NSF Report Research Articles

Molten Hydroxide Dual-Phase Membranes for Intermediate-Temperature Fuel Cells

Anion exchange membrane (AEM) fuel cells are sought after due to its enabled adoption of non-precious metals as electrocatalysts and enhanced reaction kinetics at high pH conditions[1]. Typical polymer membranes contain quaternary ammonium or phosphonium group polymers that conduct ions at temperature below 90°C[2], limiting their applications at elevated temperatures. Nevertheless, elevated temperature operations allow for improved electrode kinetics, system efficiency and simplified heat management. Hence, there is a need to develop hydroxide ion conducting membranes that are chemically and mechanically stable and can operate at intermediate temperature ranges (150 - 400°C) without compromising its ionic conductivity. Here we report a novel hydroxide-ceramic dual-phase (HCDP) membrane technology that utilizes molten alkaline hydroxides (e.g. sodium, potassium, and lithium) impregnated into the porous zirconia matrix[3]. When using air as oxidant, hydroxide ions react with from air to form carbonates leading to performance degradation of the fuel cell due to loss of ionic conductivity. The poisoning effects are rapid and severe, necessitating the use of pure oxygen instead of air as cathode feed. Our proposed technology overcomes the poisoning issue while air feed operation by shifting the chemical equilibrium of the undesired carbonate ions toward hydroxide and in the presence of water at elevated temperatures, thus releasing from the electrolyte in situ during fuel cell operation. This contribution will highlight our recent developments in this area. [1] Urquidi-Macdonald, M.; Sen, A.; Grimes, P.; Tewari, A.; Sambhy, V. NSF Report from Penn State. https://arxiv.org/pdf/physics/0504130[2] Hibino, T.; Kobayashi, K., Journal of Materials Chemistry A 2013, 1 (24), 7019-7022 [3] Cerón, MR.; Lai, SZ.; Amiri, A.; Monte, M.; Katta, S.; Kelly, JC.; Worsley, MA.; Merrill, MD.; Kim, S.; Campbell, PG.; Journal of Membrane Science 2018, 567, 191-198

Commentary: The promise of polymers

Commentary: The promise of polymers

Federal backing for university research continues decline

For the fourth straight year, federal support for R&D at U.S. universities fell in 2015, says an NSF report on how much universities spent and the sources of that funding. This inflation-adjusted decline of 13% over four years marks the longest fall in academic research funding since NSF began collecting data in 1972. The $37.9 billion in federal support accounted for 55.2% of R&D spending at universities in 2015, down from 62.5% in 2011. However, the overall picture for science isn’t all bleak. Spending is up from $65.3 billion in 2011 to $68.7 billion in 2015, including a 2.2% jump from 2014 to 2015. That is driven primarily by growth in spending from businesses, which was up 7.5%; nonprofit organizations, up 6.9%; and the universities themselves, up 5.9%. Research spending in many individual science disciplines in 2015 matched that trend, with a 2.2% increase from 2014 in all science spending

The Gathering Storm still looms

A decade on, the situation portrayed in the influential report of a deteriorating US science and technology ecosystem has, if anything, worsened.

Number of science and engineering doctoral degrees keeps climbing

U.S. universitites awarded a record high 54,070 doctoral degrees in 2014, with science and engineering fields continuing their rise to 75% of all doctoral degrees, according to a recent NSF report. After a dip in the early 2000s, physical science doctorates have been on the rise, and chemistry is no exception.

New NSF Report Shows Where U.S. Leads and Lags

The 2014 Science and Engineering Indicators tracks the ups and downs of U.S. scientific prowess.

Recent reports on Earth and space science doctorates

Two newly published surveys of recent doctoral degree recipients, the Science and Engineering Doctorate Awards, 2001 (National Science Foundation, 2002) and the Earth and Space Science Ph.Ds, Class of 2001 (AGU/AGI, 2002), reveal a generally healthy status for the production of and job market for Earth and space sciences Ph.Ds. The NSF report, which is based on the detailed statistical data obtained in the annual Survey of Earned Doctorates (NSF; 2001), highlights these key findings:The total number of science and engineering (S&E) doctorates awarded by U.S. universities has dropped 7%from a high point in 1998, to 25,500 degrees in 2001. Of these, doctorates in the physical sciences dropped from 3,825 in 1998 to 3,389 in 2001, after experiencing modest increases between 1992 and 1998.

NSF report

NSF report

NSF report

NSF report

NSF report

No abstract available.

Shaping the Future: CUR Seventh National Conference Continues a National Dialogue

On the final day of the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) Seventh National Conference, participants gathered in small groups outdoors in the beautiful southern California weather to discuss individual responses to the NSF report "Shaping the Future: New Expectations for Undergraduate Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology" . This report was commissioned by the Advisory Committee to the NSF Directorate for Education and Human Resources and delivered to NSF in the spring of 1996. It has succeeded in initiating an active national discussion on the nature of teaching and learning in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology (SMEandT) and is expected to heavily influence undergraduate science education in the next decade. In December 1997, CUR contributed a white paper on faculty issues to a national forum (sponsored by Project Kaleidoscope) on the NSF report "Shaping the Future" (2). This white paper, "Elaborating on the Recommendations to and for SMEandT Faculty", by CUR past-president Neil Abraham and CUR National Executive Officer Elaine Hoagland, is available on-line at the CUR Web site (http://www.cur.org). Both the NSF report and the CUR white paper were made available to CUR National Conference participants prior to the Saturday morning discussions.

Japan catches up to U.S. in some scientific and technological indicators

Some of Japan's leading indicators of science and technological strength have caught up with or surpassed those of the United States, concludes a special report by the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Science Resources Studies (SRS) released in late January, prior to the release of President Clinton's 1999 budget proposal that calls for substantial increases in the U.S. science budget.The NSF report, “The Science and Technology Resources of Japan: A Comparison with the United States,” states that since 1989, Japan has slightly led the United States in the proportion of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) invested in overall research and development (R&D).

NSF report

NSF report

Enterprise enhanced education

For many years there have been complaints from enterprises such as business, industry and government that academia is unable to produce graduates that can function well in the design and implementation of large and complex information and engineering systems. These complaints have been voiced and confirmed once again in recent reports and conference addresses [5],[3]. As a result of discussions on the results of the Mulder NSF report following the report's completion it was suggested that recent advancements in information, communication and computer technologies could enable a new and innovative approach to improving the graduates from our university information specialists programs. This new learning/teaching paradigm involves both the universities and the concerned enterprises. The paper that follows presents some of the reasoning and organizational structure for the suggested cooperative approach enabled by information technology, and information regarding some test sites of cooperative programs involving universities and industry.

Broadening the search for minority science and engineering doctoral starts

This analysis looked at doctorate completion in science and engineering (S&E) by underrepresented minorities: blacks, Hispanics and Indian Americans. These are the groups we must increasingly depend upon to make up for shortfalls in science and engineering doctorate production among American citizens. These shortfalls derive from truncated birth rates among white people, for the most part. The analysis answered several questions officials will need to know the answers to if we are to plan effectively to develop the talents of these individuals. Specifically, the National Science Foundation asked us to look at the feasibility of involving nontraditional minority science and engineering graduates (baccalaureates at 25+) as doctoral starts, along with minority S&E graduates who had taken jobs with corporations to pay off student loans and military personnel involved in S&E study and S&E work (see NSF report of research under grant SED-9107756). We found that nontraditional minority S&E doctorate recipients matched their traditional counterparts in elapsed time to degree and similar indicators. They had less in the way of support for doctoral study, however. We found that minority S&E graduates who took jobs in corporations were keenly interested in returning to campus to complete degrees. We also found that many bright minority youngsters are studying S&E subjects in the Community College of the Air Force and in U.S. Army SOC colleges. Some have enrolled in baccalaureate programs on university campuses and plan to continue on to the PhD. We concluded that money is important in tapping these talent pools to make up for the demographically driven shortfalls discussed above.

Scientific visualization — past, present and future

This paper presents a general overview of scientific visualization from a historical orientation. It looks first at visualization before the advent of computers, and then goes on to describe the development of early visualization tools in the ‘computer age’. There was a surge of interest in visualization in the latter part of the 1980s, following the publication of an NSF report. This sparked the development of a number of major visualization software systems such as AVS and IRIS Explorer. These are described, and the paper concludes with a look at future developments.

NSF report tallies current U.S. science capabilities

NSF report tallies current U.S. science capabilities

Women and computing

Women and computing

Solar particles bombard earth—and then some

Were you in Quebec when the lights went out last March? Did your call to London go phut? This brief NSF report discusses some of the effects of particle bombardment of the earth.

NSF report — computer and computation research

No abstract available.