Electro-Oxidation of Organics and Endocrine Disrupting Compounds in Wastewater

清洁能源。干净的水。加拿大和世界其他地区的关键资源。最重要的是 这项研究的目标是开发新的表面化学，使用具有成本效益和商业可行性的纳米材料和纳米结构，用于生产清洁能源和修复市政/工业废流的电子技术。在许多电化学装置中，一个明显错误的前提是，通过减小催化剂的尺寸，随后催化剂的表面积与体积比的增加会导致更好的电催化性能。已经提出了几个相互矛盾的理论来解释观察到的三种结构敏感性趋势(增加、减少或增加后在临界尺寸上减少)，但一篇研究许多不同电化学系统(例如氢/氧的生产和利用)的主要综述文章(1)显示，目前的结构敏感性理论都不能充分解释本工作中观察到的趋势。确定了催化剂设计的两个新因素，即电解液效应和反应物尺寸效应。这些发现导致了一个新的、统一的几何假说的发展，该假说可以解释在所有被研究的体系中观察到的电催化活性的增加。该建议的主要短期目标是：a)在催化剂设计中进一步了解结构敏感性，b)开发用于电催化的最佳化学成分，以及c)结合开发出的具有最佳结构敏感纳米尺度的新化学成分以获得最大的效率和催化活性。例如，新的Ta-W和SnSb涂层的开发表明，这些材料在破坏病原体(大肠杆菌)、电氧化有机分子(城市垃圾/草酸)和内分泌干扰化合物(EDC-双酚-A)方面具有巨大的前景。后者特别重要，因为加拿大政府已将200种高度优先的化学品列为有毒化学品(2)，内源性化合物是一个主要问题，因为使用传统的城市污水处理方法不易去除这些化学品。这代表了电催化剂开发的一个非常有前途的领域。清洁能源。干净的水。

Clean energy. Clean Water. Critical resources for Canada and the rest of the world. The overarching objectives of this research is to develop novel surface chemistries using cost effective and commercially viable nanomaterials and nanostructures for use in electrotechnologies for the production of clean energy and remediation of municipal/industrial waste streams. A significant incorrect premise in many electrochemical devices is that through reducing the size of a catalyst, the subsequent increase in the surface area to volume ratio of the catalyst leads to greater electrocatalytic performance. Several conflicting theories have been proposed to account for the three observed structure sensitvity trends ( an increase, a decrease, or an increase followed by a decrease at a critical size), but a major review article (1) studying many different electrochemical systems (e.g. hydrogen/oxygen production and utilization) revealed none of the current structure-sensitivity theories could adequately account for the trends observed within this work. Two new factors for catalyst design were identified; namely electrolyte effects and reactant size effects. These findings led to the development of a novel, unified geometric hypothesis which could account for the observed increase in electrocatalytic activity found for all systems studied.The major short term objectives of this proposal are: a) to further understand of structure sensitivity in catalyst design, b) to develop optimal chemistries for electrocatalysis, and c) to combine novel chemistries developed with the optimal structure-sensitve nanoscale for maximum efficiency and catalytic activity. For example, development of new Ta-W and Sn-Sb coatings has shown these materials to have great promise as electrocatalysts for the destruction of pathogens (E-coli), electro-oxidation of organic molecules (municipal waste/oxalic acid) and endocrine disrupting compounds (EDC - Bisphenol-A). The latter are of particular importance as the Government of Canada has listed 200 high priority chemicals (2) as toxic, with EDCs a major concern as they are not easily removed using conventional municipal wastewater treatments. This represents a very promising area for electrocatalyst development. Clean energy. Clean water.