PARTICIPATION OF STUDENTS IN THE LAB DESIGN ENHANCES THEIR LEARNING THROUGH DISCOVERY-BASED LEARNING METHOD. CONSIDERING THE BENEFITS OF DISCOVERY-BASED LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES ON STUDENT’S OUTCOMES, INCORPORATION OF SUCH ACTIVITIES IN LABORATORY PROGRAMS WOULD BE VERY HELPFUL. AN INQUIRY-BASED EXPERIMENT IS DESCRIBED IN WHICH AN INEXPENSIVE Fuel cell IS CONSTRUCTED USING SALINE SOLUTION AS ELECTROLYTE AND PLATINUM WIRES AS THE ELECTRODES. THIS LABORATORY WORK IS DESIGNED TO EXPOSE STUDENTS TO Fuel cell TECHNOLOGY, INCREASE THEIR KNOWLEDGE ABOUT ELECTROCHEMICAL cellS AND AUGMENT THEIR INTEREST AND CONFIDENCE IN PURSUING THIS FIELD AND ENCOURAGE THEM TO PARTICIPATE THROUGHOUT THE LABORATORY TO ENSURE THAT THEIR LEARNING EXPERIENCE IS MAXIMIZED. THIS PLAN ALLOWS STUDENTS TO GAIN EXPERIENCES ON HOW ELECTRODE AND ELECTROLYTE MATERIAL SELECTION AFFECTS THE Fuel cell PERFORMANCE. THE PROJECT ALLOWS STUDENTS TO GAIN BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF ELECTROCHEMISTRY, FAMILIARITY WITH THE Fuel cell TECHNOLOGY, AND VALUABLE HANDSON EXPERIENCES WITH ELECTROCHEMICAL cellS AND CIRCUITS.

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A CONVENTIONAL DIRECT METHANOL Fuel cell (DMFC) CONSISTS OF A POLYMER ELECTROLYTE MEMBRANE (PEM) PRESSED BETWEEN AN ANODE AND A CATHODE ELECTRODE. THIS ARCHITECTURE IS LIMITED BY PARAMETERS SUCH AS: OVERALL SIZE AND COST, Fuel CROSSOVER, MEMBRANE DEGRADATION AND STRUCTURES COMPLEXITY. HERE, WE REPORT A MEMBRANELESS MIXED REACTANT DMFC IN WHICH, USING A SELECTIVE CATHODE ELECTROCATALYST. THERE IS NO MEMBRANE FOR SEPARATION ANODE AND CATHODE COMPARTMENTS.THE MAXIMUM POWER DENSITIES OBTAINED FROM POLARIZATION CURVES WERE 4 AND 2.8 MW/CM-2 FOR OPERATIONAL TEMPERATURES 35 AND 200C, RESPECTIVELY.

THIS ARTICLE PROVIDES AN OVERVIEW OF INNOVATION PROCESSES HAVE BEEN TAKEN IN THE FIELD OF Fuel cell TECHNOLOGY (FCT) IN IRAN. Fuel cell TECHNOLOGY IS A GENERIC TECHNOLOGY WITH WIDE VARIETY AREAS OF APPLICATION IN AUTOMOBILE AND ENERGY PRODUCTION BOTH FOR INDUSTRIAL AND RESIDENTIAL PURPOSES AND ALSO IT IS EXPECTED TO HAVE A LARGE SOCIETAL IMPACT ON THE FUTURE SOCIETY. IN THIS ARTICLE CONCERNING DECISION CRITERIA SUCH AS THE ROLE OF COOPERATING ACTORS AT NATIONAL LEVEL AND THEIR INTERACTIONS, AN INNOVATION SURVEY HAS BEEN DRAWN ON THE BASIS OF NATIONAL INNOVATION SYSTEM (NIS) APPROACH. IN THIS REGARD, IN ADDITION TO MONITORING THE ACTIVITIES IN DEVELOPMENT OF FCT, WE HAVE EXPLORED RELATED TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS IN THIS FIELD. THESE INNOVATION SURVEYS TRY TO DEAL WITH TWO CHALLENGES. FIRSTLY, WHAT CHARACTERIZED FC TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION IN IRAN? AND SECONDLY, HOW CAN NUMEROUS ACTORS BE MAINTAINED AND DUPLICATION AVOIDED IN AN NIS? FINALLY OUR CONCLUDING REMARKS OF THE INNOVATION SURVEYS ARE ANALYZING AND MAPPING THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT, INDUSTRY, ACADEMIA AND THEIR INTERACTIONS BESIDE SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR MODIFYING IRANIAN FC SYSTEM OF INNOVATION.

ONE OF THE PREDOMINANT FAILURE MODES OF PEM Fuel cellS IS THE DEGRADATION OF THE PEM. IT IS CLEAR FROM THE LITERATURE STUDIES THAT CHEMICAL DEGRADATION OF MEMBRANE IS MAINLY DUE TO THE ATTACK OF RADICALS FORMED DURING THE OPERATION OF A PEM Fuel cell. THE MODEL DEVELOPED IN THIS PAPER CONSIDERS CHEMICAL FORMS OF DEGRADATION. FORMATION OF PEROXIDE AND RADICALS IN PEM Fuel cellS IS CONSIDERED TO BE A KEY STEP IN MEMBRANE DEGRADATION. COOH END GROUPS CAN FORM DURING POLYMERIZATION OR AS A RESULT OF CHEMICAL REACTIONS AND ARE HIGHLY VULNERABLE TO ATTACK OF ·OH RADICALS. DEGRADATION RATE DEPEND TO COOH GROUPS AND ·OH RADICALS CONCENTRATIONS.

MICROBIAL Fuel cell IS A NEW TECHNOLOGY AND IT IS A BIOREACTOR FOR ELECTRICITY GENERATION. THIS TECHNOLOGY IS ABLE TO TREAT BIODEGRADABLE ORGANIC MATTER AND GENERATE ELECTRICITY SIMULTANEOUSLY. ELECTRONS AND PROTONS PRODUCE BY OXIDATION OF ORGANIC MATTER AND THEN ELECTRONS MOVE FROM EXTERNAL RESISTANCE WHILE PROTONS TRANSFER ACROSS MEMBRANE AND REACTION BETWEEN ELECTRON, PROTON AND OXYGEN PRODUCE WATER ON CATHODE SURFACE. DIFFERENT KIND OF CONFIGURATION IS PRESENTED FOR MICROBIAL Fuel cell SUCH AS DUAL AND SINGLE CHAMBER WITH MEMBRANE AND WITHOUT MEMBRANE. IN THIS RECENT STUDY BY APPLYING THE ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORK, WE HAVE PREDICTED BEHAVIOR OF THE MICROBIAL Fuel cell, SO A MULTILAYER PERCEPTRON (MLP) WAS USED WHICH RESULTS OF PREDICTION WERE SHOWN A GOOD FIT BETWEEN ACTUAL AND PREDICTION DATA WITH NEGLIGIBLE MEAN SQUARE ERROR. ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORK (ANN) UTILIZES INTERCONNECTED MATHEMATICAL NODES OR NEURONS TO FORM A NETWORK THAT CAN MODEL COMPLEX FUNCTIONAL RELATIONSHIP.