Chemistry in the Circular Economy - Hamster Wheel or Pathway to the Future?
- Date: 13 June 2024, 13:15–14:00
- Location: Ångström Laboratory, Å101127
- Type: Seminar
- Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Adam Slabon
- Organiser: Germán Salazar Alvarez
- Contact person: Germán Salazar Alvarez
- Phone: 0184712244
Replacing crude oil as the primary industrial source of carbon-based chemicals has become crucial for both environmental and resource sustainability reasons. In this scenario, wood arises as an excellent candidate, whilst depolymerization approaches have emerged as promising strategies to unlock the lignin potential as a resource in the production of high-value organic chemicals.
However, many drawbacks, such as toxic solvents, expensive catalysts, high energy inputs, and poor product selectivity have represented major challenges to this task. This requires the discovery of novel electrochemically-active materials1 and/or chemical processes based on renewable energy in order to drive sustainable technologies. In this talk, I will highlight the importance of materials and process design on chosen examples, including catalysts for valorization of lignin2, furfural3, biorefinery side-streams4, and solar-driven depolymerization5. The importance of interfaces will be highlighted for CO oxidation6 and solar-driven H2O2 production7. [1] E.Bernhardt, A.Drichel, M.Krnel, E.Svanidze, A.Slabon, submitted [2] L.M.Lindenbeck, B.V.M.Rodrigues, A.Slabon et al., ChemSusChem 2024, accepted [3] M.Wolfsgruber,R.H.Bischof, C.Paulik, A.Slabon, B.V.M.Rodrigues et al., submitted [4] M.Wolfsgruber, C.M.Pichler, C.Paulik, B.V.M.Rodrigues, A.Slabon et al., Catal. Sci. Technol. 2023, 13, 5998 [5] K.Kaya, A.Atsay, H.Gunduz, A.Slabon, Y.Yagci, Adv. Sustainable Syst. 2023 2300366 [6] A.Holm, B.Davies, A.Slabon, S.Koroidov et al. ACS Catalysis 2024 accepted [7] A.Gopakumar, A.Slabon, S.Das et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2022, 144, 6, 2603