Fuel Cell Research Projects
Motivation: Increasing durability, reducing cost and increasing activity are the main motivators for this research area
- Understanding catalyst degradation mechanisms during catalyst and support accelerated stress tests
- Understanding degradation during start-up/shut-down
- Water and heat management in fuel cells with the focus on GDLs and MPLs design
- Development of multiphysics 2D and 3D models based on 3D x-ray computed tomography (CT) data for accurate physics representation
- Advanced diagnostic techniques development
Electrolyzers Research Projects
Motivation: Increasing durability and reducing cost and improved mass-transport through materials design
- Design of porous transport layers (PTLs) for effective water delivery and oxygen removal in the anodes of polymer electrolyte water electrolyzers
- Understanding of catalyst degradation and development of accelerated stress tests
- Direct observation of degradation and mass transport with x-ray CT
- 3D modeling of transport within the PTLs
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
- Zn-air batteries development of Zn-electrode and oxygen-electrode for long-lasting batteries
- Development of 2D models to capture relevant physics
Fundamentals Research Projects
- Electrokinetics for measurement of zeta potential at charged metal-electrolyte interface
- Impact of confinement in micro- and meso- pores on ions transport, incorporation of ionic liquids for improved proton conductivity and use of models
- Understanding internal wettability of porous media and correlating it to water transport
- Understanding pyrolysis of catalysts and materials transformation under applied temperature with synchrotron techniques with goal to design better catalysts
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
- Selective laser sintering of porous metals for porous metals production