UMERC Faculty Member

Michael R. Zachariah, Professor
Mechanical Engineering, Chemistry & Biochemistry
Director of UMD/NIST Center for Nanomanufacturing and Metrology
A. James Clark School of Engineering;
College of Chemical and Life Sciences

Phone: 301.405.4311
Email: mrz@umd.edu  |  website

Statement of energy interests and expertise

Our group's expertise is in the formation, on-the-fly characterization, and manipulation of aerosols and nanoparticles. We have several energy related projects as listed below that take advantage of our expertise and infrastructure.

• Investigations of hydrogen generation from solar-thermal cycles. This includes use of metal nanoparticles for water splitting and the catalytic cracking of hydrocarbons. Funding from NSF.
• Development of diagnostics tools to measure reactivity of nanoparticles for eg. water splitting   and particulate emission abatement from combustion sources, including single particle mass spectrometry and ion-mobility methods. Funding from NSF and NIST.
• Measurement of optical properties of combustion generated particulates as it pertains to global climate change. Funding from Department of Energy.
• Development of small-scale power that integrates in-situ fuel processing coupled to solid oxide fuel cells.
• Development of  Nano-assembled fuel-oxidizer nanoparticle based composites to tune the rate of energy release from highly exothermic reactive systems. Funding from Department of Defense.
• Finally development of an understanding of how metal nanoparticles can enhance the light harvesting efficiency of organic based photocells. Funding from Laboratory for Physics Sciences and NIST.