Hybrid nanomaterials for efficient catalytic conversion of carbon dioxide into fuels and value-added chemicals

二氧化碳是导致全球变暖的最丰富的温室气体。要加大大气二氧化碳减排力度，防止发生大规模生态灾害。碳利用- -将大气中的二氧化碳或工业工厂的二氧化碳直接转化为燃料、药品和聚合物等有用产品的技术- -是一个迅速发展的领域，它增加了对碳缓解战略的经济激励，并绕过了对化石燃料的需求。有效利用碳的核心是激活二氧化碳分子以进行进一步的反应。这可以通过纳米电催化技术来实现，该技术将纳米材料的独特催化特性与电能输入相结合，以可持续地产生有价值的产品。***为此，我们的目标是协同开发有机-金属混合纳米催化剂和反应过程，将其与最先进的具有气体扩散工作电极的电化学流动电池反应器相结合，这在二氧化碳还原领域尚未得到充分的探索。这种电池和电极设计显著提高了CO2的可用性，克服了传统电化学电池中存在的溶解度和质量传输限制，是实现高反应选择性、高电流密度和高电流效率的有前途的平台。将该平台与合理设计的稳定、选择性和高效的电催化剂相结合，有可能实现系统性能的进步，使该技术适用于工业应用。此外，通过研究特定纳米催化剂的形状、表面化学、手性和材料等特征如何影响催化反应参数，我们将获得未来催化剂设计的指导原则，并为材料科学带来新的策略，为其他重要的催化过程产生高效的催化剂。我们的工作将产生新的催化材料、平台和工艺，有效地将多余的二氧化碳转化为燃料、化学原料和药物，同时对纳米催化剂上的电催化反应机制提供更深入的机理理解。最终，这将激发二氧化碳化学领域的创新，同时为从源头和大气中捕获排放提供更强的动力。这个在STEM中最令人兴奋的领域之一的研究项目将启动崭露头角的科学家的职业生涯，同时为一个关键和紧迫的全球问题提供解决方案。

Carbon dioxide is the most abundant greenhouse gas contributing to global warming. Efforts to mitigate the atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide need to be intensified in order to prevent mass ecological disasters. Carbon utilization the technology where carbon dioxide in the atmosphere or from industrial plants is directly converted into useful products such as fuels, pharmaceuticals and polymers is a rapidly growing field, which increases the economic incentive towards carbon mitigation strategies and bypasses the need for fossil fuels. Central to effective carbon utilization is the activation of the carbon dioxide molecule towards further reaction. This can be achieved using nanoelectrocatalysis a technology, which combines the unique catalytic properties of nanomaterials with electrical energy input to sustainably generate valuable products.***To this end, we aim to synergistically develop hybrid organic-metal nanocatalysts and reaction processes, integrating them with a state of the art electrochemical flow cell reactor with a gas diffusion working electrode, which has been underexplored in the carbon dioxide reduction field. This cell and electrode design significantly increases CO2 availability, overcoming its solubility and mass transport limitations present in traditional electrochemical cells, and is a promising platform to achieve high reaction selectivity, current densities, and current efficiencies. Combining this platform with rationally designed stable, selective, and efficient electrocatalysts has the potential to achieve the system performance advances that would make this technology suitable for industrial implementation. Additionally, by studying how specific nanocatalyst features including shape, surface chemistry, chirality and material impact catalytic reaction parameters, we will obtain guiding principles for future catalyst design and bring new strategies in materials science to generate efficient catalysts for other important catalytic processes. ***Our work will yield new catalytic materials, platforms, and processes to effectively transform excess carbon dioxide into fuels, chemical feedstocks, and pharmaceuticals while providing a deeper mechanistic understanding of mechanisms of electrocatalytic reactions on nanocatalysts. Ultimately, this will spark innovations in carbon dioxide chemistry while providing a stronger incentive for the capture of emissions at the source and in the atmosphere. This research program in one of the most exciting fields in STEM will launch the careers of budding scientists while contributing a solution to a crucial and pressing global problem.