CAREER: Development of Self-Healing Electrocatalysts via a Tunable Non-Covalent Design

在化学部化学催化项目的支持下，芝加哥大学化学系的安娜伍蒂格博士正在开发一种新型的用于氧还原反应（ORR）的电催化剂，该催化剂通过设计而自我修复。研究目标是通过基于非共价相互作用的平台来获得耐用的能量转换装置，即燃料电池，以产生用于ORR的自组装电催化剂。能量转换和储存科学的进展取决于电催化新策略的发展。Wuttig博士和她的团队成员制定了一项协同教育计划，通过建立旨在满足学生化学和物理工作水平的电化学实验室模块，扩大本科和高中阶段电化学的参与。为了产生稳定和自修复的ORR电催化剂，Wuttig组方法将两亲物的有机和无机合成与电催化剂在极化电极处的原位非共价自组装合并。通过推进这种非共价合成技术，本研究旨在（i）生成一系列新的含有第一行过渡金属的自组装ORR电催化剂，并（ii）进行结构-功能关系研究，以揭示自我修复所需的关键结构特征，从而持久的ORR催化。Wuttig研究小组将通过表征非共价层动力学和模型厚度来实现这一理解（非催化）自组装层，合成含有明确定义的第一行过渡金属电活性单元的自组装层并表征其ORR活性，并通过调整非-该奖项反映了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。

With support from the Chemical Catalysis Program of the Chemistry Division, Dr. Anna Wuttig of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Chicago is developing a new class of electrocatalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) that are self-healing by design. The research goal is to access durable energy conversion devices, namely fuel cells, by targeting a platform based on non-covalent interactions to produce self-assembled electrocatalysts for the ORR. Advances in energy conversion and storage science hinge on the development of new strategies for electrocatalysis. Dr. Wuttig and her team members have developed a synergistic education plan to broaden the participation in electrochemistry at the undergraduate and high school levels by building electrochemistry lab-based modules designed to meet student working levels in chemistry and physics. To produce stable and self-healing ORR electrocatalysts, the Wuttig group approach merges the organic and inorganic synthesis of amphiphiles with in-situ non-covalent self-assembly of the electrocatalyst at polarized electrodes. By advancing this non-covalent synthetic technology, this research aims to (i) generate a new series of self-assembled ORR electrocatalysts containing first-row transition metals and (ii) carry out structure-function relationship studies to reveal the key structural features that are necessary for self-healing and thereby durable ORR catalysis. The Wuttig research team will work to achieve this understanding by characterizing non-covalent layer dynamics and thickness of model (noncatalytic) self-assembled layers, synthesizing self-assembled layers that contain well-defined first-row transition metal electroactive units and characterizing their ORR activity, and optimizing the stability for self-healing by tuning non-covalent interactions.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.