Advancing Organosodium Chemistry for Diesel Fuel Technology and Battery Technology

Sustainability is now one of the foremost drivers of modern research chemistry. It is evident that elements that may be under a supply risk due to low natural abundance, overexploitation or geopolitical factors need to be replaced by other elements that are earth abundant, especially if the rare elements have important technological uses. Diverse in its scope, this project covers two distinct, but connected topics of industrial significance each of which involves the development of sodium chemistry. The most abundant alkali metal on earth in both the crust and the oceans, sodium has an estimated crustal abundance of 23,600 ppm compared to only 16 ppm for its lighter alkali metal congener lithium. The project will be collaborative with Innospec, a global specialty chemicals company.
Objective 1: Sodium causes problems in diesel engines as it is a major component in internal injector deposits. Injection systems have design features that are conducive to deposit formation. Such deposits cause rough idling, power loss, high emissions, high-pressure fuel pump wear, injector sticking, internal component corrosion and engine failure. To explain the engine test results it is proposed to synthesise compounds and to grow single crystals and determine the structures of these presumed sodium carboxylates with changes in stoichiometry, first in simple organic solvents, then with, for example, trace water present. Resultant complexes will be studied with regard to their structure and ability to be solubilised by diesel. Attempts will be made to synthesise these same complexes in diesel and compare their properties, and to correlate structurally to injector needle deposits.
Objective 2: Lithium organic compounds are valuable intermediates for constructing compounds, finding widespread utility in the manufacture of numerous common commodities including agrochemicals, dyes, perfumes/cosmetics, medicines and pharmaceuticals. With demand for lithium increasing exponentially on account of energy storage applications (e.g., in mobile phones and electric/hybrid vehicles), and facing the prospect of a supply chain risk for lithium, chemists will soon need to find a suitable substitute to maintain or exceed their molecule building capacity. Here, the vision is to develop a complementary organosodium chemistry since sodium is 1500 times more earth abundant than lithium and offers vast untapped potential in synthesis. Different synthetic approaches, some monometallic, some bimetallic, will be utilised to prepare new sodium based species for potential synthetic exploitation. Both contacted and charge-separated structures will be targeted, with the latter providing candidates for non-aqueous electrolytes for sodium batteries. Advancing small molecule activation chemistry using organosodium compounds and comparing and contrasting this with other organometallic compounds will also be a major focus.