New grant for Prof. Byers

2019-2020 Quebec Research Fund

The Quebec Research Funds – Society and Culture, Health, Nature and Technology (FRQNT), have announced the results of the 2019-2020 grant competitions. Professor Joshua Byers, member of NanoQAM, obtained a research grant in the amount of $ 40,000.

Joshua Byers

Pr. Joshua Byers, obtained a grant from the Quebec Research Fund – Nature and Technologies (Establishment of the next generation of professors) in the amount of $ 40,000 for his research project: “Bipolar electrochemistry for the synthesis of new electrocatalytic materials. ”

The objective of this project is to establish a new platform, based on bipolar electrochemistry, which will allow the synthesis and characterization of new electrocatalysts for hydrogen production technologies. The production of hydrogen is motivated by the need to store huge amounts of energy which can be produced by renewable sources such as hydroelectricity, solar and wind energy. An example of this type of technology is a hydrogen fuel cell automobile which is a hybrid between an electric vehicle and a traditional combustion engine, in the sense that it produces electricity by burning hydrogen . The advantage of switching to hydrogen as an energy source is the fact that the emissions are only water instead of carbon dioxide. The problem is that hydrogen production is currently done with carbon sources, specifically methane. The proposed project concerns the development of a high throughput synthesis and in situ characterization platform for electrocatalytic materials prepared by electrodeposition. The concept of this platform is based on bipolar electrochemistry, which allows the creation of gradients of electrocatalytic materials with a distribution of morphologies, compositions and densities of particles. All of these factors are known to contribute directly to the overall electrocatalytic response. While electrodeposition of material gradients by bipolar electrodeposition is possible, direct characterization of electrocatalytic activity remains difficult. This project will draw on Professor Byers’ expertise in electrochemical microscopy to access the local electrocatalytic activity of these materials, including thin film morphologies up to the level of individual particles. As a model system, this project will focus on Ni-based electrode materials and their electrocatalytic activity in the oxygen release reaction, which is a limiting factor in the electrolysis of water.