Fueling the Future Center for
Chemical Innovation

The Fueling the Future Center for Chemical Innovation carries out research that addresses fundamental aspects of proton transport, the molecular-level process that underlies the functioning of a central component of fuel cells. An important application of our research is the design of better fuel cell membranes.

Our goal is to improve the function and efficiency of today’s fuel cells and lead the way toward meeting the worldwide technological challenge of developing this sustainable, domestic source of energy.

In the News

Professor Jeanne Hardy was featured on local PBS station WBGY's EcoExchange. Professor Hardy demonstrated how fuel cells work by using a water powered "car" and discussed how UMass Amherst is making advances in fuel cell technology. Click here to watch the full episode.

(L-R) Prof. Scott Auerbach , Julia Kumpf (undergrad), Usha Viswanathan (grad student), and Prof. Justin Fermann.

Scott Auerbach, Ph.D.
Department of Chemistry

Julia Kumpf (undergrad), Usha Viswanathan (grad student), Prof. Justin Fermann and Prof. Scott Auerbach are working on molecular modeling of proton transfer in molecules and materials, with the goal of making better and more efficient fuel cells. Our job is to make molecular "movies" of how protons move (hop) from one location to another, kind of like a frog jumping from one lily pad to another in a stream.

Our goal is two-fold: (1) to suggest to the synthetic chemists in our team which chemical ("functional") groups would be best for making efficient fuel cell proton exchange membranes; and 2) to explain the vibrational motions of the jumping proton as measured by Yale spectroscopists in our team, Prof. Mark Johnson and coworkers.

To accomplish this goal, our modeling work breaks up into two steps: (1) apply quantum chemistry methods to compute the energies of proton transfer by sampling many different proton locations along its jumps; and (2) applying quantum statistical theories to predict likely vibrational motions and average "dwell times" on each lily pad before proton jumps.

Our modeling complements the experiments in the CBC team by providing detailed microscopic pictures of proton dynamics that shed light on the experiments that measure proton vibrations and conductivity in real materials.


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