Advanced Aqueous Phase Catalyst Development using Combinatorial Methods

The use of combinatorial methods is proposed to rapidly screen catalyst formulations for the advanced development of aqueous phase oxidation catalysts with greater activity than current catalysts at temperatures less than 100„aC and low pressure. To accomplish this goal, a large catalyst library will be prepared using seven noble metals at two concentrations on three supports. With a maximum of three metals each, 840 unique catalysts will be synthesized in parallel. Rapid determination of comparative oxidation activity for these catalysts will be critical to success, and will utilize organic dyes as oxidation substrates in an array format. Color changes will reveal relative activity at each reaction condition, allowing rapid screening for the most active catalysts. Then, the top three catalysts will be evaluated using water recovery system (WRS) ersatz wastewater challenges and compared to the current WRS catalyst. The Phase I project will clearly demonstrate the feasibility of achieving these goals using combinatorial methods. The Phase II program will optimize performance and provide sufficient catalyst for evaluation using prospective Lunar Outpost (LO) WRS hardware. The advanced catalyst will lower ESM, and provide new applications in commercial water purification markets.