The continued release of fossil-fuel derived carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions into our atmosphere led humanity into a climate and ecological crisis. Converting CO₂ into valuable chemicals and fuels will replace and diminish the need for fossil fuel-derived products. Through the use of a catalyst, CO₂ can be transformed into a commodity chemical by the reverse water gas shift (RWGS) reaction, where CO₂ reacts with renewable hydrogen (H₂) to form carbon monoxide (CO). CO then acts as the source molecule in the Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis to form a range of hydrocarbons to manufacture chemicals and fuels. While the FT synthesis is a mature process, the conversion of CO₂ into CO has yet to be made commercially available due to the constraints associated with high reaction temperature and catalytic stability.
Noble metal ruthenium (Ru) has been widely used for the RWGS reaction due to its high catalytic activity, however, several constraints hinder its practical use, associated with its high cost and its susceptibility to deactivation. The doping or bimetallic use of non-noble metals iron (Fe) and cobalt (Co) is an attractive option to lower material cost and tailor the selectivity of the CO₂ conversion towards the RWGS reaction without compromising catalytic activity. Furthermore, employing nanostructured catalysts as nanoparticles is a viable solution to further lower the amount of metal used and utilize the highly active surface area of the catalyst. Dispersing nanoparticles on ionically conductive supports/solid electrolytes which contain species like O²⁻, H⁺, Na⁺, and K⁺, provide an approach to further enhance the reaction. This phenomenon is referred to as metal-support interaction (MSI), allowing for the ions to back spillover from the support and onto the catalyst surface. An in-situ approach referred to as Non-Faradaic Modification of catalytic activity (NEMCA), also known as electrochemical promotion of catalysis (EPOC) is used to in-situ control the movement of ionic species from the solid electrolyte to and away from the catalyst. Both the MSI and EPOC phenomena have been shown to be functionally equivalent, meaning the ionic species act to alter the work function of the catalyst by forming an effective neutral double layer on the surface, which in turn alters the binding energy of the reactant and intermediate species to promote the reaction.
The main objective of this work is to develop a catalyst that is highly active and selective to the RWGS reaction at low temperatures (< 400 °C) by employing the MSI and EPOC phenomena to enhance the catalytic conversion. The electrochemical enhancement effect will lower energy requirements and allow the RWGS reaction to take place at moderate temperatures. Catalysts composed of Ru, Fe and Co were synthesized through the polyol synthesis technique and deposited on mixed-ionically conductive and ionically conductive supports to evaluate their performance towards the RWGS reaction and the MSI effect. The nano-structured catalysts are deposited as free-standing nanoparticles on solid electrolytes to in-situ promote the catalytic rate through the EPOC phenomenon. Furthermore, Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations were performed to correlate theory with experiment and elucidate the role polarization has on the binding energy of reactant and intermediate species.
The high dispersion of RuFe nanoparticles on ion-containing supports like samarium-doped ceria (SDC) and yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) led to an increase in the RWGS activity due to the MSI effect. A direct correlation between experimental and DFT modeling was established signifying that polarization affected the binding energy of the CO molecule on the surface of Ru regardless of the type of ionic species in the solid electrolyte. The electrochemical enhancement towards the RWGS reaction has been achieved with iron-oxide (FeOₓ) nanowires on YSZ. The in-situ application of O²⁻ ions from YSZ maintained the most active state of Fe₃O₄ and FeO towards the RWGS reaction and allowed for persistent-promoted state that lasted long after potential application. Finally, the deposition of FeOₓ nanowires on Co₃O₄ resulted in the highest CO₂ conversion towards the RWGS reaction due to the metal-oxide interaction between both metals, signifying a self-sustained electro-promoted state.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/41963 |
| Date | 01 April 2021 |
| Creators | Panaritis, Christopher |
| Contributors | Baranova, Olena |
| Publisher | Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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