Atomic-scale alloys as energy- and cost-efficient catalysts for fuels and chemicals production

原子级合金作为燃料和化学品生产的能源和成本效益高的催化剂

• 批准号: 1159882
• 负责人: Maria Flytzani-Stephanopoulos
• 金额: $ 35万
• 依托单位: Tufts University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-08-15 至 2016-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1159882&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Atomic; scale; alloys; energy; cost

Understanding the molecular-scale adsorption and dissociation behavior of a number of small molecules on catalytically relevant surfaces is crucial for the design of better working catalysts. More efficient, low-cost processes for the production of fuels and chemicals may be developed as a result. Professors Maria Flytzani-Stephanopoulos, Georgios Kyriakou and Charles Sykes form a team at Tufts University, Medford, MA which is receiving an award to utilize their expertise in heterogeneous catalysis and surface science to identify the factors that lead to enhanced catalytic activity and high selectivity of single-atom alloys, particularly aimed at small molecule activations. Their aim is to develop materials and methodologies that will enable wide ranging academic, technical and industrial applications of these catalysts for heterogeneous hydrogenations. The approach is to use a minority metal component such as Pd present as isolated atoms in another metal like Cu, such that the former induces different catalytic properties on the latter. In this example, the Pd atoms can serve to dissociate H2 molecules, and spill over atomic hydrogen to the host metal. Hence the Pd atoms serve as conduits of H atoms to the Cu surface which can now facilitate hydrogenation reactions with gaseous H2, reactions which have been impossible in the previous literature. This novel catalyst system not only reduces the higher temperatures typically required to activate H2 on Cu catalysts and hence reduces waste heat in products but also allows for more selective hydrogenations to proceed at lower temperatures without decomposition observed on the pure metals. In addition to these benefits, alloy particles in which the expensive, active element is atomically dispersed should dramatically reduce the cost of the catalyst materials.The interdisciplinary nature of the project will clearly impact the education of graduate students and postgraduate fellows at Tufts. Extensive training of young researchers at Brookhaven National Laboratory is planned in the project. A significant number of women students comprise the PI and co-PIs groups, and they will participate in some aspects of the project, while the Tufts summer scholars program for undergraduates will be used to recruit other under- represented groups. To increase dissemination, existing websites of the Nano Catalysis and Energy lab and the Surface Science Sykes lab will add video clips and relevant information material on this project to promote this work both as an educational resource and a recruiting tool.

了解一些小分子在催化相关表面上的分子尺度吸附和解离行为对于设计更好的工作催化剂至关重要。因此，可以开发出更有效、低成本的燃料和化学品生产工艺。Maria Flytzani-Stephanopoulos教授，Georgios Kyriakou和Charles Sykes在马萨诸塞州梅德福的塔夫茨大学组成了一个团队，该团队正在接受一个奖项，利用他们在多相催化和表面科学方面的专业知识来确定导致单原子合金增强催化活性和高选择性的因素，特别是针对小分子活化。他们的目标是开发材料和方法，使这些催化剂在多相加氢中得到广泛的学术，技术和工业应用。该方法是使用少数金属组分，如Pd，作为另一种金属如Cu中的孤立原子存在，使得前者在后者上诱导不同的催化性能。在该示例中，Pd原子可以用于解离H2分子，并且将原子氢溢出到主体金属。因此，Pd原子充当H原子到Cu表面的管道，其现在可以促进与气态H2的氢化反应，该反应在以前的文献中是不可能的。这种新型催化剂体系不仅降低了通常在Cu催化剂上活化H2所需的较高温度，因此减少了产物中的废热，而且允许在较低温度下进行更选择性的氢化，而不会在纯金属上观察到分解。除了这些好处，合金颗粒中的昂贵的，活性元素原子分散应显着降低催化剂材料的成本。该项目的跨学科性质将明显影响塔夫茨大学研究生和研究生研究员的教育。该项目计划对布鲁克海文国家实验室的年轻研究人员进行广泛培训。相当多的女学生组成了PI和co-PI小组，她们将参加该项目的某些方面，而塔夫茨大学本科生暑期奖学金方案将用于招募其他代表性不足的群体。为了增加传播，纳米催化和能源实验室和表面科学赛克斯实验室的现有网站将增加关于该项目的视频剪辑和相关信息材料，以促进这项工作作为教育资源和招聘工具。