MOFs-Assisted Catalysis for Energy and Chemicals

WEBINAR

Scientific innovation in various fields is surely necessary to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. To reduce carbon dioxide, seven approaches including de-fossil resources, switching to renewable energy, etc. have been proposed. Meanwhile, nanoporous metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have been well known and have shown great potential in catalysis and energy applications owing to their high surface areas, controllable composition, and tunable surface functionalities.

In this talk, Professor Wu will focus on MOFs-driven carbon neutral society by introducing MOFs in heterogeneous catalysis for producing (1) several valuable fine chemicals such as BTX, FDCA, DMF from waste lignocellulosic biomass and (2) hydrogen gas from waste plastics. For biomass-to-fine chemicals production, he synthesized a heterogeneous Bi-BTC catalyst for the conversion of bio-based 2,5-dimethylfuran and acrylic acid to para-xylene with a promising yield (92%), under relatively mild conditions (160 ºC, 10 bar) with low reaction energy barrier (47.3 kJ/mol). The proposed reaction strategy also demonstrated remarkable versatility for furan derivatives such as furan and 2-methylfuran. For plastics-to-H2 production, MOF-derived NiO@CeO2 catalyst with the self-decoking property was synthesized and applied. The highest hydrogen yield of LDPE using 30NiO@CeO2, was achieved (137.0 mmol/gPE), and no carbon was generated. He also investigated the impact of different types of post-consumer plastic waste (including LDPE, HDPE, PP, PS, PET), and the production of LDPE waste was 136.4 mmol/gPE. 30NiO@CeO2 catalyst can be reused for at least five times, and the hydrogen production in the fifth run was 100.8 mmol/gPE.