| Project Detail |
The global climate and energy crisis demands decisive actions to implement sustainable energy production and utilization processes. Catalysis has demonstrated its importance down this route by enabling the transformation of abundant recyclable resources such as water and CO2 into widely utilized fuels and chemical feedstock. Customizing catalysts to improve the performance of these processes is one of the main pursuits of catalytic chemistry. A class of materials with atomically thin constituents, labelled 2D materials (2DM), exhibit widely tunable properties of interest for catalytic applications. On top of their high surface area, extraordinary mechanical properties, and great conductivity (thermal and electrical), they allow a precise control over their electronic properties beyond conventional metals and semiconductors. The tunable electronic properties of 2DM can be exploited to a great extent in order to tailor catalytic performance. In particular, it has been shown that perturbations such as dislocations, vacancies, edges, impurities and functional groups, readily modify the density of states in graphene and promote its catalytic properties. Although, mastering and translating these properties into catalytic specific applications is not an easy task. The present project will venture into the often overlooked and challenging front of nanoscale engineering of 2DM for catalysis. WILDCAT will employ morphological alterations in 2DM, such as wrinkles, for the facilitation of catalytic applications. By precisely engineering the geometry of these deformations, we can reversibly tune selectivity and susceptibility of chemical reactions, without inducing any structural defects. The catalytic responses will be assessed with advanced in-situ nanoscale characterization tools in order to probe the contribution of wrinkle engineering. WILDCAT has the ambition to expand our understanding of reaction engineering and pave the way for selective catalysts on-demand. |
