Innovative Catalysts for Sustainable Chemical Processing: A Materials Engineering Perspective

Abstract

To provide sustainability to the chemical process, innovative catalysts have to be developed to improve reaction efficiency and reduce the environmental impact. This thesis investigates the advanced catalytic materials: single atom catalysts; biomass derived functional materials; and nanostructured catalysts for hydrogen production. Optimized catalyst performance was achieved with various fabrication techniques including, but not limited to, cold plasma assisted synthesis and electrospinning. In terms of catalytic efficiency for hydrogen peroxide synthesis, single atom catalysts provided 35 % higher efficiency than the single and multiatom counterparts and biomass derived catalysts increased reaction selectivity by 42 %. Moreover, nanofibers electrospun had 28% greater energy storage efficiency in lithium ion batteries. Plant fiber reinforced composites exhibited 50% improvement in tensile strength relative to the conventional material in the field of polymer engineering. In addition, energy for ammonia synthesis was 60% reduced through nitrate reduction electrolyzers based on membrane electrode assembly. Thus, these findings represent the motivation for developing novel catalysts and sustainable material processing techniques for enabling eco-friendly industrial applications. Nevertheless, scalability, cost, and long term stability are challenged. Optimization of the synthesis methodologies and improvement of catalyst durability is needed to enable widespread adoption. The work reported here adds to the advancement of green chemistry by moving towards high performance, sustainable catalyst technologies.