Catalysis and Green Chemistry

Objective: ISEN will discover and characterize new catalysts that optimize the sustainability of industrial and consumer goods.

Catalytic agents enable a broad range of chemical reactions that are fundamental to industrial and consumer products – from plastics to pharmaceuticals, solvents to soap, and fuels to food.

By lowering the energetic hurdle for these reactions, catalysts also provide substantial energy and carbon savings during chemical production. Guided by computational and rational design, researchers are exploring how to execute and control chemical reactions that would have been impossible – even unimagined – just decades ago. Bridging theory with advanced materials development and synthesis, advances in catalysis represent giant steps in the effort to minimize the environmental impacts of our economy.

Leading these efforts is the Center for Catalysis and Surface Science (CCSS), a 30-year research center that bridges academia and industry, and is one of the premier institutes for catalysis in the world.

ISEN WILL:

DISCOVER new catalysts that optimize the production of sustainable fuels and chemicals.

DEVELOP advanced synthesis processes that enable characterization of unstable catalytic intermediates.

TRANSLATE fundamental discovery science into applied innovation, in partnership with industry, including chemical and fuel producers.

WHY IT MATTERS:

The global market for catalysts within the chemical and petrochemical industries alone is an estimated $16.3 billion.
Catalysis and sustainable materials design are critical to the production of high-demand products, such as environmentally friendly plastics and fertilizers.

Molecular Building Blocks for a Sustainable World

Molecules

Catalysts lower the energetic input for a desired chemical reaction. A critical method for improving the efficiency of catalysts is controlling selectivity. Catalyst surfaces have multiple activation sites that attract a reactant molecule, interact chemically with it, and then release it. Some activation sites create desired reaction pathways, while others may create unrelated, or even undesired, byproducts.

An ideal catalytic process is 100% selective, expending no energy to produce these secondary (in some cases, toxic) byproducts. Researchers at Northwestern are working to optimize selectivity by coating specific sites with nanoparticle “armor,” thereby eliminating undesired reactivity and lowering the energetic and carbon intensity of the entire process.

“By designing catalysts for materials that consume less energy and minimize, or even eliminate, polluting byproducts, we are creating the molecular building blocks for sustainable global economic growth.”

- Professor Kenneth Poeppelmeier

Catalysis and Green Chemistry

Institute For Sustainability And Energy At Northwestern

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