Professors Jennifer Shumaker-Parry and Ilya Zharov of the University of Utah are supported by the Chemical Catalysis (CAT) program in the Division of Chemistry to develop a new strategy for the preparation of catalysts. This strategy involves the formation of carefully and precisely structured polymers on diamond surfaces and the use of this modified surface to support precious metal catalyst particles. The low cost, chemical stability, and potential versatility of synthetic diamond are attractive features relative to more common support materials. It is further hypothesized that the structure and properties of the polymer surface modifiers will enhance catalyst stability and allow for control of catalyst reactivity. The knowledge gained from this research is applicable to catalysts made from non-precious metals and support materials and to a wide range of chemical reactions. The broader commercial impact is the potential to create new products and technologies via chemical catalysis. The broader educational impacts are the training of graduate and undergraduate students in an interdisciplinary scientific environment. Specific outreach activities in partnership with the ACCESS Program for women and with a MESA Club stimulate the interest of middle and high school students from underrepresented groups in pursuing science careers.
The specific aims of the project are: (1) to investigate synthetic nanodiamond as a versatile, robust support for noble metal nanoparticle catalysts and study the growth of polymer brushes on these supports; (2) to explore the effect of the nanoenvironment created by polymer brushes with varying length, grafting density, polarity, structure and chemical composition on nanoparticle stability and catalytic performance, and (3) to study the use of responsive polymers to modify metal nanocatalyst chemistry. In addition, judicial selection of polymer brush architecture and its control of the catalyst nanoenvironment is investigated to improve catalyst productivity (activity, turnover, life time) and minimize catalyst particle aggregation.
