via Ames Laboratory
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory have discovered a metal-free carbon-based catalyst that has the potential to be much less expensive and more efficient for many industrial concerns, including manufacturing of bio- and fossil fuels, electrocatalysis, and fuel cells.
At their most fundamental, these industry processes involve splitting strong chemical bonds, like hydrogen-hydrogen, carbon-oxygen, and carbon-hydrogen bonds. Traditionally this has been accomplished with catalysts that use transition or precious metals, many of them expensive and low in natural abundance — like platinum and palladium.
The scientists performed experiments with a type of heterogeneous catalyst, Nitrogen-Assembly Carbons (NACs), in which the design and placement of nitrogen on the carbon surface greatly influenced the catalytic activity of the material. These N atoms on carbon surfaces were previously believed to be distant from one another, as the close placement of N atoms is thermodynamically unstable. The team in Ames Lab correlated the N precursors and pyrolysis temperature for the NACs synthesis with the N distribution and discovered that meta-stable N assemblies can be made by design and deliver unexpected catalytic reactions. Such reactions include hydrogenolysis of aryl ethers, dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene and tetrahydroquinoline, and hydrogenation of common unsaturated functionalities (such as ketone, alkene, alkyne, and nitro groups). Moreover, the NACs catalysts are robust with consistent selectivity and activity for both liquid and gas phase reactions under high temperature and/or pressure.
“We discovered that how the nitrogen was distributed on the surface of these NACs really mattered, and in the process realized that this was an entirely new kind of chemical activity,” said Ames Laboratory Associate Scientist Long Qi.
“The discovery should enable scientists to design nitrogen assemblies that are able to accomplish more sophisticated and challenging chemical transformations without the need for transition metals” said Ames Laboratory scientist Wenyu Huang. “It broadly applies to many different types of chemical conversions and industries.”
The Latest Updates from Bing News & Google News
Go deeper with Bing News on:
Chemical manufacturing
- Chemicals, green hydrogen and electrificationon April 22, 2021 at 1:34 am
This is an extremely nascent market, and it will take government support in the form of incentives and R&D investments to catalyze innovation.
- In chat with Anil Singhvi, Sandeep Jain picks IOL Chemical and Pharmaceutical for bumper returnson April 21, 2021 at 11:58 pm
Tradeswift Director Sandeep Jain in a conversation with Zee Business Managing Editor Anil Singhvi today picked a stock which is a combination of chemical and pharma sectors - IOL Chemical and ...
- Latex free doesn't mean allergy free: How health systems are optimizing PPE strategies to offer superior protection to employeeson April 21, 2021 at 10:43 am
PPE concerns aren’t new, however. Even before the pandemic, healthcare organizations were reexamining their purchase criteria for medical gloves. To reduce allergic reactions among employees and ...
- Desktop Metal Qualifies 316L Stainless Steel for High Volume Manufacturing With the Production Systemon April 21, 2021 at 5:45 am
Desktop Metal qualifies 316L stainless steel for the production of end-use metal parts on the world’s fastest metal 3D printing platform.
- DOW or CE: Which Chemicals Stock Will Post Better Q1 Earnings?on April 21, 2021 at 3:39 am
Containment measures by governments across the globe to stem the spread of infection paralyzed industrial activities and gutted demand for chemicals across major end-use markets such as construction, ...
Go deeper with Google Headlines on:
Chemical manufacturing
Go deeper with Bing News on:
Metal-free carbon-based catalyst
- Latest Onlineon April 10, 2021 at 9:26 pm
Science Advances 27 Feb 2015: e1400129 Open Access CCBY-NC Carbon-based, metal-free catalysts showed excellent activity, durability and potential to replace Pt in acidic fuel cells. By Mady Hornig, ...
- Latest Onlineon April 5, 2021 at 2:55 pm
By Jianglan Shui, Min Wang, Feng Du, Liming Dai Science Advances 27 Feb 2015: e1400129 Open Access CCBY-NC Carbon-based, metal-free catalysts showed excellent activity, durability and potential to ...
- Green algae and gelatine derived nitrogen rich carbon as an outstanding competitor to Pt loaded carbon catalystson March 29, 2021 at 3:09 am
These carbon-based catalysts were designed and optimized to create a metal-free catalyst via templating, carbonization, and subsequent removal of the template. The additional incorporation of ...
- New roads and challenges for fuel cells in heavy-duty transportationon March 25, 2021 at 12:07 pm
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout. Fig. 5: Impact of catalyst alloying on fuel-cell performance change over lifetime. Fig. 6: Performance–durability impact on transport ...
- Nanotechnology in Canada – companies, research, and degree programson September 9, 2017 at 7:14 pm
The company develops and synthesizes metal-free, biocompatible silicon quantum dots and semiconductor ... Klean Carbon is a one-stop-shop for high grade sustainable carbon based commodities. The ...