CAREER: SusChem: Reversible Ionic Surfactants for Surface-Clean, Supported Nanoparticle Catalysts

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PI: Saunders, Steven R.Proposal Number: 1651597 Institution: Washington State University Title: CAREER: SusChem: Reversible Ionic Surfactants for Surface-Clean, Supported Nanoparticle CatalystsThe goal of this proposal is to develop methods of synthesizing size-controlled nanoparticles which can be deposited onto a catalyst support without the use of a passivating organic surfactant. Advancements in this field may lead to supported catalysts with very high activities, which will enable cost-effective and energy-efficient production of fuels and pharmaceuticals. These materials will also enable fundamental investigations into the role of particle size in catalysis. The main research objective of this proposal is to leverage Reversible Ionic Surfactants (RevIS) to prepare highly active supported nanoparticle catalysts that do not require annealing and are more resistant to sintering than traditionally prepared supported catalysts. The educational and outreach objectives aim to increase the motivation of underrepresented, rural high school students to pursue careers in STEM fields and to enable undergraduate and graduate students to understand and leverage nanotechnology to solve real world problems. Reversible Ionic Surfactants (RevIS) are switchable molecules which display drastically different properties when an external physical stimulus is applied. In the proposed work, the RevIS can be switched on to act as an efficient surfactant and then switched off to act as a weak surfactant or non-surfactant. The central hypothesis that motivates the proposed research is based on the assumption that supported nanoparticles prepared via RevIS are more catalytically active without needing to be annealed and less prone to sintering at high temperatures than traditionally prepared catalysts. Monodisperse metallic nanoparticles can be templated by a switchable reverse micelle and subsequently deposited surfactant-free by leveraging the switchable nature of the RevIS. The proposed approach is scalable due to the mild conditions and simplicity of the processing required.