Reference Number: ARL-SRP-00096
Project Description
To support decentralized operations in contested logistics environments, this research addresses the logistical burden of fuel transport by developing point-of-need power generation and fuel synthesis. The objective is to design, characterize, and optimize novel, highly selective catalysts and reactor architectures that drive energy-intensive reactions portably and safely at ambient temperatures and pressures.
Participants will engage in hand-on, interdisciplinary research at the intersection of electrochemistry, reactor engineering, and materials science. Specifically, the participant will engineer catalyst slurry formulations, fabricate gas diffusion electrode flow cells, and/or configure photocatalytic UV reactors. To analyze these systems, they will employ advanced electrochemical methods alongside analytical quantification techniques including spectrophotometry and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS).
Additionally, participants will correlate electrochemical performance with structural properties using advanced diagnostic tools like Powder X-Ray Diffraction (PXRD), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). The expected outcome of this opportunity is the generation of validated catalyst performance datasets, the refinement of reactor standard operating procedures, and the creation of a technical summary report and research poster for presentation at the summer symposium.
Technical Skills
- Chemical Sciences/Engineering
- Data Analysis
- Data Visualization
- Materials Engineering
- Energy Technologies
- Mechanical Engineering
- Material synthesis, characterization (spectroscopy, microscopy, diffraction, etc), data acquisition and analysis, catalysis, electrochemistry
