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Prof. Fabrizio Pirri
Design and synthesis of metal-N-C catalysts for electrochemical reduction of O2 and CO2
keywords CATALYSTS, CO2 REDUCTION, ELECTROCATALYSIS, FUEL CELL, METAL-N-C, SINGLE ATOM CATALYSTS
Reference persons JUQIN ZENG
Research Groups Prof. Fabrizio Pirri
Thesis type MASTER'S DEGREE
Description From the materials science point of view, many efforts have been made in order to mimic the heterogeneous single metal site of a molecular catalyst immobilized on a support, avoiding tedious coupling routes and guaranteeing an efficient electronic transfer. This is possible by synthesising heterogeneous metal catalysts that feature atomically dispersed metal atoms directly in the support.
Such materials are referred to as single atom catalysts (SACs) and are considered to bridge the gaps between homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts. On the one hand, the use of SACs allows maximizing the atomic efficiency (100%) of the metal catalysts, which often show unexpected activity. On the other hand, it allows controlling the nature of the active sites, which helps to improve the products selectivity, since there is only one type of active site.
The state of the art of CO2RR and ORR catalysts based on SACs mainly consists of transition metal atoms dispersed in a substrate and stabilised through heteroatoms. The most commonly used heteroatom is nitrogen, while transition metals (Fe, Co, Ni, Cu and Zn) are attractive due to their electronic configuration (vacant orbitals and d electrons) that can facilitate the M-CO2 and M-O2bonding and the desorption of the reduction products, their high availability and low cost. However, despite a rapid progress in this field, the development of efficient CO2RR and ORR catalysts based on SACs still remains a big challenge.
This project will focus on the design and synthesis of porous Metal (Me)-N-C catalysts, including: 1) synthesis of Me-N-C; 2) characterize the porosity, morphology and chemical composition of the materials through BET, XRD, EDX, FESEM, XPS, and so on; 3) test the Me-N-C catalysts for ORR and CO2RR.
Deadline 06/05/2025
PROPONI LA TUA CANDIDATURA