Alumni
Former Postdoctoral Associate
tavakolb@mailbox.sc.edu

Depletion of traditional energy sources has raised intensive research in fuel cell technology. Direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC) are a good candidate for a power source in portable electronic devices for several reasons, including high energy density and ease of handling liquid vs. high pressure hydrogen. For fuel cells to be a feasible option among other clean energy technologies, innovations in the materials development are required for efficient operation. The focus of my study is synthesis of Pt group metals-based nanomaterials on various supports, physical and electrochemical characterization, and PEM and DMFC fuel cells. My modeling/simulation expertise includes thermal and electrochemical CFD modeling of both large- and small-scale systems. Strong Electrostatic Adsorption (SEA), and Electroless Deposition (ED) methods are primarily used for catalyst preparation where characterization and evaluation techniques include XRD, Chemisorption, STEM, Cyclic Voltammetry, ORR, and MOR.