Fuel Cell Research Projects
Motivation: Increasing durability, reducing cost and increasing activity are the main motivators for PEM fuel cells:
- Understanding catalyst degradation mechanisms during catalyst and support accelerated stress tests
- Understanding degradation during start-up/shut-down
- Degradation of Pt-alloy catalysts
- HT-PEM fuel cells
- Catalyst-ionomer interaction
- Integration of PFAS-free materials as membranes and catalyst layers
- Water and heat management in fuel cells with the focus on GDLs and MPLs design
- Advanced diagnostic techniques development and modeling
Electrolyzers Research Projects
Motivation: Reducing IrOx loadings and understanding durability for PEM water electrolyzers; understanding overall metrics for performance for AEM water electrolyzers
- Design of porous transport layers (PTLs) for effective water delivery and oxygen removal in the anodes of polymer electrolyte water electrolyzers
- Understanding of pathways to reach low IrOx loadings, including degradation pathways
- Integration of PGM-free transition-metal catalyst layers into PEM water electrolyzer catalyst layers
- Understanding interfaces in AEM water electrolyzers
- 3D modeling of transport within the PTLs and X-ray characterization
Battery Research Projects
Motivation: Understand mechanisms of Li-metal dendrites growth; advanced diagnostic techniques for degradation of Li-ion batteries
- Operando x-ray CT for visualizing Li-metal dendrites growth in Li-metal batteries
- Glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy (GD-OES) for probing Li and other metal distributions during battery cycling
- Quality control through advanced characterization
Chemical Manufacturing Projects
Motivation: Decarbonization of chemical manufacturing industry
- Cement production using electrochemical reactors
- CO2 reduction within the electrolyzer reactors, optimizing local pH for Faradaic efficiency towards specific product