Periodic Reporting for period 1 - 2DBoroCat (Novel Boron-Based Two Dimensional Materials as Heterogeneous Catalysts.)
Período documentado: 2024-01-01 hasta 2025-12-31
Context and overall objectives
Climate change and the transition to sustainable energy systems require new technologies that can reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions while enabling clean fuel production and green chemical manufacturing. Catalysts, materials that accelerate chemical reactions, play a central role in these processes. However, most industrial catalysts rely on scarce or expensive metals, which limits scalability and sustainability. Developing efficient, stable, and affordable alternatives is therefore a major scientific and societal priority aligned with European climate and energy strategies.
This project addressed this challenge by exploring a new class of materials: two-dimensional boron-based nanomaterials. These ultra-thin materials combine low weight, high strength, and unique electronic properties, making them promising candidates for advanced catalysis. The project aimed to design, synthesise, and test these materials as metal-free or low-metal catalysts for converting CO2 into useful products and for storing and transferring hydrogen; both key technologies for a circular carbon economy and renewable energy systems.
Climate change and the transition to sustainable energy systems require new technologies that can reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions while enabling clean fuel production and green chemical manufacturing. Catalysts, materials that accelerate chemical reactions, play a central role in these processes. However, most industrial catalysts rely on scarce or expensive metals, which limits scalability and sustainability. Developing efficient, stable, and affordable alternatives is therefore a major scientific and societal priority aligned with European climate and energy strategies.
This project addressed this challenge by exploring a new class of materials: two-dimensional boron-based nanomaterials. These ultra-thin materials combine low weight, high strength, and unique electronic properties, making them promising candidates for advanced catalysis. The project aimed to design, synthesise, and test these materials as metal-free or low-metal catalysts for converting CO2 into useful products and for storing and transferring hydrogen; both key technologies for a circular carbon economy and renewable energy systems.
The project pathway to impact focused on three major needs: (1) reducing dependence on critical raw materials by replacing metal catalysts, (2) enabling efficient CO2 utilisation to produce value-added chemicals and fuels, and (3) supporting hydrogen-based energy solutions through safe storage and transfer materials. By developing scalable synthesis methods and demonstrating real catalytic applications, the project contributes to Europe’s goals on climate action, clean energy, and sustainable industry.
The project successfully developed reproducible methods to produce two-dimensional boron nanosheets and related materials at gram scale using a reliable thermal synthesis approach. Advanced characterisation confirmed their structure and stability. The materials were then modified through controlled doping and by adding small amounts of transition metals to tune their catalytic properties.
The developed catalysts were tested in the reverse water-gas shift reaction, which converts CO2 into carbon monoxide; a key building block for synthetic fuels and chemicals. The boron-based materials demonstrated high activity, excellent selectivity, and long-term stability under industrially relevant conditions, maintaining performance for hundreds of hours without degradation. Both metal-free and metal-assisted versions were studied, showing that the materials can function either as active catalysts or as highly stable supports for metals.
In addition, the project discovered that hydrogenated boron nanosheets can store hydrogen and release it when needed, enabling chemical reactions without external hydrogen gas. These materials successfully converted biomass-derived compounds into valuable chemicals under mild conditions, demonstrating a new metal-free route for hydrogen transfer reactions. Hybrid boron materials were also synthesised and evaluated, providing benchmark data for future optimisation. Overall, the project delivered scalable synthesis methods, multiple catalyst designs, and proof-of-concept demonstrations for CO2 utilisation and hydrogen technologies.
The project successfully developed reproducible methods to produce two-dimensional boron nanosheets and related materials at gram scale using a reliable thermal synthesis approach. Advanced characterisation confirmed their structure and stability. The materials were then modified through controlled doping and by adding small amounts of transition metals to tune their catalytic properties.
The developed catalysts were tested in the reverse water-gas shift reaction, which converts CO2 into carbon monoxide; a key building block for synthetic fuels and chemicals. The boron-based materials demonstrated high activity, excellent selectivity, and long-term stability under industrially relevant conditions, maintaining performance for hundreds of hours without degradation. Both metal-free and metal-assisted versions were studied, showing that the materials can function either as active catalysts or as highly stable supports for metals.
In addition, the project discovered that hydrogenated boron nanosheets can store hydrogen and release it when needed, enabling chemical reactions without external hydrogen gas. These materials successfully converted biomass-derived compounds into valuable chemicals under mild conditions, demonstrating a new metal-free route for hydrogen transfer reactions. Hybrid boron materials were also synthesised and evaluated, providing benchmark data for future optimisation. Overall, the project delivered scalable synthesis methods, multiple catalyst designs, and proof-of-concept demonstrations for CO2 utilisation and hydrogen technologies.
The project produced several breakthroughs that advance current knowledge. It provided the first comprehensive experimental demonstration that two-dimensional boron materials can function as efficient catalysts for CO2 conversion, confirming predictions that had previously existed only in theory. It also introduced a new class of metal-free catalysts capable of operating at high temperatures with complete selectivity toward desired products, challenging the conventional reliance on precious metals.
Another major advance was the discovery that boron nanosheets can act simultaneously as hydrogen storage media and as reducing agents in chemical reactions. This multifunctional behaviour opens new possibilities for integrated energy storage and chemical production systems. The materials developed in the project showed exceptional thermal stability and resistance to deactivation compared with conventional catalysts. Their scalable synthesis and reduced reliance on critical raw materials make them promising candidates for sustainable industrial applications.
Another major advance was the discovery that boron nanosheets can act simultaneously as hydrogen storage media and as reducing agents in chemical reactions. This multifunctional behaviour opens new possibilities for integrated energy storage and chemical production systems. The materials developed in the project showed exceptional thermal stability and resistance to deactivation compared with conventional catalysts. Their scalable synthesis and reduced reliance on critical raw materials make them promising candidates for sustainable industrial applications.