SGER: Electrically-Activated Nanocatalysts for Hydrogen Production

该提案的目的是研究当使用电流预处理催化剂时增强催化剂活性的机制。 在初步工作中，首席研究员发现，当电流通过催化剂时，相对于热预处理，氧化铟/锡催化剂将甲醇选择性氧化为氢气的活性得到增强。 这种反应对于便携式燃料电池应用特别重要，其中氢气可以从甲醇中产生，而甲醇比氢气更容易储存。将研究维持增强激活所需的电流和温度的组合。 将使用纳米颗粒和较大的催化剂颗粒来研究催化剂颗粒尺寸。 将测量反应局部温度梯度的影响以确定颗粒上的局部温度是否升高。 其他有机反应将被研究以确定这种新奇的效应是否更普遍。 如果成功，这项工作将有助于提高燃料电池的性能，并更广泛地了解对提高催化剂活性可能有用的效应。

The objective of this proposal is to investigate the mechanism of enhanced catalyst activity when electrical current is used to pretreat the catalyst. In preliminary work the PI discovered that the activity of an indium/tin oxide catalyst for the selective oxidation of methanol to hydrogen is enhanced relative to thermal pretreatment when an electrical current is passed through the catalyst. This reaction of is particular interest for portable fuel-cell applications, where hydrogen could be generated from methanol, which is more easily stored than hydrogen. The combination of electrical current and temperature required to maintain enhanced activation will be studied. Catalyst particle size will be studied by using both nanoparticles and larger catalyst particles. Effects of reaction local temperature gradients will be measured to determine whether local temperature on the particles is elevated. Other organic reactions will be studied to determine whether this novel effect is more general. If successful, this work could contribute to improved fuel-cell performance and more broadly to an understanding of an effect potentially useful for the improvement of catalyst activity.