Research Team Breaks Century-Old Catalytic Speed Limit By More Than 1,000 times

DOE-funded advance in programmable chemistry could open new pathways for making fertilizer, fuels and materials

A University of Minnesota-led research team funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has developed programmable catalysts that accelerate a chemical reaction to more than 1,000 times a century-old theoretical speed limit. In two experimental studies, researchers changed catalysts’ properties over time using light or electricity. Both approaches surpassed the Sabatier limit, the maximum reaction rate achievable with conventional catalysts under given conditions.

The findings open a new approach to controlling chemistry, with potential applications in manufacturing fertilizer, producing chemicals that can be converted into diesel and jet fuel, making precursors for plastics, and storing electrical energy in chemical bonds.

“Chemistry just became computerized,” said Paul Dauenhauer, a University of Minnesota professor and director of the Center for Programmable Energy Catalysis (CPEC). “We can program how a catalyst changes during a reaction, giving us a new way to control chemistry used in manufacturing.”

Both studies examined platinum catalysts converting formic acid into hydrogen and carbon dioxide. The findings are available as preprints and have not yet been peer reviewed.

Breaking the catalytic speed limit
Catalysts accelerate chemical reactions. Their performance depends partly on how strongly molecules bind to their surfaces. If molecules bind too weakly, they may not react. If they bind too strongly, they can remain on the surface and block further reactions. This tradeoff creates the Sabatier limit for conventional catalysts under given conditions.

In programmable catalysis, computer-controlled light or electrical inputs oscillate the catalyst’s properties over time. Researchers control both the frequency, or how often those properties change, and the amplitude, or how much they change. The team’s theory predicts that the oscillation frequency should match the inherent frequency of the chemical reaction to accelerate it beyond the conventional limit.

In the light-driven study, researchers used visible blue light to help remove carbon monoxide that accumulated on a platinum surface and blocked sites needed for the reaction. Clearing those sites allowed the catalyst to work more quickly. The team reports reaction rates approximately 4,000 times the conventional thermal maximum for the reaction.

The electrical study tested a device called a catalytic condenser, which changes the electrical environment at a catalyst’s surface. Researchers integrated the device into a continuous-flow reactor and demonstrated reaction rates above the Sabatier maximum.

Achieving results beyond the limit through two different mechanisms strengthens the experimental foundation for programmable catalysis.

“Programmable catalysts give us a new method of controlling surface reactions,” said Omar Abdelrahman, a University of Houston professor and CPEC researcher. “Once we understand how a reaction responds, we can use that knowledge to select electrical or light inputs that accelerate it.”

DOE investment brings theory and experiments together
Established in 2022 and led by the University of Minnesota, CPEC is a DOE Energy Frontier Research Center bringing together scientists and engineers from seven universities to develop programmable catalyst technologies and the theory needed to control them.

DOE’s investment connected expertise in materials synthesis and characterization, computation, catalytic theory and experimental reaction kinetics. That collaboration allowed the team to design and make new materials, identify promising operating conditions through theory and computation, and test their performance in reactors. Further research will determine how the approach performs with other reactions and materials, how efficiently it uses energy, and whether the devices can operate reliably at industrial scales.

“DOE’s support made it possible to bring together the expertise needed to move programmable catalysis from theory into experimental demonstrations,” Dauenhauer said. “We are just getting started exploring what that means for chemicals, fuels and materials manufacturing.”

CPEC is funded by the DOE Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences. Along with the University of Minnesota, the center includes researchers from the University of California, Santa Barbara; the University of Michigan; The Ohio State University; the University of Houston; the University of California, Los Angeles; and the University of Wisconsin–Madison.