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Royal Society of Chemistry Undergraduate Research Bursaries

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Dr Grazia Francesconi

Project Description

This project is linked to an EPSRC funded Feasibility Project (FP), which aims at providing a tool for the simultaneous utilisation of CO2 emissions and heat waste from the steel industry, towards the preparation of advanced materials. The FP focuses on the use of high temperature solid gas reactions between MO3 (Mo, W, Re) and CO2. CO2 is the “doping agent” to modify crystal structure and chemical formulas and lead to carbonates and/or oxycarbonates and the energy necessary for the reaction is provided by the heat (in future, waste heat from the industry). CO2 was used as a reagent to change the chemical composition and crystal structure of the paradigm material Sr2CuO3 and reactions with CO2 led to the oxide-carbonate Sr2CuO2(CO3). The heat (T = 1000 C) provides the energy for the CO2 molecule to form a bond with an oxide anion from the oxide material to give the carbonate anion, (CO3)2− (noticeable in the change of the stoichiometry of the oxide anions in the two formulas). MO3 (M = Mo, W, Re) materials have been reported as potential solar light photocatalysts and used by the PI in a Research England supported project for the photocatalytic upcycling of plastic, with contradictory results. The crystal structures of the MO3 polymorphs is normally a factor for electronic properties, yet it is not the main parameter for photocatalytic performance. Instead, the oxygen anions seem to influence the photocatalytic efficiency and researchers are using the oxide stoichiometry to verify this point. The reaction of the MO3 oxides with CO2 is expected to lead to oxide-carbonates, with CO2 molecules “settling” in the structure, bonding with oxide anions hence providing a changed environment.

Status Project Complete
Value £2,917.00
Project Dates Jun 1, 2023 - Aug 31, 2023

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