CAS dicp 
 

Catalytic Reaction Chemistry Group

The research activities of our group are mainly concentrated on two aspects. One is the synthesis and assembly of catalytic materials with controlled particle size and morphology in nano-scales, involving both metal and metal oxides. Another target is to use these catalytic materials for chemical reactions that are potentially significant for energy conversion and environmental protection, such as hydrogen production from renewable and fossil resources, methane activation, catalytic conversion of methanol, DME and ethanol, and oxidation of light oxygenates. The aim is to integrate the two aspects for establishing the structure-reactivity relationship which is the core of heterogeneous catalysis.
 What's New:

1. Of the surface of things: Shape engineering of oxide nanoparticles allows preferential exposure of specific facets; this maximizes the number of active sites available to the reactants, which improves the activity and mediates the reaction route to a specific channel to promote selectivity. This focus review summarizes the most recent progress in shape mediation of oxide nanoparticles in heterogeneous catalysis.    Yan Zhou, et al.,Chemistry-An Asian Journal, 2016,11(10),pp1470-1488.

2. Octahedral vanadia species on TiO2 {001} showed a significantly higher activity for selective reduction of NO by NH3 than tetrahedral vanadia species on TiO2{101}.    Quanquan Shi, et al.,J. Mater .Chem. A, 2015,3, pp 14409-14415.

3. Monoclinic ZrO2 nanorods preferentially exposing the {020} and {100} facets showed prominent blue-green fluorescence because of the richness of surface oxygen vacancy.    Aling Chen,CrystEngComm, 2016, 18, pp 580-587.

4. The shape effect of Ce1-xZrxO2 nanomaterials is associated with the amount of zirconia that is incorporated into the ceria lattice.    Aling Chen, et al.,Catal.Sci.Technol.,2015, 5, pp 4184-4192.

Undergoing projects:

Methane Conversion
Methane Non-oxidative Dehydrogenation to Aromatics and Hydrogen
Methane Cracking to Carbon Materials and Hydrogen

Ethanol Conversion
SR and OSR of Ethanol to Hydrogen
Selective Oxidation of Ethanol to Acetaldehyde/Acetic Acid

Methanol and DME conversion
DME Carbonylation to Methyl Acetate
Methanol Oxidation and Condensation to Diesel Additives (DMMs)

Fine Chemicals
Hydrogen-transfer Dehydrogenation of Primary Alcohols
Heterogeneous Chiral Hydrogenation of C=C and C=N Organics

Nanocatalysis
Co3O4 nanomaterials for Low-temperature Oxidation of CO
CeO2-based oxides for Formaldehyde Oxidation
Perovsike-structure Materials for deNOx
Nanoatructured redox and acid-base metal oxides