Current Research Activities

For a low-temperature PEMFC, the most common problems for reliability and durability are degradation of catalysts and catalyst support oxidation. A number of papers have been published in this area, the details of which will be given in Section 18.2.2. It is expected that at high temperatures, these problems will be more pronounced. Recently, however, high-temperature PEMFC catalysts have begun to attract researchers attention, and several papers have been published. Liu et al. [24, 25] developed a Pt4Zr02/C catalyst and found that it was more durable than Pt/C in PEMFCs operated at 150 °C. Other research activities have mainly focused on the development of oxidation-resistant supports (Section 18.2.3). 

1 Carbon nanotube-based composite electrode for all-solid supercapacitors 

A supercapacitor with properties of optical transparency and mechanical flexibility was reported by Chen et al. It was fabricated using metal oxide nanowire/carbon nanotube (CNT) heterogeneous film. It could achieve a power density of 7.48 kW/kg and after a large number of cycles, its capacity 

Hybrid Iu203 nanowires/CNT Aims were prepared in two steps. In the first step, a CNT suspension was filtered through a porous alumina filtration membrane, forming a homogeneous entangled network of CNT. An adhesive, flat poly(dimethysiloxane) stamp was used to peel the CNT film off the filtration membrane and then release it onto a polyethylene terephthal-ate (PET) substrate on a hot plate at 100 °C. The thickness of the film was about 60 nm and the measured conductivity was 570 S/cm. 

In203 nanowires with a diameter of 20 nm and length 5 pm were sonicated into isopropanol solutions and then dispersed on transferred CNT films to form In203 nanowire/CNT heterogeneous film. 

The calculated specific capacitance of a transferred CNT film supercapacitor was about 25.4 F/g and that of a poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) CNT film supercapacitor was 33 F/g. The Iu203 nanowire/CNT heterogeneous film supercapacitor exhibited an even higher specific capacitance (up to 64 F/g) than either the transferred CNT film or the PEDOTCNT film supercapacitor. This was explained by pseudocapacitance from the reversible redox transitions of the In203 nanowires contributing to the overall capacitance. 

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The following synopsis of current research activities in the field of combustion is organized around the list of papers presented at the 27th International Symposium on Combustion (1998) under the auspices of The Combustion Institute. 

Presents current research activities on new rubbers, thermoplastic elastomers, nanocomposites, biomaterials, and smart polymers, as well as rubber blends, composites, and rubber ingredients... 

In addition to studies of diacetylene single crystals, current research, activities are focused on studies of the second X and third x order nonlinear optical responses of disubstituted diacetylene polymer films as active optical guided wave structures. Diacetylene polymers possess X values comparable to germanium(j 7). In the first stage, three major questions are being addressed ... 

Abstract The present contribution highlights the relationship between SCCO2 properties, its solubilization power, and its use as a reaction medium for homogeneous catalysis. Current research activities under the lighthouse project Smart Solvents, Smart Ligands are presented, the focus being on criteria of conducting catalyzed processes in future applications. 

The detection and data analysis activities in the field of SEC applied to polymeric materials is expected to grow in the future. Improved detectors and data analysis systems will become commercially more available as a result of the current research activities in selected industrial and academic labs. 

The present status of jet fuel technology can be aptly described as being at the same point as motor fuel technology 25 years ago. Volatility and stability requirements have been recognized and current research activities are directed toward the solution of these problems. 

Active control of wettability is a subject of current research activity and is beyond our scope here. However, the first step in this process is a study of interfacial tension and contact angle, their basis in thermodynamics, and methods to measure these properties. This is the objective of this chapter. 

Let us thus first evaluate some current research activities and developments in organic- -polymer chemistry. 

We determined the net formation rates in discrete samples at several depths in the water column, with and without filtration, using waters from several lakes. We also investigated the decay processes, in the dark, for whole lake waters, lake waters filtered through varying mesh size filters, and in pure bacterial cultures. These results added to our understanding of the processes responsible for the observed distribution of H202. Our current research activities (18) are reviewed and synthesized in this chapter. 

The number of papers dealing with catalysis by Au was more or less than 5 a year in the 1980s but reached 700 in 2005 and 600 in 2006. There are three major streams in current research activities on Au catalysts expansion of applications, especially to liquid-phase organic reactions [4], discussion on the active states of Au [5], and exploration of new forms of Au catalysts. The last stream has emerged recently and is represented by Au submicron tube [6], nanoporous Au [7, 8], polymer stabilized Au colloids [9] and Au on solid polymers [10, 11], which in turn provide valuable information for determining what states of Au are surprisingly active and selective. 

H. Nakamura and I. Karube, Current research activity in biosensors, Anal. Bioanal. Chem., 377 (2003) 146-168. 

In the preceding chapters the material necessary for studying photoionization processes in atoms using synchrotron radiation and electron spectrometry was presented. The discussion will now be completed with some examples of current research activities. These include ... 

The major objectives of current research activities in this highly interesting domain of chemical engineering are to develop new concepts for process integration, to investigate their efficiency, and to make them available for technical application. The importance of this field is reflected by the increasing number of articles in journals and book contributions that have been published during the past three decades... 

The identification and quantitative determination of specific organic compounds in very complex samples is an area of intense current research activity in analytical chemistry Optical spectroscopy (particularly UV-visible and infrared absorption and molecular fluorescence and phosphorescence techniques) has been used widely in organic analysis. Any optical spectroscopic technique to be used for characterization of a very complex sample, such as a coal-derived material, should exhibit very high sensitivity (so that trace constituents can be determined) and extremely great selectivity (so that fractionation and separation steps prior to the actual analysis can be held to the minimum number and complexity). To achieve high analytical selectivity, an analytical spectroscopic technique should produce highly structured and specific spectra useful for "fingerprinting purposes," as well as to minimize the extent of overlap of spectral bands due to different constituents of complex samples. 

The electronic structure of donor and acceptor components is more or less predictable and the general relationship between, for example, structure and donor (acceptor) strength or structure and stability of ion radicals, is quite familiar to organic chemists. The design of new electronic structures is not only quite possible but represents the main trend of current research activities in the field. On the other hand, only preliminary steps have been made toward predicting and designing of crystal structure [15-17]. 

Dr. Lee teaches colloidal and surface science as well as general materials processing at Clemson University. He is also director of Nanofabritech. His current research activities are focused on chemical processing of ceramic and polymeric materials, paying particular attention to surface and interfacial chemistry. 

This useful handbook provides the theoretical and practical informaikw necessary to explore new applications for Grignard reagents on a day-to y basis—presenting a com prriiensive overview of current research activities in Grigiuud chemistry. 

Originally developed by the Chemische Werke Witten GmbH in the early 1950s, the large-scale production of dimethyl terephthalate (DMT) marks the start of industrial air oxidation of alkyl aromatic substrates to tbe corresponding acids [3]. However, the technical and chemical improvement of the Witten process is still a topic of current research activity [3g-l]. 

Pelkmans, L., S. Hulten, R. Cowan, G. Azkarate, and P. Christidis. 2003a. "Trends in Vehicle and Fuel Technologies—Overview of Current Research Activities." EC Joint Research Centre, IPTS, EUR 20747 EN (May 2003). 

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