Property and structure of ultra-thin Nafion films for applications to fuel cells and other technologies

拟议的研究计划将研究聚合物电解质材料Nafion的超薄(不到人类头发厚度的千分之一)薄膜的结构和性能。这项研究建立了我的团队最近的发现，即这些超薄膜具有与研究充分的、厚得多的膜形式“截然不同”的独特性质。在拟议的研究计划中产生的基础知识将使Nafion材料类别的应用超越燃料电池(FC)电极设计的最初动机，包括传感器、执行器、光电化学和光学设备-通过定制这些薄膜的纳米结构来获得特定于应用的特性。 拟议的研究将在几个层面上使加拿大受益--社会经济和环境。将培训四名博士和十名本科生研究人员，他们具有高级分析技能、全面的专业技能和批判性思维能力。由于高素质人才(HQP)将接受广泛的科学/工程领域的培训，包括材料科学、聚合物和胶体物理，他们将直接适应不同的先进技术部门，包括燃料电池、传感器、光化学和光学。拟议研究的基本性质具有广泛的技术应用，有可能创建剥离公司。这项研究的直接受益者将是加拿大的燃料电池行业(伯纳比的Ballard Power和汽车燃料电池合作公司以及密西索加的氢化物公司)，因为所产生的知识将用于设计成本更低但性能更高的燃料电池系统。这将促进更大规模的采用，将加速导致经济增长，更重要的是，城市地区的环境更清洁。在叉车应用的巨大增长和汽车公司计划在2015年开始FC车辆商业化的推动下，加拿大FC行业预计未来5年对HPQ的需求将超过100辆，市场规模将超过数亿美元。

The proposed research program will study the structure and property of ultra-thin (less than one-thousands the thickness of human hair) films of Nafion, a polymer electrolyte material. The research builds my group's recent findings that these ultra-thin films have unique properties that are "distinct" from the well-studied, much thicker membrane form. The fundamental knowledge generated in the proposed research program will open the Nafion class of material to applications beyond the original motivation in fuel cell (FC) electrode design to sensors, actuators, photoelectrochemical and optical devices - by tailoring the nano-structure of these thin films to attain application-specific properties. The proposed research will benefit Canada on several levels - socio-economic and environmental. Four PhDs and ten undergraduates researchers with advanced analytical skills, well-rounded professional skills, and critical-thinking abilities will be trained. Since the highly qualified personnel (HQPs) will be trained in wide range of scientific/engineering topics including material science, polymers, and colloidal physics, they will fit in directly in different advanced technology sectors including fuel cells, sensors, photochemistry, and optics. The fundamental nature of the proposed research with broad range of technological applications has the potential for creating spin-off companies. A direct beneficiary of the research will be the fuel cell industry in Canada (Ballard Power and Automotive Fuel Cell Cooperation in Burnaby and Hydrogenics Corporation in Mississauga) since knowledge generated will be applied to design lower cost but high performance fuel cell systems. This will promote larger-scale adoption will be accelerated resulting in economic growth and, more importantly, cleaner environment in the urban area. Fueled by tremendous growth in fork lift application and automotive companies plan to begin commercialization of FC vehicles in 2015, the Canadian FC industry has projected a demand of over 100 HPQs and a market of over several hundred million dollars in next 5 years.