This paper provides an overview of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) hydrogen and fuel cell activities within the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), focusing on key targets, progress towards meeting those targets, and materials-related issues that need to be addressed. The most recent, state-of-the-art data on metrics such as cost, durability, and performance of fuel cell and hydrogen technologies are presented. Key technical accomplishments to date include a 50% reduction in the modeled high volume cost of fuel cells since 2006, and an 80% cost reduction for electrolyzers since 2002. The statuses of various hydrogen production, delivery, and storage technologies are also presented along with a summary of materials-related challenges for hydrogen infrastructure technologies such as compression, dispensing, seals, pipeline materials/embrittlement, and storage materials. Specific examples and areas requiring more research are discussed. Finally, future plans including EERE’s lab consortium approach such as HyMARC (Hydrogen Storage Materials Advanced Research Consortium) and FC-PAD (Fuel Cell Performance and Durability) Consortia, are summarized.

The emergence of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies in transportation and stationary power sectors offers the world important and potentially transformative environmental and energy security benefits. In recent years, research supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Fuel Cell Technologies Office has contributed substantially to the development of these technologies. Enhanced performance and reduced cost in automotive fuel cells are important examples of achievement. The research investments are clearly paying off, as commercial fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) are being rolled out by major car manufacturers today. With increasing market penetration of FCEVs, enabling technologies for the affordable and widespread production, storage and delivery of renewable hydrogen are becoming increasingly important. Long term commercial viability of hydrogen and fuel cells in the commercial marketplace will rely on continued materials research on several important fronts. Examples include the discovery and development of: (1) non-platinum-group-metal catalysts for next-generation fuel cells; (2) durable, high-performance photocatalytic materials systems for direct solar water splitting; (3) advanced materials-based systems for low-pressure, high-volumetric-density hydrogen storage; and (4) low-cost, hydrogen-compatible pipeline materials for hydrogen delivery and distribution. Research innovations in macro-, meso- and nano-scale materials are all needed for pushing forward the state-of-the-art in these areas. New approaches in accelerated materials development facilitated by a national Energy Materials Network of advanced scientific resources in theory, computation and experimentation are being adopted at DOE. Application of these approaches to address the key materials challenges in hydrogen and fuel cell technologies are discussed.

TP5, a P element inserted in the telomere-associated sequences of the X chromosome, represses the excision of other P elements in the germ line through a combination of maternal and zygotic effects. The maternal component of this repression is impaired by heterozygous mutations in the aubergine and Suppressor of variegation 205 genes; one mutation in the piwi gene also appears to impair repression. In the female germ line, the level of TP5 mRNA is increased by these impairing mutations. The impairing aubergine and piwi mutations also increase the level of germ-line mRNA from CP, a transgene that encodes the P-element transposase; however, the Suppressor of variegation 205 mutation does not. These findings are discussed in terms of a model of P-element regulation that involves post-transcriptional and chromatin re-organizing events mediated by maternally transmitted small RNAs derived from the telomeric P element.

There are many reasons for seeking to create a global database with which to record the outcomes of therapy for congenital heart disease. Such a database can function as a tool to support a variety of purposes:

A yogurt mix (2 g fat and 17 g solids/100 g) was supplemented with an algae oil emulsion to provide 500 mg ω-3 fatty acids per 272 g serving of yogurt white mass. The emulsion was added to the yogurt mix either before or after the homogenization step and prior to pasteurization. It was then flavoured with a strawberry fruit base and fermented and stored for up to three weeks. The oxidative deterioration of the products was determined by hydroperoxide measurements and by trained and consumer sensory evaluations. The hydroperoxide content of the supplemented yogurts increased over the storage treatment and was unaffected by the stage of addition. The trained panel could distinguish a stronger fishy flavour in both of the supplemented yogurts after 22 days storage, but the consumer panel rated both control and supplemented samples similarly, as ‘moderately liked’.

The present work is a small portion of a multi-disciplinary science-based study of the physicochemical properties of respirable aerosols containing beryllium. The working hypothesis is that Chronic Beryllium Disease (CBD) is by controlled dissolution of Be particles in the lung. Recent studies have shown correlations between specific Be production processes and the development of Be sensitivity and CBD. in Beryllium Oxide (BeO) production, 9.8% of the workers develop a sensitivity to Be and 4.9% develop CBD. in vitro cellular dose-response relations have been observed for BeO particles.

This study involves a characterization of BeO materials sampled from the air stream around the production process at Brush Wellman Inc. (Elmore, OH) and laboratory-prepared BeO. One purpose of this work is to determine if lab-prepared material is a good surrogate for the process-generated aerosols for cellular dissolution studies. Both materials were size-separated into six fractions using a five-stage cyclone followed by a electrostatic precipitator (ESP).

A chemical vapor deposition process has been developed for titanium dioxide (TiOx) for applications as capacitor dielectric in sub-quarter-micron dynamic random-access memory devices, and as gate insulators in emerging generations of etal-oxide-semiconductor transistors. Studies using the β-diketonate source precursor (2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-3,5-heptanedionato) titanium were carried out to examine the underlying mechanisms that control film nucleation and growth kinetics and to establish the effects of key process parameters on film purity, composition, texture, morphology, and electrical properties. Resulting film properties were thoroughly analyzed by x-ray diffraction, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Rutherford backscattering spectrometry, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), focused-ion-beam SEM, and capacitance–voltage (C–V) measurements. The study resulted in the identification of an optimized process for the deposition of an anatase–rutile TiOx film with a dielectric constant approximately 85 at 1 MHz for a 330-nm thickness, and a leakage current below 2 × 10−8 A/cm2 for bias voltage values up to 3.5 V.

We have studied the growth of magnesium oxide using ion-beam assisted deposition (IBAD) to achieve (100) oriented, bi-axially textured films with low mosaic spread, for film thicknesses of 10 nm on silicon substrates. We have refined the process by using reflected high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) to monitor the growth of IBAD MgO films and found that the diffracted intensity can be used to determine (and ultimately control) final in-plane texture of the film. Here we present results on our work to develop the use of real-time RHEED monitoring to deposit well-oriented IBAD MgO films. The results have been corroborated with extensive grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction (GID). Results of these analyses have allowed us to deposit films on metallic substrates with in-plane mosaic spread less than 7°.