Doctoral Themes

Amide and Urea functionalized Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs) for CO₂ capture, separation and conversion

Supervisors

Anirban Karmakar, anirban.karmakar@tecnico.ulisboa.pt

Maria Beatriz P. P. Palma Nobre, beatriz.nobre@tecnico.ulisboa.pt

Maria Fatima Guedes da Silva, fatima.guedes@tecnico.ulisboa.pt

Registration Institution

Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa

Project description

Air pollution is both an environmental and a social problem as it affects human health, ecosystems and plays a key role in global warming. The exigency is to reduce some of the most hazardous molecules CO₂, CO, H₂S, CH₄ from the atmosphere, specifically, CO₂ adsorption and separation is crucial to the alleviation of greenhouse effect. Thus, development of new materials for gas storage, separation and conversion of carbon dioxide to useful organic compounds is of paramount importance. To this end, this PhD proposal proposes to develop porous metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) from amide and urea functionalized ligands for the capture, separation, and conversion of CO₂ to useful organic compounds (Figure 1). Different analytical techniques will be used to characterize the developed ligands and MOFs, such as single crystal XRD, PXRD, SEM-EDS, TEM, etc. In addition, the adsorption of CO₂ using BET and conversion of CO₂ to cyclic carbonate under supercritical CO₂ (scCO₂) medium will be explored. This program will offer candidates an opportunity to learn various synthetic skills and analytical techniques. Additionally, there will also be the opportunity to complete part of the PhD work in another country under the supervision of a leading scientist.

This PhD project will be conducted in collaboration between Group 1 [Coordination Chemistry and Catalysis (CCC)] and Group 9 [Molecular and Engineering Thermodynamics (MET)]. The synthesis and characterization novel MOFs and their application towards CO₂ adsorption/ separation, will be performed in CCC group, whereas catalytic conversion of CO₂ into valuable organic compounds will be done in both groups.

Keywords

Metal organic frameworks; Amide; Urea; Gas adsorption; Carbon dioxide; Catalysis