Skeletal catalyst
Metal catalysts are technologically very important. Skeletal metal catalysts are widely used as hydrogenation catalysts in many industries. Estimates are that 60% of all commercially produced chemical products, such as pharmaceuticals, vegetable oil refining and petro-chemicals, involve catalysts at some stage in the manufacturing process.
This project will attempt to synthesise binary skeletal metal catalysts by employing ternary alloys as starting materials. Advantages of these catalysts include synergism with respect to catalytic activities and the opportunity to combine the different physical and chemical properties of the metals in order to harvest maximum performance.
In this project, catalytic systems comprising of skeletal iron are investigated. The skeletal iron serves as a support for coatings with catalytically active metals, such as Au, Ni, V, Co etc., providing attrition resistance and mechanical strength for catalytic processes with heterogeneous phases. Furthermore, the skeletal iron itself can be used as catalyst for Fischer-Tropsch or ammonia synthesis. This would make it versatile for a range of important industrial processes. Characterisation of the skeletal iron is the first step in gaining an understanding of parameters such as the influence of leaching conditions on pore size and distribution.
Major achievements and highlights
The crystal structure, corresponding cell parameters and chemical bonds of the alloys have an affect on the creation of the skeletal structure. Crystal structures such as triclinic, orthorhombic and monoclinic have varying cell lengths that give rise to a high cell volume. The large cell volume allowed the caustic to easily penetrate into the crystal structure. A strong metallic bond, which was dependant both size of the metallic and number of valence electrons, also resulted in caustic resistance.
Future plans and directions
Further optimisation will be performed with regards to creation of the skeletal structure from ternary alloys. The novel binary metal catalysts will be tested for industrial applications such as the electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction.
