Catalyst Thickness Research Articles

Humidity-Induced Degradation Mapping of Pt3Co ORR Catalyst for PEFC by In-Operando Electrochemistry and Ex Situ SAXS.

Understanding the degradation mechanisms of Pt-alloy catalysts is crucial for enhancing their durability. This study investigates the impact of relative humidity on Pt and Pt3Co catalysts using potential-cycling-based accelerated stress tests. Two conditions are investigated: 100% relative humidity on both sides, and a gradient with 30% at the anode and over 100% at the cathode. Pt3Co demonstrates sensitivity, with 77% performance loss and reductions in electrocatalyst surface area. Results demonstrate a 30% decrease in potential loss for Pt catalysts and a 77% increase for Pt3Co catalysts, indicating significant performance degradation in high humidity conditions, with Pt3Co exhibiting greater sensitivity. Measurements of electrochemically active surface area reinforce these findings. Resistance analysis using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy using equivalent circuit modeling reveals a threefold increase in Pt3Co MEAs' cathode charge transfer resistance and mass transport resistance during accelerated stress tests. Local current distribution analysis highlights differences between Pt catalyst and Pt3Co, with the latter displaying dealloying effects. Small-angle X-ray scattering reveals changes in particle and cluster sizes, indicating structural changes. Scanning electron microscopy highlights catalyst and membrane thickness variations, suggesting heterogeneity in Pt3Co. Under humidity gradients, Ostwald ripening plays a significant role in altering the catalyst's Pt3Co structure and subsequently impacting its performance.

High-density integration of uniform sub-22 nm silicon nanowires for transparent thin film transistors on glass

Ultrathin catalytical silicon nanowires (SiNWs), grown as orderly arrays upon glass substrates, are ideal 1D channels for the construction of high-performance field effect transistors for low-power and high aperture/transparency electronics. In this work, a rather uniform growth integration of high-density ultrathin SiNWs has been accomplished directly on glass substrate at 290 °C, via an in-plane solid–liquid-solid mechanism. The indium (In) catalyst thickness deposited on the dense guiding terrace steps was identified as a key parameter to suppress the size dispersion of the In droplets, and thus enable a uniform growth of ultrathin SiNWs with diameters down to DNW=21.8 ± 1.8 nm, a close-to-unity guided growth rate and an excellent transparency > 90 % in spectrum ranging from 350 nm to 950 nm. Based on a convenient dry plasma etching and low-temperature passivation procedure, high-performance SiNW transistors have been successfully fabricated upon a dense array of parallel SiNWs as channels with a narrow NW-to-NW spacing of 100 nm. A high current ratio Ion/Ioff > 107, a low off-state current down to 0.1 pA, a steep subthreshold swing of SS∼120 mV dec-1 and excellent positive and negative bias stabilities have been demonstrated, as well as SiNW-based inverter logics that achieve a gain of 14.6 V/V under a drive voltage of 2.25 V. These results highlight the potential of catalytic SiNWs to serve as advantageous 1D channels for large-area display or transparent electronics.

Facile synthesis of NiCo2O4 nanosheets efficient for electrocatalysis of water

Effective regulation of transition metal spinel morphology is crucial for stable bifunctional catalysts in the electrocatalysis of water. In this work, we crafted a fine NiCo2O4 (F-NCO) microflower structure assembled by nanosheet arrays, which exhibited highly efficient hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER), outperforming most of the previous transition metal catalysts. Electronic microscope analysis revealed that the thickness of the F-NCO catalyst was only 1.6 nm, much smaller than that (58.8 nm) of bulk NiCo2O4 (B-NCO), and the ultrathin lamellar structure facilitated the exposure of active sites and improved the reaction kinetics. Compared with the B-NCO catalyst, the overpotential of the F-NCO catalyst in HER and OER was reduced by 36 and 82 mV, the active surface area increased by 2.68 and 4.16 times, and the charge transfer resistance values were reduced by 0.42 and 0.61 times, respectively. In the assembled cell, F-NCO/CFP(+)||F-NCO/CFP(−) electrolyzer was able to achieve 10 mA cm−2 at a low cell voltage of 1.74 V, which was much lower than B-NCO/CFP(+)||B-NCO/CFP(−) electrolyzer. In the 12-hour stability test, the potentiometric time dropped by only 30 mV, lower than 70 mV of the B-NCO catalyst. This work presents a facile strategy for developing a bifunctional catalyst for the electrocatalysis of water.

Electrochemical Reduction of CO2 to Multi-Carbon Products on Sputtered Cu Nanoparticles Gas Diffusion Electrodes

The electrochemical reduction of CO2 is a technology of great environmental and economic interest as it provides a promising solution for reducing the concentration of CO2 with producing valuable chemical compounds. Cu and its alloys have attracted much attention because of their moderate CO binding energy for reducing CO2 to multi-carbon (C2+) products[1]. The reactivity and product selectivity of the CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) depend on the interfacial structure and the nano-scale morphology of the catalyst as well as on the catalyst material composition. Especially for the gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs), the catalyst morphology has a significant influence on the formation of triple-phase boundary that increases CO2 reactivity and product selectivity[2,3]. However, the influence of catalyst morphology including catalyst thickness, porosity, particle size on CO2RR has not been fully understood yet because of the complex CO2RR mechanism and catalyst structure in GDEs. In this study, we investigated the relationship between product selectivity and the thickness of the Cu controlled by sputtering techniques and characterized nanostructure of the Cu-GDEs.The Cu catalyst layer (CL) was deposited on a commercial carbon-based gas diffusion layer (GDL) with a micro porous layer (MPL) by magnetron sputtering from a pure Cu target at room temperature. The geometric area of the deposited Cu was 0.5 cm2. The nanostructures of GDEs were evaluated using scanning transmission electron microscopy equipped with energy dispersive X-ray analyzer (STEM-EDX). Electrochemical experiments were carried out in a three-electrode setup using a Biologic-VSP instrument. A home-made three-compartment flow cell was used with the Cu-GDE as the working electrode between the gas and cathode compartments. An Ag/AgCl electrode was placed in the cathode compartment as the reference electrode and a Pt mesh as the counter electrode in the anode compartment. 1 M KCl was used as the catholyte, saturated KHCO3 was used as the anolyte and a proton exchange membrane (Nafion 117) was used to separate the anode and cathode compartments. The CO2 gas flow to a gas compartment was kept at 30 sccm. Electrochemical CO2RR was performed by chronopotentiometry. The gas products were quantified using a gas chromatography with thermal conductivity detector. As for the liquid products, alcohols were evaluated using a gas chromatography with flame ionization detector and organic acids were detected by high performance liquid chromatography with conductivity detector, respectively.The faradaic efficiencies (FEs) of CO2RR products using GDEs with various CL thickness of 70, 300, 1000, 2000 nm were measured under current density of 400 mA cm-2. The GDE with CL thickness of x nm is written as CLxGDE. The major gas and liquid products for all the GDEs were ethylene and ethanol with the FE of around 37-42% and 26-31%, respectively. As decreasing CL thickness from 2000 nm, FEs for C2+ products (FEC2+), such as ethylene, ethanol, n-propanol etc., were increased from that of CL2000GDE of 69%. The maximum FEC2+ reaching 81% was achieved for CL300GDE. The FEC2+ for CL70GDE was slightly decreased down to 76%. In comparison with the FEs for CL2000GDE, the FEs of ethylene, ethanol, and n-propanol were each increased by 2-5%, while FE of H2 was decreased for CL300GDE.To clarify the details of CL morphology, the surface structure of CL300GDEs was observed before and after the CO2RR measurement using STEM-EDX. Figures (a) and (b) show cross-sectional images of nano-scale annular dark field (ADF)-STEM and EDX mapping (purple color show Cu and cyan blue color show C) before the CO2RR measurement. The Cu layer was uniformly stacked on MPL with the designed thickness of 300 nm. Figures (c) and (d) show cross-sectional images of ADF-STEM and EDX mapping after the CO2RR measurement. Cu nanoparticles less than 50 nm were distributed on the surface and inside of the MPL. The stacked Cu layer as observed before the CO2RR measurement was not observed after the CO2RR. These results indicate that Cu atoms migrate during the CO2RR and distributed Cu nanoparticles exhibit the high FEC2+. We will discuss the influence of Cu migration during the CO2RR on product selectivity from the results of synchrotron-based analysis and nanostructure observation in the presentation.[1] A. Bagger et al., ChemPhysChem. 2017, 18, 3266-3273.[2] N. T. Nesbitt et al., ACS Catal. 2020, 10, 14093-14106.[3] A. Inoue et al., EES Catal. 2023, 1, 9–16.Fig. Cross-sectional images of (a), (c) ADF-STEM and (b), (d) EDX mapping before and after CO2RR for CL300GDEs, respectively. Purple color show Cu and cyan blue color show C. Figure 1

Enhancement of gasochromic response to hydrogen of WO3 thin films by post-process modification and catalyst selection

The gasochromic properties of WO3 thin films deposited by electron beam evaporation were investigated, focusing on their structural, morphology and optical changes caused by heat treatment. Moreover, the influence of the thickness and type of catalyst on the gasochromic properties of WO3 was examined. X-ray diffraction measurements revealed that WO3 thin films annealed up to 473 K remained amorphous, whereas annealing at 673 K and above, initiated crystallization into a monoclinic structure. Gasochromic behaviour was observed in response to hydrogen exposure, with the most significant changes occurring in films annealed at 673 K with a thin adlayer of palladium catalyst. A gasochromic response of 1.84 was achieved for H2 concentration as low as 25 ppm. The process of gasochromic colouration was correlated with the changes of free charge carrier concentration calculated based on Drude free electron theory. XPS analysis confirms WO3 reduction under hydrogen exposure, validating proposed colouration mechanisms. These comprehensive findings offer insights into optimizing gasochromic thin films for various sensing applications.

Improved understanding of carbon nanotube growth via autonomous jump regression targeting of catalyst activity

Catalyst control is critical to carbon nanotube (CNT) growth and scaling their production. In supported catalyst CNT growth, the reduction of an oxidized metal catalyst enables growth, but its reduction also initiates catalyst deactivation via Ostwald ripening. Here, we conducted autonomous experiments guided by a hypothesis-driven machine learning planner based on a novel jump regression algorithm. This planning algorithm iteratively models the experimental response surface to identify discontinuities, such as those created by a material phase change, and targets further experiments to improve the fit and reduce uncertainty in its model. This approach led us to identify conditions that resulted in the greatest CNT yields as a function of the driving forces of catalyst reduction in a fraction of the time and cost of conventional experimental approaches. By varying temperature and the reducing potential of the growth atmosphere, we identified discontinuous jumps in CNT growth for two thicknesses of an iron catalyst, resulting in largest observed yields in narrow and distinct regions of thermodynamic space where we believe the reduced catalyst is in equilibrium with its oxide. At these jumps, we also observed the longest growth lifetimes and a greater degree of diameter control. We believe that conducting CNT growth at these conditions optimizes catalyst activity by inhibiting Ostwald ripening-induced deactivation, thereby keeping catalyst nanoparticles smaller and more numerous. This work establishes a thermodynamic framework for a generalized understanding of metal catalysts in CNT growth, and demonstrates the capability of iterative, hypothesis-driven autonomous experimentation to greatly accelerate materials science.

Optimizing platinum-free counter electrodes for dye-sensitized solar cells: Multiwalled carbon nanotube forests covered with ruthenium layers

Multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) forests have extremely large surface areas and high catalytic activity. To use them as alternative materials for Pt/fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) conventional counter electrodes (CEs) in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), a unique Ru metal layer, prepared with 600-cycle atomic layer deposition, was employed. The best Ru-coated MWCNT forest (Ru/MWCNT) CE performance was achieved by examining the experimental conditions for the MWCNT forests, including deposition processes, catalyst thicknesses and synthesis time. The results revealed that 20μm-thick MWCNT forests with numerous defects/disordered sites exhibit excellent CE performance. In practice, Ru/MWCNT CEs prepared under optimal synthesis conditions show low charge transfer resistance (Rct of approximately 2.5 ohm) and series resistance (Rs of approximately 14 ohm) that are even better than those for Pt/FTO CEs (Rct=6.36 ohm and Rs=16.4 ohm). Owing to these excellent Rct and Rs values, dye-sensitized solar cells with optimized Ru/MWCNT CEs showed better performance than those containing Pt/FTO CEs. Finally, post-heat treatment of Ru/MWCNT CEs increased the cell efficiency of the DSSCs.

Ethane Dehydrogenation over the Core–Shell Pt-Based Alloy Catalysts: Driven by Engineering the Shell Composition and Thickness

Pt-based catalysts as the commercial catalysts in ethane dehydrogenation (EDH) face one of the main challenges of realizing the balance between coke formation and catalytic activity. In this work, a strategy to drive the catalytic performance of EDH on Pt-Sn alloy catalysts is proposed by rationally engineering the shell surface structure and thickness of core-shell Pt@Pt3Sn and Pt3Sn@Pt catalysts from a theoretical perspective. Eight types of Pt@Pt3Sn and Pt3Sn@Pt catalysts with different Pt and Pt3Sn shell thicknesses are considered and compared with the industrially used Pt and Pt3Sn catalysts. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations completely describe the reaction network of EDH, including the side reactions of deep dehydrogenation and C-C bond cracking. Kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) simulations reveal the influences of the catalyst surface structure, experimentally related temperatures, and reactant partial pressures. The results show that CHCH* is the main precursor for coke formation, and Pt@Pt3Sn catalysts generally have higher C2H4(g) activity and lower selectivity compared to those of Pt3Sn@Pt catalysts, which is attributed to the unique surface geometrical and electronic properties. 1Pt3Sn@4Pt and 1Pt@4Pt3Sn are screened out as catalysts exhibiting excellent performance; especially, the 1Pt3Sn@4Pt catalyst has much higher C2H4(g) activity and 100% C2H4(g) selectivity compared to those of 1Pt@4Pt3Sn and the widely used Pt and Pt3Sn catalysts. The two descriptors C2H5* adsorption energy and reaction energy of its dehydrogenation to C2H4* are proposed to qualitatively evaluate the C2H4(g) selectivity and activity, respectively. This work facilitates a valuable exploration for optimizing the catalytic performance of core-shell Pt-based catalysts in EDH and reveals the great importance of the fine control of the catalyst shell surface structure and thickness.

Advanced ceramics in radical filtration: TiO2 layer thickness effect on the photocatalytic membrane performance

Membranes with advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) are a promising combination to separate and degrade organic pollutants in a single system. In this work, we describe the fabrication and characteristics of nine membranes with different TiO2 top layer thicknesses (from 0.26 to 21.9 μm), giving attention to the critical catalyst thickness and the formation of defects. We also report the optimum photocatalyst thickness for our single-layer membranes (∼2.74 μm), after which more titanium dioxide does not improve the degradation. However, an increase in degradation for membranes with multiple TiO2 layers was still possible. These results and the comparisons with the literature suggested that the optimal catalyst thickness is closely related to the material morphology. We obtained a maximum degradation at the lower filtration rate (1.6 L m−2 h−1) of 72% with a single layer membrane of 3.4 μm and 82% with a membrane with six layers of 21.9 μm. Furthermore, a 1D mass transport and reaction model that describes the coating thickness effect was developed and fitted with the experimental data. Other parameters are also discussed, such as light penetration limitations, surface area, and surface reaction rate constant. These results and analysis provide a better understanding of the fabrication and optimization of photocatalytic membranes.

Modeling and Optimizing Anode Catalyst Layer for Direct Ammonia Fuel Cell

Great progress has been made in recent years in the development of low-temperature direct ammonia fuel cells (DAFCs), motivated by the recognition that ammonia is a carbon-free hydrogen carrier with high energy density, low production cost, and ease in liquefaction at ambient temperature. However, the sluggish kinetics of ammonia electrooxidation and especially complicated mass transport in the anode catalyst layer hinder the further development of DAFCs. In this work, a three-dimensional two-phase multicomponent DAFC model considering the effect of ammonia crossover has been developed. Maxwell-Stefan model, Darcy's law and Brinkman equation are utilized to simulate the multicomponent fluid motion and transport. The predicted polarization curve simulates all experimental results well. The model shows the rate of ammonia crossover decreases with the increase of current density. Besides, the effects of the physicochemical property of the anode catalyst layer, including porosity, thickness and PtIr loading, on cell performance are investigated. The modeling results indicate that decreasing porosity and increasing thickness can slightly improve the electrochemical performance of DAFCs at high current density. Meanwhile, higher PtIr loading can effectively reduce voltage loss before approaching the limiting current density.

Design and optimization of a crossflow tube reactor system for hydrogen production by combining ethanol steam reforming and water gas shift reaction

Crossflow tube reactors with crossflow configuration are considered a special design for hydrogen production via ethanol steam reforming with less catalyst than conventional packed bed reactors. However, the results showed that crossflow tube reactors would produce an elevated concentration of carbon monoxide, which has a detrimental effect on further applications of the product gas from steam reforming, such as hydrogen purification. This drawback can be diminished by integrating a water gas shift reaction unit into the steam reformer. This study's combined system is numerically investigated for hydrogen production and enrichment. The results show that low reaction temperatures are favorable for hydrogen production. The steam/ethanol (S/E) ratio of 3 is optimal for hydrogen production and CO reduction in the system combined with ethanol steam reforming and water gas shift reaction. Both variations in the catalytic tube diameter and the catalyst thickness positively affect hydrogen production. However, the effect of the tube diameter is higher than that of the catalyst thickness. This study also uses a parametric sweep associated with the evolutionary computation of bound optimization by quadratic approximation (BOBYQA) method to optimize the system’s tube arrangement. The optimized system intensifies H2 yield by 1.05 times and improves CO reduction by 37.71% compared to ethanol steam reforming alone.

Ultrathin edge-rich structure of Co3O4 enabling the low charging overpotential of Li-O2 battery

• Ultrathin and edge-rich Co 3 O 4 was fabricated and adopted for Li-O 2 catalyst. • The u-Co 3 O 4 tended to induce the formation of thin and loosely aggregated Li 2 O 2 . • High Co 3+ /Co 2+ ratio was benefit for the decomposition of discharge products. The kinetics of the oxygen reduction reaction and oxygen evolution reaction at the rechargeable lithium-oxygen battery cathode are still need to be greatly improved, and transition metal oxides-based catalysts usually suffer from low conductivity and insufficient active sites. Herein, an ultrathin and edge-rich Co 3 O 4 (u-Co 3 O 4 ) catalyst (thickness 3–4 nm) is proposed to lower the overpotential and enhance the cyclability of non-aqueous Li-O 2 battery. The unique structure endows Co 3 O 4 with high electronic conductivity, high specific surface area and abundant active sites. And the high density of Co 3+ ions exposed on surface can serve as active centers for decomposing the discharge products. This u-Co 3 O 4 catalyst tented to induce forming thin and loosely aggregated Li 2 O 2 as discharge products. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy reveals that a faster charge transmission realized inside the u-Co 3 O 4 -based cell after discharge. Scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction techniques suggest the u-Co 3 O 4 can perfectly catalyze decomposing the discharge products during recharge. Consequently, this u-Co 3 O 4 provided a ∼0.20 V lowered overpotential and an almost 2-fold cycling life for Li-O 2 battery in comparison with traditional Co 3 O 4 catalyst.

(Invited) Understanding CO2 and Water Supply in Zero-Gap Membrane Electrode Assembly Based Electrochemical CO2 Reduction Reaction

Due to the global agenda to achieve net zero carbon emission, the needs to develop carbon capture and utilization technology has been sharply emerging. Although electrochemical CO2 reduction (CO2R) to useful carbon chemicals is challenging to meet the industrial requirements, recent studies have made a significant improvement in the performances both of the product selectivity and current density. Gas-diffusion electrode configurations allow direct CO2 gas-feeding to the catalyst layer and several hundred mA/cm2 of current density have been demonstrated with a zero-gap type of membrane electrolyzer assembly (MEA) electrolyzer. However, many underlying phenomena are still not clearly understood.Among various components of MEA, here, I will focus on the cathode catalyst, and balanced CO2 / water supply at the catalyst/membrane boundary to understand the CO2R activity. We demonstrate the importance of the water supply from the anolyte for the selective CO2R in the zero-gap MEA electrolyzer. We confirm that hydrogen is mostly originated from the aqueous anolyte for the production of the ethylene from CO2R with controlled labelling experiments. In terms of the Cu catalyst morphology, the alkaline environment near the catalyst layer leads a significant morphology changes during the pre-treatment steps for the ionomer activation, which contributes to increase in the CO2R activity. The microenvironment behavior is simulated and compares with the experimental CO2R MEA performance to understand the mass flow and CO2R activity, which also support the catalyst thickness dependence. For the practical application consideration, we also study the CO2R activity for CO production with the low concentration (~ 10%) of CO2 feeding and amine-captured direct CO2 reduction condition. Weak HER activity is important especially with the low concentration of CO2 because the slower CO2 reduction rate lead to more hydrogen compared to 100 % of CO2 gas feeding. These studies will give insight to the intrinsic and extrinsic factors determining the activities of CO2R MEA.

Highly Active Electrocatalyst based on Ultra-low Loading of Ruthenium Supported on Titanium Carbide for Alkaline Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

With the emerging importance of catalysts for water electrolysis, developing efficient and inexpensive electrocatalysts for water electrolysis plays a vital role in renewable hydrogen energy technology. In this study, a 1nm thickness of TiC-supported Ru catalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) has been successfully fabricated using an electron (E)-beam evaporator and thermal decomposition of gaseous CH4 in a furnace. The prepared Ru/TiC catalyst exhibited an outstanding performance for alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction with an overpotential of 55 mV at 10 mA cm−2. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the outstanding HER performance of Ru/TiC was attributed to the high surface area of the support and the metal-support interaction.

Multilayer additive manufacturing of catalyst-coated membranes for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells by inkjet printing

Inkjet printing is a versatile, contactless and accurate material deposition technology. The present work is focused on developing innovative strategies for inkjet printing of Catalyst-Coated Membranes (CCM) by performing Additive Manufacturing (AM) applied to Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC), without resorting to intermediate substrates. Three different approaches for AM are presented and discussed: a) inkjet-printing of the membrane ionomer layer and the top catalyst layer; b) inkjet-printing of both catalyst layers onto a membrane; c) inkjet-printing of the ionomer layer as well as the catalyst layers onto the reinforcement layer of the membrane. The produced catalyst and membrane layers were characterized and proved uniform in terms of catalyst loading (0.2–0.4 and 0.08 mgPt cm−2 for cathode and anode, respectively), ionomer distribution and thickness homogeneity (4 μm for catalyst layers). The fully inkjet-printed CCM outperformed conventionally made assemblies in electrochemical-performance testing, even reaching 15% higher power density.

Characterizing CO2 Reduction Catalysts on Gas Diffusion Electrodes: Comparing Activity, Selectivity, and Stability of Transition Metal Catalysts.

Continued advancements in the electrochemical reduction of CO2 (CO2RR) have emphasized that reactivity, selectivity, and stability are not explicit material properties but combined effects of the catalyst, double-layer, reaction environment, and system configuration. These realizations have steadily built upon the foundational work performed for a broad array of transition metals performed at 5 mA cm–2, which historically guided the research field. To encompass the changing advancements and mindset within the research field, an updated baseline at elevated current densities could then be of value. Here we seek to re-characterize the activity, selectivity, and stability of the five most utilized transition metal catalysts for CO2RR (Ag, Au, Pd, Sn, and Cu) at elevated reaction rates through electrochemical operation, physical characterization, and varied operating parameters to provide a renewed resource and point of comparison. As a basis, we have employed a common cell architecture, highly controlled catalyst layer morphologies and thicknesses, and fixed current densities. Through a dataset of 88 separate experiments, we provide comparisons between CO-producing catalysts (Ag, Au, and Pd), highlighting CO-limiting current densities on Au and Pd at 72 and 50 mA cm–2, respectively. We further show the instability of Sn in highly alkaline environments, and the convergence of product selectivity at elevated current densities for a Cu catalyst in neutral and alkaline media. Lastly, we reflect upon the use and limits of reaction rates as a baseline metric by comparing catalytic selectivity at 10 versus 200 mA cm–2. We hope the collective work provides a resource for researchers setting up CO2RR experiments for the first time.

Study on AgCl/Al2O3 Catalyst Coating on Metal Workpiece Surface by Electrophoretic Deposition and Its Overall Catalytic Performance

This paper is a study of the coating technique of AgCl/Al2O3 catalyst on metal-based surfaces. In order to remove nitrogen oxides from the exhaust of marine diesel engines, this paper proposes a method of electrophoretic deposition and designs an electrophoretic deposition apparatus according to the coating conditions. An in-house developed catalyst was coated on a specific stainless-steel workpiece by the electrophoretic deposition method under the conditions of appropriate voltage and catalyst solution concentration. The surface and cross section of AgCl/Al2O3 coating on stainless steel were observed by scanning electron microscope, and the thickness of catalyst coating after coating was determined. In this study, an exhaust gas evaluation system was built, and a removal test of nitrogen oxides from diesel exhaust gas was conducted under the environment of temperature cyclic change, and repeated experiments proved that the coated workpiece could still effectively remove harmful nitrogen oxides from the exhaust gas. Converting them to N2 provides a new idea for ship exhaust gas purification.

Synthesis of layered vs planar Mo2C: role of Mo diffusion

Chemical vapor deposition growth of metal carbides is of great interest as this method provides large area growth of MXenes. This growth is mainly done using a melted diffusion based process; however, different morphologies in growth process is not well understood. In this work, we report deterministic synthesis of layered (non-uniform c-axis growth) and planar (uniform c-axis growth) of molybdenum carbide (Mo2C) using a diffusion-mediated growth. Mo-diffusion limited growth mechanism is proposed where the competition between Mo and C adatoms determines the morphology of grown crystals. Difference in thickness of catalyst at the edge and center lead to enhanced Mo diffusion which plays a vital role in determining the structure of Mo2C. The layered structures exhibit an expansion in the lattice confirmed by the presence of strain. Density functional theory shows consistent presence of strain which is dependent upon Mo diffusion during growth. This work demonstrates the importance of precise control of diffusion through the catalyst in determining the structure of Mo2C and contributes to broader understanding of metal diffusion in growth of MXenes.

Microenvironments of Cu catalysts in zero-gap membrane electrode assembly for efficient CO2 electrolysis to C2+ products

The activity and selectivity for C2+ products from electrochemical CO2 reduction in a zero-gap membrane-electrode assembly (MEA) are improved using a synchronous KOH-activation and tailoring of Cu catalyst thickness.

Influence of Catalyst Thickness and Etching Solution Composition on Properties of Black Silicon Fabricated Via Aluminium-Assisted Chemical Etching

Influence of Catalyst Thickness and Etching Solution Composition on Properties of Black Silicon Fabricated Via Aluminium-Assisted Chemical Etching