(667d) Cooperative Redox Enhancement (CORE) in Oxidative Dehydrogenation Reactions

Electrocatalytic coupling between physically separated, but electrochemically connected, catalytic nanoparticles of different metals can lead to dramatic increases in rate through a process that we have termed Cooperative redox enhancement (CORE). We have demonstrated this CORE phenomenon for oxidative dehydrogenation of several substrates in alkali media utilizing precious metal nanoparticles supported on carbon. The electrochemical driving force for CORE is created through the difference in selectivity of each metal towards the half-reactions (oxidative dehydrogenation and oxygen reduction), which leads to a difference in electrochemical potential between the metals in the reaction solution. Subsequent ionic coupling through the alkaline electrolyte and electronic coupling through the carbon support electrochemically polarizes the two metals. This in turn drives the half reactions on each metal particle, accelerating the overall reaction. In this talk, we will provide numerous examples of CORE in action, further discuss the origin of the CORE effect, and explain the electrochemical toolkit necessary to fully interpret and predict the magnitude of this effect.