SBIR Phase I: The Impacts of Microgravity on Catalyst Crystallization and Performance - Ultrahigh-Throughput Investigations of Reversible Fuel Cell Catalysts

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project lies in the exploration of an entirely unexplored design knob for the preparation of inorganic catalyst materials. Inorganic catalysts impact nearly every aspect of the modern world and economy, as nearly all physical materials have at least some component that was manufactured via a catalytic process.

Researchers have spent decades turning all traditional design knobs, such as composition, size, shape, etc., to improve catalyst performance by even a fraction of a percent, which can have massive implications for downstream economics. Yet, as catalyst research has previously been confined to Earth, there is limited understanding of how gravity impacts catalyst material formation and performance.

This project will explore the impacts of gravity on catalyst formation and performance in the most expansive and broad conceivable fashion to generate a robust fundamental understanding of the impacts of gravity in catalyst formation and performance. This work will allow uncovering previously unknown design levers that can be tuned to improve catalyst materials for existing and emerging renewable applications.

Additionally, the project’s small-scale but high-throughput technology enables unparalleled information yield from experiments performed on the International Space Station (ISS).

This SBIR Phase I project proposes to utilize a ultrahigh-throughput catalyst synthesis and screening technology to directly compare a broad range of unique catalyst materials (>1M) synthesized either under Earth gravitational conditions or low-Earth orbit gravitational conditions. There is limited present understanding of how gravity affects the crystallization and subsequent performance of catalyst materials; This project will fill this gap in understanding by synthesizing catalyst libraries, each containing ~50,000 unique catalyst compositions, under both gravitational conditions and characterizing both their crystal structure and their catalyst performance.

This direct comparison across such a vast materials space will allow the approach to unearth gravitational impacts on catalyst crystallization and performance, and subsequently leverage those impacts to improve catalyst performance for a myriad of applications. Ultimately, this work will result in both a structural and functional comparison of a broad range of novel catalyst materials prepared under vastly different gravitational conditions, potentially opening an entirely new era of catalysis science and understanding.

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.