• Advances in Energy Research
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.73-84
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• 2014

Fuel cells of proton exchange membrane type (PEMFC) working with hydrogen in the anode and ambient air in the cathode ('air breathing') have been prepared and characterized. The cells have been studied with variable thickness of the cathode catalyst layer ($L_{CL}$), maintaining constant the platinum and ionomer loads. Polarization curves and electrochemical active area measurements have been carried out. The polarization curves are analyzed in terms of a model for a flooded passive air breathing cathode. The analysis shows that $L_{CL}$ affects to electrochemical kinetics and mass transport processes inside the electrode, as reflected by two parameters of the polarization curves: the Tafel slope and the internal resistance. The observed decrease in Tafel slope with decreasing $L_{CL}$ shows improvements in the oxygen reduction kinetics which we attribute to changes in the catalyst layer structure. A decrease in the internal resistance with $L_{CL}$ is attributed to lower protonic resistance of thinner catalyst layers, although the observed decrease is lower than expected probably because the electronic conduction starts to be hindered by more hydrophilic character and thicker ionomer film.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.27 no.7
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• pp.843-850
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• 2003

Cu/PET film composites were prepared by electroless copper plating method. In order to improve adhesion between electroless plated Cu layer and polyester (PET) film, the effect of pretreatment conditions such as etching method, mixed catalyst composition were investigated. Chemical etching and plasma treatment increased surface roughness in decreasing order of Ar＞HCl＞O$_2$＞NH$_3$. However, adhesion of Cu layer on PET film increased in the following order: $O_2$＜Ar＜HCl＜NH$_3$. It indicated that appropriate surface roughness and introduction of affinitive functional group with Pd were key factors of improving adhesion of Cu layer. PET film was more finely etched by HCI tolution, resulting in an improvement in adhesion between Cu layer and PET film. Plasma treatment with NH$_3$produced nitrogen atoms on PET film, which enhances chemisorption of Pd$^{2+}$ on PET film, resulting in improved adhesion and shielding effectiveness of Cu layer deposited on the Pd catalyzed surface. Surface morphology of Cu plated PET film revealed that Pd/Sn colloidal particles became more evenly distributed in the smaller size by increasing the molar ratio of PdCl$_2$; SnCl$_2$from 1 : 4 to 1 : 16. With increasing the molar ratio of mixed catalyst, adhesion and shielding effectiveness of Cu plated PET film were increased.d.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.302-310
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• 2001

Cu/PET film composites were prepared by electroless copper plating method. In order to improve adhesion between electroless Cu plated layer and polyester (PET) film, the effect of pretreatment conditions such as etching method and mixed catalyst composition, and accelerator was investigated. Compared to NaOH etching medium, PET film was more finely etched by HCl solution, resulting in an improvement in adhesion between Cu layer and PET film. However, there were no significant differences in electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness as a function of etching medium. The surface morphology of Cu plated PET film revealed that Pd/Sn colloidal particles became more evenly distributed in the smaller size by increasing the molar ratio of PdCl$_2$ : SnCl$_2$ from 1 : 4 to 1 : 16. With increasing the molar ratio of mixed catalyst, the adhesion and the shielding effectiveness of Cu plated PET film were increased. Furthermore, HCl was turned out to be a better accelerator than NaOH in order to enhance the activity of the mixed PdCl$_2$/SnCl$_2$ catalyst, which facilitated the formation of more uniform copper deposit on the PET film.

• Carbon letters
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.228-233
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• 2013

In this work, we report in-situ observations of changes in catalyst morphology, and of growth termination of individual carbon nanotubes (CNTs), by complete loss of the catalyst particle attached to it. The observations strongly support the growth-termination mechanism of CNT forests or carpets by dynamic morphological evolution of catalyst particles induced by Ostwald ripening, and sub-surface diffusion. We show that in the tip-growth mode, as well as in the base-growth mode, the growth termination of CNT by dissolution of catalyst particles is plausible. This may allow the growth termination mechanism by evolution of catalyst morphology to be applicable to not only CNT forest growth, but also to other growth methods (for example, floating-catalyst chemical vapor deposition), which do not use any supporting layer or substrate beneath a catalyst layer.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.31 no.10
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• pp.955-965
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• 2014

Transport phenomena of reactant and product are directly linked to intrinsic inhomogeneous random configurations of catalyst layer (CL) that consist of ionomer, carbon-supported catalyst (Pt/C), and pores. Hence, electrochemically active surface area (ECSA) of Pt/C is dominated by geometrical morphology of mass transport path. Undoubtedly these ECSAs are key factor of total fuel cell efficiency. In this study, non-deterministic micro-scale CLs were randomly generated by Monte Carlo method and implemented with the percolation process. To ensure valid inference about Pt/C catalyst utilization, 600 samples were chosen as the number of necessary samples with 95% confidence level. Statistic results of 600 samples generated under particular condition (20vol% Pt/C, 30vol% ionomer, 50vol% pore, and 20nm particle diameter) reveal only 18.2%~81.0% of Pt/C can construct ECSAs with mean value of 53.8%. This study indicates that the catalyst utilization in fuel cell CLs cannot be identical notwithstanding the same design condition.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.611-611
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• 2013

In this study, iron oxide nanoclusters layer (Nc) was prepared onto functionalized silicon substrate by wet method. The amine-terminated SAM fabricated on silicon substrate (APTMS/Si) was carried out by UV-treatment and immersed into the FeCl3/HCl aqueous solution. Then, Nc were immobilized onto oxidized SAM silicon substrate (SAMs/Si) through electrostatic interaction between cationic Nc and anionic SAMs/Si. This catalytic layer (Nc/SAMs/Si) was used to grow carbon nanotubes (CNTs). The characterization results clearly show that the well-graphitized CNTs were synthesized by using functionalized silicon substrate as a template having appropriate density of catalyst. These consequences show that SAM containing template is important to achieve the effective layer of catalyst to synthesize CNTs.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.8-18
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• 2012

This paper presents a three-dimensional, transient cold-start polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) model to numerically evaluate the effects of membrane electrode assembly (MEA) design and cell location in a PEFC stack on PEFC cold start behaviors. The cold-start simulations show that the end cell experiences significant heat loss to the sub-freezing ambient and thus finally cold-start failure due to considerable ice filling in the cathode catalyst layer. On the other hand, the middle cells in the stack successfully start from $-30^{\circ}C$ sub-freezing temperature due to rapid cell temperature rise owing to the efficient use of waste heat generated during the cold-start. In addition, the simulation results clearly indicate that the cathode catalyst layer (CL) composition and thickness have an substantial influence on PEFC cold-start behaviors while membrane thickness has limited effect mainly due to inefficient water absorption and transport capability at subzero temperatures.

• 한국전산유체공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.46-53
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• 2011

Water is continuously produced in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), and is transported and exhausted through polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM), catalyst layer (CL), microporous layer (MPL), and gas diffusion layer (GDL). The low operation temperatures of PEMFC lead to the condensation of water, and the condensed water hinders the transport of reactants in porous layers (MPL and GDL). Thus, water flooding is currently one of hot issues that should be solved to achieve higher performance of PEMFC. This research aims to study liquid water transport in porous layers of PEMFC by using pore-network model, while the microscale pore structure and hydrophilic/hydrophobic surface properties of GDL and MPL were fully considered.

• Textile Coloration and Finishing
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.77-82
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• 2010

Highly conductive yarn was successfully obtained using electroless nickel plating method with palladium activation. In the presence of palladium seed on surface of fibers as a catalyst, continuos nickel layer produced on surface of fibers by reducing $Ni${2+}$ ion in the electroless plating bath to $Ni^0$. It was found that the Pd-activation using $SnCl_2$ and $PdCl_2$ to deposit palladium seeds on the surface of fibers plays a key role in the subsequent electroless plating of nickel. It also found that electroless nickel plating on the fibers can induce the nickel-plated $ELEX^{(R)}$ fibers to improve the electrical conductivity of the fibers. The thickness of nickel coating layer on the Pd-activated $ELEX^{(R)}$ fibers and specific conductivity of the fiber were increased through electroless plating time. The temperature of nickel plating bath was very effective to enhance the nickel deposition rate.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.29 no.7
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• pp.1364-1368
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• 2008

The activity of the catalytic system composed of Fe$(acetylacetonate)_3$ (Fe$(acac)_3$), triphenylphosphine, and diethylaluminum chloride for the dimerization of bicyclo[2.2.1]hepta-2,5-diene (2,5-norbornadiene, NBD) to produce hexacyclic endo-endo dimer (hexacyclo[$7.2.1.0^{2,8}.1^{3,7}.1^{5,13}.0^{4,6}$]tetradec-10-ene, Hnn) was significantly enhanced by the presence of $AlCl_3$, especially at the molar ratios of NBD/Fe$(acac)_3$ of 500. XPS analysis of the catalytic systems clearly demonstrates that $AlCl_3$ facilitates the reduction of Fe$(acac)_3$ to form active species, Fe(II) and Fe(0) species. The layer separation was observed when [BMIm]Cl was used along with $AlCl_3$, but catalyst recycle was not very successful.