Cascade Conversion of Biomass Platform Chemicals with Multifunctional Zeolitic Materials

The aim of the project is to develop well defined, multifunctional, zeolitic materials bearing Bronsted acid, Lewis acid and basic sites that are able to effect cascade reactions of biomass platform molecules. Elucidating how the nature and location of the differing catalytic components affects the overall catalytic function will provide structure function models for future catalyst design. The location of the disparate catalytic functionalities will be controlled via rationalised synthetic approaches such as organometallic grafting. The multistep conversion of selected bio-derived platform molecules, such as ethanol and acetic acid, will be explored using both batch and flow reactors.