Fluorocarbon bonds are no match for light-powered nanocatalyst
Lab unveils catalyst that can break problematic C-F bonds

Date:
June 22, 2020
Source:
Rice University
Summary:
Engineers have created a light-powered catalyst that can break
the strong chemical bonds in fluorocarbons, a group of synthetic
materials that includes persistent environmental pollutants.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
Rice University engineers have created a light-powered catalyst that can
break the strong chemical bonds in fluorocarbons, a group of synthetic materials that includes persistent environmental pollutants.


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In a study published this month in Nature Catalysis, Rice nanophotonics
pioneer Naomi Halas and collaborators at the University of California,
Santa Barbara (UCSB) and Princeton University showed that tiny spheres
of aluminum dotted with specks of palladium could break carbon-fluorine
(C-F) bonds via a catalytic process known as hydrodefluorination in
which a fluorine atom is replaced by an atom of hydrogen.

The strength and stability of C-F bonds are behind some of the 20th
century's most recognizable chemical brands, including Teflon, Freon
and Scotchgard. But the strength of those bonds can be problematic when fluorocarbons get into the air, soil and water. Chlorofluorocarbons,
or CFCs, for example, were banned by international treaty in the 1980s
after they were found to be destroying Earth's protective ozone layer,
and other fluorocarbons were on the list of "forever chemicals" targeted
by a 2001 treaty.

"The hardest part about remediating any of the fluorine-containing
compounds is breaking the C-F bond; it requires a lot of energy,"
said Halas, an engineer and chemist whose Laboratory for Nanophotonics
(LANP) specializes in creating and studying nanoparticles that interact
with light.

Over the past five years, Halas and colleagues have pioneered methods
for making "antenna-reactor" catalysts that spur or speed up chemical reactions.

While catalysts are widely used in industry, they are typically used in
energy- intensive processes that require high temperature, high pressure
or both. For example, a mesh of catalytic material is inserted into a high-pressure vessel at a chemical plant, and natural gas or another
fossil fuel is burned to heat the gas or liquid that's flowed through
the mesh. LANP's antenna-reactors dramatically improve energy efficiency
by capturing light energy and inserting it directly at the point of the catalytic reaction.

In the Nature Catalysis study, the energy-capturing antenna is an aluminum particle smaller than a living cell, and the reactors are islands of
palladium scattered across the aluminum surface. The energy-saving
feature of antenna- reactor catalysts is perhaps best illustrated by
another of Halas' previous successes: solar steam. In 2012, her team
showed its energy-harvesting particles could instantly vaporize water
molecules near their surface, meaning Halas and colleagues could make
steam without boiling water. To drive home the point, they showed they
could make steam from ice-cold water.



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The antenna-reactor catalyst design allows Halas' team to mix and match
metals that are best suited for capturing light and catalyzing reactions
in a particular context. The work is part of the green chemistry movement toward cleaner, more efficient chemical processes, and LANP has previously demonstrated catalysts for producing ethylene and syngas and for splitting ammonia to produce hydrogen fuel.

Study lead author Hossein Robatjazi, a Beckman Postdoctoral Fellow at
UCSB who earned his Ph.D. from Rice in 2019, conducted the bulk of the
research during his graduate studies in Halas' lab. He said the project
also shows the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration.

"I finished the experiments last year, but our experimental results
had some interesting features, changes to the reaction kinetics under illumination, that raised an important but interesting question: What
role does light play to promote the C-F breaking chemistry?" he said.

The answers came after Robatjazi arrived for his postdoctoral experience
at UCSB. He was tasked with developing a microkinetics model, and a
combination of insights from the model and from theoretical calculations performed by collaborators at Princeton helped explain the puzzling
results.

"With this model, we used the perspective from surface science in
traditional catalysis to uniquely link the experimental results to
changes to the reaction pathway and reactivity under the light," he said.

The demonstration experiments on fluoromethane could be just the beginning
for the C-F breaking catalyst.

"This general reaction may be useful for remediating many other types
of fluorinated molecules," Halas said.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Rice_University. Note: Content may
be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Hossein Robatjazi, Junwei Lucas Bao, Ming Zhang, Linan Zhou, Phillip
Christopher, Emily A. Carter, Peter Nordlander, Naomi
J. Halas. Plasmon- driven carbon-fluorine (C(sp3)-F) bond activation
with mechanistic insights into hot-carrier-mediated pathways. Nature
Catalysis, 2020; DOI: 10.1038/s41929-020-0466-5 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200622163821.htm

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