RII Track-4:NSF: Integrated Electrochemical-Optical Microscopy for High Throughput Screening of Electrocatalysts

RII Track-4：NSF：用于高通量筛选电催化剂的集成电化学光学显微镜

• 批准号: 2327025
• 负责人: Vignesh Sundaresan
• 金额: $ 24.41万
• 依托单位: University of Mississippi
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-02-01 至 2026-01-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2327025&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RII; Track; NSF; Integrated; Electrochemical

In light of the global effort to combat climate change by transitioning to cleaner energy sources, the field of electrochemistry has become essential in making renewable energy practical. Clean electrical energy can be used to drive various chemical reactions, such as converting carbon dioxide into valuable products and producing hydrogen. The efficiency of these reactions largely depends on electrocatalysts, which are materials that enable these reactions to occur efficiently. Traditionally, these electrocatalysts have been tested using conventional electrochemical methods. However, these methods have two key limitations, 1) They provide an average measure of electrocatalyst efficiency, which masks the differences among individual catalysts. 2) They offer limited insights into the mechanisms and activity happening at the complex electrocatalyst interface. This project aims to address these limitations by developing a correlated electrochemical-optical microscope capable of testing electrocatalysts individually and in a high-throughput manner. Students involved in this project will gain valuable experience in new measurement and characterization techniques, as well as cutting-edge nanofabrication methods, significantly enhancing their technical skills. Furthermore, the Sundaresan Laboratory plans to engage undergraduate and K-12 students from minority-serving institutions in Mississippi through summer research programs and outreach activities to encourage students to pursue STEM degrees.The RII Track-4 EPSCoR Research Fellows project would provide a fellowship to an Assistant Professor and offer training to a graduate student at the University of Mississippi (UM). Nanoparticle electrocatalysts exhibit heterogeneity in size, shape, and surface chemistry, leading to differences in reactivity among them. Traditional electrochemical measurements reflect the average behavior of a heterogeneous system and do not account for individual variations. The overarching goal of this project is to develop and employ high-resolution scanning probe electrochemical microscopy - scanning electrochemical cell microscopy (SECCM) - coupled with novel optical methods for high-throughput screening of electrocatalysts at a single-entity level. This will be accomplished under the mentorship of Prof. Lane Baker, Texas A&M University, a world leader in scanning probe techniques. The correlated SECCM-optical technique will: 1) probe the electroactivity of an array of individual electrocatalysts with a well-defined particle-to-particle distance in a direct approach rather than the raster scan approach, and 2) validate electrofluorogenic probes for use as a proxy for measuring electrochemical activity. These two strategies enable high-throughput and massively parallel screening of electrocatalysts. Furthermore, this approach offers insights into how each entity uniquely contributes to the ensemble response seen in traditional electrochemical measurements. The broader impacts include a new measurement technique for the state of Mississippi, available for training graduate and undergraduate students through research and analytical chemistry courses at UM, as well as outreach activities for underrepresented students with the Electrochemical Society (ECS) chapter at UM.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.

鉴于通过过渡到清洁能源来打击气候变化的全球努力，电化学领域对于使可再生能源实用变得至关重要。清洁电能可用于驱动各种化学反应，例如将二氧化碳转化为有价值的产品并产生氢。这些反应的效率很大程度上取决于电催化剂，这些材料使这些反应有效地发生。传统上，这些电催化剂已使用常规电化学方法进行了测试。但是，这些方法具有两个关键的局限性，1）它们提供了电催化剂效率的平均度量，从而掩盖了单个催化剂之间的差异。 2）他们对复杂电催化剂界面处发生的机制和活动的见解有限。该项目旨在通过开发能够单独和高通量方式测试电催化剂的相关电化学显微镜来解决这些局限性。参与该项目的学生将获得在新的测量和特征技术以及最先进的纳米化方法方面的宝贵经验，从而大大提高了他们的技术技能。此外，Sundaresan实验室计划通过夏季研究计划和外展活动吸引来自密西西比州少数派服务机构的本科生和K-12学生。纳米颗粒电催化剂在大小，形状和表面化学上表现出异质性，从而导致反应性差异。传统的电化学测量结果反映了异质系统的平均行为，并且不考虑个体变化。该项目的总体目标是开发和采用高分辨率扫描探针电化学显微镜 - 扫描电化学细胞显微镜（SECCM） - 与新型的光学方法相结合，用于单个实现水平的电催化剂的高通量筛选。这将在德克萨斯农工大学莱恩·贝克教授的指导下完成，这是扫描探针技术的世界领导者。相关的seccm光学技术将：1）探测具有直接方法的粒子对颗粒距离的单个电催化剂阵列的电动性，而不是栅格扫描方法，2）验证电荧光探针用于测量电化学活性的代理。这两种策略可以对电催化剂的高通量和大规模平行筛选。此外，这种方法提供了有关每个实体如何唯一对传统电化学测量中看到的合奏反应做出贡献的见解。更广泛的影响包括针对密西西比州的新测量技术，可通过UM的研究和分析化学课程进行培训的研究生和本科生，以及针对代表性不足的学生（ECS）的宣传活动（ECS）在UM上的宣传学生（ECS）分会的UM。 标准。