Anima B. Bose

Energy Storage Analysis of a Fuel Cell Hybrid Vehicle with Constant Force Acceleration Profile

Batteries commonly cater to the power flows and load leveling in hybrid fuel cell vehicles especially during startup and acceleration. Power provided by the energy storage unit (ESU) need not be constant but can be variable according to the instantaneous power and energy requirement of the vehicle. This paper investigates the design methodology for a combined ultracapacitor and a battery ESU. The acceleration profile of a constant tractive force will be considered compared to constant power. The required masses of the storage elements with the various battery and ultracapacitor characteristics for both the constant force and constant torque cases are discussed.

Interfacial bonding enhancement of reel-to-reel selective electrodeposition of copper stabilizer on a multifilamentary second-generation high-temperature superconductor tape

A reel-to-reel copper selective electrodeposition process over a multifilamentary second-generation high-temperature superconductor (2G-HTS) has been demonstrated in our previous work. If the interfacial bonding between the deposited copper layer and the underlying silver overlayer is weak, it might lead to delamination in applications including magnets, motors and generators. In this study, two approaches have been used to improve the copper–silver bonding without the degradation of superconductor performance. The first approach is acidifying the electrolyte by adding sulfuric acid, by which the kinetics of copper electrodeposition is enhanced, resulting in finer microstructure at the copper–silver interface and thus, improved interfacial bonding strength. The second approach consists of blocking the electrolyte outflow at the entrance of the reel-to-reel electroplating cell, by which the occurrence of large copper seeds on the tape caused by the heavy turbulence flow is effectively prevented. With these two improvements together deployed in the process, the peeling strength between the copper and silver layers of the 2G-HTS tape has been improved from 2 N in 90° peeling and from 3.0 N in 180° peeling, without any degradation on the superconducting performance.

Enhanced hydrogen sensing employing electrodeposited palladium nanowires enclosed in anodized aluminum oxide nanopores

Palladium nanowire sensors have been limited to detecting small concentrations of molecular hydrogen (H2). Upon excessive hydrogen uptake, tunneling currents fuse the nanowires creating a short circuit causing permanent failure. Here we demonstrate that electrodeposited palladium nanowires enclosed within single-step anodized aluminum oxide nanopores reliably detect hydrogen concentrations greater than four percent and do not suffer the mechanical and electrical failures of conventional self-supporting nanowires. Multiple cycling of molecular hydrogen at 100% concentration and long-term exposure to high concentration of hydrogen does not contribute to permanent short-circuit failure of the sensor.

Multi-Hybrid Power Vehicles with Cost Effective and Durable Polymer Electrolyte

Anima Bose, the principal investigator of the project, originally proposed to develop composite membranes to operate PEMFCs at much higher temperatures than 80{degrees}C and to alleviate the flooding problems often encountered in Nafion menmbrane containing fuel cells. The PI has successfully created composite membranes by blending small quantities of octasilane-poss (OSP) with Nafion. The composite membranes exhibited temperature tolerance up to 110{degrees}C without scarifying cell performance as determined by polarization curves and proton conductivity measurements. These membranes also exhibited superior water management performance as evident from the lack of flooding. Furthermore, these fuel cells performed well under reduced humidities. Structural and thermal analyses revealed that these Nafion-octasilane composite membranes are homogenous at concentrations up to 3 wt% of the OSP and that the siloxane offers additional thermal stability.