The Kentuckiana Chapter of Hazardous Materials Managers (KCHMM) has been a proud supporter of LRSEF since 2011. KCHMM members volunteer as LRSEF judges, have served on the LRSEF Board (Cori Greenberg, Jennifer Cave, and Rhonda Poston), and both the Chapter (through its general treasury) and individual KCHMM members (by “passing the hat” at Chapter meetings) make monetary donations to fund an annual special award for a project that shows academic excellence in environmental science.
On Wednesday, May 8, 2024, at KCHMM’s regular May meeting, the Chapter was pleased to celebrate the 15th recipient of its special award. This year’s honoree, Mr. Asa Ashley, was presented with a stipend of $400 in recognition of his Energy, Sustainable Materials & Design project exploring “Novel Synthesis of Maghemite Nanospheres on Nickel Foam as a Bifunctional Electrocatalyst for Alkaline Water Splitting.”
Mr. Ashley is the first student from the Gatton Academy of Science & Mathematics to earn KCHMM’s special award. The Gatton Academy on the Western Kentucky University campus in Bowling Green is Kentucky’s first residential 2-year STEM program for gifted and talented juniors and seniors. Established in 2007, students at The Gatton Academy enroll into the 2-year program as high school juniors and are full-time WKU students pursuing their interests in advanced science, technology, engineering, and mathematical careers. Given that context and level of academic support, one can appreciate that Mr. Ashley’sresearch abstract is this:
Novel Synthesis of Maghemite Nanospheres on Nickel Foam as a Bifunctional Electrocatalyst for Alkaline Water Splitting
Hydrogen has shown promise as the future of zero-carbon energy storage. However, partly due to the cost of noble metal electrocatalysts for Alkaline Water Splitting (AWS), most hydrogen production continues to rely on fossil fuels. Given these considerations, this work demonstrates the synthesis of an inexpensive, novel maghemite nanosphere electrode. The electrocatalyst was prepared via a newly devised process involving the aerobic conversion of an iron hydroxide precursor using the modified Schikorr reaction and the oxidation of a magnetite intermediate, resulting in the agglomeration of spinel structures, forming nanospheres. The electrode presented excellent electrocatalytic activities in a KOH medium with low overpotentials, outperforming the standard RuO2 noble metal electrode at high current densities in the Oxygen Evolution Reaction (OER) due to the effect of cation vacancies on anion intermediate binding energy. The electrochemically active surface area (ECSA) of the electrocatalyst was increased by 274% and 335% for the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction (HER) and the OER, respectively, reducing the bubble problem and thus dramatically increasing efficiency. Furthermore, the synthesized electrocatalyst demonstrated better stability over 120 hours than the noble metal catalysts RuO2 and Pt. Overall, this solvothermal method exhibits potential to be generalized to the synthesis of other transition metal oxide-based nanostructures for a wide variety of material applications. Similarly, the discovered pathway to produce magnetite from iron hydroxide in an aerobic environment has numerous applications in biomedical nanotechnology.
On first read, his abstract was misconstrued as a research paper. However, after seeing his project display and interviewing him at LRSEF, the KCHMM judges were very pleased to realize that (1) Mr. Ashley (an 11th grader) did, in fact, personally synthesize an iron-based catalyst at approximately a millionth(!) of the cost of the precious metals catalysts currently employed, and then (2) he tested the ability of his newly created catalyst to successfully evolve hydrogen gas (a non-carbon fuel) from water. His work was inspired by the research of Gerhard Schikorr – in its original German. Accordingly, KCHMM’s judges were unanimous in recommending him for the Chapter’s special award, without hesitation. (In fact, Chapter members encouraged him to apply the $400 stipend toward a patent application!) The judges were glad to see Mr. Ashley again when he came to the Chapter’s May 8 meeting, and then, three days later, as one of LRSEF’s five “Best in Fair” finalists, he went on to represented LRSEF and “Team Kentucky” at the 2024 ISEF competition held May 11-17 in Los Angeles.
Mr. Ashley joins KCHMM’s growing list of honorees representing the rising generation of promising young environmental & hazardous materials scientists in our region:
2011 – Emma Burch, Ballard H.S., 10th gr, Env Sci, “The Effects of Soil Type when Filtering Pollutants,” received the Chapter’s initial award.
2012 – Cooper Sodano, Ballard H.S., 9th gr, Env Mgt, “Oil and Feathers Don’t Mix.”
2013 – Jackson Benitez, Ballard H.S., 10th gr, Env Mgt, “The Effects of Different Types of Water on Grass Growth.”
2014 – Emma Landherr, Ballard H.S., 9th gr, Env Sci, “Grow Green.”
2015 – Natasha Gupta, Ballard H.S., 9th gr, Env Mgt, “Coal Ash Pond Management: Studying Groundwater Flow using Darcy’s Law.”
2016 – Mariam Prieto-Perez, The Brown School (H.S.), 10th gr, Env Eng, “The Comparison of Different Types of Microbial Fuel Cells and their Energy Output.”
2017 – Will Schuhmann, Ballard H.S., 12th gr, Env Eng,“A New Method of Surfactant Delivery Utilizing the Marangoni Effect and Possible Application to Oil Spill Recovery.”
2018 – Kaden Grant, Ballard H.S., 9th gr, Env Sci,“Reducing Pollution from Light Fixtures through Efficiency and Shielding.”
2019 – Zachary Schneider, St. Xavier H.S., 12th gr, Env Eng, “Pressure-Assisted Cryogenic Carbon Dioxide Extraction.”
2020 – Colin Roark, St. Xavier H.S., 12th gr, Env Eng,“Falling Particle Solar Receiver Research.”
2021 – Krish Gupta, Trinity H.S., 9th gr, Biochemistry, “Plasticizers: The Effects of Phthalates (DEHP) vs. Biological Substitute (DOTP) on Aquatic Biota.”
2022 – Journee Abernathy, Central H.S., 11th gr, Env Eng, “Can Microorganisms Mitigate Plants with High Levels of Salt?” and Dorcas Matsoumou, Central H.S., 11th gr, Env Eng, “The Purification Process of a Valuable Resource” each received a partial stipend.
2023 – Mihira Dylan Sumanasekera, Ballard H.S., 9th gr, Energy & Sustainable Materials, “The Problems of All-Solid-State Lithium-Sulfur Batteries and Improvement of their Performance.”
2024 – Asa Ashley, Gatton Academy of Science & Mathematics, 11th gr, Energy & Sustainable Materials, “Novel Synthesis of Maghemite Nanospheres on Nickel Foam as a Bifunctional Electrocatalyst for Alkaline Water Splitting.”