• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.107-114
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• 2017

The performance of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) could be deteriorated when fuel contains contaminants such as carbon monoxide (CO) or hydrogen sulfide ($H_2S$). Generally, $H_2S$ is introduced in hydrogen by steam reforming of hydrocarbon which has mercaptan as odorant. $H_2S$ poisoning effect on PEMFC performance was examined on this study. Pure hydrogen injection, voltage cycling and water circulation methods were compared as performance recovery methods. The PEMFC performance was analyzed using electrochemical methods such as polarization curve, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and cyclic voltammetry (CV). Pure hydrogen injection and voltage cycling methods showed low recovery ratio, however, water circulation method showed high recovery ratio over 95%. Because anode was directly poisoned by $H_2S$, anode water circulation showed higher recovery ratio compared to the other methods. Water circulation method was developed to recover PEMFC performance from $H_2S$ poisoning. This method could contribute to PEMFC durability and commercialization.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2014

Lithium ion batteries (LIBs) are the state-of-the-art technology among electrochemical energy storage and conversion cells, and are still considered the most attractive class of battery in the future due to their high specific energy density, high efficiency, and long cycle life. Rapid development of power-hungry commercial electronics and large-scale energy storage applications (e.g. off-peak electrical energy storage), however, requires novel anode materials that have higher energy densities to replace conventional graphite electrodes. Germanium (Ge) and silicon (Si) are thought to be ideal prospect candidates for next generation LIB anodes due to their extremely high theoretical energy capacities. For instance, Ge offers relatively lower volume change during cycling, better Li insertion/extraction kinetics, and higher electronic conductivity than Si. In this focused review, we briefly describe the basic concepts of LIBs and then look at the characteristics of ideal anode materials that can provide greatly improved electrochemical performance, including high capacity, better cycling behavior, and rate capability. We then discuss how, in the future, Ge anode materials (Ge and Ge oxides, Ge-carbon composites, and other Ge-based composites) could increase the capacity of today's Li batteries. In recent years, considerable efforts have been made to fulfill the requirements of excellent anode materials, especially using these materials at the nanoscale. This article shall serve as a handy reference, as well as starting point, for future research related to high capacity LIB anodes, especially based on semiconductor Ge and Si.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.59-66
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• 2022

Lithium-ion batteries have greatly expanded along with the mobile phone market, and as the electric vehicle business is activated in earnest, they will attract many people's attention even afterwards. Until now, many people have attracted attention to the recovery of valuable metals inside lithium-ion batteries, but graphite, which is mainly used as an anode material, is also worth recycling. Therefore, in order to recover graphite with high purity and valuable metals, graphite that can be used as an anode material of a secondary battery may be generated again through a regeneration process of purifying and separating graphite from a waste lithium-ion battery and recovering electrical characteristics of graphite. This paper describes the process of converting waste graphite into regenerated graphite and the environmental and economic effects of regenerated graphite.

• New Physics: Sae Mulli
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• v.68 no.12
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• pp.1315-1323
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• 2018

We studied the carbonization due to the annealing condition of waste coffee powder for application as an active anode material for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). The coffee powder used as an active anode material for LIBs was obtained from coffee beans, not from a coffee shells. The waste coffee powder was dried in air and heat-treated in an $Ar/H_2$ atmosphere to obtain a pore-forming activated carbon powder. The specific capacity of the sample annealed at $700^{\circ}C$ was still 303 mAh/g after 1000 cycles at a current density of 1000 mA/g and with a coulombic efficiency of over 99.5%. The number of pores and the pore size of the waste coffee powder were increased due to chemical treatment with KOH, which had the some effect as an increased specific surface area. The waste coffee powder is considered to be a very promising active anode material because of both its excellent electrochemical properties due to enhanced carrier conduction and its being a cost effective resource for use in LIBs.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.661-669
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• 2022

The need for miniaturization, high efficiency, and green energy resources as an energy storage device through the development of various electronic device has emerged. Accordingly, nanomaterials with excellent electrochemical properties, such as graphene and graphene hybrids, are attracting attention as promising materials. In particular, in the electric vehicle industry, cost reduction of secondary batteries is a key factor that can determine the spread of related industries, and it is most important to analyze R&D trends for battery material technology and respond to future technological development directions. Therefore, in this study, we tried to suggest a direction for R&D activities in the future by analyzing patent trends for graphene anode material technology for secondary batteries and deriving implications. As a result, in the case of anode material technology, the proportion of foreigners in the US and European patent markets was higher than in the Korean and Japanese patent markets, which means that the US and European marketability is high. In addition, Japanese applicants are filing high-level applications not only in the Japanese patent market but also in other countries suggests that Japan is leading the technology in this field. Lastly, the proportion of research institutes in the patent market of Korea and the US remains high compared to that of Japan and Europe, indicating that the commercialization of technology is still slow in those countries. Therefore research institutes and companies in Korea will have to establish their own strategies for developing and securing materials using the results of patent trends in major countries and major companies analyzed in this study.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.306-309
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• 2005

One of the most critical issues in sol id oxide fuel cell (SOFC)running on hydrocarbon fuels is the risk of carbon formation from the fuel gas. The simple method to reduce the risk of carbon formation from the reactions is to add steam to the fuel stream, leading to the carbon gasification react ion. However, the addition of steam to fuel is not appropriate for the auxiliary power unit (APU) and potable power generation (PPG) systems due to an increase of complexity and bulkiness. In this regard, many researchers have focused on so-called 'direct methane' operation of SOFC, which works with dry methane without coking. However, coking can be suppressed only by the operation with a high current density, which may be a drawback especially for the APU and PPG systems. The single chamber fuel cell (SC-SOFC) is a novel simplification of the conventional SOFC into which a premixed fuel/air mixture is introduced. It relies on the selectivity of the anode and cathode catalysts to generate a chemical potential gradient across the cell. Moreover it allows compact and seal-free stack design. In this study, we fabricated honeycomb type mixed-gas fuel cell (MGFC) which has advantages of stacking to the axial direction and increasing volume power density. Honeycomb-structured SOFC with four channels was prepared by dry pressing method. Two alternative channels were coated with electrolyte and cathode slurry in order to make cathodic reaction sites. We will discuss that the anode supported honeycomb type cell running on mixed gas condition.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.88-96
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• 2024

Lithium metal has garnered attention as a promising anode active material thanks to its high specific capacity, energy density, and the lowest reduction potential. However, the formation of dendrites, dendritic crystals that arise during the charge and discharge process, has posed safety and lifetime stability challenges. To resolve this, our study has introduced a novel separator design. This separator features a composite coating of vapor-grown carbon fiber, a conductive material in nanofibers, and silver. We have meticulously studied the impact of this innovative separator on the electrochemical properties of the lithium metal anode, unveiling promising results. To confirm the synergistic effect of VGCF and Ag, a separator with no surface treatment and a separator with only VGCF coated on one side were prepared and compared with the Ag-VGCF-separator. In the case of the bare separator, the Li metal surface is covered with dendrites during the initial charge and discharge process. In contrast, both the VGCF-separator and the Ag-VGCF-separator show Li precipitation inside the conductive coating layer coated on the separator surface. Additionally, the Ag-VGCF-separator showed a more uniform precipitate shape than the VGCF-separator. As a result, the Ag-VGCF-separators show improved electrochemical properties compared to the bare separators and the VGCF-separators.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.230-236
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• 2013

In this study, successive coating and co-sintering techniques have been used to fabricate LSM/GDC based cathode supported direct carbon fuel cells. The porous LSM/GDC cathode substrate, dense, thin and crack free GDC and ScSZ layers as bi-layer electrolyte, and a porous Ni/ScSZ anode layer was obtained by co-firing at $1400^{\circ}C$. The porous structure of LSM/GDC cathode substrate, after sintering at $1400^{\circ}C$, was obtained due to the presence of GDC phase, which inhibits sintering of LSM because of its higher sintering temperature. The electrochemical characterization of assembled cell was carried out with air as an oxidant and carbon particles in molten carbonate as fuel. The measured open circuit voltages (OCVs) were obtained to be more than 0.99 V, independent of testing temperature. The peak power densities were 116, 195 and $225mWcm^{-2}$ at 750, 800 and $850^{\circ}C$, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.198-205
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• 2012

Carbon-supported manganese oxide composite were fabricated as an air cathode material for Li-air batteries by hydrothermal method. The composite materials of carbon and manganese oxide were investigated by the implementation of X-ray diffraction, FE-SEM and BET surface area measurer. The manganese oxide synthesized at $170^{\circ}C$ for 12 h has a rod like shape morphology with 40-50 nm long in size. A Lithium-air battery with coin type, of which electrodes are composed of cathode composite materials synthesized $170^{\circ}C$-12 h and lithium metal anode, reveals its first discharge capacity of 3,852 mAh/g and four discharge-charge cycles.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.27 no.8
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• pp.1175-1180
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• 2006

Si-C composites were prepared by the carbonization of polyaniline (PAn) coated on silicone powder. The physical and electrochemical properties of the Si-C composites were characterized by particle-size analysis, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and battery electrochemical tests. The average particle size of Si was increased by the coating of Pan but somewhat reduced by the carbonization to give silicone-carbon composites. The co-existence of crystalline silicone and amorphous-like carbon was confirmed by XRD analyses. SEM photos showed that the silicone particles were well covered with carbonaceous materials, depending on the PAn content. Si-C$\mid$Li cells were fabricated using the Si-C composites and tested using galvanostatic charge-discharge. Si-C$\mid$Li cells gave better electrochemical properties than Si|Li cells. Si-C$\mid$Li cells using Si-C from HCl-undoped precursor PAn showed better electrochemical properties than precursor PAn doped in HCl. The addition of an electrolyte containing 4-fluoroethylene carbonate (FEC) increased the initial discharge capacity. Also, another electrochemical test, the galvanostatic charge-discharge test with GISOC (gradual increasing of the state of charge) was carried out. Si-C(Si:PAn = 50:50 wt. ratio)|Li cell showed 414 mAh/g of reversible specific capacity, 75.7% of IIE (initial intercalation efficiency), 35.4 mAh/g of IICs (surface irreversible specific capacity).