Investigation of the structure of bi- and tri-metallic alloys for electrooxidation of alcohols
EMSL Project ID
44710
Abstract
The main objective of this research project is to develop non-PGM multimetallic catalysts for electro-oxidation of ethanol in Alkaline media, and to understand the contributions of different components of multimetallic systems to the observed catalyst performance. The main compositional groups to be studied are Zn alloyed with Pt, Pd, Ni and Cu and correspondingly Ni alloyed with oxophillic metals such as Co, Fe, Cu. In these system particular attention must be paid to the role of the metal oxide phase as a co-catalyst and composite support material. While good characterization of catalysts is in general necessary, in order to make good structure-to-property correlations, the needs become more complex for multimetallic, multifunctional materials. Since the most promising ethanol oxidation material to date is trimetallic and biphasic the characterization requirements are even more critical and complex. Traditional as well as new and developing in-situ techniques such as in-situ XRD and in-situ XPS must be used to improve understanding of the materials set under near-reaction conditions when possible. Evidence for alloy formation, segregation, oxide formation or metallic particles at the microstructural level will be studied by analyzing samples before and reaction tests. The experimental efforts will be augmented by DFT calculations that will determine thermodynamics of the materials and help identify likely stable and active material compositions.
Project Details
Project type
Exploratory Research
Start Date
2011-10-13
End Date
2012-10-14
Status
Closed
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator
Team Members