11/9/17
Gang Wu received three grants from the U.S. Department of Energy. The Advanced Research Project Agency-Energy (ARPA-e) Office is funding his development of high-performance catalysts to decompose NH3 at an economically favorable low temperature (< 450 Centigrade) and the catalysts for electrochemically reducing N2 to synthesize NH3 using renewable energy-generated electricity. The Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE) Fuel Cell Technologies Office provided two additional awards, the first of which is for work on advanced fuel cell catalyst supports. Dr. Wu is developing a new type of high-surface-area and large size nitrogen-doped graphene tubes (NGTs), which will be used as an advanced carbon support to boost Pt cathode performance for proton exchange membrane fuel cells. The second EERE award is for fuel cell catalyst research, for which Dr. Wu is one of the leading researchers in the field. He and his group will be responsible for developing high-performance platinum group metal (PGM)-free catalysts by using earth abundant elements (Fe, Co, or Mn) to replace expensive and scarce Pt in future fuel cells. These new catalyst technologies hold great promise to realize large-scale fuel cell commercialization for transportation and stationary application with an affordable price.
