Materials for Energy Conversion: Materials for Energy Conversion and Storage

Technical Report · Thu Mar 30 04:00:00 UTC 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1349091· OSTI ID:1349091

Atanassov, Plamen ^[1]

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1. Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States); Universuy of New Mexico

The main objective of this collaborative research project was to identify a formulation and develop a catalyst for electro-oxidation of ethanol. Ethanol is one of the most mass-produced biofuels, and such catalysts will enable the development of Direct Ethanol Fuel Cell technology and through it, will interconnect fuel cells with biofuels. Several catalysts for direct electrochemical oxidation of ethanol have been selected on the principles of rational desig from the knowledge build in studying aqueous oxidation of ethanol. The program involved fundamental study of ethanol oxidation in liquid media, and particularly in alakine solutions. The lessons learned from the heterogeneous catalysis of ethanol thermal oxidation have been applied to the design of an electrocatalyst for direct ethanol fuel cells. The successful chemical compositions are based on PdZn and NiZn allows. The studies reveled the role of the transition metal oxide phase as a co-catalyst and the role of the active support material. To complete the set of materials for ethanol fuel cell, this program also invested n the development of ctalysts for oxygen reduction that are selective against alcohol oxidation. Non-platinum ctalysts based on pyrolyzed macrocycles or similar composites have been studied. This program included also the development of stuctured supports as an integral part of the catalyst development. A new family of materials has been designed based on mesoporous silica templating with synthetic carbon resulting in hierarchicaly porous structure. Structure-to-property relationship of catalysis and catalysts has been the center of this program. This have been engaged in both surface and bulk level and pursued with the tools avialble at the academic institutions and at LANSCE at LANL. The structural studies have been built in interaction with a computational effort on the basis of DFT approach to materials structure and reactivity.

• Research Organization: Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• DOE Contract Number: FG02-08ER46530
• OSTI ID: 1349091
• Report Number(s): FG02-08ER46530 -- final report; FG02-08ER46530-final report revised
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

08 HYDROGEN
09 BIOMASS FUELS
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
catalysts
electrocatalysts