Rational design of microporous and hierarchical zeolites for catalysis and separation

Contact person and project supervisor: Dr. Maksym Opanasenko maksym.opanasenko@natur.cuni.cz

Research group: Heterogeneous catalysis and advanced materials

Leader of the research group: Prof. Jiri Cejka jiri.cejka@natur.cuni.cz

Web pages of the research group: http://www.cucam.cuni.cz/

http://physchem.cz/research/heterogeneous-catalysis-and-advanced-materials/

Project summary (200 words):

Zeolites are efficient catalysts of a number of large-scale processes due to such useful characteristics as molecular sieving effect, high adsorption capacity, adjustable chemical composition. At the same time, there is still a lack of synthesis tools for generation of active centers of particular characteristics at particular location in the zeolite frameworks. In addition, despite showing unique and extremely useful properties, micropores impose restrictions on the mass transport of bulky reactants limiting the use of conventional zeolites in catalytic applications. The advantageous features of hierarchical zeolites (e.g. multilevel porosity, high concentration of acid sites with tunable strength) can be used to further extend the potential of zeolites to new applications including separation and catalysis. The rational design of purely microporous or novel hierarchical (micro-mesoporous) zeolitic materials for catalytic applications is a general aim of proposed PhD thesis. The work will include 1) the application of well-known synthetic techniques (e.g. hydrothermal synthesis, postsynthesis removing of framework atoms) allowing fabrication of hierarchical materials; 2) development of innovative approaches invented during last decade (ADOR, see relevant publications); 3) advanced characterization of designed materials and 4) their application for acid-catalyzed or red-ox reactions in both batch and flow systems. The proposed project is focused on the preparation of a broad range of structurally and chemically diversified zeolites followed by thorough investigation of structure – acidity – catalytic activity relationship in a set of useful processes.

Five relevant publications of the research group:

1. „Zeolites for Fine Chemistry“ in Zeolites in Catalysis: Properties and Applications (Eds: J. Čejka, R. E Morris, P. Nachtigall), 2017, Maksym Opanasenko.

2. „Vapour-phase-transport rearrangement technique for the synthesis of new zeolites“ Natur Comm, 10 (2019) Valeryia Kasneryk, Mariya Shamzhy, Jintian Zhou, Qiudi Yue, Michal Mazur, Alvaro Mayoral, Zhenlin Luo, Russell Morris, Jiří Čejka, Maksym Opanasenko.

3. "A family of complex zeolites with controlled pore size prepared through a 'top down'method", Nature Chemistry 5 (2013) 628, Wieslaw J. Roth, Petr Nachtigall, Russell E. Morriss, Paul S. Wheatley, Valerie Seymour, Sharon E. Ashbrook, Pavla Chlubná, Lukáš Grajciar, Miroslav Položij, Zrnošt Zukal, Oleksiy Shvets, Jiří Čejka.

4. “The ADOR mechanism for the synthesis of new zeolites” Pavla Eliášová, Maksym Opanasenko, Paul Wheatley, Mariya Shamzhy, Michal Mazur, Petr Nachtigall, Wieslaw J. Roth, Russell E. Morris, Jiří Čejka, “ADOR mechanism for the synthesis of new zeolites”, Chem. Soc. Rev. 44 (2015) 7177.

5. “Synthesis of ‘unfeasible’ zeolites” M. Mazur, P. S. Wheatley, M. Navarro, W. R. Roth, M. Polozij, A. Mayoral, P. Eliasova, P. Nachtigall, J. Cejka, R. E. Morris, “Synthesis of ‘unfeasible’zeolites”, Nature Chem. 8 (2016) 58-62

Current research grants of the group:

1. "ADORable catalysts" ExPro project GAČR (2019 – 2023)

2. Primus Research Program of the Charles University project number PRIMUS/17/SCI/22 “Soluble zeolites” (2018 – 2020)

3. Czech-Bavarian Project – Design Principles for Structural Materials – Synthesis, Characterization, Application (2017 – 2020)