ChE-455/555: Analysis of Electrochemical Systems

OBJECTIVES

After successfully completing this course, you will be able to:

  1. Gain a better understanding of electrochemical systems
  2. Understand the thermodynamics of electrochemical systems
  3. Recognize electrode kinetics
  4. Understand the transport mechanisms in electrochemical systems
  5. Understand modeling procedures for electrochemical systems (graduate students)
  6. Get familiar with typical electrochemical instrumentation
  7. Gain “hands-on” experience with the state-of-the-art sources of energy such as batteries and fuel cells

To fulfill the objectives of this course the class has been divided into mentoring sessions, lab sessions, and workshops.

The mentoring sessions will be used for presenting new concepts and problem solving techniques.  The students are expected to read and understand all of the material in the sessions assigned in the textbooks, class notes, and handouts. The course material will be presented using active learning. The instructor will act as a mentor for the class. New concepts will be introduced using a presentation style. Students will have class time to solve problems (using the taught concepts) and ask questions (individually and by groups). After sometime, the complete solution of the problem will be discussed in class. Self test exercises (no graded) will be provided to identify level of understanding of the topics.

The lab sessions will be used to perform experiments that will allow you practicing the concepts presented during the mentoring sessions. You will perform the following experiments:

1.     Lab I: Electrolysis

2.     Lab II: Electroplating

3.     Lab III: Fuel Cells

Graduate students will be required to attend computer lab sessions and special mentoring sessions to cover the modeling topics.

Workshops sessions will be used to discuss new research areas and special topics. The workshops will consist of a presentation followed by a demonstration session. During the demonstration students will get familiar with electrochemical characterization techniques and fabrication methods.