Sam Eardley

Centre for Doctoral Training Doctoral ResearcherSam Eardley

Address

School of Chemical Engineering
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
B15 2TT
United Kingdom

Email

SXE681@student.bham.ac.uk

Lead Supervisor

Dr Shangfeng Du

Research Summary                                                                               

Sam Eardley joined the Centre for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Research in October 2016 as part of the CDT, having just graduated from the University of Oxford in June 2016 with a masters degree in Materials Science.

The aim of his current research is to investigate the possible combination of materials used for each component of a PEM Fuel Cell, and see which combinations can be used to optimise the ion exchange coefficient across the membrane.

 Sam is funded through the EPSRC CDT  in Fuel Cells and their fuels: EP/L015749/1.

Qualifications

Masters in Materials Science, University of Oxford (4 year MEng)

Biography

Sam graduated from his MEng degree in 2016. During the course of his degree, he spent 3 months at BAE Systems Ltd. investigating the optimisation of Aluminium alloys for Tank Armour applications. His 4th year masters project was titled ‘Synthesis and Chemical Functionalisation of Doped Carbon Nanotubes for Hydrogen Storage’, where numerous variations in pristine carbon nanotubes where functionalised with differing functional groups to observe how these differences affected the hydrogen storage capabilities of the carbon nanotubes.

Research

 

The aim of his current research is to optimise the ion exchange coefficient across the membrane of PEM Fuel Cells by observing current mechanism behaviours and modifying the material properties as the membrane interfaces to increase the ion exchange coefficient.

 

Other activities

Sam is an avid sportsman, playing wheelchair basketball for Birmingham Black Cats, as well as wheelchair tennis at a National level. He also competes in Pool and Snooker competitions for the University of Birmingham.

Publications