Zhang is actively engaged in training the next generation of undergraduates in chemistry education and research. Dr. Zhang’s lab involves diverse students from various majors in this interdisciplinary setting. This research is further serving as a platform to inspire students from underrepresented groups to become scientists. With the funding from the Chemical Catalysis Program of the Division of Chemistry, Dr. Zhang of the Long Island University (Post), New York is developing fundamental understanding of a class of new catalysts, carbon nanosphere (CNS) encapsulated metal/metal carbide nanoparticle core-shell structures, for catalytic CO2 conversion to light olefins. This project is significant in studying the composition, structure, and catalytic performances of CNS encapsulated metal/metal carbide catalysts by integrating synthesis, testing, and characterization of the catalysts with multiple compositional and structural variables. Specifically, the CNS encapsulated Fe catalyst provides an intriguing catalytic performance for CO2 conversion to light olefins. A variety of characterization instruments including in-situ time-resolved X-ray diffraction (TR-XRD), ex-situ x-ray absorption near edge structure spectroscopy (XANES), and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) are utilized to achieve a fundamental understanding of the reaction pathways and the confinement effect that contributes to the superior performance. Furthermore, with CNS serves as a nanocontainer, the encapsulated Fe-Co catalyst is expected to exhibit enhanced catalytic performances due to the synergistic effect of the bimetals, together with the unique confinement effect of CNS. By synthetically changing the relative shell thickness and core dimeter, a core-shell nano-environment of encapsulated active Fe/Co core species in the CNS shells provides an ideal and practical model system to explore the fundamentals of structural variables on the role of confinement in catalysis. This project has the dual impact of removing CO2 from the atmosphere while generating desired commercial products. Dr. Zhang incorporates undergraduate research and education as a very significant component. Dr. Zhang is developing a training-learning platform that allows undergraduate and high school students to gain valuable skills in synthesis, catalyst evaluation techniques and basic characterization, in conjunction with their quantitative and critical thinking skills, which paves the way for their future career development. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.