Grants and Contributions:

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Title:

In-depth Understanding of Catalytic Activation of Carbon Dioxide for Value-added Products

Agreement Number:

RGPIN

Agreement Value:

$120,000.00

Agreement Date:

May 10, 2017 -

Organization:

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada

Location:

Saskatchewan, CA

Reference Number:

GC-2017-Q1-03258

Agreement Type:

Grant

Report Type:

Grants and Contributions

Additional Information:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year. (2017-2018 to 2022-2023)

Recipient's Legal Name:

Wang, Hui (University of Saskatchewan)

Program:

Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Program Purpose:

In the foreseeable future, the use of fossil fuels for energy is inevitable and so is the emission of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) from it. To avoid the predicted climate change from the increase of CO 2 concentration in the atmosphere, in addition to the technologies of CO 2 capture and storage (CCS), which are passive from a strategic point of view, conversion of the emitted CO 2 into useful and value-added chemicals or products (CO 2 capture and utilization or CCU in short) is inherently important, and catalyst development for CO 2 conversion plays a vital role in these technology advances. Building on the successful research and development of a catalyst for CO 2 reforming of methane (CH 4 ), this proposed research program focuses on the understanding of the mechanisms of C-O bond breakage and C-H bond formation in catalytic conversion of CO 2 , aiming to extend fundamental knowledge of catalyst structures that is necessary to the development of new and powerful catalysts for CO 2 conversion to achieve desired CO 2 utilization.

The methodology includes using the atomic layer deposition (ALD) method to prepare the model catalysts with known and uniform structures and using advanced instrumental characterization such as in situ and/or operando spectroscopic characterizations at the Canadian Light Source (CLS) for the catalytic mechanism studies. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations will also be used to help confirm the understanding. The short-term objectives of this program are to establish the relationship between the catalyst structures and catalytic performance on C-O bond breakage in CO 2 reforming of CH 4 reaction system and on C-H bond formation in CO 2 hydrogenation for methanol. The long-term goal is to understand the catalyst structures of the complex, natural CO 2 conversion processes such as photosynthesis and mimic the natural catalytic processes for CO 2 utilization. The highly qualified personnel (HQP) training plan in the proposed research program includes PhD and MSc students in the fields of catalyst preparation using ALD technology and catalytic mechanism studies with CLS synchrotron technologies as well as the DFT calculations.