DESIGN OF SUSTAINABLE METAL-BASED MULTIFUNCTIONAL CATALYSTS SUPPORTED ON POROUS CARBIDES FOR HYDROGENATION REACTIONS

Work package:
DESIGN OF SUSTAINABLE METAL-BASED MULTIFUNCTIONAL CATALYSTS SUPPORTED ON POROUS CARBIDES FOR HYDROGENATION REACTIONS Internship supervisor(s) Name: Clément Molinet-Chinaglia and Jérémy Soulié e-mail: : clement.molinetchinaglia@toulouse-inp.fr group: Fundamental and applied sustainable catalysis (Team C) Location Laboratoire de Chimie de Coordination (LCC) campus at 205 Route de Narbonne, and ENSIACET at 4 Allée Emile Monso at INP campus This research master's degree research project could be followed by a PhD ☒ YES ☐ NO ABSTRACT In a context of metal scarcity, energy constraints, and geopolitical instability, the design of efficient, sustainable, and economically competitive catalysts is a major challenge. A key strategy is to use ultra-dispersed metals (single atoms, clusters, nanoparticles) to maximize the number of active sites while reducing the amount of metal.1 A new challenge is to introduce controlled disorder into the system, thereby increasing the heterogeneity of active sites and enhancing possible synergies. This project will therefore explore an innovative approach: introducing controlled disorder in Ni- and Ru-based catalysts supported on hierarchical porous materials such as carbides. The objective is to study the synergies between metallic species of different sizes2-4 and the disordered structure of the support,5 on catalytic performance in hydrogenation reactions such as CO2 reduction (Figure 1). The internship will involve: • Synthesis of hierarchical molybdenum carbide, combining shaping of biosourced polymers by the freeze-casting process with a subsequent carbonization step.6 • Metal deposition either during support synthesis or via impregnation and colloidal methods, enabling precise control of particle size and composition, • Characterization of materials by electron microscopies (SEM, STEM), spectroscopies (XPS, Raman, DRIFTS), thermal (TGA, DSC) and textural analysis, • Catalytic evaluation in hydrogenation reactions, establishing structure–activity relationships. This multidisciplinary work will provide new design principles for more efficient and sustainable hydrogenation catalysts, while offering broad training in materials chemistry, heterogeneous catalysis, and advanced characterization techniques.