Some General Themes in Catalysis at LANL [Slides]
Some general themes in catalysis at LANL are: (1) Storage and release of energy within chemical bonds (e.g. H 2 storage in and release from covalent bonds, N 2 functionalization, CO 2 functionalization, H 2 oxidation/evolution, O 2 reduction/evolution); (2) Can we control the chemistry of reactive substrates to effect energy relevant transformations in non-traditional media (e.g. can we promote C-C couplings, dehydrations, or hydrogenations in water under relatively mild conditions)? (3) Can we supplant precious metal or rare earth catalysts to effect these transformations, by using earth abundant metals/elements instead? Can we use organocatalysis and circumvent the use of metals completely? (4) Can we improve upon existing rare earth catalyst systems (e.g. in rare earth oxides pertinent to fluid cracking or polymerization) and reduce amounts required for catalytic efficacy? Carbohydrates can be accessed from non-food based biomass sources such as woody residues and switchgrass. After extracted from the plant source, our goal is to upgrade these classes of molecules into useful fuels.