High-throughput screening of fuel cell electrocatalysts

The drawbacks of our earlier report of preparing fuel cell catalyst arrays by borohydride reduction of inkjet prepared arrays of metal salts are discussed along with the need for inclusion of state-of-the-art metrics in all array screening. An alternative method for screening of hydrogen/air cathode catalysts, direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) anode catalysts, and catalyst loading studies is provided. State-of-the-art Johnson Matthey catalysts were used in control experiments to demonstrate the utility of the array fuel cell for high throughput screening of fuel cell catalysts in the 3-4 mg/cm² range. This report lays out hard learned rules for high throughput screening and demonstrates that the array fuel cell can be used for very precise screening of libraries of membrane electrode assembly (MEA) components without the pitfalls discussed in the introduction.     

Structure,morphology, and crystallization process of isotactic polypropylene/hydrogenated hydrocarbon resin blends

The structure, morphology, and isothermal and nonisothermal crystallization of isotactic polypropylene/low‐molecular‐mass hydrocarbon resin blends (iPP/HR) (up to 20% in weight of HR) have been studied, using optical and electron microscopy, wide‐ and small‐angle X‐ray and differential scanning calorimetry. New structures and morphologies can be activated, using appropriate preparation and crystallization conditions and blend composition. For every composition and crystallization condition, iPP crystallizes in α‐form, with a spherulitic morphology. The size of iPP spherulites increases with resin content, whereas the long period decreases. In the range of crystallization temperatures investigated, HR modifies the birefringence of iPP spherulites, favoring the formation of radial lamellae and changing the ratio between tangential and radial lamellae. Spherulitic radial growth rates, overall crystallization rates, and melting temperatures are strongly affected by resin, monotonically decreasing with resin content. This confirms miscibility in the melt between the two components of the blends. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 42: 3368–3379, 2004     

Optimization of Mass Transfer Processes in the Zone of the Air Electrode of a Fuel Cell with a Solid Polymer Electrolyte

A two-dimensional mathematical model for the transport of reactants in a fuel cell with a solid polymer electrolyte is developed. The model is used for analyzing spatial distributions of the concentration of reactants and current density over the cell. The effect of the catalytic-layer activity, reactant speed, bipolar-plate geometry, thickness and porosity of current collector and/or gas-diffusion sublayer, and the reaction mixture composition on the fuel cell efficiency is estimated theoretically and experimentally.     

“Slow” active control of combustion instabilities by modification of liquid fuel spray properties

This paper describes an experimental investigation of the feasibility of using “slow” active control approaches, which “instantaneously” change liquid fuel spray properties, to suppress combustion instabilities. The objective of this control approach was to break up the feedback between the combustion process heat release and combustor pressure oscillations that drive the instability by changing the characteristics of the combustion process (e.g., the characteristic combustion time). To demonstrate the feasibility of such control, this study used a proprietary fuel injector (Nanomiser^TM), which can vary its fuel spray properties, to investigate the dependence of acoustics–combustion process coupling, i.e., the driving of combustion instabilities, upon the fuel spray properties. This study showed that by changing the spray characteristics it is possible to significantly damp combustion instabilities. Furthermore, using combustion zone chemiluminescence distributions, which were obtained by Abel’s deconvolution synchronized with measured acoustic data, it has been shown that the instabilities were mostly driven midway between the combustor centerline and wall, a short distance downstream from the flame holder, where the mean axial flow velocity is approximately zero in the vortex near the flame holder. The results of this study strongly suggest that a “slow” active control system that employs controllable fuel injectors could be effectively used to prevent the onset of detrimental combustion instabilities.     

烃类烟粒红外复折射率的测定与应用

测定了室温下烃类(乙炔、乙烷)烟粒的红外复折射率,并讨论了所获数据在测量烟浓度与烟粒大小分类、计算光谱吸收系数及在特定浓度与温度下评估烟雾辐射率方面的应用。     

Catalytic air oxidation of ambient temperature hydrocarbons

Catalytic air oxidation of the aliphatic hydrocarbons n-decane, hexanes, gasoline and diesel fuel was conducted at ambient temperature with novel iron catalysts. The concentration of n-decane in water was reduced from 1.42 g in 100 ml to 0.07 g in 100 ml in 5 h at room temperature forming carbon monoxide and water by means of intermediate aldehydes. Results of FT–IR and GC–MS analyses demonstrated formation of aldehydes and unsaturated alcohols. Carbon monoxide was detected on catalyst residues and in the vapor phase. The indicated catalytic reaction mechanisms are discussed.     

A study of noise in CNG driven modes of transport in Delhi

Measurements of noise and its spectral characteristics were made inside various types of transport running on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) fuel in Delhi. Noise indices L₁₀, L₅₀, L₉₀ and L_eq were estimated from the measured noise levels for vehicles in neutral gear, slow speed (speed ?20 km/h) and under free flow (speed ?30 km/h) conditions. It is found that background levels, when averaged over all speeds, are maximum in Rural Transport Vehicles (RTV) followed by Buses, Auto-rickshaws and Taxis. With increase in the speed, noise levels are appreciably enhanced except in the case of auto-rickshaws where the increase is moderate. The spectral distributions of noise inside vehicles obtained at 1-octave band frequencies, show a rather similar nature. The study reveals significantly lower noise levels inside CNG driven public modes of transport compared to those found in an earlier survey inside diesel and petrol driven vehicles.     

Experimental analysis of current and deformation of ion-exchange polymer metal composite actuators

In this paper we describe the experimental analysis of a novel ion-exchange polymer metal composite (IPMC) actuator under large external voltage. The experimental analysis is supplemented with a coupled thermodynamic model, which includes mass transport across the thickness of the polymer actuator, chemical reactions at boundaries, and deformation as a function of the solvent (water) distribution. In this paper, the case of large electrode potentials (over 1.2 V) has been analyzed experimentally and theoretically. At these voltage levels, electrochemical reactions take place at both electrodes. These are used in the framework of overpotential theory to develop boundary conditions for the water transport in the bulk of polymer. The model is then simplified to a three-component system comprised of a fixed negatively charged polymeric matrix, protons, and free water molecules within the polymer matrix. Among these species, water molecules are considered to be the dominant species responsible for the deformation of the IPMC actuators. Experiments conducted at different initial water contents are described and discussed in the context of the proposed deformation mechanism. Comparison of numerical simulations with experimental data shows good agreement.     

Fluorinated,crosslinkable terpolymers based on vinylidene fluoride and bearing sulfonic acid side groups for fuel‐cell membranes

The radical terpolymerization of 8‐bromo‐1H,1H,2H‐perfluorooct‐1‐ene with vinylidene fluoride (VDF) and perfluoro(4‐methyl‐3,6‐dioxaoct‐7‐ene) sulfonyl fluoride is presented. Changing the feed compositions of these three fluorinated comonomers enabled us to obtain different random‐type poly[vinylidene fluoride‐ter‐perfluoro(4‐methyl‐3,6‐dioxaoct‐7‐ene) sulfonyl fluoride‐ter‐8‐bromo‐1H,1H,2H‐perfluorooct‐1‐ene] terpolymers containing various sulfonyl fluoride and brominated side groups. Yields higher than 70% were reached in all cases. The hydrolysis of the sulfonyl fluoride group into the ? SO₃Li function in the presence of lithium carbonate was quantitatively achieved without the content of VDF being affected, and so dehydrofluorination of the VDF base unit was avoided. These original terpolymers were then crosslinked via dangling bromine atoms in the presence of a peroxide/triallyl isocyanurate system, which produced films insoluble in organic solvents such as acetone and dimethylformamide (which totally dissolved uncured terpolymers). The acidification of ? SO₃Li into the ? SO₃H function enabled protonic membranes to be obtained. The thermal stabilities of the crosslinked materials were higher than those of the uncured terpolymers, and their electrochemical performances were investigated. According to the contents of the sulfonic acid side functions, the ion‐exchange capacities ranged from 0.6 to 1.5 mequiv of H⁺/g, whereas the water uptake and conductivities ranged from 5–26% (±11%) and from 0.5 to 6.0 mS/cm, respectively. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 44: 4566–4578, 2006