SusChEM: Oxide-Derived Metal Nanoparticles for CO2 Electroreduction Catalysis

在这个由国家科学基金化学催化计划资助的项目中，卡南教授和他的学生将开发和研究用于将二氧化碳转化为燃料和合成积木的多相电催化剂。这项研究将集中在一种名为“氧化物衍生金属纳米颗粒”的新型催化剂上。这些催化剂是通过电化学还原金属氧化物前驱体形成金属纳米颗粒而制备的，表现出显著提高的二氧化碳还原能量效率和抗失活能力。表面结构将通过电化学技术、光谱方法和高分辨率电子显微镜的组合进行探测，并辅之以电动测量以阐明二氧化碳还原的机理特征。在实验活动的同时，该项目的研究人员将对二氧化碳回收的电化学、光电化学和化学方法进行高水平的比较分析。长期以来，对化石燃料作为社会主要能源的依赖已经将大气中的二氧化碳浓度推高到前所未有的水平，这就需要使用可再生能源将二氧化碳回收为燃料。这项拟议的研究解决了实现这一愿景的最大科学障碍之一：开发节能和选择性的二氧化碳减排催化剂。这些催化剂可以被整合到一个电解设备中，当由光伏或风力涡轮机供电时，该设备可以产生碳基燃料。

In this project funded by the Chemical Catalysis Program of the National Science Foundation, Professor Kanan and his students will develop and study heterogeneous electrocatalysts for the conversion of CO2 into fuels and synthetic building blocks. The research will focus on a new class of catalysts called "oxide-derived metal nanoparticles". These catalysts are prepared by electrochemically reducing bulk metal oxide precursors to form metallic nanoparticles, which exhibit dramatically improved energetic efficiency for CO2 reduction and resistance to deactivation. The surface structures will be probed by a combination of electrochemical techniques, spectroscopic methods and high-resolution electron microscopy, which are complemented by electrokinetic measurements to illuminate mechanistic features of CO2 reduction. Concurrent with their experimental activities, researchers in this project will perform high-level comparative analyses of electrochemical, photoelectrochemical and chemical approaches to CO2 recycling.The longstanding reliance on fossil fuels as the principal energy source for society has boosted the atmospheric CO2 concentration to an unprecedented level, which necessitates recycling CO2 into fuels using renewable energy inputs. The proposed research addresses one of the greatest scientific hurdles to this vision: the development of energy-efficient and selective CO2 reduction catalysts. These catalysts could be incorporated into an electrolytic device that produces carbon-based fuels when powered by a photovoltaic or wind turbine.