Search

University students, faculty, and staff from science, engineering, education, entrepreneurship, and design (SEE(E)D) backgrounds developed a video game to leverage outreach efforts promoting sustainability, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics ((S)STEM) to underserved students. This was accomplished by transforming a board game--previously developed and used to teach elementary students about complex and often misunderstood energy and sustainability issues--through a collaborative design process. The process of taking a tangible board game into the digital realm required significant design and pedagogical adaptations to maintain student learning outcomes and content delivery. Scientists, educators, and designers strengthened the graphical and pedagogical aspects of the game collaboratively to ultimately expand and deepen the energy literacy of elementary school students. This design case seeks to elucidate the multidisciplinary collaborative design process used by SEE(E)D faculty and researchers as well as students to redesign a board game into a didactic video game that is easier to both deploy and disseminate for the benefit of K-12 students and teachers.

Photocatalytic water splitting was performed on TiO2 and metal‐containing TiO2 (MTiO2) catalysts under UV light irradiation. TiO2 was added with various metals of different work functions, namely, Pt (5.93 eV), Pd (5.60 eV), Cu (5.10 eV), Ru (4.71 eV), and Ag (4.26 eV). The hydrogen production was found to increase linearly with increasing metal work function. The rate of charge recombination increases with decreasing work function difference between the metal and TiO2. Pt and Pd were highly efficient co‐catalysts to TiO2 for hydrogen generation from water due to their larger work function and upward‐bent band causing the photoelectrons to be trapped in those metal sites that are eventually consumed during water reduction. Co‐catalysts such as Ag, Ru, and Cu were less effective towards water splitting due to downward‐bent band gaps that allow the photoelectrons to flow back to TiO2 from the metal which leads to faster charge recombination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the structural evolution of molybdenum carbides subjected to hot aqueous environments and their catalytic performance in low-temperature hydroprocessing of acetic acid. While bulk structures of Mo carbides were maintained after aging in hot liquid water, a portion of carbidic Mo sites were converted to oxidic sites. Water aging also induced changes to the non-carbidic carbon deposited during carbide synthesis and increased surface roughness, which in turn affected carbide pore volume and surface area. The extent of these structural changes was sensitive to the initial carbide structure and was lower under actual hydroprocessing conditions indicating the possibility of further improving the hydrothermal stability of Mo carbides by optimizing catalyst structure and operating conditions. Mo carbides were active in acetic acid conversion in the presence of liquid water, their activity being comparable to that of Ru/C. The results suggest that effective and inexpensive bio-oil hydroprocessing catalysts could be designed based on Mo carbides, although a more detailed understanding of the structure-performance relationships is needed, especially in upgrading of more complex reaction mixtures or real bio-oils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A dual catalyst system for the Selective Catalytic Reduction of NO x with hydrocarbons (HC-SCR), including distinct low and high temperature formulations, is proposed as a means to abate NO x emissions from diesel engines. Given that satisfactory high temperature HC-SCR catalysts are already available, this work focuses on the development of an improved low temperature formulation. Pt supported on multiwalled carbon nantubes (MWCNTs) was found to exhibit superior NO x reduction activity in comparison with Pt/Al2O3, while the MWCNT support displayed a higher resistance to oxidation than activated carbon. Refluxing the MWCNT support in a 1:1 mixture of H2SO4 and HNO3 prior to the metal deposition step proved to be beneficial for the metal dispersion and the NO x reduction performance of the resulting catalysts. This support effect is ascribed to the increased Brønsted acidity of the acid-treated MWCNTs, which in turn enhances the partial oxidation of the hydrocarbon reductant. Further improvements in the HC-SCR performance of MWCNT-based formulations were achieved using a 3:1 Pt–Rh alloy as the supported phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]