Browsing by Author "Lamb, K"

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    Investigating HPA functionalized mesoporous silica materials for use as high temperature proton exchange membranes
    (Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering (AINSE), 2012-12-07) Lamb, K; De Marco, R; Jiang, SP; Peterson, VK
    High temperature (>100°C) proton exchange membrane fuel cells (HT-PEMFC) are solid energy conversion devices that electrochemically convert chemical energy (eg. from alcohols) into electricity. HT-PEMFCs are more efficient than low temperature PEMFCs due to elimination of carbon monoxide poisoning and faster oxidation kinetics. Various types of proton exchange membranes have been explored, such as nonfluorinated hydrocarbon polymers, or hybrid Nafion-based membranes. While these materials have their advantages, they dehydrate at high temperatures, leading to a significant reduction in proton conductivity. Recently, we found that heteropolyacids (HPA) such as tungstophosphiric acid (abbreviated as HPW) can be used to functionalize ordered mesoporous silica (MSN) to make nanocomposites PEMs. While these nanocomposites have shown promising preliminary results as HT-PEMs, the ways in which changes to the structure of these materials affect the proton exchange properties are largely unknown. Analysis techniques such as ex- and in-situ HR-FTIR, SAXS, SANS, and QENS will be used to build an understanding of the membrane structure and proton diffusion mechanisms of these HT-PEMs, thereby determining the best performance HPA-MSNs for use in direct alcohol fuel cells.
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    Medium Energy Spectroscopy (MEX) - sample environments and supporting infrastructure
    (Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, 2021-11-26) Lamb, K; Glover, CJ; James, S; Finch, E; Wykes, JL
    The Medium Energy Spectroscopy (MEX) beamline aims to facilitate a wide variety of ex- and in-situ experimental work from a variety of research areas. As such, we will provide a number of sample environments as standard set-up, in addition to ancillary equipment that can be used with custom or BYO sample environments. Sample environments will likely include; room temperature cell, electrochemical flow cell, micro-fluidic cell, flammable gas cell, furnace with gas environments,and a battery testing cell. In addition, supporting infrastructure and ancillary equipment will likely include; flammable and toxic gas handling (flow and pressure control), gas and vapor ventilation, electrochemical testing station (Autolab or similar), fluid (gas or vapour) syringe pumps with pressure monitoring. Most, if not all, of the sample environments and supporting infrastructure will be controlled with the beamline systems, enabling integration and triggering for maximum achievable automation of experiments.© 2021 The Authors