Discipline: Chemistry and Chemical Sciences
Subcategory: Environmental Engineering
Session: 1
Room: Exhibit Hall
Diana Leon - Arizona State University
Co-Author(s): Gabriel Cerrón-Calle, Sergi Garcia-Segura
Nitrate is one of the most common pollutant in surface and groundwater, ranked as one of the top ten water violations reported worldwide. Nitrate is linked to several health risks such as blue baby syndrome, cancer, and thyroid problems. Electrocatalytic nitrate conversion has been considered as an attractive alternative due to its environmental friendliness, low cost, and selectivity to transform nitrate to nitrogen gas or ammonia. Bimetallic Electrocatalysts based on copper foam modified with metal nanoparticles, Cu-M (M = metal), hold the promise of enhancing selectivity and kinetics performance. In this study, copper foam was nano-enabled with earth abundant materials (M = Ni, Sn, Cu, and Co) to evaluate synergistic effects of bimetallic centers on nitrate reduction kinetics and selectivity. Electrocatalysts morphology was characterized. Nitrate conversion and selectivity were evaluated at different current densities. Furthermore, electrical energy per order as engineering figure of merit of each material was presented to identify more sustainable nano-modified electrocatalytic systems to nitrate conversion from drinking waters.
Funder Acknowledgement(s): This research is supported by the Western Alliance to Expand Student Opportunities (WAESO) Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) National Science Foundation (NSF) Cooperative Agreement No. HRD-1619524.
Faculty Advisor: Sergi Garcia-Segura, sgarcias@asu.edu
Role: I prepared the copper foam substrate pieces to go through the metal electrodeposition process, conducted the electrocatalytic experiments from start to finish to collect data of the reduction and selectivity of nitrate at different current densities, assisted and collaborated on the writing of the abstract as well as the research article.