Participate

Strength of the Consortium

A unique strength of our program lies in our ability and expertise in applying a wide range of microfabrication and testing methodologies developed in-house to study and understand the role of size, shape, and composition of microstructure on the efficiency and rate of electrochemical energy conversion.

For this we have developed specialized techniques unique to our research group that include atomic force microscopy (AFM) based impedance spectroscopy to probe local charge and mass transport phenomena at the nanoscale, variety of electrochemical characterization methods for fuel cell studies, atomic layer deposition (ALD) for fabrication of pin-hole free ultra thin film with uniform thickness and composition, 3-dimensional solid-state fuel cell architecture on Si-based micro machined structures, and atomic scale simulation tools to model, predict and understand both the energetics and kinetics of catalytic and charge transport processes during energy conversion.

Moreover, we frequently employ pulsed laser deposition (PLD), rf/dc sputtering, ion beam etching, focused ion beam (FIB), microlithography, and ion implantation techniques for fabrication and x-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS), Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS), scanning probe microscopy (SPM), and various x-ray techniques for analytic studies. These facilities are readily available to us at Stanford Nanofabrication Facility and Stanford Nanocharacterization Laboratory on campus. The unique combination of expertise with advanced fabrication and characterization tools and capabilities distinguishes us from our competitors and position our group with an opportunity to break new ground in energy conversion at the nanoscale. Indeed, our thin film solid oxide fuel cells hold the world record in demonstrating the highest peak power density at the lowest operating temperature reported up to date.

Benefits

Benefits To Industrial Sponsors: Why Participate?

This Consortium aims to assemble a small but focused community of industrial organizations that are keenly interested in getting involved in forefront research in advanced fuel cell concepts and architecture for nanoscale energy conversion. It is expected that the consortium member organizations actively participate and intellectually contribute to the research activities, goals and directions.

The research program offers its consortium members:

- Early stage entry and collaboration in ground-breaking research

- Motivational incentive for consortium researchers to get involved

- Timely communication and openly sharing of research results

- Real-time knowledge exchange and know-how transfer

- Immediate access to resulting intellectual property (nonexclusive)

- Visiting or residence opportunities for researchers from member companies

- Student mentoring and visitation programs

- Ready access to graduate students for recruiting opportunities

- Ready access to laboratory facilities

Cost of Participation

Each industrial member is expected to contribute $200,000.00 per year with commitment for three years.