For students

Supervisor: dr hab. Rafael L. Oliveira

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Description:

Hydrogenation and oxidation of organic compounds correspond to essential reactions in the chemical industry. Traditionally, these reactions are done by stoichiometric amounts (or excess) of toxic reagents such as sodium borohydride as a reduction agent, or potassium permanganate as an oxidizing agent, resulting in processes with low selectivity and the generation of a lot of waste. Thus, these traditional processes are environmentally and economically unsuitable. The use of supported catalysts emerged as an alternative for producing valuable chemicals more sustainably.

The project's main goal is to develop a new class of doped porous carbonaceous materials using diverse techniques such as hard template techniques and post-activation processes. We are also interested in using waste such as glycerol (a by-product of biodiesel synthesis) as a carbon precursor.

After the synthesis of carbon materials, metal nanoparticles (NPS) or clusters will be deposited in this structure, aiming for a strong interaction between the metal NPS and the carbon materials, creating a synergy between them.  These materials will be characterized by many different projects, such as microscopies (TEM and SEM), N₂ physisorption, XRD, XPS, and XAS. 

The prepared materials will be used as catalyst candidates for oxidation reactions (such as selective oxidation of alcohols and alkenes), hydrogenation reactions (CO₂ or biomass compounds), and hydrogen transfer reactions.