· Fuel Cell Catalysts

The objective of this research is to gain our fundamental understanding of the fuel cell catalysts. At the present, there are very few fundamental works to explain their exact reaction and deactivation mechanisms. Without knowing exactly how they react and deactivate in a fundamental level, a development of novel fuel cell catalysts will be impossible. In this research, in situ FTIR, GC/MS, XRD, and BET machine will be used to characterize these mechanisms. Additionally, the catalysts with different particle sizes and morphologies will be prepared with or without using different promoters. The effect of their different particle sizes and morphologies, and the different promoters on their reaction and deactivation mechanisms will be investigated using the conventional analytical tools.

· Bio Fuel Cell

The objective of this research is to fabricate a biofuel cell anode which utilizes direct electron transfer by way of carbon nanotubes. The carbon nanotube/glucose oxidase complexes will be characterized by various assays and with the help of TEM imaging. Their performance will also be evaluated by both a potentiostat and in a working fuel cell. It is my goal to show that carbon nanotubes can be used to directly link glucose oxidase to an electrode. Once this is done, it is my goal to show that a miniature biofuel cell anode can be built using this technology which has a greater power density than any miniature biofuel cell previously reported.

· Reforming Catalysts

The objective of this research is to develop a novel catalyst for reforming variety of hydrocarbon fuels. In particular, the reforming of gasoline using the molybdenum nanoparticles will be extensively investigated under the real operating conditions. This novel reforming catalyst must have characteristics of both a high sulfur tolerance and a high hydrogen yield. The possible application of this catalyst will be the micro reformer for producing hydrogen gas in the micro scale. This hydrogen gas will be fed to a fully integrated miniature Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) fuel cell.

· Fuel Cell Model and Its Diagnostic MRI Measurement

Presently there is no published data on water content spatial distributions in the catalyst layers and the gas diffusion layers (GDL) in working fuel cells even though calculations indicate that they play a key role in determining the cell performances. We will use MRI instruments to measure the water and fuel distributions in operating PEM, direct methanol (DMFC), and direct formic acid fuel cells (DFAFC) for the first time. The results will be compared to the predictions of models from the literature and our own to assess performance. CFD calculations will de done to put the results into a theoretical context.