Microfluidic and Surface Electrochemistry

本研究旨在了解燃料如甲酸、甲醇、乙醇或甘油的氧化反应。这些都是可以从生物来源生产的燃料，因此在燃料电池中使用它们可以导致碳中性的可持续能源系统。了解分子水平上发生的事情能够改进电化学装置，例如燃料电池，其操作通过在电极表面上发生的反应进行。这些反应比氢燃料电池中使用的更成熟的氢氧化更复杂，因为涉及几种表面物质，并且存在产生不期望的可溶性产物的副反应。我们将开发新的方法来识别这些物种，确定它们有多少，以及它们如何相互转化。

This research is directed at an understanding of reactions of oxidation of fuels such as formic acid, methanol, ethanol or glycerol. These are all fuels that can be produced from biological sources, and so using them in fuel cells can lead to a sustainable energy system that is carbon neutral. A knowledge of what is happening at the molecular level enables improvement of electrochemical devices such as fuel cells whose operation occurs via reactions occurring on an electrode surface. These reactions are more complicated than for the more established hydrogen oxidation used in hydrogen fuel cells, because there are several surface species involved and there are side-reactions that give undesired soluble products. We will develop new methods to identify these species, determine how much of them there are, and exactly how they interconvert.