Energy harvested directly from sunlight offers a desirable approach toward fulfilling, with minimal environmental impact, the need for clean energy. Solar energy is a decentralized and inexhaustible natural resource, with the magnitude of the available solar power striking the earth’s surface at any one instant equal to 130 million 500 MW power plants.1 However, several important goals need to be met to fully utilize solar energy for the global energy demand. First, the means for solar energy conversion, storage, and distribution should be environmentally benign, i.e. protecting ecosystems instead of steadily weakening them. The next important goal is to provide a stable, constant energy flux. Due to the daily and seasonal variability in renewable energy sources such as sunlight, energy harvested from the sun needs to be efficiently converted into chemical fuel that can be stored, transported, and used upon demand. The biggest challenge is whether or not these goals can be met in a costeffective way on the terawatt scale.2

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/cr1002326

Solar Water Splitting Cells

https://www.surfacesciencewestern.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/ass11_biesinger.pdf

Resolving surface chemical states in XPS analysis of first row transition metals, oxides and hydroxides: Sc, Ti, V, Cu and Zn

Rod Borup is a Team Leader in the fuel cell program at Los Alamos National Lab in Los Alamos, New Mexico. He received his B.S.E. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Iowa in 1988 and his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 1993. He has worked on fuel cell technology since 1994, working in the areas of hydrogen production and PEM fuel cell stack components. He has been awarded 12 U.S. patents, authored over 40 papers related to fuel cell technology, and presented over 50 oral papers at national meetings. His current main research area is related to water transport in PEM fuel cells and PEM fuel cell durability. Recently, he was awarded the 2005 DOE Hydrogen Program R&D Award for the most significant R&D contribution of the year for his team's work in fuel cell durability and was the Principal Investigator for the 2004 Fuel Cell Seminar (San Antonio, TX, USA) Best Poster Award. Jeremy Meyers is an Assistant Professor of materials science and engineering and mechanical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, where his research focuses on the development of electrochemical energy systems and materials. Prior to joining the faculty at Texas, Jeremy workedmore » as manager of the advanced transportation technology group at UTC Power, where he was responsible for developing new system designs and components for automotive PEM fuel cell power plants. While at UTC Power, Jeremy led several customer development projects and a DOE-sponsored investigation into novel catalysts and membranes for PEM fuel cells. Jeremy has coauthored several papers on key mechanisms of fuel cell degradation and is a co-inventor of several patents. In 2006, Jeremy and several colleagues received the George Mead Medal, UTC's highest award for engineering achievement, and he served as the co-chair of the Gordon Research Conference on fuel cells. Jeremy received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley and holds a Bachelor's Degree in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University. Bryan Pivovar received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin in 1994. He completed his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at the University of Minnesota in 2000 under the direction of Profs. Ed Cussler and Bill Smyrl, studying transport properties in fuel cell electrolytes. He continued working in the area of polymer electrolyte fuel cells at Los Alamos National Laboratory as a post-doc (2000-2001), as a technical staff member (2001-2005), and in his current position as a team leader (2005-present). In this time, Bryan's research has expanded to include further aspects of fuel cell operation, including electrodes, subfreezing effects, alternative polymers, hydroxide conductors, fuel cell interfaces, impurities, water transport, and high-temperature membranes. Bryan has served at various levels in national and international conferences and workshops, including organizing a DOE sponsored workshop on freezing effects in fuel cells and an ARO sponsored workshop on alkaline membrane fuel cells, and he was co-chair of the 2007 Gordon Research Conference on Fuel Cells. Minoru Inaba is a Professor at the Department of Molecular Science and Technology, Faculty of Engineering, Doshisha University, Japan. He received his B.Sc. from the Faculty of Engineering, Kyoto University, in 1984 and his M.Sc. in 1986 and his Dr. Eng. in 1995 from the Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University. He has worked on electrochemical energy conversion systems including fuel cells and lithium-ion batteries at Kyoto University (1992-2002) and at Doshisha University (2002-present). His primary research interest is the durability of polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEFCs), in particular, membrane degradation, and he has been involved in NEDO R&D research projects on PEFC durability since 2001. He has authored over 140 technical papers and 30 review articles. Kenichiro Ota is a Professor of the Chemical Energy Laboratory at the Graduate School of Engineering, Yokohama National University, Japan. He received his B.S.E. in Applied Chemistry from the University of Tokyo in 1968 and his Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo in 1973. He has worked on hydrogen energy and fuel cells since 1974, working on materials science for fuel cells and water electrolysis. He has published more than 150 original papers, 70 review papers, and 50 scientific books. He is now the president of the Hydrogen Energy Systems Society of Japan, the chairman of the Fuel Cell Research Group of the Electrochemical Society of Japan, and the chairman of the National Committee for the Standardization of the Stationary Fuel Cells. ABSTRACT TRUNCATED« less

Scientific aspects of polymer electrolyte fuel cell durability and degradation.

Owing to the increasing emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), human life and the ecological environment have been affected by global warming and climate changes. To mitigate the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere various strategies have been implemented such as separation, storage, and utilization of CO2. Although it has been explored for many years, hydrogenation reaction, an important representative among chemical conversions of CO2, offers challenging opportunities for sustainable development in energy and the environment. Indeed, the hydrogenation of CO2 not only reduces the increasing CO2 buildup but also produces fuels and chemicals. In this critical review we discuss recent developments in this area, with emphases on catalytic reactivity, reactor innovation, and reaction mechanism. We also provide an overview regarding the challenges and opportunities for future research in the field (319 references).

Recent advances in catalytic hydrogenation of carbon dioxide

Recent progress in alkaline water electrolysis for hydrogen production and applications

Amorphous binary CrZr alloys containing 11–66 at% Zr were successfully prepared by a magnetron sputtering method. Amorphous CrZr alloys thus prepared were spontaneously passive in 6 M HCl solution. Their corrosion rates were four orders of magnitude lower than chromium metal and one-third of zirconium metal and decreased with alloy chromium content. XPS analysis revealed that airformed films and passive films on the amorphous CrZr alloys were composed of double oxyhydroxides of chromium and zirconium. This appears to be responsible for the high corrosion resistance of the amorphous CrZr alloys in comparison with their constituent elements; the formation of chromium-containing passive film is more protective than the film on zirconium metal, despite the fact that chromium metal dissolves actively in 6 M HCl solution.

The Corrosion Behavior of Sputter‐Deposited Amorphous Chromium‐ Zirconium Alloys in 6 M HCl Solution.

The Corrosion Behavior of Amorphous Ni‐Cr‐19 P Alloys in Hydrochloric Acid

s t a t e p o s s e s s e x t r e m e l y h i g h c o r r o s i o n r e E s i s t a n c e when c e r t a i n a m o u n t s of c h r o m i u m a r e a d d e d (1 -3 ) . M e t a l l o i d e l e m e n t s r e q u i r e d t o o b t a i n a m o r p h o u s s t r u c t u r e marke d l y a f f e c t t h e c o r r o s i o n r e s i s t a n c e o f t h e a l l o y s . F u r t h e r t h e c h e m i c a l l y h o m o g e n e o u s 30 40 Alloying Content at% n a t u r e o f a m o r p h o u s a l l o y s p r o v i d e s t h e F i g . 1. C o r r o s i o n r a t e s o f a m o r p h o u s Fef o r m a t i o n o f a n u n i f o r m p a s s i v e f i l m . T h i s xp+13p-7C alloys in 0 . 1 ~ H SO where M is t h e e l e m e n t s o f t h e f i r s t 3 o n a 9 p e r i o d . n a t u r e i m p a r t s t h e h i g h c o r r o s i o n r e s i s t a n c e o f t h e a l l o y s t The p u r p o s e of t h e p r e s e n t work i s t o i n v e s t i g a t e t h e e f f e c t o f a d d i t i v e m e t a l l i c e l e m e n t s o n c o r r o s i o n p r o p e r t i e s o f amorp h o u s Fe-P-C a l l o y s , a n d t h e e f f e c t o f c r y s t a l l i z a t i o n o n t h e c o r r o s i o n b e h a v i o r o f a m o r p h o u s Fe-1 CCr-13P-7C a n d Fe-36Ni14Cr-12P-60 a l l o y s . 2. E x p e r i m e n t a l . T h e m e l t s p i n n i n g m e t h o d h a s b e e n a p p l i e d t o t h e p r e p a r a t i o n o f am o r p h o u s a l l o y s w i t h a b o u t 2 m m i n w i d t h a n d 2 0 prn i n t h i c k n e s s , w h e r e M i s t r a n s i t i o n e l e m e n t s b e l o n i n ~ t o t h e f i r s t , s e c o n d a n d t h i r d l o n g p e r i o d s i n t h e p e r i o d i c t a b l e . T h e n u m b e r a t t a c h e d t o r e s p e c t i v e e l e m e n t s d e n o t e s t h e n o m i n a l c o n t e n t i n a t o m i c p e r c e n t . C o r r o s i o n t e s t s a n d e l e c t r o c h e m i c a l m e a s u r e m e n t s w e r e c a r r i e d o u t i n 0.1N H2S04 a n d IN HC1, w h i c h a r e o p e n t o a i r . A c o r r o s i o n r a t e was e s t i m a t e d f r o m t h e w e i g h t l o s s a f t e r i m m e r s i o n plwi cmtent at% F i g . 2. C o r r o s i o n r a t e s o f a m o r p h o u s FexM-13P-7C a l l o y s i n 0.1N H SO w h e r e M i s t h e e l e m e n t s o f t h e s e c o n d 2 a n a ' t h i r d p e r i o d s .

https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/jpa-00220319/document

Corrosion behavior of amorphous iron-base alloys

The effects of hydrofluoric acid (HF) treatment and bulk structure of precursor alloys on the catalytic decomposition of nitrogen monoxide have been investigated Alloy catalysts were prepared from Ni 40valve metal (Ta, Nb, Ti and Zr) 1Pd alloys by the HF treatment and subsequent pre-oxidation at 750°C The tantalum-containing catalyst without previous HF treatment shows the highest activity among the catalysts examined, while the preparation of the active catalysts from other amorphous alloys requires HF treatment for surface roughening and for surface enrichment of palladium prior to the pre-oxidation treatment The catalyst prepared from the amorphous Ni 40Ta 1Pd alloy is superior to the conventionally prepared Pd/Al2O3 catalyst, in spite of the fact that the BET surface area of the latter catalyst is two orders of magnitude higher than that of the Ni Ta Pd catalyst The catalyst prepared from the amorphous Ni 40Ta Pd alloy shows a better performance for the NO decomposition in comparison with the catalyst prepared from the crystalline counterpart, because the amorphous precursor becomes a more irregular and more microporous catalyst

NO decomposition catalysts prepared from amorphous NiTaPd alloys

/pdf/formation-of-hercynite-feal-2o-4-at-interface-of-al-2o-3-336igu0dv1.pdf

Koji Hashimoto

Papers

The Corrosion Behavior of Sputter‐Deposited Amorphous Chromium‐ Zirconium Alloys in 6 M HCl Solution.

The Corrosion Behavior of Amorphous Ni‐Cr‐19 P Alloys in Hydrochloric Acid

Corrosion behavior of amorphous iron-base alloys

NO decomposition catalysts prepared from amorphous NiTaPd alloys

Formation of Hercynite (FeAl_2O_4) at Interface of Al_2O_3/Steel Joint