Nature-inspired electrocatalytic devices for sustainable, intensified production

Our work in the CNIE on tree-inspired, hierarchically structured catalysts and fluid distributors, and on lung-inspired hydrogen fuel cells, has demonstrated the tremendous opportunities to intensify catalytic and electrochemical processes: maximise thermodynamic efficiency, catalytic performance, and facilitate scalable, compact manufacturing. Furthermore, fluctuating fluid flow in a nature-inspired way, rather than using constant flowrates, can make processes more structured and resilient. This project will explore such nature-inspired methodologies for electrochemical production and CO2 reduction. We will use our, the CNIE's, and the student's experience in catalysis and materials science, and apply our systematic nature-inspired design methodology, to combine the advantages of controlled nano-confinement effects in catalysis, hierarchical structuring of the catalyst pore network and reactor flow paths, with pulsating fluid dynamics so as to increase overall device efficiency and reliability. Hitherto, most research focuses at one level, often the nanoscale; an integrated engineering approach that embraces the multiscale spatial and dynamic domains, which nature uses to "intensify" its processes and make them scalable and robust, should significantly impact sustainable production at useful scales. Key targets will be the application of this methodology for electrochemical flow reactors, and to leverage promising catalytic nanostructured materials for CO2 reduction.