I-Corps: Innovative Nano Catalysts for Automobile and Fuel Cell Applications

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力与涉及催化剂的对全球市场的影响有关。催化剂影响着材料科学、电化学过程、纳米科学和储能技术等多个科学技术领域。这些领域代表了一些发展最快的全球科学和应用。作为该项目基础的新型催化剂材料可能会在全球市场上产生商业影响，因为目前化学工业60%的化学合成和90%的化学转化都依赖于催化剂。根据北美催化学会的数据，全球约35%的GDP依赖于催化剂，该行业中催化剂的使用量正以每年5%的速度增长。随着市场对催化剂材料日益增长的需求和大规模生产的简便合成方法，该项目的催化剂可能成为全球市场潜在的游戏规则改变者。该i-Corps项目主要旨在确定市场需求并表征技术差距，以将最近开发的基于金属有机骨架修饰的氮掺杂石墨烯(N-G/MOF)的纳米催化剂商业化，用于氧还原反应应用。采用金属有机骨架材料(MOF)对掺氮石墨烯(N-G)催化剂进行改性，以提高N-G催化剂的催化性能和电化学性能。MOF改性的N-G催化剂(N-G/MOF)由于具有较高的比表面积和孔隙率而具有较高的催化性能，其性能优于传统的贵金属催化剂。提出了一种新颖、经济可行的纳米高能湿法(NHEW)合成方法，用于室温条件下合成掺氮石墨烯催化剂。NHEW球磨合成方法为高温合成过程中产生的主要挑战提供了长期的解决方案，并作为未来N-G/MOF催化剂工业规模生产的主要合成方法。该奖项反映了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。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project has to do with impacts on global markets that involve catalysts. Catalysts influence many fields in science and technology such as material science, electrochemical processes, nano science and energy storage technologies. These areas represent some of the most rapidly evolving global sciences and applications. The novel catalyst material that is the basis of this project will likely have commercial impact in global markets in that 60% of chemical synthesis and 90% of chemical transformations in chemical industries are currently dependent on the catalysts. According to the North American Catalysis Society, approximately 35% of global GDP depends on catalysts and the use of catalysts in the industry is increasing by 5% every year. With the growing market need of catalyst materials and the facile synthesis methodology for large scale production, this project's catalyst can be a potential game changer in the global market.This I-Corps project is primarily intended to identify the market need and characterize the technological gap to commercialize a recently developed nano catalyst based on metal-organic framework-modified nitrogen-doped graphene (N-G/MOF) for oxygen reduction reaction applications. The modification of the nitrogen-doped graphene (N-G) catalyst by metal-organic framework materials (MOFs) has been developed to enhance the catalytic and electrochemical performance of N-G catalysts. The MOF-modified N-G catalyst (N-G/MOF) has high catalytic performance due to high surface area and porosity, which has better performance than the conventional precious group metal (PGM) catalyst. The innovative and economically viable synthesis method using nano high energy wet (NHEW) ball milling was developed for the synthesis of nitrogen-doped graphene catalyst in room temperature environments. The NHEW ball milling synthesis method offers a long-term solution to the primary challenges generated during the high-temperature synthesis process, and serve as the primary synthesis method for the industry-scale production of the N-G/MOF catalyst in the future.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.