Single atom supported on graphitic carbon nitrides towards biomass-based products valorization

• Grant number: 22/16273-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: May 11, 2023
• End date: October 24, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Chemistry - Inorganic Chemistry
• Principal Investigator: Ivo Freitas Teixeira
• Grantee: Guilherme de Freitas Silva Rodrigues Rocha
• Supervisor: Matthias Beller
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Exatas e de Tecnologia (CCET). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Leibniz Institute for Catalysis (LIKAT Rostock), Germany
• Associated to the scholarship: 22/04748-9 - Graphitic carbon nitrides as acid solid catalysts applied to biomass conversion, BP.MS

Abstract

One of the biggest challenges of the world in the 21st century is to get independence from oil as an energy source and feedstock for the chemical and pharmaceutical industry. A key technology to reach these objectives is the development of an efficient and highly integrated biorefinery process. The efficiency and feasibility, of such a process, are highly dependent on the activity of the catalysts employed in the process. Among the many reactions related to biomass valorization, the synthesis of fatty amines from vegetable oils is one of great importance, but conventionally is a multi-step and resource demanding reaction. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to investigate and find new catalysts that could simplify this reaction without sacrificing yield and making the market for biomass-based products more competitive. In this project, we aim to synthetize single-atom catalyst of Fe and Ni supported on crystalline carbon nitride (Fe-PHI/Ni-PHI). These modified materials have the potential to be further employed in biomass conversion reactions to produce value-added chemicals. We plan to investigate their activity toward the amination of acyl glycerides as a model reaction and then, in optimized conditions, apply them to the amination of commercially available vegetable oils to produce fatty amines. (AU)