Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	EP/I007601/1
Title:	Understanding Bio-induced Selectivity in Nanoparticle Catalyst Manufacture
Principal Investigator:	Attard, Professor GA
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:	Johnson Matthey
Department:	Chemistry
Organisation:	Cardiff University
Scheme:	Standard Research
Starts:	01 May 2011	Ends:	30 April 2014	Value (£):	341,076
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	Catalysis & Applied Catalysis Reactor Engineering
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:	Chemicals
Related Grants:	EP/I007806/1
Panel History:	Panel Date Panel Name Outcome 07 Jul 2010 Process, Environment and Sustainability Announced
Summary on Grant Application Form
This project proposes to make highly selective nano-particulate catalysts using a novel method ('biocasting') for a set of defined catalytic reactions and to develop understanding of how to control the catalyst manufacturing process to achieve the desired selectivity which is not readily achieved using chemical manufacturing alone.. Controlled growth of metal nanoparticles in various naturally occurring and modified bacteria will be used to produce the required catalysts supported on cell surfaces.Previous work, has demonstrated that bacteria can be used as a catalyst support for nanoparticulate metals, including platinum and palladium. The process involves reducing the metal enzymatically from a salt solution over a bacterial culture, with templating and stabilisation achieved using biochemical components at the living/nonliving interface, followed by post-processing, which kills the bacterial cells but retains the special catalytic properties of nanoparticles. Such materials have been shown to provide selectivity towards desirable products in catalytic reactions including double bond isomerisation and selective hydrogenation, but at present there is a lack of understanding of why this superior selectivity occurs. One factor may be the crystal structure, including the ratios of edge to terrace and corner atoms which influence the adsorption of reactants upon the catalyst surface. Another effect is the rate of diffusion of reactants to the metal surface. This proposal will develop understanding of why the nanoparticles give rise to superior catalytic selectivity, and thus will enable the rational design and production of nanoparticles for given applications. The present proposal will seek to clean the biotemplated metal particles using chemical and electrochemical methods in order to control the metal cluster morphology, and to block selectively certain active sites on the catalyst using Bi, Pb, sulphur or bacterially derived agents incorporated at the synthesis stage. By switching on or off active sites in this way and associated characterization and testing of the catalysts, it will be possible to identify which types of sites are associated with favourable selectivity in chemical transformations.The produced catalysts will be characterized using a range of techniques which will elucidate information about the nanoparticle size, shape, cluster structure, redox behaviour, electrochemical and spectroscopic behaviour (SERS, XPS, XRD, TPD, DRIFTS and CV). Catalytic selectivity will be studied in a range of selective hydrogenation and double bond isomerisation reactions. The ultimate goal is to replace Lindlar catalysts based on lead modified palladium and other transition metals with more environmentally benign alternatives; previous studies in ours and collaborators' laboratories have shown that the precious metal can be supplemented with cheap metals such as Fe and can even be sourced as such mixtures from waste and scrap for economic manufacture.Current methods for nanoparticle manufacture are not 'clean' and/or not scalable. The major advantage of biomanufacturing is its scalability; we have routinely grown several kilos of the bacteria at the 600 litre scale in our pilot plant. As part of this project we will make Bio-Pd preparations at the 30-100 litre scale (batch cultures), checking the small-scale and large-scale NP products for conserved properties, and also stock aliquots for shelf-life evaluation.
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Organisation Website:	http://www.cf.ac.uk