[mike]

Over here in Australia we have all sorts of scholarships, competitions and awards for young scientists and environmental projects etc Maybe you have the same where you are, these are sometimes a good way to get funding, equipment, recognition or at least to meet some of the right people

[constant thinker]

Do some preliminary research with nickel as a catalyst. Proove that nickel will work or what's your other one made of, platinum? Well do some expirements proving that the 2 elements work well for this purpose and measure the amount of heat, electricity, or any form of energy your expirment gives off in the process. Then you right out a nice paper and all your results in it with graphs and things. You want to show a lot of information that makes sense. It has to be concise and proove that your designs will work. Then....

Send copies of your "report" to somebody who is very well educated in fuel cells. Let him/her check off and make suggestions on it. When everything is all done and perfect you should (maybe get a patent on your design for safety) send it to major car companies. Not companies like Dodge, Mercury, Cadillac, ext. Go send your results straight to the R&D to Ford or GM. You might want to call the company and find out some info first though.

If everything goes good, you should get maybe some funding and/or help from the big companies. You have to make sure your protected legally you don't want them stealing your idea. Who knows maybe this'll make you rich. I recommend keeping it in North America because of languages. Big universities may be also a good place to send your "report". Don't stay just in Canada. Check out the Massachusettes Institute of Technology (MIT). That would be a good bet in my opinion.

I hope everything works right. If I had money I'd send you some.

[Grumples]

For the time being, you may also want to ask your school for funding.  I doubt they'll give much, but I'm sure most schools would support you in some way.  After all, if you succeed with this idea, then it makes them look *very* good.

I, personally, have done some non-school-related chemistry stuff at my high school thanks to the head of the science department.  She didn't get me funding, but I got access to any lab supplies or equipment I needed.

Of course, I go to private school (because public schools in Washington D.C. are some of the worst in the country), so things might be different at public school.

[P-man]

Thanks a lot, constant thinker. I'll be sure to use that advice. I'm half french, and I'm going to France in about a week, where my Grandfather is the mayor of his town. I might be able to get money of him. Otherwise I could send the report to major car companies in France, like PSA Peugot-Citroen or Renault (who owns Nissan, by the way). I might be able to reach you guys in France, so hopefully I'll be able to uptade you on how I'm doing. Over the weekend I'll probably put up some pictures of my designs, so you can see what I'm doing.

So I do some research with hydrogen and nickel to see how it works. Then I write up the reports and send them to a major car company. That's how I'll do it.

[constant thinker]

I like Peugt's 206 rally car. I don't know if they still make them, but in Gran Turismo 4 I own all with mine. You may have some good luck in France then. I'm and American so I'm kinda limited in my knowledge to just America. I'm also like a lot Canadian. My mom was born in Canada.

Do you know if it's true that if your parent was born in Canada you can be grandfathered in as a Canadian citizen. If so I'm definately looking into chemistry at Vancouver University. I think that's what it's called. I could go to college for free since I'd be living in Canada as a student and paying taxes to the Candian government. I could also go snowboarding which is awesome.

[P-man]

Yeah, I think they stopped making the 206 because now they have the 207 and the 307. Anyways, check this out:

I've devised a preliminary experiment for a nickel catalyst.

First I make hydrogen through electrolysis and collect it in a test tube.

Now this test tube is special because I've rigged it like a mini fuel cell. To stop the hydrogen from coming out of the test tube, I made this little assembly that ressembles the MEA in PEM fuel cells. It's a nickel plate with a plastic sheet under it and a wire connecting the catalyst exposed to the hydrogen to the plastic exposed to the air.

Theoretically, the hydrogen should get split by the nickel into its protons and electrons. The protons go through the plastic, but since the electrons can't they take the wire to make it to the other side and react with the oxygen in the air. So I should feel moisture on the outside of the plastic, right? Or around it, at least.

I haven't done this yet but maybe I'll do it tomorrow or in the week.