SGER: Electrically-Activated Nanocatalysts for Hydrogen Production

该方案的目的是研究电流对催化剂进行预处理时提高催化剂活性的机理。在初步工作中，PI发现，当电流通过催化剂时，与热预处理相比，铟/锡氧化物催化剂对甲醇选择氧化制氢的活性提高。这种反应对便携式燃料电池应用特别感兴趣，在便携式燃料电池应用中，可以从甲醇中产生氢气，甲醇比氢气更容易储存。将研究维持增强活化所需的电流和温度的组合。将同时使用纳米颗粒和较大的催化剂颗粒来研究催化剂的颗粒大小。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。将对其他有机反应进行研究，以确定这种新效应是否更普遍。如果成功，这项工作可能有助于改善燃料电池的性能，并从更广泛的角度理解可能有助于改善催化剂活性的影响。

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.