Centre for the Theory and Application of Catalysis (CenTACat)
CenTACat is delighted to announce that it started a new five-year £5 million project in January 2009.
The research programme, CASTech (Catalytic Advances through Sustainable Technologies) is funded by the EPSRC and industry and involves a close collaboration with the universities of Cambridge, Birmingham and Virginia with strong industrial support from Johnson Matthey, Robinson Brothers, Sasol, Borregaard, Forestry Research and Questor.
A major part of the research programme will be focussed on renewable feedstocks for energy and speciality chemicals production.
CenTACat undertakes multidisciplinary research involving chemists, physicists and engineers with a common interest in understanding the fundamental principles that underpin clean energy production, clean organic chemistry, and environmental protection.
Reaction Engineering, Ionic liquids, Hetreogeneous Catalysis
Heterogeneous catalysis - the application of catalysts to organic synthesis, specifically organophosphorus molecules; Structural investigations of materials using synchrotron radiation - XAFS and diffraction.
Theoretical chemistry; ab initio calculations; surface phase transitions and reconstructions; reactivity of metal surfaces; mechanisms at surfaces; solid-solid interfaces.
Reactor design, microfluidic synthesis, microwave and radiofrequency heating, process intensification, heterogeneous catalysis, catalytic thin films.
Chemistry in ionic liquids; synthetic coordination chemistry; novel materials for nonlinear optics; crystal engineering; archaeological chemistry.
Process Engineering - Energy from renewables such as municipal solid waste (MSW), Nutrients removal from industrial effluents, Modelling of chemical reactions.
Microporous and mesoporous materials, heterogeneous catalysis, in-situ spectroscopy, biomass valorization, magnetic nanoparticles, carbon dioxide capture and utilization.
Membrane separation & membrane reactor, Process integration & intensification, Ionic liquids -catalysis & separation, Nano hydrogels and copolymer nano micelles for gene & drug delivery.
Transient techniques, Operando techniques, Reaction intermediates, Sites structure, Depollution, Hydrogen production, Selective oxidation.
Thermodynamic properties; experimental and theoretical methods; novel materials; ionic liquids; relationship between chemical structure and physical properties; sustainable chemistry.
Electrocatalysis, nanomaterials and fuel cells - from synthesis, structure, mechanism and kinetic studies at atomic and molecular level, to fuel cells and energy storage system development; Electrocatalytic generation of ozone from water for water and waste treatment; Electrochemical surface science and electrochemical engineering.
Heterogeneous Catalysis and Green Chemical Processes – Employing Molecular Engineering to design new and better catalysts based on the Structure-Activity relationship
Homogeneous and molecular catalysis, integrated bio and chemo catalytic processes, ‘Green’ oxidations and reductions, biomimetic and bioorganometallic chemistry.
Ionic liquids and carbon dioxide (dense and supercritical) for homogeneous (molecular) catalysis.
Liquid phase catalysis – understanding liquid phase catalytic reactions and mass transfer effects using kinetic analysis and in-situ spectroscopic techniques.
To visit the CenTACat website click HERE
