{"id":18167,"date":"2025-05-05T16:13:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T08:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/?post_type=nus-news&p=18167"},"modified":"2025-05-05T16:13:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T08:13:13","slug":"looking-inside-nanoscale-catalyst-materials-shows-how-interfacial-structure-steers-conversion-of-co%e2%82%82-to-fuels-using-renewable-electricity","status":"publish","type":"nus-news","link":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/news\/looking-inside-nanoscale-catalyst-materials-shows-how-interfacial-structure-steers-conversion-of-co%e2%82%82-to-fuels-using-renewable-electricity\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking Inside Nanoscale Catalyst Materials Shows How Interfacial Structure Steers Conversion of CO\u2082 to Fuels Using Renewable Electricity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Researchers in Dr. Andrew B. Wong\u2019s<\/strong> lab have built model electrode materials that lets them watch\u2014 and quantify\u2014how tiny variations in local (micro)environment dictate the outcome of the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide (CO\u2082RR). CO2RR uses renewable energy to convert CO2 into useful chemicals such as ethanol and ethylene towards the broader goal of achieving carbon neutrality and sustainability.<\/p>\n

What is the \u201cmicroenvironment\u201d and why does it matter?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In electrocatalysis, the microenvironment<\/strong> refers to the local conditions that affect the chemical and transport surrounding the catalyst material: local CO\u2082 and intermediate concentrations, pH, ion activities, wetting state, and electric field within a few nanometers of the catalyst surface. These parameters often change dramatically during operation and can override the intrinsic activity of the material itself. As a result, the identical catalyst material can have drastically different performance in converting CO2<\/sub>to useful materials.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Schematic of Tunable Copper Nanowire Catalyst Structure<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Tunable Test\u2011bed System for Improving Our Fundamental Understanding<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

The team fabricated quasi\u2011periodic copper nanowire bundles bordered by adjustable micro\u2011grooves on a rigid copper foil. Unlike commercial gas\u2011diffusion layers (GDLs), this catalyst provides the geometric regularity required for modelling and rationally understanding the connection between interfacial structure, local microenvironment, and CO2<\/sub> conversion performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn typical systems, the disordered structures make the cause and effect hard to understand. Our system lets us rationally understand and tune the interface geometry like a knob, so we can see how the microenvironment is affected. Then, we can see how the microenvironment improves or lowers the CO2<\/sub>RR performance. By seeing the clear cause and effect, we can see principles for improving performance in scalable systems,\u201d said Dr Wong.<\/p>\n

Dr. Wong\u2019s research group is now developing new approaches to understand the local microenvironment towards the broader goal of understanding how electrochemical CO2<\/sub> can be scaled up to meet global sustainability challenges.<\/p>\n

Read More: https:\/\/pubs.acs.org\/doi\/10.1021\/jacs.4c13494<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Researchers in Dr. Andrew B. Wong\u2019s lab have built model electrode materials that lets them watch\u2014 and quantify\u2014how tiny variations in local (micro)environment dictate the outcome of the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide (CO\u2082RR). CO2RR uses renewable energy to convert CO2 into useful chemicals such as ethanol and ethylene towards the broader goal of achieving<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":18169,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"news_category":[36],"class_list":["post-18167","nus-news","type-nus-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news_category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/18167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/nus-news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/79"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/18167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18170,"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/18167\/revisions\/18170"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/mse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_category?post=18167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}