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Results for “Catalyst screening”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 55 records · Page 3
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2026

Active site design enables industrial scale H 2 O 2 electrosynthesis with metal-free catalysts

The electrosynthesis of hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) via a two-electron oxygen reduction reaction enables decentralized H 2 O 2 production. While metal-free carbon catalysts are sustainable and low-cost, their performance is hindered by poorly defined active sites and uncontrolled defect states. Here, we resolve these challenges through active site design and catalyst screening using fluorine (F) and nitrogen (N) codoped carbons as model materials. Statistical analysis combined with density functional theoretical calculations reveals that F-induced structural modification and defect passivation optimize OOH* binding, with F-doping and adjacent F atoms predominantly lowering abs ΔG(OOH*). Experimental results confirm that semi-ionic C–F bonds passivate defects in nitrogen-doped carbon, enhancing catalytic activity and durability. The resulting (N, F)-codoped carbon achieves nearly 100% H 2 O 2 selectivity at 0.5–0.65 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode and maintains > 95% across 0.01–0.65 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode. In an electrolyzer, (N, F)-codoped carbon exhibits an H 2 O 2 yield rate of 74.35 mol g cat. −1 h -1 and sustains 300 mA cm -2 for 105 hours with ~95% faradaic efficiency. Coupling the two-electron oxygen reduction reaction with methanol oxidation further reduces cell voltage and enhances productivity. This work provides a means to design efficient catalysts for industrial H 2 O 2 electrosynthesis.

H2O2 electrosynthesis↗
DOE OSTI2021

Catalytic Activity and Water Stability of the MgO(111) Surface for 2-Pentanone Condensation

Nanomaterials derived from earth-abundant metal oxides have gained tremendous interest as catalysts; although, water stability remains a challenge. This study examines MgO(111) surfaces for 2-pentanone condensation and their evolution during D2O hydration. Catalyst screening confirmed the high activity of fresh MgO(111) for 2-pentanone condensation relative to conventionally prepared MgO(100). Computational modeling suggests that the (111) surface is readily hydroxylated, and that surface hydroxyls help stabilize the surface and reduce the barrier for 2-pentanone condensation. Vapor-phase D2O hydration after 3 min increased MgO(111) hydroxyls and retained surface area and activity; however, after 1 h, deuteroxide formation reduced the surface area and activity by >30 %. After 24 h, deuteroxide growth slowed down, and surface area and activity remained stable. This suggests MgO(111)-derived hydroxide may be the dominant surface responsible for 2-pentanone condensation following water exposure. Thermal regeneration of the 24-h sample restored 86 % of the surface area and 94 % of the activity.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2014

Hydrodeoxygenation of HMF over Pt/C in a continuous flow reactor

The three‐phase hydrodeoxygenation reaction of 5‐hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) with H 2 was studied over a 10 wt % Pt/C catalyst using both batch and flow reactors, with ethanol, 1‐propanol, and toluene solvents. The reaction is shown to be sequential, with HMF reacting first to furfuryl ethers and other partially hydrogenated products. These intermediate products then form dimethyl furan (DMF), which in turn reacts further to undesired products. Furfuryl ethers were found to react to DMF much faster than HMF, explaining the higher reactivity of HMF when alcohol solvents were used. With the optimal residence time, it was possible to achieve yields approaching 70% in the flow reactor with the Pt/C catalyst. Much higher selectivities and yields were obtained in the flow reactor than in the batch reactor because side products are formed sequentially, rather than in parallel, demonstrating the importance of choosing the correct type of reactor in catalyst screening. © 2014 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J , 61: 590–597, 2015

Luo, Jing↗
DOE OSTI2016

Quantum mechanical study of CO 2 and CO hydrogenation on Cu(111) surfaces doped with Ga, Mg, and Ti

DFT methods were used to analyze metal (M)-doped Cu(111) surfaces to identify surface alloys that could catalyze the hydrogenation of CO 2 . Here, the adsorption of relevant species for CO 2 /CO hydrogenation were studied on Cu(111) surfaces doped with Ga, Mg, and Ti. Preferred adsorption sites, geometries, and binding energies for relevant intermediates were determined. A systematic study of the thermochemistry of plausible surface reactions for CO 2 /CO hydrogenation on Ga/Cu(111), Mg/Cu(111), and Ti/Cu(111) was performed to postulate reaction mechanisms for the synthesis of formic acid, formaldehyde, and methanol. Our results suggest that Ga/Cu(111) and Mg/Cu(111) surfaces might be promising catalysts for the synthesis of methanol from CO 2 hydrogenation. CO 2 is activated by chemisorption on Mg/Cu(111) and Ti/Cu(111), but the latter surface has a strong interaction with O, which inhibits the last reaction steps and the desorption of the products. Our results demonstrate that the thermochemistry of CO 2 hydrogenation for the synthesis of the different products varies drastically depending on the dopant on Cu(111). Furthermore, our results suggest that the formation energies of HCOO, CH 2 O, CH 3 O, and HCO are good descriptors for catalyst screening.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2024

Exploring the Computational Aspects of Propylene Oligomerization Catalysis Using M′ 2 M Type Trimetallic MOF Nodes

Metal-organic frameworks have emerged as promising materials in the field of catalysis. They offer an optimal ground for screening catalysts and tailoring their catalytic properties. Here, in this work, via density functional theory (DFT) calculations, we investigated the catalytic activity of the trimetallic MOF nodes, M' 2 M for propylene oligomerization, by varying the active metal M from Sc to Cu with M' being Fe, aiming to grasp the impact of altering the active atoms on the catalyst's activity. Additionally, we examined how substituting the spectator atom, M', with other transition metals, i.e., from Sc to Cu, affects these energy barriers, keeping Ni as the active metal. We proposed several cases with lower or comparable energy barriers to the experimentally reported Fe 2 Ni trimetallic MOF node. In addition, we found a correlative relationship between spin-density from natural population analysis and energy barriers in the realm of C-C bond formation, whereby an elevation in spin-density is found to be inversely proportional to the magnitude of the energy barriers. Moreover, we calculated the energy barriers for C-C coupling and beta-hydride elimination using multireference NEVPT2 calculations on top of the CASSCF wave function to validate the rate-determining step that is predicted by DFT.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2019

Scaling Relations on Basal Plane Vacancies of Transition Metal Dichalcogenides for CO 2 Reduction

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have shown promising electrocatalytic performance for CO 2 reduction (CO 2 R) recently. However, the development of efficient and selective catalysts remains a major challenge. Although recent studies have suggested the importance of activation energies as activity descriptors for CO 2 R beyond CO, the scaling of intermediate binding energies presents the first step in computational catalyst screening. Here, we investigate the basal vacancy on 2H and 1T/1T' phase group V, VI, and X TMDs for CO 2 reduction. We find that the change of oxophicility and carbophilicity on each group of TMDs follows different trends, which leads to different scaling relations amongst key intermediates. Our thermochemical analysis also suggests group V and VI TMDs to be either selective for hydrogen evolution reaction or prone to OH poisoning. Furthermore, the initial analysis suggests group X TMDs to be possible candidates for active and selective CO 2 reduction without suffering from OH poisoning, which motivates further theoretical kinetic studies. We furthermore find that their reaction energetics can be tuned by the density of the basal vacancies.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2017

General Structure–Reactivity Relationship for Oxygen on Transition-Metal Oxides

Despite many recent developments in designing and screening catalysts for improved performance, transition-metal oxides continue to prove to be challenging due to the myriad inherent complexities of the systems and the possible morphologies that they can exhibit. Herein we propose a structural descriptor, the adjusted coordination number (ACN), which can generalize the reactivity of the oxygen sites over the many possible surface facets and defects of a transition-metal oxide. We demonstrate the strong correlation of this geometric descriptor with the electronic and energetic properties of the active sites on five facets of four transition-metal oxides. We then use the structural descriptor to predict C–H activation energies to show the great potential of using ACN for the prediction of catalytic performance. This study presents a first look into quantifying the relation between active site structure and reactivity of transition-metal-oxide catalysts.

Fung, Victor↗
DOE OSTI2025

Structure of iridium oxide catalysts dictates performance differences for proton exchange membrane water electrolyzers

Proton exchange membrane water electrolyzers (PEMWEs) are promising zero-emission technologies. However, their high cost remains a barrier to widespread adoption. Iridium oxide is commonly used as an oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalyst, and its cost and scarcity make it essential to reduce its loading while increasing its activity. Evaluation of iridium oxide activity should be carried out in the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) configuration to replicate realistic operating conditions. Herein, we present a comprehensive benchmarking framework to accurately evaluate the amorphous and crystalline iridium oxides at the MEA level. By systematically varying the catalyst loading, this study confirmed that each MEA was utilized uniformly, presenting intrinsic electrochemical properties independent of the loading. Through intrinsic charge density determined by voltammetry, we established two electrochemical descriptors to evaluate catalyst redox reactions. The mass activity was evaluated by correlating current vs. loading, and the slope provides loading-independent mass activity. The effect of the porous transport layer on OER activity was discussed, identifying a ‘background’ current at zero-loading. In conclusion, this study highlights potential pitfalls in MEA-level catalyst screening and underscores the importance of the loading study for reliable results.

Kwon, Obeen [University of California, Irvine, CA ↗
NASA NTRS1975

Lead-oxygen closed-loop battery system

Calculations show that battery can deliver up to 35 watt-hours per pound, conventional lead-acid batteries deliver 10 to 15 watt-hours per pound. Weight reduction is due to replacement of solid lead-peroxide electrodes with metal current-collector screen, catalyst, and Teflon membrane.

Britz, W. J.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Development of a Pressure-Fed Rocket Engine Using Hydrogen Peroxide and JP-8

A pressure-fed rocket engine using hydrogen peroxide and JP-8 was designed and demonstrated for upper stage space transportation applications. The engine utilizes silver plated screen catalyst to decompose 85% hydrogen peroxide (by weight). The decomposed high-temperature gas causes the JP-8 to auto-ignite and undergo chemical reaction. An ablative chamber using silica phenolic was used as the combustion chamber. The present effort includes catalyst development, injector evaluation, and chamber char and erosion characterization. Wagonwheel-type distribution and support plates were used in the catalyst bed design to reduce pressure drop, to increase active area, and to avoid flow channeling. Various fuel injection and mixing approaches were investigated and the combustion efficiency was in the range from 89 to 98%, depending on injector design and operating conditions. Fuel film cooling, up to 40% of the total fuel flow, was found to be ineffective with the current engine configuration. A ring injector was selected because of the satisfactory performance and its low cost. The char and erosion rates were determined through hot-fire tests. The char depth was found to be a function of axial distance, which was related to the progress of chemical reaction. Correlation of the char and erosion rates was developed as a design database for future applications,

Wu, P.-K.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Fuel Cell/Reformers Technology Development

NASA Glenn Research Center is interested in developing Solid Oxide Fuel Cell for use in aerospace applications. Solid oxide fuel cell requires hydrogen rich feed stream by converting commercial aviation jet fuel in a fuel processing process. The grantee's primary research activities center on designing and constructing a test facility for evaluating injector concepts to provide optimum feeds to fuel processor; collecting and analyzing literature information on fuel processing and desulfurization technologies; establishing industry and academic contacts in related areas; providing technical support to in-house SOFC-based system studies. Fuel processing is a chemical reaction process that requires efficient delivery of reactants to reactor beds for optimum performance, i.e., high conversion efficiency and maximum hydrogen production, and reliable continuous operation. Feed delivery and vaporization quality can be improved by applying NASA's expertise in combustor injector design. A 10 KWe injector rig has been designed, procured, and constructed to provide a tool to employ laser diagnostic capability to evaluate various injector concepts for fuel processing reactor feed delivery application. This injector rig facility is now undergoing mechanical and system check-out with an anticipated actual operation in July 2004. Multiple injector concepts including impinging jet, venturi mixing, discrete jet, will be tested and evaluated with actual fuel mixture compatible with reforming catalyst requirement. Research activities from September 2002 to the closing of this collaborative agreement have been in the following areas: compiling literature information on jet fuel reforming; conducting autothermal reforming catalyst screening; establishing contacts with other government agencies for collaborative research in jet fuel reforming and desulfurization; providing process design basis for the build-up of injector rig facility and individual injector design.

Source record↗
DOE OSTI2017

From Active-Site Models to Real Catalysts: Importance of the Material Gap in the Design of Pd Catalysts for Methane Oxidation

Rapid computational screening to aid novel catalyst design has evolved into an important and ubiquitous tool in modern heterogeneous catalysis. A possible shortcoming of this approach, however, is the material gap, that is, simplified computational models used for catalyst screening do not always capture the complexity of real catalytic systems. Here we investigate the importance of the material gap for complete methane oxidation over supported Pd/γ-Al2O3 catalysts using a combination of DFT simulations and temperature-programmed oxidation experiments. The Pd/γ-Al 2 O 3 active site was approximated by four models of increasing complexity, namely Pd(1 0 0), Pd(2 1 1), PdO(1 0 1), and Pd10/γ-Al 2 O 3 (1 1 0), and each was also modified with metal promoters to discover reactivity trends. Although the unpromoted Pd model surfaces exhibit different methane activation activities, our DFT results indicate that an experimentally verified performance trend can be predicted for their promoted counterparts irrespective of the active-site representation. We attribute the robustness of the trend predictions in this particular system to localized changes in the electron density during methane activation. Overall, our work supports the commonly practiced active-site model simplifications during computational catalyst screening and provides fundamental insight into the qualitative agreement between theory and experiment for methane oxidation over promoted Pd catalysts.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2019

Insights into the Electrochemical Oxygen Evolution Reaction with ab Initio Calculations and Microkinetic Modeling: Beyond the Limiting Potential Volcano

Density functional theory calculations are potentially useful for both understanding the activity of experimentally tested catalysts and screening for new catalyst materials. For electrochemical oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts, these analyses are usually performed considering only the thermodynamics of the reaction path, which typically consists of adsorbed OH*, O*, and OOH*. Scaling relationships between the stability of these intermediates lead to a limiting potential volcano whose optimum is constrained by the roughly constant offset between the binding energies of OH* and OOH*. In this work, we evaluate OER kinetics at rutile IrO 2 , RuO 2 , RhO 2 , and PtO 2 surfaces by computing reaction barriers with an explicit model of the electrochemical interface. We conclude that the kinetics of proton transfer between oxygen atoms at the surface and in the electrolyte is facile and that O–O bond formation is most likely rate-determining in all cases. Combining these results with a microkinetic model and a scaling relationship for the OOH* formation barrier, we construct a new activity volcano whose optimum is similar to that of the limiting potential volcano for typical current densities. This kinetic volcano is also shown to agree reasonably well with experimental observations. Based on this analysis, we propose a more precise requirement for improving OER catalysts beyond the state of the art: the transition state for OOH* formation must be stabilized as opposed to the fully formed OOH* final state as has been previously presumed.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
NASA NTRS1976

Preliminary results from screening tests of commercial catalysts with potential use in gas turbine combustors. Part 1: Furnace studies of catalyst activity

Thirty commercially produced monolith and pellet catalysts were tested as part of a screening process to select catalysts suitable for use in a gas turbine combustor. The catalysts were contained in a 1.8 centimeter diameter quartz tube and heated to temperatures varying between 300 and 1,200 K while a mixture of propane and air passed through the bed at space velocities of 44,000 to 70,000/hour. The amount of propane oxidized was measured as a function of catalyst temperature. Of the samples tested, the most effective catalysts proved to be noble metal catalysts on monolith substrates.

Anderson, D. N.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Preliminary results from screening tests of commercial catalysts with potential use in gas turbine combustors. I - Furnace studies of catalyst activity

Thirty commercially produced monolith and pellet catalysts were tested as part of a screening process to select catalysts suitable for use in a gas turbine combustor. The catalysts were contained in a 1.8 centimeter diameter quartz tube and heated to temperatures varying between 300 and 1200 K while a mixture of propane and air passed through the bed at space velocities of 44,000 to 70,000 per hour. The amount of propane oxidized was measured as a function of catalyst temperature. Of the samples tested, the most effective catalysts proved to be noble metal catalysts on monolith substrates.

Anderson, D. N.↗