• Membrane Journal
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.155-170
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• 2012

Fuel cells have been considered as alternative power generation system in the twenty-first century because of eco-friendly system, high power density and efficiency compare with petroleum engine system. Proton exchange membranes (PEMs) are the key components in fuel cell system. Currently, Nafion has been used in fuel cell system. However, Nafion has disadvantages such as low conductivity at high temperature and high cost. The researchers have focused to reach the high properties such as high proton conductivity, low permeability to fuel, good chemical/thermal stability, good mechanical properties and low manufacturing cost. Various methods have been developed for preparation of proton exchange membrane with high performance and commercialization of fuel cell system. The hybrid organic/inorganic membrane has the potentials to provide a unique combination of organic and inorganic properties with improved proton conductivity and mechanical property at high temperatures. So, this paper presents an overview of research trend for the composite membranes prepared by organic/inorganic system using various inorganic materials.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.127-135
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• 2015

High-Temperautre Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell (HT-PEMFC) with phosphoric acid-doped polybenzimidazole (PBI) membrane has high power density because of high operating temperature from 100 to $200^{\circ}C$. In fuel cell stack, heat is generated by electrochemical reaction and high operating temperature makes a lot of heat. This heat is caouse of durability and performance decrease about stack. For these reasons, heat management is important in HT-PEMFC. So, we developed HT-PEMFC model and study heat flow in HT-PEMFC stack. In this study, we placed coolant plate number per cell number ratio as variable and analysed heat flow distribution in stack.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.187-195
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• 2023

Data centers not only consume significant electricity to operate IT equipment, but also use a lot of electricity to cool the heat generated by IT equipment. The waste heat of a high-temperature polymer electrolyte fuel cell (HT-PEFC) is capable of producing cooling , so it can be effectively applied to data centers that require cooling throughout the year. The energy-saving effects of the proposed combined cooling, heat and power (CCHP) system using HT-PEFC. That was analyzed based on the annual energy consumption data of a specific data center. When the system was running at 100% of the year, It was shown that the installation of 1 MW of the proposed system can save 3,407 MWh of electrical energy per year. In addition, compared to the existing system, the annual power usage effectiveness can be improved from 2.0 to 1.57 and 6,293 MWh of extra heat energy per year can be produced to sell. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis was performed on the fuel cell operating temperature and current density to guide the appropriate installation capacity of the proposed system.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.442-455
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• 2022

High-temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (HT-PEMFC) has been studied as an alternative to low-temperature PEMFC due to its fast activation of electrodes and high resistance to electrode poisoning by carbon monoxide. It is highly required to develop stable PEMs operating at high temperatures even doped by ion-conducting materials for the development of high-performance and durable HT-PEMFC systems. A number of studies have been conducted to develop polybenzimidazole (PBI)-based PEMs for applications in HT-PEMFC due to their high interaction with doped ion-conducting materials and outstanding thermomechanical stability under high-temperature operation. This review focused on the development of PBI-based PEMs showing high performance and durability. Firstly, the characteristic behavior of PBI-based PEMs doped with various ion-conducting materials including phosphoric acid was systematically investigated. And then, a comparison of the physicochemical properties of the PEMs according to the different membrane manufacturing processes was conducted. Secondly, the incorporation of porous polytetrafluoroethylene substrate and/or inorganic composites to PBI matrix to improve the membrane performances was studied. Finally, the construction of cross-linked structures into PBI-based PEM systems by polymer blending method was introduced to improve the PEM properties.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.149-149
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• 2009

Generally, Nafion ionomer is used in the polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) electrodes to achieve high power density. At the high temperature operation of PEFC, however, ionic conductivity of Nafion remarkably decreased due to the evaporation of water in Nafion polymer. Recently, many researchers have focused on using the Ionic Liquids(ILs) instead of water in Nafion polymer. ILs have intrinsic properties such as good electrochemical stability, high ionic conductivity, and non-flammability. Especially, ILs play a crucial role in proton conduction by the Grottuss mechanism and act as water in water-free Nafion polymer. However, it was found that the ILs was leached out of the polymer matrix easily. In this study, we prepared membrane electrode assemblies with various contents of ILs. The effect of ILs in the electrode of each designed was investigated by a cyclic voltammetry measurement and the cell performance obtained through a single cell test using H2/Air gases. Electrodes with different contents of ILs in catalyst layer were examined at high temperature and low humidified condition.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.201-202
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• 2008

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.283-291
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• 2023

The physical properties were analyzed for four gas diffusion layers, and gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs) for the cathode of high-temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell were fabricated through bar coating with three binder to carbon (B/C) ratios. Among them, The GDE from JNT30-A6P showed a significant change in secondary pore volume at a B/C ratio of 0.31, which had the largest pore volume among all GDEs. In the polarization curve, JNT30-A6P GDE showed the best membrane electrode assembly (MEA) performance with a peak power density of 384 mW/cm² at a a B/C ratio of 0.31. From the distribution of relaxation time analysis, the peak 1 corresponding to mass transfer resistance of oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) was significantly reduced in the JNT30-A6P GDE. This is the result that when the binder content decreased, the volume of the secondary pore increased, and the mass transfer resistance of ORR decreased, which played an essential role in the MEA performance.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.26-33
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• 2012

Phosphoric acid-doped poly (2,5-benzimidazole) (DABPBI) was prepared by condensation polymerization of 3,4-diaminobenzoic acid for high temperature proton electrolyte membrane fuel cells. The membranes were casted directly using a hot-press unit and characterized by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, conductivity measurement, scanning electron microscopy and tensile test. The proton conductivities of DABPBI are observed to be 0.062 and 0.018 $S{\cdot}cm^{-1}$ under 30 and 1% relative humidity, respectively at a temperature of $120^{\circ}C$ which is appreciably higher than that of Nafion 115 under similar conditions. The DABPBI membrane has demonstrated excellent thermo- mechanical properties and proton conductivity suggesting its suitability as a high temperature membrane.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.489-496
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• 2018

Fuel cells are seen as eco-friendly energy resources that convert chemical energy into electrical energy. However, proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) have problems such as the use of expensive platinum catalysts for the reduction of conductivity under high temperature humidification conditions. Thus, an anion exchange membrane fuel cell (AEMFC) is attracting a great attention. Anion exchange fuel cells use non - Pt catalysts and have the advantage of better efficiency because of the lower activation energy of the oxygen reduction reaction. However, there are various problems to be solved including problems such as the electrode damage and reduction of ion conductivity by being exposed to the carbon dioxide. Therefore, this mini review proposes various solutions for different problems of anion exchange fuel cells through a wide range of research papers.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.50-60
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• 2013

High temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) using phosphoric acid (PA) doped polybenzimidazole (PBI) membranes have been concentrated as one of solutions to the limits with traditional low temperature PEMFCs. However, the amount of reported experimental data is not enough to catch the operational characteristics correlated with cell performance and durability. In this study, design of experiments (DOE) based operational optimization method for high temperature PEMFCs has been proposed. Response surface method (RSM) is very useful to effectively analyze target system's characteristics and to optimize operating conditions for a short time. Thus RSM using central composite design (CCD) as one of methodologies for design of experiments (DOE) was adopted. For this work, the statistic models which predict the performance and degradation rate with respect to the operating conditions have been developed. The developed performance and degradation models exhibit a good agreement with experimental data. Compared to the existing arbitrary operation, the expected cell lifetime and average cell performance during whole operation could be improved by optimizing operating conditions. Furthermore, the proposed optimization method could find different new optimal solutions for operating conditions if the target lifetime of the fuel cell system is changed. It is expected that the proposed method is very useful to find optimal operating conditions and enhance performance and durability for many other types of fuel cell systems.