SusChEM: Oxide-Derived Metal Nanoparticles for CO2 Electroreduction Catalysis

在这个由美国国家科学基金化学催化项目资助的项目中，Kanan教授和他的学生将开发和研究将二氧化碳转化为燃料和合成构件的多相电催化剂。这项研究将集中在一种名为“氧化物衍生金属纳米颗粒”的新型催化剂上。这些催化剂是通过电化学还原大块金属氧化物前体形成金属纳米颗粒制备的，具有显著提高的CO2还原能量效率和抗失活能力。表面结构将通过电化学技术、光谱方法和高分辨率电子显微镜的结合来探测，并辅以电动测量来阐明二氧化碳还原的机理特征。在进行实验活动的同时，该项目的研究人员将对二氧化碳回收的电化学、光电化学和化学方法进行高水平的比较分析。长期依赖化石燃料作为社会的主要能源来源，使大气中的二氧化碳浓度达到了前所未有的水平，这就需要利用可再生能源投入将二氧化碳再循环为燃料。拟议的研究解决了实现这一愿景的最大科学障碍之一：开发节能和选择性二氧化碳还原催化剂。这些催化剂可以被整合到一个电解装置中，当由光伏或风力涡轮机供电时，该装置可以产生碳基燃料。

In this project funded by the Chemical Catalysis Program of the National Science Foundation, Professor Kanan and his students will develop and study heterogeneous electrocatalysts for the conversion of CO2 into fuels and synthetic building blocks. The research will focus on a new class of catalysts called "oxide-derived metal nanoparticles". These catalysts are prepared by electrochemically reducing bulk metal oxide precursors to form metallic nanoparticles, which exhibit dramatically improved energetic efficiency for CO2 reduction and resistance to deactivation. The surface structures will be probed by a combination of electrochemical techniques, spectroscopic methods and high-resolution electron microscopy, which are complemented by electrokinetic measurements to illuminate mechanistic features of CO2 reduction. Concurrent with their experimental activities, researchers in this project will perform high-level comparative analyses of electrochemical, photoelectrochemical and chemical approaches to CO2 recycling.The longstanding reliance on fossil fuels as the principal energy source for society has boosted the atmospheric CO2 concentration to an unprecedented level, which necessitates recycling CO2 into fuels using renewable energy inputs. The proposed research addresses one of the greatest scientific hurdles to this vision: the development of energy-efficient and selective CO2 reduction catalysts. These catalysts could be incorporated into an electrolytic device that produces carbon-based fuels when powered by a photovoltaic or wind turbine.