New Nitrogen Assembly Carbon Catalyst Has Potential To Transform Chemical Production

Scientists from the Ames Laboratory of the US Department of Energy have discovered a carbon-free carbon-based catalyst that has the potential to be much less expensive and more efficient for many industrial concerns, including bio and fossil fuel production, electrocatalysis, and fuel cells,

At their most fundamental, these industrial processes involve cleavage of strong chemical bonds, such as hydrogen-hydrogen, carbon-oxygen, and carbon-hydrogen bonds. Traditionally, this has been achieved with catalysts that use transition as noble metals, much more expensive and low in natural abundance – such as platinum and palladium.

The scientists conducted experiments with a type of heterogeneous catalyst, Nitrogen Assemble Carbons (NACs), in which the design and placement of nitrogen on the carbon surface strongly influenced the catalytic activity of the material. These N atoms on carbon surfaces were previously believed to be far apart because the close placement of N atoms is thermodynamically unstable.

The team at Ames Lab correlated the N predecessors and pyrolysis temperature for the NACs synthesis with the N distribution and discovered that metastable N assemblies can be made by design and deliver unexpected catalytic reactions. Such reactions include hydrogenolysis of aryl ethers, dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene and tetrahydroquinoline, and hydrogenation of common unsaturated functions (such as ketone, alkene, alkyne, and nitro groups). Moreover, the NACs catalysts are robust with consistent selectivity and activity for liquid and gas phase reactions under high temperature and / or pressure.

“We discovered how the nitrogen was distributed on the surface of these NACs, and that in the process realized that this was a completely new kind of chemical activity,” said Ames Laboratory Associate Scientist Long Qi.

“The discovery would enable scientists to design nitrogen assemblies that can achieve more sophisticated and challenging chemical transformations without the need for transition metals,” said Wenyu Huang, a scientist at Ames Laboratory. “It applies widely to many different types of chemical conversations and industry.”