Inorganic Chemistry: Adsorption and Catalysis.

Although much research is focused on the synthesis of materials and their applications, the attention for understanding the impact of structural and physicochemical properties on the performance of materials in various applications is an interesting, challenging field that still requires a lot of efforts. Indeed, the know-how on this matter can provide valuable feedback in order to control the synthesis of materials with properties engineered and adjusted to the specific applications as well as important know-how for more process related and application driven studies. It is the indispensable bridge between material design and development, technology and applications.In addition, synthesis methods are often first developed for powder applications. However, supported layers and coatings are frequently needed in several applications since they are technologically essential (e.g. membranes), avoid leaching or toxicity [ ] etc. A good know-how on the impact of the support on the structural and physicochemical properties of the layer with respect to the powder synthesis or modification is crucial to allow a fast translation of the good and controllable properties of powders to coated materials. Therefore, my research will focus on studying the structural and physicochemical surface properties (obtained via controlled synthesis) in order to rationalize their superior or inferior performance in several selected applications as well as modifying these porous materials via post-synthesis treatments to alter their physicochemical properties and interactions with molecules. The main materials that will be studied are on the one hand mesoporous titania materials (powders, films and membranes) for photo-induced processes (e.g. photocatalysis and photovoltaïcs) and separation and on the other hand functionalized materials (hybrid organic-inorganic materials and zeolitic modified materials) with focus on the interaction of molecules with the functional groups. The main topics will be:1) Mesoporous titania materials for photo-induced applications2) Studying the role of the support on thin film and membrane preparation3) Hybrid organic-inorganic functionalized materials and their interactions with molecules.3.1) Post-synthesis modification of metal oxide powders and membranes3.2) Periodic mesoporous organosilica materials with enhanced functionalities4) Mesoporous materials with zeolitic functionalities

Keywords:CATALYSIS, ADSORPTION

Disciplines:Analytical chemistry, Inorganic chemistry, Macromolecular and materials chemistry, Organic chemistry, Theoretical and computational chemistry, Other chemical sciences