Nanostructured metal phosphide catalysts for clean energy

多相催化剂在能源技术中起着举足轻重的作用，未来的清洁能源技术也将依赖于催化剂。这项研究的重点是催化两种有前途的清洁能源技术-合成气转化为燃料和化学品，以及生物油升级。合成气（氢和一氧化碳的混合物）可以从各种含碳原料中生产，包括天然气、煤、油砂、焦炭和生物质。生物质热解生产生物油是清洁燃料的另一重要途径，前提是生物油可以升级。本提案的重点是金属磷化物催化剂在两种清洁能源方法中的新应用。提出的工作重点是单分散，纳米结构金属磷化物的合成，催化剂表征，以及这些反应的动力学和机理研究。该研究的长期目标是确定控制合成气转化和加氢脱氧反应动力学和选择性的金属磷化物催化剂的关键化学和物理性质，并将这些信息用于未来的催化剂设计。本研究将重点发展单分散、纳米结构单金属和双金属磷化物的合成方法，从而将颗粒尺寸控制在< 10nm。金属磷化物的化学和物理性质将与这些材料在合成气转化和加氢脱氧反应中的活性和选择性有关。最后，将利用operando光谱和分子模拟技术建立这些新型催化材料上反应的动力学和机理模型。这一认识将用于提高这些反应在金属磷化物催化剂上的选择性和活性。

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.