Preface Free

Chapter 1: Tungsten containing materials as heterogeneous catalysts for green catalytic oxidation process

This review is given by Wei-Lin Dai, Jing Ding, Quanjing Zhu, Ruihua Gao, Xinli Yang from Fudan university, Shanghai, China. It aims to provide a comprehensive description of the recent advances in the field of tungsten-containing heterogeneous catalyst for green catalytic oxidation process. This review collects more than 90 literatures and consists of three sections. The first part exhibits the advances in the pristine tungsten-based catalysts for the green catalytic oxidation process; the second one highlights various green catalytic oxidation reactions with tungsten-based catalysts supported on different carriers; the last one illustrates the existing problems and outlook for the tungsten-based catalysts applied to the green catalytic oxidation reactions. The examples discussed in this review highlight the need to design and synthesis of tungsten-based catalysts. Perhaps more importantly, they also are of value for researchers in the area of heterogeneous catalysis to develop highly efficient green oxidation catalytic systems.

Chapter 2: Alumina ceramic foams as catalyst supports

In the next review, Alumina ceramic foams as catalyst supports is reviewed by Erfan Behravesh, Leena Hupa, Tapio Salmi, Dmitry Yu. Murzin from Åbo Akademi University, Finland. Ceramic foams have a wide range of potential applications in biomedicine, thermal insulation, filtration of molten metal alloys, absorption of environmental pollutants, catalyst supports, etc. Herein, three main methods of manufacturing ceramic foams are introduced with the main emphasize on the replica technique. Furthermore, different techniques for improving structural properties of ceramic foams are reviewed. The focus of this review is on fabrication of macro-porous alumina foams with high interconnected porosity. In addition, experimental data for manufacturing of ceramic foams via the replica technique is represented along with literature surveys. Slurries consisted of alumina powder mixed in aqueous solutions of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and magnesia and titania as sintering aids. The foams were produced by tuning different processing parameters to give properties suited for catalyst supports. These parameters included pore size of the polyurethane (PU) foam used as a template, parameters in the PU foam pretreatment, particle size of alumina powder in the slurry, slurry loading and drying of the green alumina coated PU foam. Finally, the key factors for optimizing ceramic foams in terms of mechanical strength and interconnectivity are introduced together with an outlook for future advances in ceramic foams as catalyst supports.

Chapter 3: Recent advances in the synthesis and catalytic applications of atomically precise gold nanoclusters

This review is contributed by Yuxiang Chen, Chenjie Zeng, and Rongchao Jin from Carnegie Mellon University. This review summaries the recent advances in the synthesis and catalytic application of atomically precise Au_n(SR)_m nanoclusters. Structurally characterized nanoclusters can serve as new model catalysts for obtaining atomic/molecular level insights into the catalytic processes, including the precise size-dependent catalytic reactivity and how molecules are adsorbed and activated on the catalytic active sites, as well as the structural sensitivity of the catalyst to the reactions. While this area is still in its infancy, promising work has been reported and demonstrated the catalytic power of atomically precise nanoclusters. Such reactions include catalytic oxidation, chemoselective catalytic hydrogenation, catalytic semihydrogenation, etc. In addition, precisely doped nanoclusters provide a unique opportunity to tune the catalytic reactivity on a truly atom-by-atom basis. Overall, atomically precise nanoclusters hold great promise in the discovery of unique catalytic processes as well as in advancing the fundamental understanding of catalytic mechanisms at the atomic/molecular level.

Chapter 4: Research and Development of Hydrocracking Catalysts and technology

Research and Development of Hydrocracking Catalysts and technology is reviewed by Chong Peng, Xiangchen Fang and Ronghui Zeng from both Fushun Research Institute of Petroleum and Petrochemicals, SINOPEC, China and East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, China. Hydrocracking (HCK), one of the main approaches to deep process heavy oil, is a catalytic conversion process where feedstock undergoes hydrogenation, S/N removal, molecular restructuring, cracking, and other reactions. It can process straight-run gasoline/diesel, vacuum gas oil, and other secondary processing fractions such as fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) diesel, FCC clarified oil, coker diesel, coker gas oil, and deasphalted oil and produce various quality clean fuels such as liquefied gas, gasoline, kerosene, jet fuel, diesel, and various quality petrochemical materials such as light/heavy naphtha and tail oil. In this chapter, the research progress on commercial HCK technology and its relative catalysts are discussed. The typical technical characteristics and the representative processes from different corporations, such as Universal Oil Products, Albemarle, Criterion, Haldor Topsoe, and SINOPEC, are also presented. The development trend of HCK technology in the future is outlined.

Chapter 5: Titano-silicates: Their history, evolution and scope of application

Ayomi Perera and Marc-Olivier Coppens of University College London review the rapidly evolving catalysis of titano-silicates, especially as applied to selective oxidations. There have been significant advances in understanding how these materials function, and in the synthesis of new Ti-silicate structures. A key application is in epoxide manufacture, and this application is reviewed here. But several potential green chemical processes are under evaluation, and these are discussed and critiqued as well.

Chapter 6: Nanofiber-supported metal-based catalysts

A group headed by Zenixole Tshentu from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan and Rhodes Universities have reviewed nanofiber-supported metal catalysts. The review covers most of the conventional catalytic transition metal/metal oxides supported on different types of electrospun nanofibers. Catalytic metal ion complexes supported on electrospun nanofibers, via coordination to the desired functional groups of polymer chains, have also been discussed. While the use of electrospun nanofibers as catalyst support is still at its infancy stage, several application studies have shown that the use of nanofiber-based catalytic materials exhibited good catalytic activity as a result of the increased surface area-to-volume ratio. There is discussion of catalyst reusability and challenges associated with the use of electrospun nanofibers in catalysis.

Chapter 7: Elucidation of Mechanistic and Kinetic Aspects of Water-Gas Shift Reaction on Supported Pt and Au Catalysts via Transient Isotopic Techniques

Angelos Efstathiou of the University of Cyprus comprehensively summarizes recent work from the low-temperature water–gas shift catalysis literature. He places special emphasis on steady-state isotopic transient kinetic analysis and other transient isotopic techniques to probe mechanism and determine important kinetic parameters for supported Pt and Au catalysts on reducible and non-reducible metal oxides. These results are extended and put into context by comparing to predictions of recent computational (DFT) studies.

Chapter 8: Recent progresses on the use of supported bimetallic catalysts for the preferential oxidation of CO (PROX)

Alina Moscu, Yves Schuurman, and Frederic Meunier (Institut de Recherches sur la Catalyse et l'Environnement de Lyon) report on current progress and prospects on PROX, an essential step in fuel processing of hydrocarbons to produce CO-free dihydrogen. This can be converted into clean energy, particularly in PEM fuel cells. The CO just downstream of WGS must be reduced to low levels, often to ppm concentrations. Improvements must be addressed at low temperatures. Recent studies have shown progress in bimetallic compounds compared to monometallic counterparts. The improved activity of alloys and bimetallic appear to be to geometric or electronic effects. The review here pays particular attention to in situ IR-based studies realized over Pt-based formulations, since CO is both a reactant and a molecular probe enabling the determination of the state of metals under reaction conditions. Reaction results at conditions at the working catalyst are essential. In situ and operando conditions enable can be used to probe the true active phases, because alloy segregation can readily occur even due to minor modification of the experimental conditions.

Chapter 9: 3D MoS₂/Graphene Hybrid Layer Materials as Counter Electrodes for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Wei Wei and Yun Hang Hu (Michigan Tech) discuss the development of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), which have attracted considerable attention as an alternative to conventional silicon based solar cells because of their low cost, low energy consumption, simple fabrication process, and high power conversion efficiency. Typically, DSSCs are composed of a photoelectrode (a transparent conducting subtract with a dye coated TiO₂ film), an electrolyte, and a counter electrode (CE). The synthesis and DSSC counter electrode applications of graphene sheets and MoS₂ materials are briefly reviewed. Furthermore, in this chapter, they report a new method to synthesize 3D MoS₂/graphene hybrid layer materials as counter electrode catalysts for DSSCs.