In the reporting period, the researchers have conceived and demonstrated four new tandem chemical processes, at laboratory scale, which provide direct access to important platform chemicals, such as oxygenates and nitrogenated organic compounds, exclusively from renewable resources (CO2 and their direct derivatives syngas and dimethylether). Such direct chemical routes did not exist previously and rely on a controlled growth of hydrocarbon chains from the single-carbon-atom building blocks and subsequent functionalization. Four patent applications have been filed on these innovations. The new conversion routes provide means to reduce the carbon footprint of important chemical production value chains. Moreover, the results contribute to realize the full potential of the concept of "tandem catalysis", according to which, the integration of two or more catalysts in a single reactor can deliver performances out of reach for each of the catalysts operating individually, in a conventional multi-step conversion process scheme.
Moreover, the TANDEng project has contributed to highlight and exploit the synergies between different catalysis subdisciplines which had been hitherto considered mutually excluding, that is "homogeneous catalysis" which employs molecular compounds in solution as catalysts, and "heterogeneous catalysis" which develops solid materials as catalysts. Traditionally, scientists have perceived these two realms of catalysis as a dichotomy, with complementary benefits and drawbacks, but difficult to reconcile. Results achieved in this TANDEng project break with this dichotomy and demonstrate a catalytic process that integrates solid and molecular catalysts cooperating in a single conversion stage.
Building on the tools and knowledge developed thus far, in the remaining of the project's implementation, until the end of the project, the team expects to extend the concept of tandem operation in chemical production, beyond the combination of different catalyst materials, further towards the integration of additional functionalities such as sensing or sorption.
