Engineers rely on catalysts for a vast array of applications from food manufacturing to chemical production, so finding efficient, environmentally friendly catalysts is an important avenue of research.
New research led by the University of Pittsburgh could lead to the creation of new catalysts based on the compounds tungsten oxide and similar compounds.
Computational simulations were used to understand how tungsten oxide interacts with hydrogen and the findings were verified through lab experimentation.
A paper detailing the findings was recently featured on the cover of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Tungsten oxide can be used to accelerate sustainable chemical conversions by using sunlight or renewable electricity. This chemical compound has a unique way of interacting with hydrogen atoms that makes it especially good at participating in chemical reactions where hydrogen needs to be produced or used.
The use of hydrogen to take carbon dioxide, the primary culprit in global warming, is one of the types of chemical reactions that we are most excited about.
While most catalysts only interact with hydrogen on their surface, tungsten oxide can also insert hydrogen into its three-dimensional crystal lattice. This process has a huge impact on what happens at the surface of the catalyst, according to advanced modeling by the researchers.
The work opens the possibility to design a whole new family of catalysts based on tungsten oxide and similar compounds, using the team's computational approach to predict their catalytic properties.
It is not an overstatement to say that we can draw a straight line between the subtle science contained in this study and the possibility of reinventing a huge swath of chemical manufacturing to make it more environmentally sustainable.
The project was a collaboration between Mpourmpakis's CANELa Lab and the McKone Lab, where the lead author is an NSF graduate fellow.
The opportunity to operate at the interface of theory and experiment has given me an unbelievable opportunity.
More information: Evan V. Miu et al, The Sensitivity of Metal Oxide Electrocatalysis to Bulk Hydrogen Intercalation: Hydrogen Evolution on Tungsten Oxide, Journal of the American Chemical Society (2022). DOI: 10.1021/jacs.2c00825 Journal information: Journal of the American Chemical Society Citation: Engineers show how tungsten oxide can be used as a catalyst in sustainable chemical conversions (2022, May 18) retrieved 18 May 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-05-tungsten-oxide-catalyst-sustainable-chemical.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.
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