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Finding sufficient clean energy is listed as one of the greatest challenges
of humanity in the 21st century. Fossil fuels are currently the most widely
used Energy vectors, yet their continued use poses enormous problems as
they are inherently not renewable as well as highly pollutant, therefore
not sustainable in the long term. It is critical to develop renewable
and sustainable energy sources in order to enable global economic growth
and improve quality of life in our modern society.
Methanol production addresses all of these problems. Methanol can be produced
from syngas (a mixture of CO + H2 and CO2), which in turn can be produced
from a large variety of sources, like biomasses and waste. The use of
currently available catalysts for methanol synthesis is either hindered
by high cost (e.g. Pd) or hampered by low overall catalytic activity (e.g.
Cu). The project aims to design and realize novel nanocatalysts with high-catalytic-activity
and at low cost for syngas-to-methanol conversion reaction.
In this project, Hongyan is in charge of the synthesis less expensive
core@shell or alloy nanocatalysts by wet chemical method to optimize the
synthesis of methanol. The task consists of three major activities: 1)
Chemical synthesis of core@shell or alloy nanocatalysts 2) Fundamental
and advanced catalyst characterization 3) Catalytic tests
Publications:
H. Liang, W. Wang, Y. Huang, S. Zhang, H. Wei, H. Xu.
Controlled Synthesis of Uniform Silver Nanospheres. J Phys. Chem. C 114
(2010) 742.
H. Liang, H. Yang, W. Wang, J. Li, and H. Xu. High-Yield
Uniform Synthesis and Microstructure-Determination of Rice-Shaped Silver
Nanocrystals. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 131 (2009) 6068.
H. Liang, Z. Li, W. Wang, Y. Wu and H. Xu. Highly Surface
Roughened “Flower-like” Silver Nanoparticles for Extremely
Sensitive Substrates of Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering. Adv. Mater.,
21 (2009) 4614.
Y. Huang, W. Wang, H. Liang and H. Xu. Surfactant-Promoted
Reductive Synthesis of Shape-Controlled Gold Nanostructures. Crystal Growth
and Design, 9 (2009) 858.
H. Liang, H. Yu, H. Zhang, J. Wang, Y. Yu, Z. Wang. Study
the Growth and Properties of GdVO4 Crystal. Journal of Synthetic Crystals,
36 (2007) 47.
Patents:
H.Y. Liang, W.Z. Wang, H.X. Xu, High-Yield Synthesis
of Uniform Silver Monodisperse Nanorices, Augest, 2008, China innovation
patents, Publication No. CN101249566 (issued)
Y.Z. Shao, Y.Z. Zhang, T. Yan, H.Y. Liang, Fire Annunciator
Made by Ni-Ti Shape Memory Alloy, June, 2007, China innovation patents,
Publication No. CN2911816 (issued)
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