Nicholas Lavrov, 2015, Chemical and Biological Engineering

Nicholas Lavrov ’15

With the increasing costs of fossil fuels and the continual introduction of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, providing clean, renewable energy has become an intense area of research. One alternative fuel source is hydrogen gas obtained from water splitting. In order for hydrogen fuel to become a viable fuel source, however, efficient means of water splitting must be developed. This summer, I worked in a lab with the goal of creating a catalyst that would lower the voltage required to split water, making it more economically feasible. I explored the use of plasma treatment to alter the surface of iron, nickel and cobalt foils to reach this goal. I learned how to use characterization techniques such as electrochemical tests, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and applied my knowledge of chemistry to determine the effects of the plasma on the metal surfaces. By the end of the summer, we saw minor improvements in the water splitting efficiency. I was able to contribute to a growing body of research, and I hope to see more improvements in this research in the future. I enjoyed putting to work some of the concepts I have learned in my engineering courses.