The forefront of renewable fuel research | #Onthebeamlines photos
Originally posted on the Canadian Light Source Facebook (Boy did the camera not agree with me that day…)
On the Beamlines: Dr. Xue Wang and Jehad Abed are part of a University of Toronto research team, the Sargent Group, that specializes in renewable fuels.
"Canada has a great opportunity to lead the research in electrochemical conversion of water and CO2 into renewable fuels and chemical feedstocks," says Abed, a U of T PhD student.
The research team favors synchrotron techniques for this work, because the bright, high-flux light allows them to study chemical reactions in the same conditions industry would use them in. By mimicking industry, they are able to connect directly to end-user applications for their research.
Being able to run electrochemical reactions at the beamline with minimal adjustments to actual reactor design, enables the team to study catalysts closer under real conditions and transfer the knowledge faster to industry.
For the team, the bright light of the synchrotron unfolds substantial atomic knowledge buried within layers of materials. They can in study changes in the atomic local environment of the catalyst under reaction conditions real time, which helps reveal important information about the nature of the catalyst.
Also exciting and not part of the original post: Jehad just was awarded a Vanier! Truly everyone from the Sargent group blows me away.
