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Sustainable Chemistry
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Heterogeneous Catalysts Applied in Sustainable Chemistry
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Heterogeneous Catalysts Applied in Sustainable Chemistry

A topical collection in Sustainable Chemistry (ISSN 2673-4079).

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Editor

Prof. Dr. James A. Sullivan

E-Mail Website
Collection Editor
School of Chemistry, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland
Interests: heterogeneous catalysis in environmental and sustainable chemistry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Topical Collection Information

Dear Colleagues,

The use of heterogeneous catalysis as an enabling technology in the application of environmental and sustainable chemistry is a mature, yet constantly growing field.

Since the 1990s, the applications of environmental catalysis have included the development and refinement of three-way catalysts and lean NOx treatment systems, catalytic combustion of pollutants and fuels, and catalytic and photocatalytic remediation of polluted aqueous systems. Current and future pollutants of interest that will require catalytic remediation will include aqueous microplastics, fluorinated alkyl compounds and recalcitrant organic molecules.

Current and future applications of sustainable catalysis that will enable the circular economy will arise in the development of artificial photosynthesis systems for CO2 recycling and valorisation; the generation of solar fuels and chemicals; sustainable hydrogen and platform molecule synthesis; catalytic processing of plastic waste, catalytic systems for facilitating the use of thermochemical heat pumps and renewable energy storage systems; catalytic approaches to lignocellulose-containing biomass and organic waste refining in biorefinery installations, catalytic approaches to metal and urban waste recycling and materials for promotion of chemical looping combustion and CO2 separation processes.

Furthermore, as one of the tenets of Green Chemistry, the use of catalysts in promoting safer, more environmentally acceptable and sustainable chemical syntheses will continue to be an area of importance. This will include the development of catalysts to allow the use of non-toxic reagents, decrease required energy inputs (or permit solar powered photocatalysts), allow the use of benign solvents, and drive enantioselective reactions.

All of these areas will be accompanied by the gradual replacement of critical element-containing catalysts by more earth-abundant analogs. We welcome the submission of original research papers and review articles presenting the use of heterogeneous catalysis in environmental and sustainable chemistry.

Prof. Dr. James A. Sullivan
Collection Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the collection website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainable Chemistry is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Published Papers (2 papers)

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2022

13 pages, 2054 KiB  
Article
Production of Bio-Oil from De-Oiled Karanja (Pongamia pinnata L.) Seed Press Cake via Pyrolysis: Kinetics and Evaluation of Anthill as the Catalyst
by Jan Nisar, Salman Waris, Afzal Shah, Farooq Anwar, Ghulam Ali, Ali Ahmad and Faisal Muhammad
Sustain. Chem. 2022, 3(3), 345-357; https://doi.org/10.3390/suschem3030022 - 27 Jul 2022
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 2925
Abstract
In this study, bio-oil was produced from the pyrolysis of de-oiled karanja seed press cake in the presence of abandoned anthill as the catalyst. The anthill was characterised by SEM, EDX, XRF, XRD and surface area and pore size analysis. The pyrolysis experiments [...] Read more.
In this study, bio-oil was produced from the pyrolysis of de-oiled karanja seed press cake in the presence of abandoned anthill as the catalyst. The anthill was characterised by SEM, EDX, XRF, XRD and surface area and pore size analysis. The pyrolysis experiments were carried out in an indigenously made furnace in a nitrogen atmosphere from 310 to 400 °C. The pyrolysis oil was collected at an optimised temperature and analysed through gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The compounds identified via GC-MS of non-catalytic bio-oil were in the range of C5 to C19, and compounds identified from catalytic bio-oil were in the range of C2–C63. Furthermore, thermogravimetric analysis of the karanja seed press cake without and with anthill was carried out in a nitrogen atmosphere with temperature programme rates of 3, 12, 20 and 30 °C·min−1. Kinetic parameters were determined by applying the Kissinger equation. The activation energy (Ea) values for hemicelluloses, cellulose and lignin were obtained as 99.7 ± 0.4, 182.9 ± 0.5 and 199.5 ± 0.7 kJ·mol−1 without catalyst; and with catalyst, the Ea were lowered to 74.8 ± 0.2, 83.1 ± 0.4 and 108.0 ± 0.5 kJ·mol−1, respectively. From the results, it was concluded that the catalyst played a key role in lowering the activation energy for the pyrolysis reaction and enhanced the quality of the bio-oil obtained as well. Full article
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14 pages, 2931 KiB  
Article
Development of a Binder-Free Tetra-Metallic Oxide Electrocatalyst for Efficient Oxygen Evolution Reaction
by Muhammad Asad, Afzal Shah, Faiza Jan Iftikhar, Rafia Nimal, Jan Nisar and Muhammad Abid Zia
Sustain. Chem. 2022, 3(3), 286-299; https://doi.org/10.3390/suschem3030018 - 21 Jun 2022
Viewed by 2445
Abstract
Water splitting has emerged as a sustainable, renewable and zero-carbon-based energy source. Water undergoes hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) during electrolysis. However, among these half-cell reactions, OER is more energy demanding. Hence, the development of efficient catalysts for speeding [...] Read more.
Water splitting has emerged as a sustainable, renewable and zero-carbon-based energy source. Water undergoes hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) during electrolysis. However, among these half-cell reactions, OER is more energy demanding. Hence, the development of efficient catalysts for speeding up OER is a key for boosting up the commercial viability of electrolyzers. Typical binders like Nafion and PVDF are not preferred for designing commercial electrocatalysts as they can compromise conductivity. Thus, we have designed a novel and cost-effective binder-free tetra-metallic (Co-Cu-Zn-Fe) oxide catalyst that efficiently catalyzes OER. This catalyst was grown over the surface of Fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) transducer by a facile potentiodynamic method. The structure and morphology of the modified electrode were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. XRD analysis confirmed the deposition of CoFe2O4 and CuCo2O4 along with alloy formation of Co-Fe and Co-Cu. Similarly, EDX and SEM results show the presence of metals at the surface of FTO in accordance with the results of XRD. Linear scan voltammetry was employed for testing the performance of the catalyst towards accelerating OER in strongly alkaline medium of pH-13. The catalyst demonstrated stunning OER catalytic performance, with an overpotential of just 216 mV at 10 mA cm−2 current density. Moreover, the chronopotentiometric response revealed that the designed catalyst was stable at a potential of 1.80 V for 16 h. Thus, the designed catalyst is the first example of a highly stable, efficient, and inexpensive catalyst that catalyzes OER at the lowest overpotential. Full article
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