Collaborative Research: SusChEM: Understanding Hydrogen Interactions with Metastable Surfaces for Tunable Catalysis Systems

将二氧化碳和水等丰富资源转化为高能量燃料和高价值化学品的能力在我们追求可持续能源和化学技术方面发挥着重要作用。 这些过程通常受益于非均相催化剂的存在，非均相催化剂是一种能够沿着更快，更有效的途径引导化学反应的固体物质。 设计具有定制结构和组成的催化剂材料以加速所需的化学转化是化学研究的一个重要领域。 在这个项目中，Richard Hennig博士、Richard罗宾逊博士和Jin Suntivich博士共同努力，针对组成和结构的变化，创造出被称为“亚稳催化剂”的催化剂，因为它们超出了正常的溶解度和结构范围。 该团队正在研究如何设计和制造亚稳态催化剂，以有效和选择性地将二氧化碳和水转化为氢气和高价值化合物。除了创造新的知识，使更多的可持续能源和化学技术更接近现实，研究人员积极参与外展教育活动。其中包括为本科生提供在主要研究人员实验室的暑期实习机会，以及制作催化演示工具包，以传播原子构件的概念及其在催化技术中的作用。这些活动旨在提高学生对化学科学和材料技术的兴趣，从K-12到本科生，特别是针对女性和代表性不足的少数民族成员，以建立STEM劳动力的多样性。在化学部化学催化计划的支持下，Richard Hennig博士，Richard罗宾逊博士，Jin Suntivich博士正在研究如何构建亚稳态表面以控制表面氢相互作用，从而控制析氢反应和二氧化碳还原催化。表面氢相互作用被认为在稳定析氢反应的中间体和二氧化碳还原反应的选择性方面起重要作用。该项目利用亚稳态硫氧化物纳米晶体作为模型系统，扩大了组成范围，使组成，表面相互作用和电催化性能的系统分析。结合理论和实验研究，在原子水平上验证结构-活性关系，并允许PI确定如何合理设计表面结构和组成，以提高催化性能。更广泛的影响，研究结果，从催化剂的功能和设计在可持续能源和化学技术的更好的理解。 通过教育活动产生的更广泛的影响包括在主要研究人员的实验室从理论和实验两方面对研究生和本科生进行化学催化研究方面的培训。此外，还创建了催化演示工具包，以直观地说明如何从原子构建块构建催化纳米材料，以及每个不同的构建块如何影响选定的催化性能。

The ability to transform abundant resources, such as carbon dioxide and water, into energy-dense fuels and high-valued chemicals plays an important role in our pursuit of sustainable energy and chemical technologies. These processes often benefit from the presence of a heterogeneous catalyst, a solid substance that is able to direct the chemical reactions along faster, more efficient pathways. Designing catalyst materials with structure and compositions tailored to accelerate the desired chemical transformations is an important area of chemical research. In this project, a collaborative effort among Dr. Richard Hennig, Dr. Richard Robinson, and Dr. Jin Suntivich targets variation in composition and structure to create catalysts known as "metastable catalysts" since they fall outside of the normal solubility and structural ranges. The team is examining how to design and build metastable catalysts that efficiently and selectively convert carbon dioxide and water to hydrogen and high-valued compounds. Beyond creating new knowledge that can bring more sustainable energy and chemical technologies closer to reality, the investigators are actively engaged in outreach educational activities. These include a summer internship in the principle investigators' laboratories for undergraduate students and the creation of catalysis demonstration kits designed to disseminate the concepts of atomic building blocks and their role in catalysis technology. These activities are directed at improving student interest in chemical science and materials technology from the K-12 to undergraduate levels, and particularly target women and members of underrepresented minorities to build diversity in the STEM workforce.With support from the Chemical Catalysis program of the Chemistry Division, a collaborative project among Dr. Richard Hennig, Dr. Richard Robinson, and Dr. Jin Suntivich is examining how metastable surfaces can be structured to control the surface hydrogen interaction, and, consequently, the hydrogen evolution reaction and carbon dioxide reduction catalysis. The surface hydrogen interaction is believed to play an important role in stabilizing the intermediates of the hydrogen evolution reaction and the selectivity of the carbon dioxide reduction reaction. This project exploits metastable oxysulfide nanocrystals as model systems with expanded compositional ranges to enable a systematic analysis of composition, surface interaction and electrocatalytic performance. Combined theoretical and experimental studies are used in collaboration to verify the structure - activity connection at the atomic level and allows the PIs to determine how to design the surface structure and composition rationally to improve the catalysis performance. Broader impacts of the research result from an improved understanding of catalyst function and design in sustainable energy and chemical technologies. Broader impacts made through educational activities include graduate and undergraduate student trainings in chemical catalysis research from both theory and experiment sides in the principal investigators' laboratories. Additionally, catalysis demonstration kits are created to visually illustrate how to build catalytic nanomaterials from atomic building blocks and how each different building block can affect selected catalysis performance.