Dr. Stephen J. Paddison, the Gibson Endowed Professor of Engineering, and three colleagues were recently awarded $1.4 million by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to pursue a collaborative research project aimed at discovering design rules for polymeric based materials that exhibit high hydroxide ion (OH-) transport.
“This is an investigation that we have wanted to pursue for several years, but up until now were not able to secure funding to pursue the research,” said Paddison.
The project is funded under the DMREF (Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future) program of the Chemistry Division, the main program by which NSF participates in the President’s Materials Genome Initiative for Global Competitiveness (MGI).
With collaborators from NYU, PSU, and RPI, the project is employing a cohesive strategy involving mathematical and computer modeling of specific materials components that will guide the synthesis of novel materials, the characterization and testing of these materials in actual electrochemical devices (i.e., anion exchange membrane fuel cells), and the determination of optimal design principles to govern the engineering of future materials. Through an iterative theoretical-experimental approach towards: targeted syntheses of polymers; first-principles computer simulations of specific polymer chemistries; mathematical and experimental characterization of structures and morphologies; and the measurement and computational modeling of long-range hydroxide ion transport, the team is aiming to advance fundamental science and engineering knowledge in the area of fuel cells membranes and to deduce a set of fundamental design principles for anion exchange membranes.
“Should the project be successful we hope to accelerate the time between concept and production of practically useful materials for anion exchange membrane fuel cells,” said Paddison.