This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). This research award in the Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organometallic Chemistry program supports work by Professor R. David Britt at the University of California Davis to carry out fundamental research on structural and mechanistic details of water splitting by a simple cobalt catalyst. Investigators at MIT recently demonstrated that Co(II) in neutral phosphate buffer spontaneously forms a water splitting catalyst on a polarized electrode surface. This catalysis provides good current density, self assembles and self repairs, operates at low overpotential in neutral pH water under ambient conditions, and forms from cheap, earth-abundant materials. The research program has long focused on electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) studies of water splitting in photosynthesis, where a natural manganese cluster is employed, and the research program is now using the same EPR methods to examine the cobalt catalyst in detail. The research program is examining the geometric and electronic structure of the cobalt catalyst as electrochemically generated. Various EPR techniques will probe the interaction of unpaired electrons on the cobalt ions with magnetic nuclei of cobalt, phosphate, and water. The research program is carrying out in situ electrochemistry and rapid freeze quenching to trap the catalyst during oxygen evolving turnover, and use the same advanced EPR techniques to probe the catalytic mechanism.

Students are very motivated by renewable energy and environmental issues. Two Inorganic Chemistry graduate students are conducting research in this program. The topics of this inorganic water splitting program integrate perfectly into the honors general chemistry sequence that the PI is teaching at UC Davis. The PI continually emphasizes the relevance of the ongoing science of the oxygen evolving complex of photosynthesis and of the cobalt and related synthetic complexes in lectures. Some undergraduates will do research on the project during the summer.

The EPR studies on the new cobalt catalyst will provide new insights into how this simple system works and thereby indicate directions for its improvement. Given our crucial needs for clean and carbon-neutral renewable energy, the development of efficient solar water splitting catalysts would serve as the basis of a clean renewable energy technology.

Agency
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Institute
Division of Chemistry (CHE)
Type
Standard Grant (Standard)
Application #
0939178
Program Officer
David B. Berkowitz
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
2009-08-01
Budget End
2013-01-31
Support Year
Fiscal Year
2009
Total Cost
$240,000
Indirect Cost
Name
University of California Davis
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Davis
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
95618