Collaborative Research: SusChEM: Understanding Hydrogen Interactions with Metastable Surfaces for Tunable Catalysis Systems

Cornell University, Ithaca NY

Investigators

Abstract

The ability to transform abundant resources, such as carbon dioxide and water, into energy-dense fuels and high-valued chemicals plays an important role in our pursuit of sustainable energy and chemical technologies. These processes often benefit from the presence of a heterogeneous catalyst, a solid substance that is able to direct the chemical reactions along faster, more efficient pathways. Designing catalyst materials with structure and compositions tailored to accelerate the desired chemical transformations is an important area of chemical research. In this project, a collaborative effort among Dr. Richard Hennig, Dr. Richard Robinson, and Dr. Jin Suntivich targets variation in composition and structure to create catalysts known as "metastable catalysts" since they fall outside of the normal solubility and structural ranges. The team is examining how to design and build metastable catalysts that efficiently and selectively convert carbon dioxide and water to hydrogen and high-valued compounds. Beyond creating new knowledge that can bring more sustainable energy and chemical technologies closer to reality, the investigators are actively engaged in outreach educational activities. These include a summer internship in the principle investigators' laboratories for undergraduate students and the creation of catalysis demonstration kits designed to disseminate the concepts of atomic building blocks and their role in catalysis technology. These activities are directed at improving student interest in chemical science and materials technology from the K-12 to undergraduate levels, and particularly target women and members of underrepresented minorities to build diversity in the STEM workforce. With support from the Chemical Catalysis program of the Chemistry Division, a collaborative project among Dr. Richard Hennig, Dr. Richard Robinson, and Dr. Jin Suntivich is examining how metastable surfaces can be structured to control the surface hydrogen interaction, and, consequently, the hydrogen evolution reaction and carbon dioxide reduction catalysis. The surface hydrogen interaction is believed to play an important role in stabilizing the intermediates of the hydrogen evolution reaction and the selectivity of the carbon dioxide reduction reaction. This project exploits metastable oxysulfide nanocrystals as model systems with expanded compositional ranges to enable a systematic analysis of composition, surface interaction and electrocatalytic performance. Combined theoretical and experimental studies are used in collaboration to verify the structure - activity connection at the atomic level and allows the PIs to determine how to design the surface structure and composition rationally to improve the catalysis performance. Broader impacts of the research result from an improved understanding of catalyst function and design in sustainable energy and chemical technologies. Broader impacts made through educational activities include graduate and undergraduate student trainings in chemical catalysis research from both theory and experiment sides in the principal investigators' laboratories. Additionally, catalysis demonstration kits are created to visually illustrate how to build catalytic nanomaterials from atomic building blocks and how each different building block can affect selected catalysis performance.