• Polymer(Korea)
• /
• v.34 no.1
• /
• pp.45-51
• /
• 2010

This study focuses on the investigation of the possibility of the crosslinked poly (vinyl alcohol) membranes with both poly (acrylic acid-co-maleic acid) (PAM) and 3-(trihydroxysilyl)-1-propane-sulfonic acid (THS-PSA) for the direct methanol fuel cell application. In order to characterize the prepared membranes, the water content, the thermal gravimetric analysis, the ion exchange capacity, the ion conductivity and the methanol permeability measurements were carried out and then compared with the existing Nafion 115 membrane. The ion exchange capacity of the resulting membranes showed 1.6~1.8 meq./g membrane which was improved than Nafion 115, 0.91 meq./g membrane. In the case of the proton conductivity, the THS-PSA introduced membranes gave more excellent $0.042{\sim}0.056\;S{\cdot}cm^{-1}$ than Nafion 115, $0.024\;S{\cdot}cm^{-1}$. On the other hand, the methanol permeability was increased more than Nafion 115 for all the range of THA-PSA concentration.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.44 no.2
• /
• pp.187-192
• /
• 2006

The preparation and characterization of new polymer composite membranes containing polyphenylene oxide (PPO) thin films with hetropoly acid (HPA) are presented. PPO thin films with phosphotungstic acid (PWA) or phosphomolybdic acid (PMA) have been prepared by using the solvent mixture. The PWA and PPO can be blended using the solvent mixture, because PPO and PWA are not soluble in the same solvent. In this study, methanol was used as a solvent dissolving PWA and chloroform was used as a solvent dissolving PPO. PPO-PWA solutions were cast onto a glass plate with uniform thickness. The composite membranes were prepared by casting Nafion mixture on porous PPO-PWA films. The morphology and structure of these PPO-PWA films were observed with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS). The composite membranes were characterized by measuring their ion conductivity and methanol permeability. The performance was evaluated with composite membranes as electrolytes in fuel cell conditions. The methanol cross-over of composite membranes containing PPO-PWA barrier films in the DMFC reduced by 66％.

• Membrane Journal
• /
• v.25 no.2
• /
• pp.144-151
• /
• 2015

The water-soluble poly(vinyl alcohol) membranes with the addition of sulfosuccinic acid (SSA) were prepared and to assign the ion exchange capacity, poly(4-styrene sulfonic acid-co-maleic acid) (PSSA_MA) was added to PVA according to PSSA_MA contents of 70, 80 and 90 wt%. To characterize the resulting membranes, FT-IR, water contents, ion exchange capacity, proton conductivity and methanol permeability were measured. As PSSA_MA contents increased, water contents, ion exchange capacity, proton conductivity increased, but methanol permeability decreased. From these results, the best preparation component was known as PVA10/SSA9/PSSA_MA80.

• Membrane Journal
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.9-15
• /
• 2006

PVA/SSA/HPA composite membranes were prepared by the addition of SSA as a crosslinking agent and HPA such as PWA or SiWA. The water uptake decreased and the IEC increased as the HPA contents increased in PVA/SSA/HPA composite membranes. XRD results showed that HPA distributed well into the composite membranes as the HPA concentration increased, and SiWA dispersed better than PWA in the composite membranes. TGA results showed that PVA/SSA composite membranes were more heat-resistant than PVA due to the crosslinking of PVA, and the heat stability of the composite membranes improved much more as the concentration of HPA increased. The methanol barrier property of PVA/SSA/HPA composite membranes was superior to Nafion, and the methanol permeability of the composite membranes decreased as the concentration of HPA increased.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.54 no.1
• /
• pp.6-10
• /
• 2016

Until a recent day, degradation of PEMFC (Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells) has been mainly studied in unit cell. But operation and degradation of real PEMFC going along in stack instead of unit cell. Therefore in this work, ADT (Accelerated Degradation Test) of PEMFC was done in stack and the result from stack's test was compared with that of unit cell. The polymer electrolyte membrane was degraded by repeated electrochemical and mechanical degradation method among several ADT methods. Current densities of MEA at 0.6V decreased in stack and unit cell, 28.4% and 27.8% respectively after ADT for 312 hours. Hydrogen crossover current densities of membrane increased in stack and unit cell, 16.8% and 15.2% respectively after ADT for 312 hours. The result of ADT in stack was similar that of ADT in unit cell, which showed that ADT method of unit cell was available to the stack.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
• /
• v.41 no.12 s.271
• /
• pp.900-906
• /
• 2004

Solid oxide fuel cells have a limitation in their low-temperature application due to the low ionic conductivity of electrolyte materials and difficulties in thin film formation on porous gas diffusion layer. These problems can be solved by improvement of ionic conductivity through controlled nanostructure of electrolyte and adopting nanoporous electrodes as substrates which have homogeneous submicron pore size and highly flattened surface. In this study, ultra-thin oxide films having submicron thickness without gas leakage are deposited on nanoporous substrates. By oxidation of metal thin films deposited onto nanoporous anodic alumina substrates with pore size of $20nm{\sim}200nm$ using dc-magnetron sputtering at room temperature, ultra-thin and dense ionic conducting oxide films with submicron thickness are realized. The specific material properties of the thin films including gas permeation, grain/gran boundaries formation, change of crystalline structure/microstructure by phase transition are investigated for optimization of ultra thin film deposition process.

• Membrane Journal
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.274-281
• /
• 2008

Covalent-crosslinked sulfonated poly(arylene ether sulfone) (SPAES) copolymers were synthesized copolymerization technique and additionally crosslinked with divinylbenzene (DVB). To optimize the reaction condition, a concentration of crosslinking agent and a reaction time were varied in the ranges of $30{\sim}90\;v/v%$ and $30{\sim}720\;min$. The properties of the crosslinked membranes were investigated by SEM, TGA and the measurement of proton conductivity. It was found that the proton conductivity of crosslinked membranes decreased depending on a degree of crosslinking while water uptake and methanol permeability reduced.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.55 no.3
• /
• pp.296-301
• /
• 2017

Recently, there are many efforts focused on development of more economical non-fluorinated membranes for PEMFCs (Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells). In this study, sulfonated poly (ether ether ketone) (sPEEK) membrane reinforced with poly imide was made to enhance of membrane durability. In order to test durability of single (un-reinforced) membrane and reinforced membrane MEA (Membrane and Electrode Assembly), degradation accelerated stress test was used. Before and after degradation, I-V polarization curve, hydrogen crossover current, electrochemical surface area, membrane resistance and charge transfer resistance were measured. As a result of experiments, hydrogen crossover current of reinforced MEA was lower than that of single MEA, therefor durability of reinforced MEA was higher than that of single MEA. There was not especially short phenomena in reinforced MEA after degradation accelerated stress test.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.58 no.2
• /
• pp.171-175
• /
• 2020

In the proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC), the development of a reinforced membrane with improved durability by a support is actively in progress in Korea. In this study, the initial performance and characteristics of four types of reinforced membranes were compared. Reinforced membranes with higher amounts of C-F chains in the polymer membrane showed lower water diffusion coefficients due to the hydrophobicity of the C-F chains. The thicker the polymer membrane, the more the hydrogen permeability decreased and the higher the OCV. Membrane with short resistance below 1.5 Ωcm² showed OCV below 0.9 V and the lowest performance, so short resistance should be above 3.0 Ωcm². Compared with the current standard membrane, there was a similar domestic membrane, which could confirm the possibility of localization of PEMFC polymer membrane.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.17 no.9
• /
• pp.641-646
• /
• 2016

Soot particles generated by fossil fuel combustion normally have fractal morphology with aggregates consisting of small spherical particles. Thus, Rayleigh or Mie elastic light scattering theory is not feasible for determining the fractal properties of soot aggregates. This paper describes a detailed process for applying Rayleigh-Debye Gans (RDG) scattering theory to effectively extract the morphological properties of any nano-scale particles. The fractal geometry of soot aggregates produced from an isooctane diffusion flame was observed using ex situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM) after thermophoretic sampling. RDG scattering theory was then used to analyze their fractal morphology, and various properties were calculated, such as the diameter of individual soot particles, number density, and volume fraction. The results show indiscernible changes during the soot growth process, but a distinct decreasing trend was observed in the soot oxidation process. The fractal dimension of the soot aggregates was determined to be around 1.82, which is in good agreement with that produced for other types of fuel. Thus, it can be concluded that the value of the fractal dimension is independent of the fuel type.