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

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是在向碳中和经济过渡的过程中如何加速新材料的发现，设计和商业化。 目标之一是在化学和能源行业增加可再生电力的使用。 一个主要的障碍是缺乏有效的电催化剂，使可再生的过程，如绿色氢生产，二氧化碳（CO2）转化为碳中性化学品和燃料，或其他过程，可以广泛脱碳各种行业。传统的发现方法是缓慢和串行的，这限制了气候危机所要求的新颖的、商业上可行的电化学过程的发展。该项目将能够更快速和详尽地搜索电催化剂，从而更深入地了解催化剂的性质，并通过向利用越来越多的可再生能源的电气化过渡来取代传统的基于化石燃料的工艺，促进化学品和能源行业的脱碳。该平台将加快发现和开发使能材料，这些材料可以推向市场并在全球范围内部署，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，可以快速搜索广阔的材料空间，以获得更高性能的电催化剂材料，取代目前的材料，这些材料是迄今为止测试的有限候选材料中最好的。使用该项目专有的Megalibrium技术，可以在一个实验中快速合成成千上万个独特的，定义明确的，单分散的和复杂的金属纳米粒子库，再加上高通量筛选技术，可以快速探测数十万个独特的催化剂候选物，以找到性能优化的电催化剂。为了实现这一目标，该项目必须调整协议，以允许在电极上合成电催化剂Megalitrile，并实现电催化剂筛选。此外，该方法需要强大的和高通量的筛选方法，可以现场具体询问的候选催化剂的电催化性能。使用这两项创新，将有可能通过在每个铂原子的基础上搜索整个三元素铂和材料（Pt-M1-M2）空间以获得最佳析氢反应催化剂来展示平台的能力。这一展示将巩固将这一平台转化为更广泛的材料空间和反应集的能力，这可能会影响全球的企业和行业。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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 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.