PEM fuel cells

The polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel is deemed one of the most promising devices for energy conversion. For the PEM fuel cell to be successfully integrated into the mass-market new materials will need to be developed, including: electrocatalysts for the fuel and air electrodes and the proton conducting membrane [I]. New materials possessing improved properties will emerge as a result of a collaborative effort between experimentalists, engineers, and theorists, the later doing both device and materials modeling. For the physical and chemical modeling of materials to play a role in the suggestion of new materials the modeling must be at the nano- and even molecular scale and ideally it should not be phenomenological but rather from Agfirst principles Ah. Discussed below are the various efforts in both materials and device modeling. It is hoped that as a result of this Special ICCN Session that there will be a much greater integration and collaboration between the research in materials and device modeling.