Iridium-Based Alloys as Alternative Catalysts for Ethanol Oxidation Fuel Cell Reactions: Experimental and First Principles-based Investigation

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CBET-1159662Teng, XiaoweiTechnical impacts:The aim of this investigation is to develop and use fundamental understanding of the structure electroactivity relationship to drive research in devising highly active and efficient anode catalysts for direct ethanol fuel cell reactions. Ethanol is a promising fuel in power technologies due to its high energy density, low toxicity, and availability from sources including biomass. The current platinum-based catalysts offer slow kinetics and inefficient electro-oxidation selectivity. The PIs propose to study iridium-based anode catalysts to improve the efficiency of the oxidation of ethanol to carbon dioxide. The impetus for iridium is some very preliminary indications that iridium will offer superior activity and selectivity in comparison to platinum. It is known that iridium will be more active than platinum for carbon-carbon bond breaking, and may therefore lead to improved activity for oxidation. Depending on the relative performance, the results will feed the modeling work. This work then will perhaps offer an improved choice relative to platinum and iridium, as these are rare and expensive elements. The fundamental science to be developed is the key technical gain for this effort. Broader impacts: Replacing platinum with an alternative, more efficient anode nanocatalyst is likely to have a significant impact on direct ethanol fuel cell technology. This technology is one of several that support the nation's effort to diversify its energy supply portfolio. This is a cross-disciplinary effort which joins material science, electrochemistry, and catalysis in the fuel cell studies. Students will have the opportunity to learn something of each of these disciplines, and will also receive direct training at national laboratory facilities. In addition to these excellent training opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students, the PI intends to utilize two programs available to him on the campus of University of New Hampshire. These are the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship and Research Experience and Apprenticeship Program, and the University of New Hampshire Science and Mathematics Achievement through Research Training Project. Both emphasize exposure, training, and recruiting of under-represented students. This award is being made to Professors Xiaowei Teng from the University of New Hampshire, Nathaniel Deskins from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and Anatoly Frenkel from Yeshiva University, New York. The proposal is of special interest from a technical point of view as it combines computation, synthesis, and fuel cell performance measurements in a nice package. The students will carry out electro-catalysis experimentation and then use results combined with computational studies to direct their further synthesis experiments. As such, it is a collaborative effort, requiring all three investigators in order to offer the disciplinary breadth required by this project. As further demonstration of the collaborative nature of this proposal, the PI intends to employ beamline time at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Students will thus learn these techniques in addition to the standard laboratory procedures, and will understand how and where National Laboratory facilities fit into their future research plans.