Catalysts for Conversion of Ethanol to n-Butanol in Water

The conversion of the greenhouse gas CO2 into a sustainable fuel source is a chemical approach to a wide-reaching ecological problem. Current efforts are being made to convert CO2 into ethanol. Ethanol is a fuel itself and can be used as a fuel additive to gasoline, but there are better fuel alternatives than ethanol. This work investigates the conversion of ethanol to the more useful n-butanol via the Guerbet process with organometallic catalyst design. This is done through the synthesis of ten distinct iridium and ruthenium catalyst candidates. Although other catalysts have shown some viability for this process under the required aqueous reduced temperature conditions, there is still much room for improvement.Bachelor of Scienc