Materials Exploration - Combinatorial Project                               Figure 1: Combinatorial Strategy Flowchart               Figure 2: Schematic depiction of fluorescence experimental set-up This project is the collaboration among Professors Abruña, DiSalvo, and van Dover groups in Cornell Fuel Cell Institute (CFCI). Currently 5 graduate students are involved in this work. The overall strategy goes as follows. First an efficient approach to generate the combinatorial library needs to be established. Then we characterize the sample to gather related information such as composition and surface morphology. After that a high throughput screening method must be developed to test the catalytic activity upon the oxidation of various potential fuels, even O2 reduction reaction. A parallel detection scheme is highly desired. However there is no universal screening method existing due to mechanistic difference in all these reactions. Therefore different screening methods have to be established based on the nature of each reaction. So far the fluorescence method has been developed for methanol/ethanol oxidation. And the feasibility of using the bubble method for formic acid oxidation has been tested. After the screening step, the components of active spots in the library will be identified. Followed the nanoparticle synthesis, a further detailed electrochemical testing even under the fuel cell operation conditions could be performed. Meanwhile a new cycle of combinatorial search will begin. Besides the empirical nature of this work, some useful correlation between the reactivity and catalyst structures may be obtained therefore could facilitate the searching process.   Our work in this project is focused on electrochemical screening. Therefore the development of high throughput screening methods and the results of electrochemical screening will be the emphases here.