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Research

In recent years, the research into alternative sources for chemical value chains other than fossil sources has gained a lot of interest. Besides being a finite resource, fossil sources extraction and refinement heavily contributes to the emission of greenhouse gases. When sourced from biomass, chemicals leave a significantly lower impact on the environment. A crucial step in the implementation of biomass refinement is the conversion from basic chemicals to fine chemicals and so called drop-ins for already existing value chains.

One such example is the conversion from dicarboxylic acids such as succinic acids or levulinic acid to N-Vinyl-2-pyrrolidones (NVP), a monomer for Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP). To enable the conversion, heterogenous bimetallic catalysts containing metals such as Pt and Mo will be used. PVP finds broad applications such as a non-toxic binding agent in the pharmaceutical industry and for uses in UV-hardened resins and many more.

The work will focus on the optimization of the catalyst in regard to the loading and composition of the precious metals such as Pt, in order to create a highly active as well as inexpensive catalyst. Furthermore, the structure activity relationship of the applied precious metals will be investigated.