CAS: New Strategies for Electrocatalytic Reactions with Transition-Metal Hydrides

With the support of the Chemical Catalysis program in the Division of Chemistry, Professor Robert Waymouth of the Department of Chemistry at Stanford University is studying new catalysts and patterns of reactivity for electrochemically driven processes. This class of reactions is being targeted both to develop new, more environmentally-friendly synthetic routes for commodity chemicals and to advance scientific understanding of chemical reactions relevant to energy storage.

This second application is becoming especially important with the increasing adoption of intermittent, renewable energy sources. The primary goal is the development of catalysts that are more efficient, longer-lasting, and less wasteful through the application of novel electrochemical techniques. While performance is a significant consideration, understanding the fundamental reactivity is of paramount importance.

The illumination of chemical reactivity patterns that are currently poorly understood creates opportunity for further improvement by the broader scientific community well beyond the scope of the currently proposed work, an example of broader impacts. The research to be conducted under this grant will engage young researchers in the translation of basic science to practical, application-focused technologies.

The urgent challenge of transitioning toward a sustainable energy economy highlights the critical role that these research and educational experiences will play in the training of the next generation of scientists to address these challenges. The PI and his students will be involved in several education and outreach activities including involvement with local K-12 teachers.

With the support of the Chemical Catalysis program in the Division of Chemistry, Professor Robert Waymouth of the Department of Chemistry at Stanford University is studying new catalysts and patterns of reactivity for electrochemically driven processes. This research is focused on improving fundamental understanding of how to mediate reversible electrocatalytic oxidation/reduction reactions.

The primary goal of this research is to exploit the advantages of molecular catalysis to illuminate key mechanistic principles of the molecular processes that enable fast, chemoselective, and energy-efficient electrocatalytic transformations of alcohols and ketones as representative reduced and oxidized liquid fuels or substrates. While considerable effort has been devoted to heterogeneous or enzymatic electrocatalysts to achieve these goals, limitations in current understanding of how to meet these challenges requires new approaches.

In this vein, the proposed research is directed at the development of new classes of electrocatalysts, electrocatalytic mediators and tandem electrocatalytic reactions. While the focus is the development of homogeneous electrocatalysts, the fundamental insights and mechanistic concepts derived from the studies of these homogeneous systems should be generalizable to more robust heterogeneous electrode catalysts, highlighting the potential for broad scientific impact from these studies.

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.