Christopher L. Muhich

Efficient generation of H2 by splitting water with an isothermal redox cycle.

Isothermal Water Splitting Solar concentrators can create extremely high temperatures that can drive chemical reactions, including the thermal splitting of water to provide hydrogen. A metal oxide catalyst is needed that is usually cycled between hotter conditions where it is reduced and cooler conditions where it is reoxidized by water. This cycling can limit catalyst lifetime, which can be costly. Muhich et al. (p. 540; see the Perspective by Roeb and Sattler) developed an approach that allowed the redox cycle to be driven isothermally, using pressure swings. A thermal process for generating H2 from water uses pressure changes to recycle between catalyst redox states. [Also see Perspective by Roeb and Sattler] Solar thermal water-splitting (STWS) cycles have long been recognized as a desirable means of generating hydrogen gas (H2) from water and sunlight. Two-step, metal oxide–based STWS cycles generate H2 by sequential high-temperature reduction and water reoxidation of a metal oxide. The temperature swings between reduction and oxidation steps long thought necessary for STWS have stifled STWS’s overall efficiency because of thermal and time losses that occur during the frequent heating and cooling of the metal oxide. We show that these temperature swings are unnecessary and that isothermal water splitting (ITWS) at 1350°C using the “hercynite cycle” exhibits H2 production capacity >3 and >12 times that of hercynite and ceria, respectively, per mass of active material when reduced at 1350°C and reoxidized at 1000°C.

Oxide enthalpy of formation and band gap energy as accurate descriptors of oxygen vacancy formation energetics

Despite the fundamental role oxygen vacancy formation energies play in a broad range of important energy applications, their relationships with the intrinsic bulk properties of solid oxides remain elusive. Our study of oxygen vacancy formation in La1−xSrxBO3 perovskites (BCr, Mn, Fe, Co, and Ni) conducted using modern, electronic structure theory and solid-state defect models demonstrates that a combination of two fundamental and intrinsic materials properties, the oxide enthalpy of formation and the minimum band gap energy, accurately correlate with oxygen vacancy formation energies. The energy to form a single, neutral oxygen vacancy decreases with both the oxide enthalpy of formation and the band gap energy in agreement with the relation of the former to metal–oxygen bond strengths and of the latter to the energy of the oxygen vacancy electron density redistribution. These findings extend our understanding of the nature of oxygen vacancy formation in complex oxides and provide a fundamental method for predicting oxygen vacancy formation energies using purely intrinsic bulk properties.

Predicting the solar thermochemical water splitting ability and reaction mechanism of metal oxides: a case study of the hercynite family of water splitting cycles

A screening method is developed to determine the viability of candidate redox materials to drive solar thermal water splitting (STWS) and the mechanism by which they operate using only the reduction enthalpy of the material. This method is applied to the doped-hercynite water splitting cycle, as well as FeAl2O4 and CoAl2O4, materials which have not been previously experimentally demonstrated for STWS. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations of reduction energies coupled with our screening method predict H2 production capacities for iron and cobalt aluminate spinels to be in the order FeAl2O4 > Co0.5Fe0.5Al2O4 > CoAl2O4 with relative H2 production capacity ratios of approximately 1.0 to 0.7 to 2 × 10−4, respectively. Experimental measurements for 1500/1350 °C redox temperatures validate the H2 production capacity predicted by the screening method by demonstrating H2 production ratios of 1.0 to 0.6 to 0. Un-doped hercynite (FeAl2O4) is shown to be a viable STWS material for the first time with a higher H2 production capacity than traditional doped-hercynite materials. Theory and experiments show that redox of the aluminate family of spinel materials operates via an O-vacancy mechanism rather than a stoichiometric one, which is more typical for ferrites. The screening approach is generally useful for predicting the ability of new complex materials to drive STWS and the mechanism by which they operate, thus, providing a method to identify promising new candidate STWS materials.

Principles of doping ceria for the solar thermochemical redox splitting of H2O and CO2

Ceria-based metal oxides are promising redox materials for solar H2O/CO2-splitting thermochemical cycles. Density functional theory (DFT) computations are applied to elucidate the underlying mechanism of the role of dopants in facilitating ceria based redox cycles; specifically, we explain why some dopants increase performance, while others do not. Firstly, we find that Zr and Hf dopants increase the oxygen exchange capacity of ceria because they store energy in tensilely strained Zr– or Hf–O bonds which is released upon O-vacancy formation. This finding corrects a long held assumption that Zr and Hf decrease the O-vacancy formation energy by compensating for ceria expansion upon reduction. Although the released strain energy decreases the O-vacancy formation energy, O-vacancy formation remains sufficiently endothermic to split H2O and CO2. Secondly, we show that two electrons must be promoted into the high energy Ce f-band during reduction if the O-vacancies are to store sufficient energy to drive the oxidative gas splitting step. This means that di- and trivalent dopants are not suitable for this process. Lastly, we show that dopants which break O bonds due to their small size or strongly covalent character, such as Ti and the pentavalent dopants, substantially decrease the O-vacancy formation energy because only three O bonds must break during reduction. These vacancies, therefore, are too low in energy to drive gas splitting. Based on these findings, we develop guidelines for new ceria doping strategies to facilitate solar thermochemical gas splitting cycles.

Aluminum Nitride Hydrolysis Enabled by Hydroxyl-Mediated Surface Proton Hopping

Aluminum nitride (AlN) is used extensively in the semiconductor industry as a high-thermal-conductivity insulator, but its manufacture is encumbered by a tendency to degrade in the presence of water. The propensity for AlN to hydrolyze has led to its consideration as a redox material for solar thermochemical ammonia (NH3) synthesis applications where AlN would be intentionally hydrolyzed to produce NH3 and aluminum oxide (Al2O3), which could be subsequently reduced in nitrogen (N2) to reform AlN and reinitiate the NH3 synthesis cycle. No quantitative, atomistic mechanism by which AlN, and more generally, metal nitrides react with water to become oxidized and generate NH3 yet exists. In this work, we used density-functional theory (DFT) to examine the reaction mechanisms of the initial stages of AlN hydrolysis, which include: water adsorption, hydroxyl-mediated proton diffusion to form NH3, and NH3 desorption. We found activation barriers (Ea) for hydrolysis of 330 and 359 kJ/mol for the cases of minimal adsorbed water and additional adsorbed water, respectively, corroborating the high observed temperatures for the onset of steam AlN hydrolysis. We predict AlN hydrolysis to be kinetically limited by the dissociation of strong Al-N bonds required to accumulate protons on surface N atoms to form NH3. The hydrolysis mechanism we elucidate is enabled by the diffusion of protons across the AlN surface by a hydroxyl-mediated Grotthuss mechanism. A comparison between intrinsic (Ea = 331 kJ/mol) and mediated proton diffusion (Ea = 89 kJ/mol) shows that hydroxyl-mediated proton diffusion is the predominant mechanism in AlN hydrolysis. The large activation barrier for NH3 generation from AlN (Ea = 330 or 359 kJ/mol, depending on water coverage) suggests that in the design of materials for solar thermochemical ammonia synthesis, emphasis should be placed on metal nitrides with less covalent metal-nitrogen bonds and, thus, more-facile NH3 liberation.

Solvent Control of Surface Plasmon-Mediated Chemical Deposition of Au Nanoparticles from Alkylgold Phosphine Complexes.

Bottom-up approaches to nanofabrication are of great interest because they can enable structural control while minimizing material waste and fabrication time. One new bottom-up nanofabrication method involves excitation of the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) of a Ag surface to drive deposition of sub-15 nm Au nanoparticles from MeAuPPh3. In this work we used density functional theory to investigate the role of the PPh3 ligands of the Au precursor and the effect of adsorbed solvent on the deposition process, and to elucidate the mechanism of Au nanoparticle deposition. In the absence of solvent, the calculated barrier to MeAuPPh3 dissociation on the bare surface is <20 kcal/mol, making it facile at room temperature. Once adsorbed on the surface, neighboring MeAu fragments undergo ethane elimination to produce Au adatoms that cluster into Au nanoparticles. However, if the sample is immersed in benzene, we predict that the monolayer of adsorbed solvent blocks the adsorption of MeAuPPh3 onto the Ag surface because the PPh3 ligand is large compared to the size of the exposed surface between adsorbed benzenes. Instead, the Au-P bond of MeAuPPh3 dissociates in solution (Ea = 38.5 kcal/mol) in the plasmon heated near-surface region followed by the adsorption of the MeAu fragment on Ag in the interstitial space of the benzene monolayer. The adsorbed benzene forces the Au precursor to react through the higher energy path of dissociation in solution rather than dissociatively adsorbing onto the bare surface. This requires a higher temperature if the reaction is to proceed at a reasonable rate and enables the control of deposition by the light induced SPR heating of the surface and nearby solution.

Near-isothermal Ferrite/Alumina (“Hercynite Cycle”) Two-step Red/Ox Cycle for Solar-thermal Water Splitting

Hydrogen productivity exceeding 350 micromoles H2/g total redox material has been demonstrated for near-isothermal processing using the “hercynite cycle” for oxidation with steam carried out at 1350oC following 1500oC reduction.