A new generation of designed (elettro-)catalysts for sustainable energy production Cristina Giordano 1 , Ilaha Hasanova 1 , Xiang Li 1 , Rafael Luque 2 , Daily Rodríguez-Padrón 2 , Pedro Maireles-Torres 3 1 Queen Mary University of London, UK, 2 Departemento de Quimica Organica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Cordoba, E14014, Cordoba, Spain, 3 Departamento de Química Inorgánica, Málaga, Spain The continuous population growth and technological development inevitably led to high energy demand, which can no longer be sustained by fossil fuels without deeply damaging our environment. Among renewable energy processes, “green” alternative, based on electrochemical conversion/production of clean fuel and biomass valorisation to produce (bio)fuels from waste, cover a predominant role. Despite the novel fuels hold the same potential of current fuels, their production is still neither practical nor economically feasible. Among the limiting factors there is the lack of sustainable catalysts and complex reaction engineering. Even noble metals are not an ideal choice, due to the high costs and susceptibility to be poisoned under some reaction conditions. In this respect, non-noble metals and metallic ceramics (MCs) are a promising alternative, thanks to their good catalytic activity alongside high chemical stability, and tuneable selectivity. In our group, we focus on the design of tailored hybrid catalysts, imbedded on functional support, prepared via a greener sol–gel based process, which leads to well-defined, in composition and size, nano-catalysts with high surface area, tuneable selectivity and crystallinity. Catalysts were validated by lab scale reactors, specifically designed to facilitate rapid optimization, improve performances and minimise waste. Results on these specifically designed metallic ceramic based nanocomposites will be presented, together with examples of their applicability in (electro)-catalytic processes (including biomass conversion [1-3] , ORR [4] , HER [5-6] and more), alongside the strategies to control their structure and properties. The catalysts were tested as prepared, with no need for post-synthesis purification, activation, or co-catalysts addition, and their characterization after testing, demonstrated their stability under the reaction conditions. The catalytic studies showed that the activity of these especially designed catalysts was superior to those of common catalysts, with the further advantage to allow tuning selectivity and conversion above 80%, in each case. References 1. C. Defilippi, D. Rodríguez-Padron, R. Luque, L. Winchester, C. Giordano, J. Clean. Prod. 347 (2022) 2. C. Defilippi, D. Rodriguez-Padron, R. Luque, C. Giordano, Green Chemistry, Green Chem. 22 (2020) 2929 3. C. Jiménez-Gómez, C. Defilippi, J.A. Cecilia, R. Moreno-Tosta, P. Maireles-Torres, C. Giordano, Molecular Catalysis 487 (2020) 110889 4. C. Defilippi, D.V. Shinde, Z. Dang, L. Manna, C. Hardacre, A.J. Greer, C. D’Agostino, C. Giordano, Angew. Chem. – Int. Ed., 2019, 58, 15464 5. U. Joshi, J. Lee, C. Giordano, S. Malkhandi, B.S. Yeo, PCCP, 2016, 18, 21548 6. L. Ma, E.L. Louisa, V. Molinari, C. Giordano, B.S. Yeo, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2015, 3, 8361
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