Project description
Revolutionising the nanoparticle catalysis process
The advancement and refinement of nanoscience play a pivotal role in numerous industries and fields, offering solutions to existing problems and providing alternative options. Among these nanoscience fields, catalysis using metal nanoparticles holds significant potential for yielding substantial benefits, especially given the increasing demand for fuel, environmental remediation and climate change-related drugs. The ERC-funded NANOREACTOR project aims to drive innovation by pushing the boundaries of nanoparticle catalysis. To achieve this goal, the project will employ thermosensitive yolk-shell carrier systems, thereby enhancing the catalytic process with improved control and efficiency.
Objective
The catalysis by metal nanoparticles is one of the fastest growing areas in nanoscience due to our society's exploding need for fuels, drugs, and environmental remediation. However, the optimal control of catalytic activity and selectivity remains one of the grand challenges in the 21st century.
Here, I propose to theoretically derive design rules for the optimization of nanoparticle catalysis by means of thermosensitive yolk-shell carrier systems. In the latter, the nanoparticle is stabilized in solution by an encapsulating, thermosensitive hydrogel shell. The physicochemical properties of this polymeric 'nanogate' react to stimuli in the environment and thus permit the reactant transport and the diffusion-controlled part of the catalytic reaction to be switched and tuned, e.g. by the temperature or the pH. The novel hybrid character of these emerging 'nanoreactors' opens up unprecedented ways for the control of nanocatalysis due to new designable degrees of freedom.
The complex mechanisms behind stimuli-responsive nanocatalysis call for a concerted, interdisciplinary modelling approach that has converged in my group in the recent years. In particular, it can only be achieved by combining my expertise in multiscale computer simulations of solvated polymers with the statistical and continuum mechanics of soft matter structures and dynamics. The key challenge is to integrate the molecular solvation effects and our growing knowledge of hydrogel mechanics and thermodynamics into advanced reaction-diffusion equations for a quantitative rate prediction. In addition, I envision exciting novel phenomena such as a chemo-mechanical 'self-regulated catalysis' or an amplifying 'resonant catalysis', if hydrogel response and fluctuations couple to the chemical output signal.
The expected results and design principles will help our collaborators to synthesize tailor-made, superior nanocatalysts and will advance our understanding of their structure-reactivity relationship.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
- natural sciences physical sciences thermodynamics
- natural sciences physical sciences condensed matter physics soft matter physics
- natural sciences chemical sciences catalysis
- natural sciences computer and information sciences computational science multiphysics
- natural sciences mathematics applied mathematics mathematical model
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
ERC-COG - Consolidator Grant
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2014-CoG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
79098 Freiburg
Germany
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.