Our group member Baozhai Han has successfully defended his PhD dissertation entitled: “Silver based catalysts for the selective oxidation of cyclic hydrocarbons under mild conditions”. Well done Dr. Han!
The direct selective oxidation of hydrocarbons is an important process both in industry and academia to produce oxygen containing compounds by the transformation of petrochemical feedstock, like methane, cyclohexane, ethylbenzene, cyclooctane. In the oxidation process, molecular oxygen is employed for the partial oxidation of hydrocarbons to desired corresponding alcohols or ketones. Nowadays, more than 90% of organic compounds are derived from petrochemicals that are saturated hydrocarbons.
Silver supported metal nanoparticles were developed to carry out these transformations at a low energetic cost.
Conte Catalysis Group - University of Sheffield, UK 