Interfacial Dynamics of Novel Nanostructured Perovskite Electrodes

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The generation and storage of alternative energy sources is one of the major challenges in the development of sustainable clean energy technologies. Electrochemical energy conversion using a combination of solar and fuel cell technology offers a solution to the generation/storage problem. In this approach the sun's energy can be used to drive the conversion of abundant chemical reactants (water, carbon dioxide) into energy dense fuels (hydrogen, hydrocarbons) that can subsequently be consumed to generate electricity. The efficient electrocatalytic generation and conversion of chemical fuels requires the concerted transfer of multiple protons and electrons, and depends strongly on the interaction between the (photo)electrocatalyst surface and target molecules. As a result of this surface sensitivity, unwanted by-products may be unintentionally generated that greatly reduce efficiency and selectivity. To date the most active materials that selectivity promote key (photo)electrocatalytic reactions require the use of expensive precious metals and their alloys or oxides. Practically, this severely limits wide scale adoption, and highlights an imperative need to create new highly active and selective electrocatalysts based on earth abundant elements. In particular, the perovskite structure, which can accommodate the majority of the elements in the periodic table, offers tremendous opportunity for materials design and synthesis, and motivates our long-term research objective: the synthesis and discovery of highly active and selective perovskite (photo)electrocatalyst nanomaterials. ***Central to the realization of our long term goal is an understanding of how nanoscale structure (crystal phase/orientation, composition, morphology) impacts reactivity. It has only recently become possible to explore the electrochemistry of individual nanomaterials for structure-activity correlation studies, which offer tremendous insight into materials design and function. Students in our research program will receive training in the most recent innovations in nanoscale electrochemistry to carry out detailed structure-activity investigations, in a high-throughput approach to screen a number of materials parameters, at well-defined micro- and nanoscale electrodes for the quantitative determination of key kinetic parameters and reaction pathways, which, when combined with complementary high-resolution structural characterization techniques will allow us to reveal the underlying role that nanoscale structure has on activity and selectivity. Through our fundamental studies we will seek to discover new materials as part of a larger global effort towards innovative energy generation technologies that can provide environmental and economic benefit to Canada.