Electrocatalysis on Structure Controlled Metal Nanocrystals: Unraveling Particle Structure-Catalytic Activity Relationships

在化学系化学催化项目的这一奖项下，迈阿密大学的邹守忠教授将开展纳米晶体结构与催化活性之间关系的研究。邹博士和他的学生将结合使用传统的电化学方法、表面振动光谱和单粒子电化学，研究形状、尺寸和成分受控的铂和铂基合金纳米晶对低温燃料电池中重要反应的电催化活性。通过这些研究获得的催化剂结构-活性关系的基本见解将有助于合理设计和开发高活性和耐用的燃料电池催化剂，并打破低温燃料电池开发和部署的瓶颈。燃料电池开发和商业化的关键技术挑战之一是寻找低成本、高效率、长寿命的催化剂。通过确定决定纳米级催化剂对燃料电池反应催化活性的结构因素，拟议的研究直接解决了这一紧迫问题，并将在燃料电池的能量转换方面取得重大进展。本研究中提出的概念也将适用于其他重要的结构敏感反应。此外，该研究计划将培训博士后研究人员、研究生和本科生有关电催化和燃料电池的知识，并将通过教师-研究人员计划向高中提供外展服务。

With this award from the Chemical Catalysis Program in the Chemistry Division, Professor Shouzhong Zou of Miami University will carry out studies of the relationships between nanocrystal structure and catalytic activity. Dr. Zou and his students will study electrocatalytic activity of shape, size and composition controlled platinum and platinum-based alloy nanocrystals towards reactions of importance in low temperature fuel cells, using a combination of conventional electrochemical methods, surface vibration spectroscopy, and single particle electrochemistry. Fundamental insights of catalyst structure-activity relationships gained from these studies will aid in rational design and development of highly active and durable fuel cell catalysts, and breaking the bottlenecks in the development and deployment of low temperature fuel cells. One of the key technical challenges in fuel cell development and commercialization is to find low-cost, highly-efficient catalysts having a long lifetime. By identifying the structural factors dictating the catalytic activity of nanoscale catalysts toward fuel cell reactions, the proposed research directly addresses this pressing issue and will make significant advances in energy conversion in fuel cells. The concepts developed in this research will be applicable to other important structure sensitive reactions as well. In addition this research program will train postdoctoral researchers, graduate students and undergraduate students in electrocatalysis and fuel cells, and will also provide outreach to high schools through a teacher-researcher program.