Principal Investigator Yuriy Román
There is growing interest in the use of renewable carbon sources for the production of chemicals, polymers, and fuels. Not only do upstream and downstream biomass conversion schemes require the use of catalysts that can selectively activate targeted functional groups. However, in some cases catalysts can be limited by mass-transfer issues and thus would benefit from new open framework architectures that provide free access to large monomeric and oligomeric biomass-derived molecules. In this respect, zeolite nanosheets are ideal for providing open topologies with isolated Brønsted or Lewis acid sites, while also offering a high surface area scaffold to tether organic molecules or metal nanoparticles. This project is broad in nature and some general objectives include: (a) identifying and judiciously selecting amphiphilic structure directing agents capable of templating targeted topologies; and (b) using zeolite nanosheets in sequential reaction sequences involving coupled acid, base, and/or redox processes.