Oltea Puica Siclovan

Reversible catalytic dehydrogenation of alcohols for energy storage

Significance Catalytic hydrogenation and dehydrogenation reactions are extremely important in organic chemistry and recently for energy storage in the form of chemical bonds. Although catalysts are known which catalyze both reactions, the rates and conditions required for the two are frequently very different due to the differences associated with the bonds to be activated (C–H/O–H/N–H and C = O/C = N/H–H). The use of a bifunctional catalyst would substantially simplify the design of processes related to energy storage. In this work, organometallic complexes of iron and iridium are shown to act as catalysts for reversible dehydrogenation of alcohols to carbonyl compounds. This finding opens a pathway to the development of catalysts for direct reversible electrochemical dehydrogenation of organic fuels in energy generation and storage reactions. Reversibility of a dehydrogenation/hydrogenation catalytic reaction has been an elusive target for homogeneous catalysis. In this report, reversible acceptorless dehydrogenation of secondary alcohols and diols on iron pincer complexes and reversible oxidative dehydrogenation of primary alcohols/reduction of aldehydes with separate transfer of protons and electrons on iridium complexes are shown. This reactivity suggests a strategy for the development of reversible fuel cell electrocatalysts for partial oxidation (dehydrogenation) of hydroxyl-containing fuels.

Phosphor Systems for Illumination Quality Solid State Lighting Products

The objective of this program is to develop phosphor systems that will enable LED lamps with 96 lm/W efficacy at correlated color temperatures, (CCTs) ~3000 K, and color rendering indices (CRIs) >80 and 71 lm/W efficacy at CCT<3100 K and CRI~95 using phosphor downconversion of LEDs. This primarily involves the invention and development of new phosphor materials that have improved efficiency and better match the eye sensitivity curves.