Integrated Harvesting and Storage of Oxygen from Seawater Using Efficient Bipolar Membrane Electrolysis, Impurity Tolerant Electrocatalysts, and Desig

Background Northwestern University and University Oregon have plans in collaborating on a project supported by Office of Naval Research on Towards Efficient Harvesting and Storage of Oxygen from Seawater to meet the challenge of generating oxygen under the sea. The is collaboration is in response to a call by ONR (# N00014-19-S-F005) MURI Topic 7: Harvesting Oxygen from the Ocean. The Northwestern University co-PI’s contributions is on structural characterization of oxygen evolving reaction catalysts and bipolar membrane, a key component of the proposed work, at national user facilities, such as synchrotron sources. The work at Northwestern University is complementary with those from other co-PIs on materials and device design and developments. Such synergy is required to fulfill the proposed works described by a grant application submitted to ONR. Tasks The sub-contracted work involves static and in situ characterization of metal center coordination geometry and oxidation states during electrocatalytic reactions generating oxygen from seawater. Moreover, in situ and ex situ X-ray imaging of the membranes in catalytic reaction will also be included in work scope of this sub-contract. Deliverables As deliverables, Northwestern University will provide University of Oregon the results of aforementioned measurements as part of collaborative scientific publications as outlined in the proposal, quoted below with specific tasks by NU. • We will characterize metal oxide catalysts structures in MOF (metal-organic framework) before and after oxygen evolving reactions in terms of their binding structures, effective oxidation states, and electronic configurations; • We will imaging metal distribution in the polymer bipolar membranes using 2D and 3D X-ray tomography in situ or ex situ for the catalytic reactions. • We will analyze and interpret the data from the above measurements for writing manuscripts for scientific publications jointly with other members of the team.