Electro-Oxidation of Organics and Endocrine Disrupting Compounds in Wastewater

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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.