Publication Date
2023
Document Type
Dissertation/Thesis
First Advisor
Cheng, JYingwen
Degree Name
Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy)
Legacy Department
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Abstract
It has long been known that the catalysis of water and its constituent elements could provide an effective means of storing and producing electricity. The deceptively simple process of producing electricity from Hydrogen and Oxygen is composed of two primary reactions, namely the Hydrogen Oxidation Reaction (HOR) and the Oxygen Reduction Reaction (ORR). While the HOR has largely been optimized on a variety of catalytic materials, the ORR has been plagued by sluggish kinetics and high overpotentials to the point where it is the bottleneck in implementing water catalysis-based technologies in practical scenarios. To help meet these challenges a bevy of catalyst designs have been proposed over the last several decades, and include alloying transition metals, adjusting and controlling catalyst morphology, and conductive support material optimizations to name a few. Herein, these designs will be discussed in detail to provide both benchmarks for comparison and suggestions for future research directions. Additionally, the synthesis and electrochemical characterization of different nanomaterials were investigated to offer novel, scalable catalysts for the ORR. Similarly, the structure-function relationships of the lead-lead sulfate and lead sulfate-lead dioxide charge and discharge mechanisms of the Lead Acid Battery (LAB) have remained shrouded in uncertainty since its invention some 150 years ago. This has led to a stagnation in materials utilization improvements in LAB’s that can only be resolved by re-examining the fundamental limits of this intertwined chemical-electrochemical energy conversion and storage process. Herein, well-defined lead sulfate and lead dioxide engineered nanomaterials were utilized to probe the fundamental structure-function relationships inherent to these LAB processes and offer suggestions for improving this proven technology.
Recommended Citation
Kaelin, Jacob, "Advancements in Engineered Nanomaterial Synthesis for Selective Oxygen Reduction Reaction Catalysts and Fundamental Electrochemical Studies of Lead Acid Batteries" (2023). Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations. 7830.
https://huskiecommons.lib.niu.edu/allgraduate-thesesdissertations/7830
Extent
140 pages
Language
en
Publisher
Northern Illinois University
Rights Statement
In Copyright
Rights Statement 2
NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.
Media Type
Text
