Adam S. Hock

Discovery of Highly Selective Alkyne Semihydrogenation Catalysts Based on First‐Row Transition‐Metallated Porous Organic Polymers

Five different first-row transition metal precursors (V(III), Cr(III), Mn(II), Co(II), Ni(II)) were successfully incorporated into a catechol porous organic polymer (POP) and characterized using ATR-IR and XAS analysis. The resulting metallated POPs were then evaluated for catalytic alkyne hydrogenation using high-throughput screening techniques. All POPs were unexpectedly found to be active and selective catalysts for alkyne semihydrogenation. Three of the metallated POPs (V, Cr, Mn) are the first of their kind to be active single-site hydrogenation catalysts. These results highlight the advantages of using a POP platform to develop new catalysts which are otherwise difficult to achieve through traditional heterogeneous and homogeneous routes.

Phase Discrimination through Oxidant Selection in Low-Temperature Atomic Layer Deposition of Crystalline Iron Oxides

Control over the oxidation state and crystalline phase of thin-film iron oxides was achieved by low-temperature atomic layer deposition (ALD), utilizing a novel iron precursor, bis(2,4-methylpentadienyl)iron. This low-temperature (T = 120 °C) route to conformal deposition of crystalline Fe3O4 or α-Fe2O3 thin films is determined by the choice of oxygen source selected for the second surface half-reaction. The approach employs ozone to produce fully oxidized α-Fe2O3 or a milder oxidant, H2O2, to generate the Fe(2+)/Fe(3+) spinel, Fe3O4. Both processes show self-limiting surface reactions and deposition rates of at least 0.6 Å/cycle, a significantly high growth rate at such mild conditions. We utilized this process to prepare conformal iron oxide thin films on a porous framework, for which α-Fe2O3 is active for photocatalytic water splitting.

Organometallic model complexes elucidate the active gallium species in alkane dehydrogenation catalysts based on ligand effects in Ga K-edge XANES

Gallium-modified zeolites are known catalysts for the dehydrogenation of alkanes, reactivity that finds industrial application in the aromatization of light alkanes by Ga-ZSM5. While the role of gallium cations in alkane activation is well known, the oxidation state and coordination environment of gallium under reaction conditions has been the subject of debate. Edge shifts in Ga K-edge XANES spectra acquired under reaction conditions have long been interpreted as evidence for reduction of Ga(III) to Ga(I). However, a change in oxidation state is not the only factor that can give rise to a change in the XANES spectrum. In order to better understand the XANES spectra of working catalysts, we have synthesized a series of molecular model compounds and grafted surface organometallic Ga species and compared their XANES spectra to those of gallium-based catalysts acquired under reducing conditions. We demonstrate that changes in the identity and number of gallium nearest neighbors can give rise to changes in XANES spectra similar to those attributed in literature to changes in oxidation state. Specifically, spectral features previously attributed to Ga(I) may be equally well interpreted as evidence for low-coordinate Ga(III) alkyl or hydride species. These findings apply both to gallium-impregnated zeolite catalysts and to silica-supported single site gallium catalysts, the latter of which is found to be active and selective for dehydrogenation of propane and hydrogenation of propylene.

Conformal Coating of a Phase Change Material on Ordered Plasmonic Nanorod Arrays for Broadband All-Optical Switching

Actively tunable optical transmission through artificial metamaterials holds great promise for next-generation nanophotonic devices and metasurfaces. Plasmonic nanostructures and phase change materials have been extensively studied to this end due to their respective strong interactions with light and tunable dielectric constants under external stimuli. Seamlessly integrating plasmonic components with phase change materials, as demonstrated in the present work, can facilitate phase change by plasmonically enabled light confinement and meanwhile make use of the high sensitivity of plasmon resonances to the variation of dielectric constant associated with the phase change. The hybrid platform here is composed of plasmonic indium-tin-oxide nanorod arrays (ITO-NRAs) conformally coated with an ultrathin layer of a prototypical phase change material, vanadium dioxide (VO2), which enables all-optical modulation of the infrared as well as the visible spectral ranges. The interplay between the intrinsic plasmonic nonlinearity of ITO-NRAs and the phase transition induced permittivity change of VO2 gives rise to spectral and temporal responses that cannot be achieved with individual material components alone.

Oxygen-Free Atomic Layer Deposition of Indium Sulfide

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) of indium sulfide (In2S3) films was achieved using a newly synthesized indium precursor and hydrogen sulfide. We obtain dense and adherent thin films free from halide and oxygen impurities. Self-limiting half-reactions are demonstrated at temperatures up to 225 °C, where oriented crystalline thin films are obtained without further annealing. Low-temperature growth of 0.89 Å/cycle is observed at 150 °C, while higher growth temperatures gradually reduce the per-cycle growth rate. Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS) together with depth-profiling Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) reveal a S/In ratio of 1.5 with no detectable carbon, nitrogen, halogen, or oxygen impurities. The resistivity of thin films prior to air exposure decreases with increasing deposition temperature, reaching <1 Ω·cm for films deposited at 225 °C. Hall measurements reveal n-type conductivity due to free electron concentrations up to 10(18) cm(-3) and mobilities of order 1 cm(2)/(V·s). The digital synthesis of In2S3 via ALD at temperatures up to 225 °C may allow high quality thin films to be leveraged in optoelectronic devices including photovoltaic absorbers, buffer layers, and intermediate band materials.

Catalyst synthesis and evaluation using an integrated atomic layer deposition synthesis–catalysis testing tool

An integrated atomic layer deposition synthesis-catalysis (I-ALD-CAT) tool was developed. It combines an ALD manifold in-line with a plug-flow reactor system for the synthesis of supported catalytic materials by ALD and immediate evaluation of catalyst reactivity using gas-phase probe reactions. The I-ALD-CAT delivery system consists of 12 different metal ALD precursor channels, 4 oxidizing or reducing agents, and 4 catalytic reaction feeds to either of the two plug-flow reactors. The system can employ reactor pressures and temperatures in the range of 10(-3) to 1 bar and 300-1000 K, respectively. The instrument is also equipped with a gas chromatograph and a mass spectrometer unit for the detection and quantification of volatile species from ALD and catalytic reactions. In this report, we demonstrate the use of the I-ALD-CAT tool for the synthesis of platinum active sites and Al2O3 overcoats, and evaluation of catalyst propylene hydrogenation activity.

A modular reactor design for in situ synchrotron x-ray investigation of atomic layer deposition processes

Synchrotron characterization techniques provide some of the most powerful tools for the study of film structure and chemistry. The brilliance and tunability of the Advanced Photon Source allow access to scattering and spectroscopic techniques unavailable with in-house laboratory setups and provide the opportunity to probe various atomic layer deposition (ALD) processes in situ starting at the very first deposition cycle. Here, we present the design and implementation of a portable ALD instrument which possesses a modular reactor scheme that enables simple experimental switchover between various beamlines and characterization techniques. As first examples, we present in situ results for (1) X-ray surface scattering and reflectivity measurements of epitaxial ZnO ALD on sapphire, (2) grazing-incidence small angle scattering of MnO nucleation on silicon, and (3) grazing-incidence X-ray absorption spectroscopy of nucleation-regime Er2O3 ALD on amorphous ALD alumina and single crystalline sapphire.

Evidence for Redox Mechanisms in Organometallic Chemisorption and Reactivity on Sulfated Metal Oxides

The chemical and electronic interactions of organometallic species with metal oxide support materials are of fundamental importance for the development of new classes of catalytic materials. Chemisorption of Cp*(PMe3)IrMe2 on sulfated alumina (SA) and sulfated zirconia (SZ) led to an unexpected redox mechanism for deuteration of the ancillary Cp* ligand. Evidence for this oxidative mechanism was provided by studying the analogous homogeneous reactivity of the organometallic precursors toward trityl cation ([Ph3C]+), a Lewis acid known to effect formal hydride abstraction by one-electron oxidation followed by hydrogen abstraction. Organometallic deuterium incorporation was found to be correlated with surface sulfate concentration as well as the extent of dehydration under thermal activation conditions of SA and SZ supports. Surface sulfate concentration dependence, in conjunction with a computational study of surface electron affinity, indicates an electron-deficient pyrosulfate species as the redox-active moiety. These results provide further evidence for the ability of sulfated metal oxides to participate in redox chemistry not only toward organometallic complexes but also in the larger context of their application as catalysts for the transformation of light alkanes.

Monomolecular Siloxane Film as a Model of Single Site Catalysts

Achieving structurally well-defined catalytic species requires a fundamental understanding of surface chemistry. Detailed structural characterization of the catalyst binding sites in situ, such as single site catalysts on silica supports, is technically challenging or even unattainable. Octadecyltrioxysilane (OTOS) monolayers formed from octadecyltrimethoxysilane (OTMS) at the air-liquid interface after hydrolysis and condensation at low pH were chosen as a model system of surface binding sites in silica-supported Zn(2+) catalysts. We characterize the system by grazing incidence X-ray diffraction, X-ray reflectivity (XR), and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XFS). Previous X-ray and infrared surface studies of OTMS/OTOS films at the air-liquid interface proposed the formation of polymer OTOS structures. According to our analysis, polymer formation is inconsistent with the X-ray observations and structural properties of siloxanes; it is energetically unfavorable and thus highly unlikely. We suggest an alternative mechanism of hydrolysis/condensation in OTMS leading to the formation of structurally allowed cyclic trimers with the six-membered siloxane rings, which explain well both the X-ray and infrared results. XR and XFS consistently demonstrate that tetrahedral [Zn(NH3)4](2+) ions bind to hydroxyl groups of the film at a stoichiometric ratio of OTOS:Zn ∼ 2:1. The high binding affinity of zinc ions to OTOS trimers suggests that the six-membered siloxane rings are binding locations for single site Zn/SiO2 catalysts. Our results show that OTOS monolayers may serve as a platform for studying silica surface chemistry or hydroxyl-mediated reactions.

Chemical and spatial control of substitutional intermediate band materials: Toward the atomic layer deposition of V 0.25 In 1.75 SP 3

A few heavily substituted metal sulfides have been predicted to form intermediate band (IB) materials. While early experiments with powdered material have shown great promise, a synthetic approach to thin film growth is lacking. Here we report an atomic layer deposition (ALD) approach to fabricate V0.25In1.75S3 IB thin films with the potential for unique alloying control. Many commercial indium and vanadium precursors were explored, but their surface chemistries were unsatisfactory with H2S. Instead, a novel indium (III) amidinate precursor enables the growth of largely impurity-free In2S3 films. Thin films with promising optoelectronic properties have been tested and characterized. Additionally, vanadium alloying has commenced using a novel vanadium(III) amidinate precursor, and the first evidence of sub-band gap absorption has been observed.