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Prof. Wenjie Shen’s Laboratory (Team 501): Laboratory of Catalytic Chemistry
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| Introduction: |
The group is headed by Prof. Dr. Wenjie SHEN, consisting of 3 staff scientists (Prof. Yide XU, Ms. Xiumin HUANG, Ms. Meiping SU), 1 postdoc fellow (Dr. Yibin SONG) and 12 graduate students. The research mainly focuses on the development of mechanistic understanding of chemical reactions that are potentially significant for energy production, storage, and conservation; environmental remediation and pollution prevention, renewable and fossil resource processing. Specifically, the topics cover the study of molecular processes and structure-activity relationships in the catalytic conversion of methane, methanol, dimethyl ether, and bio-ethanol. The catalytic conversion of methane to aromatics and hydrogen is aimed to effectively utilization of natural gas to produce chemicals (mainly benzene) and clean energy (hydrogen). Another reaction pathway for methane utilization is the stepwise reforming to produce CO-free hydrogen at lower temperatures. As for light oxygenates, methanol, DME, and bio-ethanol are now seriously considered as a source for fuel cell powered vehicles. The CO-free hydrogen production from steam reforming (or mixed oxidative reforming) of these light oxygenates requires highly active catalyst systems operative at low temperatures with. Meanwhile, we also have paid much attention to develop novel catalytic conversion pathways such as partial oxidation of DME, dehydrogenation of methanol, and isomerization of DME to ethanol. Great efforts have been made to understand the detailed mechanism of these reactions and to develop active catalysts.
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| Research Interests: |
Synthesis and assembly of monometallic and bimetallic catalysts as well as their applications in specific reactions.
The activation and dehydro-aromatization of methane; the activation and conversion of CO2; and organic catalysis in general and selective hydrogenation in particular.
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| Research Projects: |
(1) Methane dehydrogenation to aromatics and hydrogen in the absence of oxygen (Minstry of Science and Technology of China, 1999-2003; Project of CEFTF program between CAS and BP, 2002--, Fund RMB2.6 million)
(2) CO-free hydrogen production from methane stepwise steam reforming (GM Co.(2002-2004), Fund RMB0.4 million)
(3) Hydrogen production from bio-ethanol (Chinese Academy of Sciences (2001-2004), fund RMB1.2 million)
(4) Complete oxidation of methanol, DME, and CO at low temperatures (Chinese Academy of Sciences (2001-2004), RMB0.8 million)
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