SusChEM: Electrocatalysis with Butterfly [2Fe-2S] Clusters

SusChEM：蝴蝶[2Fe-2S]催化剂的电催化氢（最简单的分子）的生产是当今价值数十亿美元的工业，其主要提供氢与氮结合以产生为世界人口种植足够食物所需的氨肥料，用于从化石燃料中去除硫，以及用于生产现代社会所需材料的工业应用。此外，当今世界面临的重大挑战之一是需要可持续、清洁和具有成本效益的能源和燃料。氢是一种高能量燃料，在燃烧时（或在燃料电池中）只是有水作为废气产物。不幸的是，目前生产的氢气中有96%是通过极高温度和压力的蒸汽对碳氢化合物的昂贵作用获得的，这是一种浪费能源和原材料的过程。分析表明，世界能源的2%用于这些过程，如果没有使用氢气生产粮食生产肥料的过程，世界上一半的人口将无法生存。该研究项目由化学部催化计划资助，正在探索使用电力直接从水中生产氢气，这是一种高效，清洁和可持续的过程。为了实现在低温和低压下由水生产氢，需要廉价的、容易获得的催化剂。教授丹尼斯L.作者声明：Richard S.亚利桑那大学的格拉斯和丹尼斯·H.埃文斯的普渡大学正在研究生产氢从水使用电力和催化剂组成的廉价和丰富的铁和硫。在这项研究中的催化剂的灵感来自一种酶发现在厌氧细菌，产生氢从一个[2Fe-2S]群集网站，具有一个结构表示为？蝴蝶？类型.虽然这种酶产生氢气的速度非常快，但本项目中制备的有机金属蝴蝶[2Fe-2S]簇要快几个数量级。在该项目中观察到的高制氢速率表明，与生物酶和其他无机催化剂相比，不同的因素在起作用。本项目将探索新型有机金属[2Fe-2S]簇催化剂的合成，并研究（1）允许这种快速电催化制氢的机理，（2）将[2Fe-2S]簇掺入金属聚合物中以提高催化剂的水溶性和耐久性，以及（3）实现反应催化剂在空气中的高稳定性的方法。该项目结合了合成有机金属化学，聚合物化学，电化学和计算化学方面的专业知识，旨在从水中设计有效的分子氢电催化生产所需的基本理解，并教育学生应对未来复杂科学挑战所需的多学科和团队方法。

SusChEM: Electrocatalysis with Butterfly [2Fe-2S] ClustersThe production of hydrogen, the simplest molecule, is a multi-billion dollar industry today that provides hydrogen primarily for combination with nitrogen to produce ammonia fertilizer needed to grow sufficient food for the world population, for removal of sulfur from fossil fuels, and for industrial applications needed to produce the materials for a modern society. Furthermore, one of the grand challenges facing the world today is the need for sustainable, clean, and cost-effective sources of energy and fuels. Hydrogen is a high energy fuel that on burning (or in fuel cells) simply has water as the exhaust product. Unfortunately 96% of the hydrogen produced today is obtained from the expensive action of extremely high temperature and pressure steam on hydrocarbons, a process that is wasteful of both energy and raw materials. Analysis shows that 2% of the world energy is used in these processes and half the world population would not be alive today without the process that uses hydrogen to produce fertilizer for food production. This research project, funded by the Catalysis Program of the Chemistry Division, is exploring the use of electricity to produce hydrogen directly from water in an efficient, clean and sustainable process. To effect the production of hydrogen from water at low temperature and pressure, an inexpensive, readily available catalyst is required. Professors Dennis L. Lichtenberger, Jeffrey Pyun and Richard S. Glass of the University of Arizona and Professor Dennis H. Evans of Purdue University are investigating the production of hydrogen from water using electricity and catalysts composed of inexpensive and plentiful iron and sulfur.The catalysts in this study are inspired by an enzyme found in anaerobic bacteria that produces hydrogen from a [2Fe-2S] cluster site that has a structure denoted as a ?butterfly? type. Although the enzyme generates hydrogen very rapidly, the organometallic butterfly [2Fe-2S] clusters prepared in this project are orders of magnitude faster. The high rates of hydrogen production observed in this project indicate different factors are at play compared to both the biological enzyme and to other inorganic catalysts. This project is exploring the synthesis of new organometallic [2Fe-2S] cluster catalysts and investigating (1) the mechanism that allows for such fast electrocatalytic hydrogen production, (2) the incorporation of the [2Fe-2S] clusters into metallopolymers for increased water solubility and durability of the catalysts, and (3) approaches to achieve high stability of the reactive catalysts in air. The project combines expertise in synthetic organometallic chemistry, polymer chemistry, electrochemistry, and computational chemistry directed toward the fundamental understanding needed to devise efficient electrocatalytic production of molecular hydrogen from water, and educates students in the multidisciplinary and team approaches needed to address complex scientific challenges in the future.