CAS: Promoting Selective CO2 Electroreduction by Active Site Engineering

With the support of the Chemical Catalysis program in the Division of Chemistry, Dr. Anthony Shoji Hall at Johns Hopkins University is studying methods to improve the performance of catalysts to enable storing renewable energy in the form of chemical bonds. Energy storage devices are important for curbing catastrophic climate change. However, renewable electricity from wind and solar is intermittent, which means that this energy must be stored for use at night or when the wind is not blowing. The electrocatalytic reduction of CO2 to chemical fuels is a potential strategy for storing renewable electricity. Catalysts usually exhibit variations in performance when the structure of the material is changed. The proposed study will use experimental methods to understand how the structure of the material influences its performance as a catalyst. Dr. Hall's laboratory also actively engages in outreach at inner city Baltimore high schools. This activity will allow a female minority high school student to study in his laboratory to learn about renewable energy science. With the support of the Chemical Catalysis program in the Division of Chemistry, Dr. Anthony Shoji Hall at Johns Hopkins University is studying the structure-property relationships of nano-structured materials for electrochemical CO2 reduction. Nanomaterials exhibit a broad distribution of sites – such as edges, corners, and terraces – which can exhibit different reactivity. This proposal focuses on preparing catalysts with well-defined populations of active sites by coating defect sites or terrace sites with inert metal oxides; potentially allowing the experimentalist to unambiguously connect catalyst structure to property. Electrochemical kinetic measurements and surface enhanced in-situ infrared absorption spectroscopy (SEIRAS) will be used to interrogate the reaction mechanism of catalysts with well-defined active site structures. Knowledge obtained from these studies will be used to develop materials that promote more efficient catalytic pathways. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.