• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.19 no.10
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• pp.517-521
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• 2009

Si-C composite with hollow spherical structure was synthesized using ultrasonic treatment of organosilica powder formed by hydrolysis of phenyltrimethoxysilane. The prepared powder was pyrolyzed at various temperatures ranging from 900 to 1300 $^{\circ}C$ under nitrogen atmosphere to obtain optimum conditions for Li-ion battery anode materials with high capacity and cyclability. The XRD and elemental analysis results show that the pyrolyzed Si/C composite at 1100 $^{\circ}C$ has low oxygen and nitrogen levels, which is desirable for increasing the electrochemical capacity and reducing the irreversible capacity of the first discharge. The solid Si-C composite electrode shows a first charge capacity of $\sim$500 mAhg$^{-1}$ and a capacity fade within 30 cycles of 0.93% per cycle. On the other hand, the electrochemical performance of the hollow Si-C composite electrode exhibits a reversible charge capacity of $\sim$540 mAhg$^{-1}$ with an excellent capacity retention of capacity loss 0.43% per cycle up to 30 cycles. The improved electrochemical properties are attributed to facile diffusion of Li ions into the hollow shell with nanoscale thickness. In addition, the empty core space provides a buffer zone to relieve the mechanical stresses incurred during Li insertion.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.159-163
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• 2002

The use of lithium metal anode at lithium metal secondary battery can provide the very high energy density. Nevertheless, there are some problems that are short cycle life, lack of safety and poor thermal stability. Cycle life and cycling efficiency decline due to passivating films, dendritic lithium and increasing surface film by the reaction of lithium metal and electrolyte. This work investigated the additive effect of benzene, toluene, tetram-ethylethylenediamine, into the electrolyte. The cycling efficiency and cyclability are improved. The reason is confirmed by decreasing film resistance and increasing polarization resistance at AC impedance analysis. Electrolyte additive has a relatively less reactivity than electrolytes lithium and is adsorbed on lithium leading to suppression of the reaction between the electrolyte and lithium as well as an improvement in the lithium deposition mophology.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.132-139
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• 2020

Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are among one of the promising technologies for efficient and clean energy. SOFCs offer several advantages over other types of fuel cells under relatively high temperatures (600℃ to 800℃). However, the thermal behavior of SOFC stacks at high operating temperatures is a serious issue in SOFC development because it can be associated with detrimental thermal stresses on the life span of the stacks. The thermal behavior of SOFC stacks can be influenced by operating or material properties. Therefore, this work aims to investigate the effects of the thermal conductivity of each component (anode, cathode, and electrolyte) on the thermal behavior of samarium-doped ceria-based SOFCs at intermediate temperatures. Computational fluid dynamics is used to simulate SOFC operation at 600℃. The temperature distributions and gradients of a single cell at 0.7 V under different thermal conductivity values are analyzed and discussed to determine their relationship. Simulations reveal that the influence of thermal conductivity is more remarkable for the anode and electrolyte than for the cathode. Increasing the thermal conductivity of the anode by 50% results in a 23% drop in the maximum thermal gradients. The results for the electrolyte are subtle, with a ~67% reduction in thermal conductivity that only results in an 8% reduction in the maximum temperature gradient. The effect of thermal conductivity on temperature gradient is important because it can be used to predict thermal stress generation.

• Particle and aerosol research
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.127-137
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• 2019

Recently, high electrochemical performance anode materials for lithium ion secondary batteries are of interest. Here, we present silicon-carbon-graphene (Si-C-GR) composites for high performance anode materials of lithium ion secondary battery (LIB). Aerosol process and heat-treatment were employed to prepare the Si-C-GR composites using a colloidal mixture of silicon, glucose, and graphene oxide precursor. The effects of the size of the silicon particles in Si-C-GR composites on the material properties including the morphology and crystal structure were investigated. Silicon particles ranged from 50 nm to 1 ㎛ in average diameter were employed while concentration of silicon, graphene oxide and glucose was fixed in the aerosol precursor. Morphology of as-fabricated Si-C-GR composites was generally the shape of a crumpled paper ball and the Si particles were well wrapped in carbon and graphene. The size range of composites was about from 2.2 to 2.9 ㎛. The composites including silicon particles larger than 200 nm in size exhibited higher performance as LIB anodes such as capacity and coulombic efficiency than silicon particles less than 100 nm, which were about 1500 mAh/g at 100 cycles in capacity and 99% in coulombic efficiency, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.43 no.12 s.295
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• pp.768-774
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• 2006

The microstructure of Ni-YSZ cermets was controlled with fine and coarse starting powders (NiO and YSZ) to obtain a optimum strong and conductive tubular anode support for SOFCs. Three types of cermets with different microstructures, i.e., coarse Ni-fine YSZ, fine Ni-coarse YSZ, and fine Ni-fine YSZ, were fabricated to investigate their electrical and mechanical properties. The cermets from fine NiO powder showed high electrical conductivity due to the enhanced percolation of Ni particles. The cermet by foe Ni and coarse YSZ showed excellent electrical conductivity (>1000 S/cm) despite its high porosity $(\sim40%)$ but it showed poor mechanical strength due to the lack of percolation by YSZ particles and due to large pores. Thus fine NiO and YSZ powders were used to make strong and conductive Ni-YSZ support tube by extrusion. The microstructure of the anode tube was modified by the amount of polymeric additives and carbon black, a pore former. Ni-YSZ tube (porosity $\sim34%$) with the finer microstructure showed better performance both in electrical conductivity (>1000 S/cm) and fracture strength $(\sim140\;MPa)$. Either flat or circular NiO-YSZ tubes with the length from 20 to 40cm were successfully fabricated with the optimized composition of materials and polymeric additives.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.34-41
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• 2014

The goal of this study is to investigate some crack behaviors which affect the crack propagation angle at the planar solid oxide fuel cell with cracks under the fabricating and operating temperature and analyze the stresses by 3 steps processing on the solid oxide fuel cell. Currently, there are lots of researches of the performance improvement for fuel cells, and also for the more powerful efficiency. However, the planar solid oxide fuel cell has demerits which the electrode materials have much brittle properties and the thermal condition during the operating process. It brings some problems which have lower reliability owing to the deformation and cracks from the thermal expansion differences between the electrolyte, cathode and anode electrodes. Especially the crack in the corner of the electrodes gives rise to the fracture and deterioration of the fuel cells. Thus it is important to evaluate the behavior of the cracks in the solid oxide fuel cell for the performance and safety operation. From the results, we showed the stress distributions from the cathode to the anode and the effects of the edge crack in the electrolyte and the slant crack in the anode. Futhermore the crack propagation angle was expected according to the crack length and slant angle and the variation of the stress intensity factors for the each fracture mode was shown.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.08a
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• pp.288-288
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• 2013

Lithium-ion battery (LIB) is one of the most important rechargeable battery and portable energy storage for the electric digital devices. In particular, study about the higher energy capacity and longer cycle life is intensively studied because of applications in mobile electronics and electric vehicles. Generally, the LIB's capacity can be improved by replacing anode materials with high capacitance. The graphite, common anode materials, has a good cyclability but shows limitations of capacity (~374 mAh/g). On the contrary, silicon (Si) and germanium(Ge), which is same group elements, are promising candidate for high-performance LIB electrodes because it has a higher theoretical specific capacity. (Si:4200 mAh/g, Ge:1600 mAh/g) However, it is well known that Si volume change by 400% upon full lithiation (lithium insertion into Si), which result in a mechanical pulverization and poor capacity retention during cycling. Therefore, variety of nanostructure group IV elements, including nanoparticles, nanowires, and hollow nanospheres, can be promising solution about the critical issues associated with the large volume change. However, the fundamental research about correlation between the composition and structure for LIB anode is not studied yet. Herein, we successfully synthesized various structure of nanowire such as Si-Ge, Ge-Carbon and Si-graphene core-shell types and analyzed the properties of LIB. Nanowires (NWs) were grown on stainless steel substrates using Au catalyst via VLS (Vapor Liquid Solid) mechanism. And, core-shell NWs were grown by VS (Vapor-Solid) process on the surface of NWs. In order to characterize it, we used FE-SEM, HR-TEM, and Raman spectroscopy. We measured battery property of various nanostructures for checking the capacity and cyclability by cell-tester.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.59 no.1
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• pp.35-41
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• 2021

Silicon is a promising next-generation anode material for lithium-ion battery, and it has been studied for commercialization due to the high theoretical capacity. However, it has problems of the volume change during charge-discharge and the poor electrical conductivity. To solve these problems, formation of SiO2 and carbon coating on the surface of silicon crystal were performed to protect the side reaction and enhance the electrical conductivity of silicon. CNT and CNF were also added to mitigate the volume change and increase the conductivity. Physical properties of asprepared samples were analyzed by XRD, SEM, and EDS. Electrochemical characteristics were investigated by electrical conductivity measurement, EIS, CV and cycle performance test. (Si/SiO2/C)+CNT&CNF showed high electrical conductivity and low charge-transfer resistance, and the capacity was 1528 mAh/g at 1st cycle and 1055 mAh/g at 50th cycle with 83% capacity retention.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.32 no.12
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• pp.545-552
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• 2022

Tin-antimony sulfide nanocomposites were prepared via hydrothermal synthesis and a N₂ reduction process for use as a negative electrode in a sodium ion battery. The electrochemical energy storage performance of the battery was analyzed according to the tin-antimony composition. The optimized sulfides exhibited superior charge/discharge capacity (770 mAh g^-1 at a current density of 100 mA g^-1) and stable lifespan characteristics (71.2 % after 200 cycles at a current density of 500 mA g^-1). It exhibited a reversible characteristic, continuously participating in the charge-discharge process. The improved electrochemical energy storage performance and cycle stability was attributed to the small particle size, by controlling the composition of the tin-antimony sulfide. By optimizing the tin-antimony ratio during the synthesis process, it did not deviate from the solubility limit. Graphene oxide also acts to suppress volume expansion during reversible electrochemical reaction. Based on these results, tin-antimony sulfide is considered a promising anode material for a sodium ion battery used as a medium-to-large energy storage source.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.61 no.1
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• pp.39-44
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• 2023

In this study, the particle size of Si polycrystals was controlled through wet-sedimentation method, and changes in the capacity and cyclic characteristics of the Si anode material according to the particle size were observed. After wet-sedimentation of Si particles pulverized by a vibration mill, the non-uniform particle distribution of Si was uniformly controlled. The d₅₀ of a sample in which Si was sedimented for 24 hours decreased to 0.50 ㎛. As a result of the electrochemical characteristic analysis, the Rct value representing the resistance in the electrode was significantly reduced due to the decrease in particle size. The unclassified Si sample exhibited a discharge capacity of 2,869 mAh/g in the first cycle, and decreased to 85.7 mAh/g after 100 cycles. The sample in which Si was classified for 24 hours showed a capacity of 3,394 mAh/g initially, and maintained a capacity of 1,726 mAh/g after 100 cycles. As the size of the Si particles decreased, the discharge capacity increased and the cycle life was also increased.