Faculty Mentor
Cheng Zhang
Major/Area of Research
B.S. in Mathematics and Physics
Publication Date
2016
Description
Greenhouse gas emission has been a growing problem on the earth because of global warming and pollution of our air. The primary objective of this project is to develop a novel Fe based heterogeneous catalyst to enhance the catalytic conversion of CO2 by H2 for the synthesis of value added chemicals such as CO, methanol and fuels. We are focusing on iron for this catalyst because iron is one of the most abundant elements in the world and is very cheap making it optimal for catalyst use. The Fe-based solution we developed can be tuned to be either acidic or basic to adapt to different catalyst support. The solution was characterized by Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy and the Fe adsorption at determined at ~200 nm. The heterogeneous catalyst was synthesized on alumina support (acidic) and active carbon support (basic) via Wet Incipient Impregnation method. The synthesized catalyst is to be tested for CO2 hydrogenation at Brookhaven National Lab (BNL). Catalyst characterization such as Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area, pore size and volume, Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), etc. will be carried out at BNL and Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP, a top institute in Catalysis in China) with an aim to establish relationship between activity and properties. This fundamental study will serve as a guidance to help us understand the reaction pathway of CO2 hydrogenation.
Included in
Development of a Novel Fe Based Heterogeneous Catalyst for CO2 Conversion
Greenhouse gas emission has been a growing problem on the earth because of global warming and pollution of our air. The primary objective of this project is to develop a novel Fe based heterogeneous catalyst to enhance the catalytic conversion of CO2 by H2 for the synthesis of value added chemicals such as CO, methanol and fuels. We are focusing on iron for this catalyst because iron is one of the most abundant elements in the world and is very cheap making it optimal for catalyst use. The Fe-based solution we developed can be tuned to be either acidic or basic to adapt to different catalyst support. The solution was characterized by Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy and the Fe adsorption at determined at ~200 nm. The heterogeneous catalyst was synthesized on alumina support (acidic) and active carbon support (basic) via Wet Incipient Impregnation method. The synthesized catalyst is to be tested for CO2 hydrogenation at Brookhaven National Lab (BNL). Catalyst characterization such as Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface area, pore size and volume, Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), etc. will be carried out at BNL and Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP, a top institute in Catalysis in China) with an aim to establish relationship between activity and properties. This fundamental study will serve as a guidance to help us understand the reaction pathway of CO2 hydrogenation.