“Australia has an abundance of simple hydrocarbons, which are fossil fuels made of hydrogen and carbon, like methane and propane,” says lead researcher, Professor Jason Dutton.
“Hydrocarbons provide energy and are also used as raw materials in the chemical industry. In fact, almost everything you touch has some form of this fossil fuel in it.”
“At the moment, we sell these raw products overseas for next to nothing and then buy them back at much higher prices as fuel to burn for energy or heat, which is very inefficient.”
To address this, Professor Dutton’s research group is developing new chemicals that can transform hydrocarbons cheaply and efficiently, right here in Australia.
To make the raw chemical into a useful and more valuable product, it must undergo a transformation, called oxidation, which requires powerful oxidising agents.
“Our research is focused on inventing more reactive oxidizing agents which can do this transformation on the lab bench at room temperature without any special equipment. Current technology often requires hundreds of degrees and very high pressures to achieve the chemistry” Professor Dutton explains.
Dr Dutton and his team recently made a breakthrough by introducing a chemical structure called a carborane cage to oxidizing agents, resulting in a much more reactive chemical.
“This means we can explore reactions that were once considered impossible, potentially turning cheap hydrocarbons into valuable products in ways we could never have done before.”
