John Tressel

Design and engineering of single atom catalysts as high performance electrocatalysts. Primarily for the 2-electron oxygen reduction reaction with an end goal for on-site production of hydrogen peroxide for direct water disinfection.

The 2-electron oxygen reduction reaction has emerged as an effective strategy to replace the anthraquinone process to produce H2O2, and can be used for electrochemical disinfection of water. Previously it has been noted that metal-N4 catalytic sites, like what can be found in porphyrin have excellent activity for this reaction. With that in mind, sodium copper chlorophyllin was modified by magnetic induction heating at controlled currents (300 to 500A) for 10 seconds to produce CuNC nanocomposites, where the CuN4 coordination moieties are retained and embedded within a carbon scaffold. In electrochemical tests, the CuNC nanocomposites exhibit electrocatalytic activity toward the selective two-electron oxygen reduction to hydrogen peroxide in alkaline media, and the sample prepared at 400 A for 10 s stands out as the best among the series, with a H2O2 yield close to 90%. This activity was able to be exploited for on-site water treatment/disinfection, as manifested in the effective degradation of organic dye pollutants (e.g., methylene blue) and removal of waterborne pathogens (e.g., Escherichia coli) in under 1 hour of treatment.