Tomas Bata University in Zlín

One hundred times more efficient catalysts for the chemical industry from the Centre of Polymer Systems of TBU

Researchers from the Centre of Polymer Systems are working on new catalysts for a more efficient processing of refinery by-products, as well as for a use of renewable resources and reduction of the energy required for these processes. The team led by David Škoda, Ph.D. collaborates with the group of Prof. Yuriy Román-Leshkov from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the USA, which is ranked first in the world university rankings. Other researchers involved in this work are from teams of Aleš Stýskalík, Ph.D. from Masaryk University in Brno and Prof. Damien Debecker from Université catholique de Louvain (Belgium). The research is focused on the study and development of catalysts for converting propene to ethylene and butane, which are essential feedstock in many industrial processes. This work has been supported by a three-year grant (No LUAUS23085), and an original method for a preparation of a molybdenum-containing silicate catalyst has already been developed in the first year of the project implementation. The activity of prepared catalysts is 2 orders of magnitude higher compared to other conventional catalysts currently used for the same purpose. The results of this research have been published recently as Propylene Metathesis over Molybdenum Silicate Microspheres with Dispersed Active Sites in the distinguished journal ACS Catalysis ( https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acscatal.3c02045 ) ranked among the top in the category of chemistry journals worldwide.