This three-year award will support U.S.-France cooperative research in chemical engineering and catalysis. The investigators are Supramaniam Srinivasan, A. John Appleby of Texas A & M University, James McBreen of the Brookhaven National Laboratory, and Claude Lamy of the University of Poitiers in France. The objectives of their research are to develop new alloy or mixed metal electrocatalysts for oxidation of methanol in proton exchange membrane fuel cells. They will develop binary and ternary alloys of platinum using ruthenium, tin and molybdenum as alloying elements. Proton exchange membrane fuel cells are among the most promising types of fuel cell power sources for electric vehicles. These studies are expected to pave the way for the development of direct, high powered, and efficient methanol fuel cells for application in methanol powered electric vehicles. The U.S. investigators bring to this collaboration considerable experience in electrochemistry, electrocatalysis and proton exchange membrane fuel cells. This is complemented by the French investigator's expertise in electrocatalysis and characterization of fuel cells using spectroscopic studies. The project takes advantage of specialized electrochemical and spectroscopic instrumentation available at the University of Poitiers.
