C-Cycle
Lead Research Organisation:
University of East Anglia
Department Name: Chemistry
Abstract
Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas and so a major environmental pollutant. Energy production produces vast volumes of the gas that is released into the atmosphere. While carbon dioxide is taken up by plants and converted into useful chemical buliding blocks such as sugars, deforestation, increasing urbanisation and an ever increasing demand to energy means that the carbon dioxide cycle is becoming increasingly unbalanced. Furthermore, global oil and gas supplies are decreasing at an alarming rate and these are the feedstocks of the energy and petrochemicals industries.In this project which is located at eight top UK universities, we intend to capture some of the carbon dioxide produced in industrial processes and reconvert it into chemical feedstocks using advanced materials technology and specifically designed catalysts. The aim is to develop a sustainable carbon economy through efficient recycling of waste materials: the C-Cycle. Recent UK government initiatives have placed the emphasis for waste management in the hands of the municipal incinerators (which produce carbon dioxide) with a move away from the environmentally harmful landfill that are used in many regions. Not only will this project directly address UK government policy in waste management, it will take it one step further by producing high value products from the process: as the saying goes where there's muck there's brass! .
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Sean Bew (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Bew S
(2007)
Upper Rim Appended Hybrid Calixarenes via Click Chemistry
in Organic Letters
Bew S
(2009)
Mass spectroscopic investigation of bis-1,3-urea calix[4]arenes and their ability to complex N-protected a-amino acids
in Journal of Inclusion Phenomena and Macrocyclic Chemistry
Bew SP
(2009)
Hybrid calix[4]arenes via ionic hydrogenation and transition-metal-mediated processes.
in Organic letters
| Description | This project was initiated from a bottom up approach. We needed to synthesise a series of previously unknown molecules based on the calix[4]arene motif and investigate their potential to undergo a supramolecular interaction with CO2. The synthesis of bespoke calix[4]arene motifs with suitable urea groups appended onto the upper-rim was not trivial. Ultimately we did indeed succeed in this challenge and this was accomplished using in the first instance 'click' chemistry and in the second instance an ionic hydrogenation protocol. In both cases new chemistry had to be developed and refined. Due to the time taken to generate these molecules time was of the essence and studies were undertaken, albeit rather limited, to investigate their potential to undergo supramolecular interactions with both CO2 and more tangibly amino acids. The second part of this work was successful. Current research is investigating the potential synthesis of novel polyfluorinated calix[4]arene entities and their ability to bind CO2. |