Nanostructured metal phosphide catalysts for clean energy

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Heterogeneous catalysts play a pivotal role in energy technologies and future clean energy technologies will also rely on catalysts. This study is focused on the catalysis of two promising clean energy technologies - synthesis gas conversion to fuels and chemicals, and bio-oil upgrading. Synthesis gas (a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide) can be produced from various carbonaceous feedstocks including natural gas, coal, oilsands coke and biomass. Pyrolysis of biomass to yield bio-oil is another important route to clean fuels, provided the bio-oil can be upgraded. The present proposal is focused on new applications of metal phosphide catalysts for both approaches to clean energy. The proposed work emphasizes the synthesis of monodispersed, nanostructured metal phosphides, catalyst characterization, and kinetic and mechanistic studies of these reactions. The long-term objective of the study is to identify the key chemical and physical properties of metal phosphide catalysts that control the kinetics and selectivity of synthesis gas conversion and hydrodeoxygenation reactions, and to use this information for future catalyst design. The study will focus on developing methods to synthesize monodispersed, nanostructured mono- and bi-metallic phosphides, so as to control the size of the particles to < 10nm. The metal phosphide chemical and physical properties will then be related to the activity and selectivity of these materials in synthesis gas conversion and hydrodeoxygenation reactions. Finally, kinetic and mechanistic models of the reactions over these new catalytic materials will be developed using operando spectroscopy and molecular simulation. Together this understanding will be used to improve the selectivity and activity of these reactions over the metal phosphide catalysts.