SILICA-BASED HOLLOW FUNCTIONAL SPHERES FOR SUSTAINABLE CATALYTIC PROCESSES

Abstract

This thesis focuses on four derivatives of hollow silica-based catalysts with spherical morphology. Specifically, across the four experimental chapters of this thesis, a greater insight will be paid on how to tune the extent of the hollowed core and shell thickness. Furthermore, while retaining all advantages brought by the hollow core, tailoring multicomponent catalytic particles onto the shell or the hollow core will result in producing “integrated nanocatalysts (INCs)” that can suit targeted reaction systems. Subsequently, depending on the structure and composition of each hollow structure, the catalytic advantages of these INCs have been illustrated with different model reactions. Amongst the targeted applications, our attention was mainly paid to olefin oxidation as well as CO2 conversion reactions. For the latter, we investigated CO2 hydrogenation to methanol and C2 chemicals as well as CO2 reforming of methane.