First principle chemical kinetics in nanoporous materials

Objective

The design of an optimal catalyst for a given process is at the heart of what chemists do, but is in many times more an art than a science. The quest for molecular control of any, either existing or new, production process is one of the great challenges nowadays. The need for accurate rate constants is crucial to fulfil this task. Molecular modelling has become a ubiquitous tool in many fields of science and engineering, but still the calculation of reaction rates in nanoporous materials is hardly performed due to major methodological bottlenecks. The aim of this proposal is the accurate prediction of chemical kinetics of catalytic reactions taking place in nanoporous materials from first principles. Two types of industrially important nanoporous materials are considered: zeotype materials including the standard alumino-silicates but also related alumino-phosphates and the fairly new Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs). New physical models are proposed to determine: (i) accurate reaction barriers that account for long range host/guest interactions and (ii)the preexponential factor within a harmonic and anharmonic description, using cluster and periodic models and by means of static and dynamic approaches. The applications are carefully selected to benchmark the influence of each of the methodological issues on the final reaction rates. For the zeotype materials, reactions taking place during the Methanol-to-Olefin process (MTO) are chosen. A typical MTO catalyst is composed of an inorganic cage with essential organic compounds interacting as a supramolecular catalyst. For the hybrid materials, firstly accurate interaction energies between xylene based isomers and MOF framework, will be determined. The outcome serves as a step-stone for the study of oxidation reactions. This proposal creates perspectives for the design of tailor made catalyst from the molecular level.

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: The European Science Vocabulary.

• natural sciences chemical sciences organic chemistry
• natural sciences chemical sciences electrochemistry electrolysis
• natural sciences chemical sciences catalysis

Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

• materials

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

• FP7-IDEAS-ERC - Specific programme: "Ideas" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013)

Topic(s)

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.

• ERC-SG-ID1 - ERC Starting Grant Interdisciplinary Panel

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

ERC-2009-StG
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

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ERC-SG - ERC Starting Grant

Host institution

Beneficiaries (1)