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Posted On: 07/29/2004

E2I and EPRI award three research grants

The Electricity Innovation Institute (E2I) and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) have awarded the first three grants through its newly created Innovative Small Grants Program. The program's first year of funding, provided through the EPRI Strategic Science and Technology Program, supports research that examines ways nanotechnology can advance the future of the electricity enterprise.

One-year research grants, each worth $100,000, were awarded to Dr. Craig Grimes,Pennsylvania State University; Drs. Chien Wai and Frank Cheng, University of Idaho; and Dr. Pamela Shapiro, University of Idaho.

"It is exciting to stimulate the application of new breakthrough technologies from other disciplines into the electricity sector, where they can offer wide benefits to society. These concepts promise not only to offer cost-effective solutions for our industry, but also have strong potential for applications in other fields," says T.J. Glauthier, president and CEO of the E2I. "In addition to encouraging the development of valuable new technologies, sponsoring university programs helps train the next generation of scientists."

Grimes, whose proposal is titled "Development of Nanotubular/Nanoporous Metal Oxide E-Nose Sensor for In-Situ Monitoring of Dissolved Gases in Power Transformers," will fabricate e-nose sensors that will be installed on-line to continuously monitor concentrations of eight gases in mineral oil power transformers. The result of the proposed research will help mitigate the risks and the negative economic impact of power transformer failure. More generally, sensors are important for a wide variety of processes across many industries.

Wai and Cheng's winning entry is titled "Carbon Nanotube-Supported Catalytic Nanoparticles for Fuel Cell Applications." Using supercritical CO2 processing, they will deposit and examine nanoscale electrocatalysts that are important to the successful development of highly efficient low-temperature fuel cells. And because it is nontoxic, nonflammable, and recyclable, supercritical CO2 is an environmentally friendly solvent.

In "Synthetic Approaches to New Photovoltaic Materials based on Ordered Chalcopyrite Quantum Dot Arrays in Polymer Matrices for the Development of High Efficiency Solar Cells," Shapiro proposes to use polymer synthesis to prepare quantum dot solar cells, a new architecture that has the potential for three times the solar-energy-conversion efficiency of current commercial technology. She aims to create ordered arrays of chalcopyrite (CuInS2) nanoparticles within an insulating polymer matrix. The methods developed in this research can potentially be extended to assemble other types of nanoparticles. The efficient and cost-effective manipulation of such particles into ordered arrangements is a current challenge for nanotechnology.

The one-year research period will culminate in publication of a technical report and a workshop at the Institute's Palo Alto headquarters. For more information, visit the E2I web site, http://www.e2i.org/.