SBIR Phase I: High-throughput Nanocatalyst Synthesis and Screening for Broad Decarbonization

SBIR 第一阶段：高通量纳米催化剂合成和筛选以实现广泛脱碳

• 批准号: 2151713
• 负责人: Jordan Swisher
• 金额: $ 25.59万
• 依托单位: MATTIQ INC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-02-15 至 2023-10-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2151713&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; throughput; Nanocatalyst; Synthesis

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is an acceleration in how new materials are discovered, designed, and commercialized in the transition to a carbon-neutral economy. One aim is to increase the use of renewable electricity in the chemical and energy industries. A major hurdle is the lack of efficient electrocatalysts that enable renewable processes, such as green hydrogen production, carbon dioxide (CO2) conversion into carbon-neutral chemicals and fuels, or other processes that can broadly decarbonize various industries. Traditional discovery methods are slow and serial, which limits the development of novel, commercially viable electrochemical processes demanded by the climate crisis. This project will enable a more rapid and exhaustive search for electrocatalysts, resulting in a deeper understanding of the nature of catalysts, and facilitating the decarbonization of the chemicals and energy industries by displacing traditional fossil fuel-based processes with a transition to electrification which utilizes increasing levels of renewable energy. The proposed platform will expedite the discovery and development of enabling materials, which can be brought to market and deployed globally to enable more renewable chemical processes.This SBIR Phase I project proposes to develop a generalizable platform that can rapidly search through vast materials spaces for higher performance electrocatalyst materials, displacing the current materials which are simply the best amongst the limited candidates tested to date. Using this project’s proprietary Megalibrary technology, which enables the rapid synthesis of libraries of tens of thousands of unique, well-defined, monodisperse, and complex metal nanoparticles in a single experiment, coupled with high-throughput screening technologies, it is possible to quickly probe hundreds of thousands of unique catalyst candidates to find electrocatalysts optimized for performance. To accomplish this goal, the project must adapt protocols to allow the synthesis of electrocatalyst Megalibraries on electrodes and enable electrocatalyst screening. Additionally, the approach requires robust and high-throughput screening methods that can site-specifically interrogate the electrocatalytic properties of the catalyst candidates. Using these two innovations, it will be possible to then demonstrate the power of the platform by searching the entirety of a three element platinium and materials (Pt-M1-M2) space for the best hydrogen evolution reaction catalyst on a per platinum-atom basis. This demonstration will solidify the ability to translate this platform to a much broader materials space and set of reactions, which can impact businesses and industries globally.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.

小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是加速了新材料在向碳中性经济过渡的过程中发现、设计和商业化的方式。其中一个目标是在化工和能源行业增加可再生电力的使用。一个主要障碍是缺乏有效的电催化剂来实现可再生过程，如绿色氢气生产、二氧化碳(CO2)转化为碳中性化学品和燃料，或其他可以广泛地使各种行业脱碳的过程。传统的发现方法缓慢而连续，这限制了气候危机所需的新的、商业上可行的电化学过程的发展。该项目将使人们能够更快、更详尽地寻找电催化剂，从而更深入地了解催化剂的性质，并通过利用越来越多的可再生能源来取代传统的以化石燃料为基础的工艺，过渡到电气化，从而促进化学品和能源行业的脱碳。拟议的平台将加快使能材料的发现和开发，这些材料可以推向市场并在全球部署，以实现更多的可再生化学过程。SBIR第一阶段项目建议开发一个可推广的平台，可以在巨大的材料空间中快速搜索更高性能的电催化剂材料，取代目前仅是有限候选材料中迄今为止最好的材料。使用该项目专有的MegaliLibrary技术，可以在一次实验中快速合成数万个独特、定义明确、单分散和复杂的金属纳米颗粒的文库，再加上高通量筛选技术，可以快速检测数十万个独特的候选催化剂，以找到性能优化的电催化剂。为了实现这一目标，该项目必须修改协议，允许在电极上合成电催化剂巨型催化剂，并使电催化剂筛选成为可能。此外，该方法需要强大和高通量的筛选方法，可以现场特定地询问候选催化剂的电催化性能。利用这两项创新，将有可能通过搜索整个三元素铂和材料(铂-M1-M2)空间来展示平台的力量，以每个铂原子为基础寻找最佳的析氢反应催化剂。这一演示将巩固将该平台转化为更广泛的材料空间和一系列反应的能力，这可能会影响全球的企业和行业。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。