Carbon Dioxide Utilization Based on Novel Designed Materials

Time: 16:30, September 11, 2024

Speaker: Prof. Francis Verpoort, Wuhan University of Technology (China)

The feasibility of utilizing CO₂ as an abundant, non-toxic, non-flammable, and renewable C1 feedstock to produce various industrially valued chemicals and fuels, such as alcohols, formic acid, urea, cyclic carbonates, polycarbonates, etc., has recently garnered significant research attention in this field. Despite the considerable potential of numerous homogeneous catalytic systems in catalyzing the conversion of CO₂, for example, into corresponding cyclic carbonates, the perennial challenges associated with the separation, purification, and reuse of catalysts restrict their practical application.

In our research group, we have designed and prepared a series of innovative materials for the utilization of carbon dioxide. We have developed a facile, single-step, and solvent-free method for obtaining zinc anchored in a nitrogen-doped carbon matrix (Zn-NCx) from solid precursors via the solid-solid thermal (SST) route. The hierarchical porous Zn-NCx has demonstrated its efficacy as a catalyst for CO₂ fixation.

We have also devised an unprecedented, facile, and single-step development strategy for a sub-nanoscopic Lewis acidic cobalt and basic imidazole grafted porous organic polymer. This strategy enables the synergistic activation of epoxide and CO₂ through atom-sized Lewis pairs present in the material, leading to their rapid conversion into cyclic carbonates under ambient pressure with high yield, selectivity, and turnover frequency (TOF).

Furthermore, we have made an unexpected discovery of CO₂-induced dissolution of ZnO into ionic liquids. This process exhibits a high dissolution rate, and the resulting dissociated mixture serves as an efficient Zn-based catalytic system for the CO₂-promoted hydration of propargylic alcohols under atmospheric pressure, offering a broad substrate scope.

Participants: students, postgraduates and scientific-pedagogical workers of the faculty of Sciences of RUDN and other Universities