Nanotechnology for Energy, Environment, Electronics, Healthcare and Industry: Nanotechnology for Energy, Environment, Electronics, Healthcare and Industry - Session III
Sponsored by: ACerS Electronics Division, TMS Nanomechanical Materials Behavior Committee
Program Organizers: Gary Pickrell, Virginia Tech; Navin Manjooran, Solve

Thursday 8:00 AM
November 5, 2020
Room: Virtual Meeting Room 26
Location: MS&T Virtual

Session Chair: Weining Wang, Virginia Commonwealth University; Gurbinder Kaur, Simon Fraser University; Gary Pickrell, Virginia Tech; Navin Manjooran, Solve Technology And Research, Inc.

8:00 AM
Designing Non-precious Transition Metal/Nitrogen Doped Carbon Nanocatalysts for CO2 Reduction: Guofeng Wang¹; Boyang Li¹; ¹University of Pittsburgh
    It is of great importance to advance the sustainable technology that converts CO2 into fuels and value-added chemicals via cost-effective electrocatalysis. Transition metal (TM=Fe, Co, or Ni) and nitrogen (N) doped nano-carbon (denoted as TM-N-C) catalysts have been demonstrated to be capable of catalyzing CO2 reduction (CO2RR) to CO with a reasonable activity and amazingly high selectivity. For a rational design of these TM-N-C catalysts, we have performed density functional theory (DFT) calculations to investigate CO2RR on various TM-N4 active sites (TM = Fe, Co, Ni). Specifically, three different TM-N4 moieties were studied, such as the TM-N4 moiety embedded in the graphene basal plane, the porphyrin-like moiety and/or the TM-N4 moiety bridging the edges of two adjacent graphene layers. Our DFT calculations predicted that the CO2RR could happen at the proposed active sites under an electrode potential more positive than that for competing hydrogen evolution reaction.

8:20 AM
Removal of 4,6-dinitro-o-cresol Pesticide from Aqueous Solutions via Magnetic Filtration Using Octanoate and Stearate Capped Magnetite and Nickel Ferrite Nanoparticles: Allen Apblett¹; Tarek Trad²; ¹Oklahoma State University; ²Sam Houston State University
    Magnetic filtration can provide rapid, efficient removal of magnetic materials from a waste stream. However, since most pollutants are non-magnetic, it is necessary to use magnetically-active “extractants” to bind to pollutants and allow their separation by a magnetic filter. Excellent candidates for extractants are nanoparticles of magnetic ceramic oxides such as ferrites and magnetite whose surfaces have been derivitized to provide binding sites for toxic metal ions or organic pollutants. Such materials can be used to separate petrochemicals from water, break oil in water emulsions, and remove heavy or radioactive metal ions from waste streams. This paper will discuss the removal of 4,6-dinitro-o-cresol pesticide from aqueous solutions via magnetic filtration using octanoate and stearate capped magnetite and nickel ferrite nanoparticles.