Research by Jahmelia Atkinson

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Characterization of FeNi catalyst through TPR and Pulse Chemisorption

Student: Jahmelia Atkinson

Undergrad. School / Major: Fort Valley State Univ/ Computer Sci.

Faculty Advisor: Dr. Lauren Greenlee

Research Area(s):

Microelectronics

Nanoscience & Engineering

Background/Relevance
  • NH3 is one of the most abundantly produced chemical in the world. It is more famously used in agriculture as a fertilizer.
    • It is made under the Haber Bosch process which requires high temperatures (250-300C) and pressures (100-200 atm), it takes up approximately 2% of worlds energy consumption.
  • Electrochemical reduction of N2 and H2 has been identified as an alternative approach to produce NH3 at lower conditions.

Innovation
  • Design an electrochemical cell to put in the Chemstar for nitrogen reduction reaction.

Approach
  • Characterize nanoparticle catalyst through Temperature Programmed reduction and Pulse Chemisorption.
  • Synthesize different molar ratio (3:1, 1:1, 6:1) FeNi nanoparticles.

Key Results
  • A comparison of TPR and pulse chemisorption was done on Fe3O4 and Fe2O3 .
  • The red curve (Fe2O3 ) shows that pulse chemisorption was done before tpr while the black curve (Fe3O4) shows that pulse chemisorption was done before TPR.
  • Figure 2 is a comparison of Fe2O3 Pulse chemisorption before tpr vs pulse chemisorption after TPR.

Conclusions
  • It was observed that when pulse chemisorption is done before TPR, a much higher peak is produced.
  • Fe3O4 has a higher peak than Fe2O3 which means more gas is been adsorbed when pulse chemisorption is carried out before TPR.
  • Multiple peaks indicate the presence of metal in different forms on the support of having different level of between species and support.
  • Fe2O3 was reduced by 251.520%
  • Fe3O4 was reduced by 497.025%

Acknowledgements to Dr. Lauren Greenlee, Dr. Donald Keith Roper and Shelby Foster for their support and assistance. Research Funded by National Science Foundation REU Grant # EEC 1757979 Summer 2018