| Biography | |
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 Dr. Maciej Trejda Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland |
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| Title: Nanostructured silicas with enhanced acidity – new concepts of synthesis | |
| Abstract: Catalytic processes based on solid acidic materials are very important as a great variety of valuable products can be obtained in the presence of acid sites. Nevertheless, most of esterification processes are mainly based on the application of mineral acids used as homogeneous catalysts. However, the application of mineral acids leads to some difficulties, for example related to corrosion of equipment or production of large amounts of waste products. Therefore, many attempts have been undertaken to eliminate the above-mentioned problems via the process heterogenization. On the other hand, a bulky character of reactants dictates the application of solid catalysts having a porous nature which permits the diffusion to/from the active centers. The preferred support for such catalyst are mesoporous silicas with defined porous structure. The acidic catalysts obtained by the immobilization of organosilanes on silica supports will be presented in the lecture. A different methodology for the material synthesis leading to an increase in the number or the strength of acidic sites will be discussed. The activity of the catalysts proposed were examined in different esterification processes including acetic and propionic acid esterification with glycerol, ethanol, 2-propanol, n-butanol or n-hexanol. These processes could be considered as model test reactions but they are also important from the industrial point of view. For instant glycerol is a side product of biodiesel formation from vegetable oils. The esterification of acetic acid with this alcohol leads, inter alia, to formation of triacetin, which is the valuable additive for biodiesel blending. In this context the focus of the lecture will also refer to the environmental aspects dealing with the so-called "green chemistry". | |
| Biography: Maciej Trejda obtained his D.Sc. in 2005 (title of thesis: “Characterization of iron active species in mesoporous materials and silica”, PhD thesis supervisor: prof. dr hab. Maria Ziółek) and a postdoctoral degree of habilitation in 2015 (title of scientific achievement: “Nanoporous materials effective in transformation of alcohols”). In 2005 he became an assistant professor at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Faculty of Chemistry, and since 2018 he is an associate professor at the same Univeristy. From 2020 he is a head of Department of Heterogeneous Catalysis. He is a co-author of more than 80 publications (45 JCR) and more than 100 communications. He completed numerous internships abroad: France (Institut de Recherches sur la Catalyse, CNRS, Villeurbanne - 2002; Laboratoire Catalyse et Spectrochimie, ISMRA Universite, Caen – 2003 and 2006), Germany (Technische Universität Dresden – 2004), The Netherlands (Delft University of Technology, Delft - 2007) and Taiwan (National Tsing Hua Univeristy, Hsinchu – 2018). He was a secretary of 6th International Symposium on Group Five Elements (Poznań, 2008). In the period of 2015-2018 he was a Vice-President of the Polish Zeolite Association. Maciej Trejda was a Managing and Guest Editor of a special issue of Catalysis Today “Fascinating Catalysis”. He has received more than 20 different awards for research achievements and teaching quality. | |
