Energy researchers invent chameleon metal that acts like many others
Research could improve efficiency for storing renewable energy, making carbon-free fuels, and manufacturing sustainable materials

Date:
May 9, 2022
Source:
University of Minnesota
Summary:
Researchers have invented a groundbreaking device that
electronically converts one metal into behaving like another to
use as a catalyst for speeding chemical reactions.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A team of energy researchers led by the University of Minnesota
Twin Cities has invented a groundbreaking device that electronically
converts one metal into behaving like another to use as a catalyst for
speeding chemical reactions. The fabricated device, called a "catalytic condenser," is the first to demonstrate that alternative materials that
are electronically modified to provide new properties can yield faster,
more efficient chemical processing.


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The invention opens the door for new catalytic technologies using
non-precious metal catalysts for important applications such as storing renewable energy, making renewable fuels, and manufacturing sustainable materials.

The research is published online in JACS Au, the leading open access
journal of the American Chemical Society, where it was selected as an
Editor's Choice publication. The team is also working with the University
of Minnesota Office of Technology Commercialization and has a provisional patent on the device.

Chemical processing for the last century has relied on the use of specific materials to promote the manufacturing of chemicals and materials we use
in our everyday lives. Many of these materials, such as precious metals ruthenium, platinum, rhodium, and palladium, have unique electronic
surface properties.

They can act as both metals and metal oxides, making them critical for controlling chemical reactions.

The general public is probably most familiar with this concept in relation
to the uptick in thefts of catalytic converters on cars. Catalytic
converters are valuable because of the rhodium and palladium inside
them. In fact, palladium can be more expensive than gold.

These expensive materials are often in short supply around the world
and have become a major barrier to advancing technology.



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In order to develop this method for tuning the catalytic properties of alternative materials, the researchers relied on their knowledge of how electrons behave at surfaces. The team successfully tested a theory that
adding and removing electrons to one material could turn the metal oxide
into something that mimicked the properties of another.

"Atoms really do not want to change their number of electrons, but we
invented the catalytic condenser device that allows us to tune the number
of electrons at the surface of the catalyst," said Paul Dauenhauer,
a MacArthur Fellow and professor of chemical engineering and materials
science at the University of Minnesota who led the research team. "This
opens up an entirely new opportunity for controlling chemistry and
making abundant materials act like precious materials." The catalytic condenser device uses a combination of nanometer films to move and
stabilize electrons at the surface of the catalyst. This design has the
unique mechanism of combining metals and metal oxides with graphene to
enable fast electron flow with surfaces that are tunable for chemistry.

"Using various thin film technologies, we combined a nano-scale film of
alumina made from low-cost abundant aluminum metal with graphene, which
we were then able to tune to take on the properties of other materials,"
said Tzia Ming Onn, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of
Minnesota who fabricated and tested the catalytic condensers. "The
substantial ability to tune the catalytic and electronic properties of
the catalyst exceeded our expectations." The catalytic condenser design
has broad utility as a platform device for a range of manufacturing applications. This versatility comes from its nanometer fabrication that incorporates graphene as an enabling component of the active surface
layer. The power of the device to stabilize electrons (or the absence
of electrons called "holes") is tunable with varying composition of a
strongly insulating internal layer. The device's active layer also can incorporate any base catalyst material with additional additives, that can
then be tuned to achieve the properties of expensive catalytic materials.

"We view the catalytic condenser as a platform technology that can
be implemented across a host of manufacturing applications," said Dan
Frisbie, a professor and head of the University of Minnesota Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and research team member. "The
core design insights and novel components can be modified to almost any chemistry we can imagine." The team plans to continue their research
on catalytic condensers by applying it to precious metals for some
of the most important sustainability and environmental problems. With
financial support from the U.S. Department of Energy and National Science Foundation, several parallel projects are already in progress to store renewable electricity as ammonia, manufacture the key molecules in
renewable plastics, and clean gaseous waste streams.

The experimental invention of the catalytic condenser is part of a larger mission of the U.S. Department of Energy, and this work was funded by
the U.S.

Department of Energy, Basic Energy Sciences Catalysis program via grant
#DE- SC0021163. Additional support to fabricate and characterize the
catalytic condenser devices was provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation CBET- Catalysis program (Award #1937641) and the MRSEC
program DMR-2011401. Funding was also provided by donors Keith and Amy
Steva. Electron microscopy work was carried out in the University of Minnesota's Characterization Facility.

Researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and University
of California, Santa Barbara were also involved in the study.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Minnesota. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Tzia Ming Onn, Sallye R. Gathmann, Yuxin Wang, Roshan Patel,
Silu Guo,
Han Chen, Jimmy K. Soeherman, Phillip Christopher, Geoffrey
Rojas, K.

Andre Mkhoyan, Matthew Neurock, Omar A. Abdelrahman, C. Daniel
Frisbie, Paul J. Dauenhauer. Alumina Graphene Catalytic
Condenser for Programmable Solid Acids. JACS Au, 2022; DOI:
10.1021/jacsau.2c00114 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/05/220509100929.htm

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