SYNTHESIS, STRUCTURE AND ACTIVITY OF NANOCATALYSTS FOR ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY
WG3 members: Leonarda Liotta, Anna Venezia, Valeria La Parola, Giuseppe Pantaleo, Alessandro Longo, Francesca Deganello, Fabrizio Puleo, Guo Shaoli
homepage: www.ismn.cnr.it
The activity aims at the design and investigation of structural and catalytic properties of noble metal catalysts (like Pd, Pt, Au) supported on reducible oxides (like ceria, cobalt oxides, perovskites) for post-treatments of gasoline and diesel engine emissions (NOx, CO, unburned hydrocarbons, VOCs abatement). New Ni and Ni-doped catalysts for methane partial oxidation and methane dry reforming reactions in order to obtain syngas are also studied. The goal is the understanding of the structure activity relationship through deep characterization of electronic and structural properties by using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS, AES), SAXS, XRD and EXAFS in situ techniques (synchrotron radiation facilities in Grenoble).
The activity aims also at the design of perovskite oxides as cathodes/anodes for SOFCs with particular attention to the processing parameters involved in the synthesis procedures (like sol-gel technique and combustion synthesis) in order to gain information relevant to the relationships between synthesis, structure and functional properties of the materials.
