Development of Hybrid Solid Materials for Stable Molecular Oxygen Anodes

电催化剂是一种使电驱动的化学反应进行得更快、更高效和/或用电量更少的材料。该项目将涉及发现新的催化材料，用于有效地将水电化学氧化产生氢和氧气，其中氢可直接用作燃料以在氢燃料电池中发电，或用作将低等级含碳化合物升级为高价值燃料和化学品的反应物。该项目将解决将太阳能转换为化学能的可持续进程中的关键一步，从而减轻对化石资源的依赖。这是一项合作努力，弗吉尼亚大学的Thomas Gunnoe教授和Sen Zhang教授与加州理工学院的William Goddard教授和Max Planck化学能源转换研究所的科学家一起在Maxnet Energy财团下工作。这一国际合作将增强美国在可持续能源科学和工程领域的研究地位。该项目还将涉及主要面向本科生机构(PUI)的教育推广活动，以提高来自不同背景的学生对科学家和工程师职业的兴趣。该项目代表了一项跨学科的努力，旨在开发、了解和测试用于电催化水氧化的新型碳支载铜和钴材料。它结合了在分子催化、纳米材料、计算建模、碳材料和催化剂表征方面的专业知识。主要的基础是开发和优化多核分子催化剂，然后将这些单元集成到碳基材料中。参与Maxnet Energy财团将根据一套标准化的协议对新的催化剂材料进行评估，以提供与其他多相催化材料的严格比较和基准。为了实现这些目标，将追求三个目标：1)在计算模拟的指导下，制备一系列具有不同分子和电子结构的多核钴和铜配合物，以了解结构-活性关系；2)在导电碳质材料上负载多核分子络合物；3)研究碳负载催化剂的OER活性和稳定性。教育外展将包括研究生访问PPI，根据他们的研究提供短期课程，以及本科生参加PIS实验室的暑期研究实习。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Electrocatalysts are materials that make electrically-driven chemical reactions proceed faster, more efficiently, and/or with less input of electricity. This project will involve discovery of new catalytic materials for efficient electrochemical oxidation of water to produce hydrogen and oxygen, where the hydrogen can be used directly as a fuel to produce electricity in hydrogen fuel cells, or as a reactant to upgrade low-grade carbon-containing compounds to high-value fuels and chemicals. The project will address a critical step in a sustainable process for converting solar energy to chemical energy, thus alleviating dependence on fossil resources. This is a collaborative effort that brings together Professors Thomas Gunnoe and Sen Zhang from the University of Virginia with Professor William Goddard from the California Institute of Technology and scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion, working under the MAXNET Energy consortium. The international collaboration will enhance U.S. research eminence in the science and engineering of sustainable energy. The project will also involve educational outreach to primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs) to increase interest among students from diverse backgrounds in careers as scientists and engineers. This project represents a cross-disciplinary effort to develop, understand and test new carbon-supported copper and cobalt materials for electrocatalytic water oxidation. It incorporates groups with expertise in molecular catalysis, nanomaterials, computational modeling, and carbon materials and catalyst characterization. The primary foundation is to develop and optimize multi-nuclear molecular catalysts and then integrate these units into carbon-based materials. Participation in the MAXNET Energy consortium will provide assessment of new catalyst materials under a standardized set of protocols to provide rigorous comparison and benchmarking to other heterogeneous catalytic materials. To achieve these goals, three objectives will be pursued: 1) prepare a series of multi-nuclear cobalt and copper complexes with variable molecular and electronic structure - as guided by computational modeling - to provide an understanding of structure-activity relationships; 2) support multi-nuclear molecular complexes on conductive carbonaceous materials; 3) study the OER activity and stability of carbon-supported catalysts. Educational outreach will involve visits by graduate students to the PUIs to deliver short courses based on their research, combined with participation of undergraduate students in summer research internships in the PIs' laboratories.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.