• Ceramist
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.189-197
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• 2019

Direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) have found a wide variety of commercial applications such as portable computer and mobile phone. In a fuel cell, the catalysts have an important role and durability and efficiency are determined by the ability of the catalyst. The activity of the catalyst is determined by the structure and shape control of the nanoparticles and the dispersion of the nanoparticles and application system. The surface energy of nanoparticles determines the activity by shape control and the nanostructure is determined by the ratio of bi- and tri-metals in the alloy and core-shell. The dispersion of nanoparticles depends on the type of support such as carbon, graphen and metal oxide. In addition, a hybrid system using both optical and electrochemical device has been developed recently.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.27-29
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• 2002

We report a fuel cell power supply unit for mobile phone which operates at room temperature and ambient pressure using liquid methanol and air. The unit consists of a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) and a back-up battery connected parallely to the fuel cell. DMFC supplies half of the required power and the back-up battery supplies the other half during talk mode. In standby mode, DMFC covers $100\%$ of the required power and charges the back-up battery as well, Eight unit cells, each having $9 cm^2$ of active area, were connected in series in order to raise the output volotage to $2.5\~3.9V$, which is typical for most mobile phones.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.389-397
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• 2011

In this study, polymer composite membranes based on sulfonated poly(arylene ether sulfone) (SPAES) were prepared using a solution casting method with different amount of vermiculite (VMT) content. The dispersion of VMT particles in the SPAES matrix was confirmed by means of a scanning electron microscopy observation. The composite membrane containing less than 1 wt% of VMT has a smooth skin on the top and bottom, which means there is a good dispersion of VMT in the matrix. The water uptake of the composite membranes gradually increases as the temperature increases, and the results confirm that all the adsorbed water is bound water because VMT has a strong water affinity on account of its high cation exchange value. A composite membrane with a VMT content of less than 1 wt% increases the proton conductivity and reduces the methanol permeability. Of all the composite membranes, the membrane SPAES/VMT 1.0 has the best fuel cell performance in terms of membrane selectivity. The performance value of SPAES/VMT 1.0 is double that of Nafion 112, which suggests that SPAES/VMT1.0 could be an excellent candidate for direct methanol fuel cells.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.256-261
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• 2008

In this study, Nafion membrane was modified to prevent methanol crossover by layer-by-layer self assembly using polyaniline (PANi) as a polycation and sulfonated poly(ether sulfone) (SPES) as a polyanion onto the Nafion surface. Since PANi and SPES possess thermal and chemical stability and rigid backbone, their layer-by-layer self-assembled films on the Nafion are expected to reduce methanol permeability and to increase mechanical stability. UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy verified a linear build-up of the multilayers of PANi and SPES. We found that the thickness per bilayer was about 10 nm by TEM measurement. Although modified Nafion membrane exhibited 15% decrease of proton conductivity, it reduceded 67% of methanol permeability compared to that of the pristine Nafion membrane, resulting in 2.5 times larger selectivity. At the performance test of the fuel cell using 5M methanol as a fuel, the modified Nafion membrane showed 2.4 times higher maximum power density at $30^{\circ}C$ and 1.4 times larger at $60^{\circ}C$ than the pristine Nafion.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.134-142
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• 2012

A bipolar plate is a major component of a fuel cell stack, which occupies 50~60% of the total weight and over 50% of the total cost of a typical fuel cell stack. In this study, a composite bipolar plate is designed and fabricated to develop a compact and light-weight direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) stack for a small-scale Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) application. The composite bipolar plates for DMFCs are prepared by a compression molding method using resole type phenol resin as a binder and natural graphite and carbon black as a conductor filler and tested in terms of electrical conductivity, mechanical strength and hydrogen permeability. The flexural strength of 63 MPa and the in-plane electrical conductivities of 191 S $cm^{-1}$ are achieved under the optimum bipolar plate composition of phenol : 18%; natural graphite : 82%; carbon black : 3%, indicating that the composite bipolar plates exhibit sufficient mechanical strength, electrical conductivity and hydrogen permeability to be applied in a DMFC stack. A DMFC with the composite bipolar plate is tested and shows a similar cell performance with a conventional DMFC with graphite-based bipolar plate.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.29-39
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• 2010

This study focuses on the modeling of DMFC to predict the characteristics and to improve its performance. This modeling requires deep understanding of the design and operating parameters that influence on the cell potential. Furthermore, the knowledge with reference to electrochemistry, transport phenomena and fluid dynamics should be employed for the duration of mathematical description of the given process. Considering the fact that MEA is the nucleus of DMFC, special attention was made to the development of mathematical model of MEA. Multiscale modeling is comprised of process modeling as well as a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling. The CFD packages and process simulation tools are used in simulating the steady-state process. The process simulation tool calculates theelectrochemical kinetics as well as the change of fractions, and at the same time, CFD calculates various balance equations. The integrated simulation with multiscal modeling explains experimental observations of transparent DMFC.

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

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.18-22
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• 2003

Single cell performance has been investigated and characterized with variables in the fabrication of DMFC anode. The performance was checked as a function of ionomer content which affects ion conductivity in the catalyst layer, and catalyst slurry solvent which determines structure of agglomerates consisting of an ionomer and a catalyst. Anode with total ionomer to catalyst ratio of 0.6 showed the best performance and the lowest polarization resistance. Also, electrochemically effective surface area increased with ionomer content. As solubility of the ionomer decreases with decreasing solvent polarity, the size of agglomerates consisting of a catalyst and an ionomer became larger in the less polar solvent. The anode using DPK $(\varepsilon=12.60)$ as a solvent, which is less polar than generally-used water or alcohol species, showed the maximum performance and the lowest polarization resistance.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.1142-1147
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• 2008

Nano-structured porous carbon fiber(PCF) for the catalyst supports of the direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) were prepared from the mesophase pitch by using the nano-MgO powders. Specific surface area of the PCFs was $8{\sim}58m^2/g$ and surface pore structures had almost meso pore diameter of 10~20 nm which were depending on the amount of MgO spheres. Aqueous reduction method was used to load 60 wt% PtRu on the prepared PCF supports. The electro-oxidation activity and single cell performance of the 60 wt% Pt-Ru catalysts were measured by cyclic voltammetry and unit cell test. The performances of these catalysts increased by 5~10% compared with one of commercial catalyst.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.391-395
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• 2007

A new electrode binder mixed with sulfonated poly (ether ether ketone) (sPEEK) and Nafion is prepared and investigated as an anode binder for direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC). The mixed binder (95 wt% sPEEK/5 wt% Nafion) shows high proton conductivity and methanol transport rate as well as no dissolution and brittleness. The effect of content as an anode binder on the performance of the cell with the given cathode is investigated. The unit cell with the anode containing 10wt% mixed binder showed the highest cell performance.