• Carbon letters
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.303-307
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• 2008

The studies on integrated operation of fuel cell with fuel processor are very essential prior to its commercialization. In this study, Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) was operated with a fuel processor, which is mainly composed of two parts, methanol steam reforming reaction and preferential oxidation (PROX). In fuel processor, ICI 33-5 (CuO 50%, ZnO 33%, $Al_2O_3$ 8%, BET surface area: $66\;m^2g^{-1}$) catalyst and CuO-$CeO_2$ catalyst were used for methanol steam reforming, preferential oxidation (PROX) respectively. PEMFC was operated by hydrogen fuel generated from fuel processor. The resulting gas from PROX reactor is used to operate PEMFC equipped with our prepared anode and cathode catalyst. PtRu/C catalyst gives more tolerance to CO.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.16 no.12S
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• pp.1248-1254
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• 2003

Carbon nanotubes(CNTs) are grown by using Co catalyst metal. CNTs fabricated by PECVD(plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition) method are studied in terms of surface reaction and surface structure by TEM and Raman analysing method and ate analysed in its electrical field emission characteristics with variation of space between anode and cathode. Acetylene(C$_2$H$_2$) gas is used as the carbon source, while ammonia and hydrogen gas are used as catalyst and dilution gas. The CNTs grown by hydrogen(H$_2$) gas plasma indicates better vortical alignment, lower temperature process, and longer tip, compared to that grown by ammonia(NH$_3$) gas plasma. The CNTs fabricated with Co(cobalt) catalyst metal and PECVD method show the multiwall structure in mid-circle type in tip-end and the inner vacancy of 10nm. Emission properties of CNTs indicate the turn-on field to be 2.6 V/${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ We suggest that CNTs can be possibly applied to the emitter tip of FEDs and high brightness flat lamp because of low temperature CNTs growth, low turn-on field.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.1577-1582
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• 2010

A 20 wt % Pt/C is fabricated and characterized for use as the cathode catalyst in a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). By using the polyol method, the fabrication process is optimized by modifying the carbon addition sequence and precursor mixing conditions. The crystallographic structure, particle size, dispersion, and activity toward oxygen reduction of the as-prepared catalysts are compared with those of commercial Pt/C catalysts. The most effective catalyst is obtained by ultrasonic treatment of ethylene glycol-carbon mixture and immediate mixing of this mixture with a Pt precursor at the beginning of the synthesis. The catalyst exhibits very uniform particle size distribution without agglomeration. The mass activities of the as-prepared catalyst are 13.4 mA/$mg_{Pt}$ and 51.0 mA/$mg_{Pt}$ at 0.9 V and 0.85 V, respectively, which are about 1.7 times higher than those of commercial catalysts.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.71-75
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• 2003

Carbon nanotubes(CNTs) are grown by using Co catalyst metal. CNTs fabricated by PECVD(plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition) method are studied in terms of surface reaction and surface structure by TEM and Raman analysing method and are analysed in its electrical field emission characteristics with variation of space between anode and cathode. Acetylene($C_2H_2$) gas is used as the carbon source, while ammonia and hydrogen gas are used as catalyst and dilution gas. The CNTs grown by hydrogen($H_2$) gas plasma indicates better vertical alignment, lower temperature process and longer tip, compared to that grown by ammonia($NH_3$) gas plasma. The CNTs fabricated with Co(cobalt) catalyst metal and PECVD method show the multiwall structure in mid-circle type in tip-end and the inner vacancy of 10nm. Emission properties of CNTs indicate the turn-on field to be $2.6\;V/{\mu}m$. We suggest that CNTs can be possibly applied to the emitter tip of FEDs and high brightness flat lamp because of low temperature CNTs growth, low turn-on field.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.16-21
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• 2008

The key component of a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) is the membrane electrode assembly (MEA), which comprises a polymer electrolyte membrane and catalyst layers (anode and cathode electrode). Generally the catalyst layer is coated on the porous electrode supporter (e.g. carbon paper or cloth) using various coating methods such as brushing, decal transfer, spray coating and screen printing methods. However, these methods were disadvantageous in terms of the uniformity of catalyst layer thickness, catalyst loss, and coating time. In this work, we used bar-coating method which can prepare the catalyst layer with uniform thickness for MEA of DMFC. The surface and cross-section morphologies of the catalyst layers were observed by SEM. The performances and resistance of the MEAs were investigated through a single cell evaluation and impedance analyzer.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.28 no.11
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• pp.646-652
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• 2018

During a long-term operation of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells(PEMFCs), the fuel cell performance may degrade due to severe agglomeration and dissolution of metal nanoparticles in the cathode. To enhance the electrochemical durability of metal catalysts and to prevent the particle agglomeration in PEMFC operation, this paper proposes a hybrid catalyst structure composed of PtCo alloy nanoparticles encapsulated by porous carbon layers. In the hybrid catalyst structure, the dissolution and migration of PtCo nanoparticles can be effectively prevented by protective carbon shells. In addition, $O_2$ can properly penetrate the porous carbon layers and react on the active Pt surface, which ensures high catalytic activity for the oxygen reduction reaction. Although the hybrid catalyst has a much smaller active surface area due to the carbon encapsulation compared to a commercial Pt catalyst without a carbon layer, it has a much higher specific activity and significantly improved durability than the Pt catalyst. Therefore, it is expected that the designed hybrid catalyst concept will provide an interesting strategy for development of high-performance fuel cell catalysts.

• Journal of the Korea Safety Management & Science
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.7-13
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• 2018

This study investigates the enhancement of the oxygen diffusion rate in the cathode channel of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) by pure oscillating flow, which is the same as the mechanism of human breathe. Three-dimensional numerical simulation, which has the full model of the fuel cell including electrochemical reaction, ion and electronic conduction, mass transfer and thermal variation and so on, is performed to show the phenomena in the channel at the case of a steady state. This model could analysis the oscillating flow as a moving mesh calculation coupled with electrochemical reaction on the catalyst layer, however, it needs a lot of calculation time for each case. The two dimensional numerical simulation has carried on for the study of oscillating flow effect in the cathode channel of PEMFC in order to reduce the calculation time. This study shows the diffusion rate of the oxygen increased and the emission rate of the water vapor increased in the channel by oscillating flow without any forced flow.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.382-386
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• 2011

Microbial fuel cells (MFC), devices that use bacteria as a catalyst to generate electricity, can utilize a variety of organic wastes as electron donors. The current generated may differ depending on the organic matter concentrations used, when other conditions, such as oxidant supply, proton transfer, internal resistance and so on, are not limiting factors. In these studies, a single-cathode type MFC (SCMFC) and dual-cathode type MFC (DCMFC) were used to ascertain the current's improvement through an increase in the contact area between the anode and the cathode compartments, because the cathode reaction is one of the most serious limiting factors in an MFC. Also an MFC was conducted to explore whether an improvement in electricity generation resulted from oxidizing the carbon sources and nitrates. About 250 mg $L^{-1}$ sodium acetate was fed to an anode compartment with a flow rate of 0.326 mL $min^{-1}$ by continuous mode. The current generated from the DCMFC was higher than the value produced from MFC with a single cathode. COD removal of dual-cathode MFC was also higher than that of single-cathode MFC. The nitrate didn't affect current generation at 2 mM, but when 4 and 8 mM nitrate was supplied, the current in the single-cathode and dual-cathode MFC was decreased by 98% from $5.97{\pm}0.13$ to $0.23{\pm}0.03$ mA and $8.40{\pm}0.23$ to $0.20{\pm}0.01$ mA, respectively. These results demonstrate that increasing of contact area of the anode and cathode can raise current generation by an improvement in the cathode reaction.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.162-168
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• 1991

Gas diffusion and electrolyte penetration in wetproofed gas diffusion electrodes were studied using layers of PTFE- bonded carbon. Minor variations in fabrication and testing procedures resulted in very large variations in catalyst layer wetting characteristics and permiability for reaction gas. By controlling the pore size of gas diffusion electrode carefully by varing the PTFE contents, baking temperature, baking time and ammonium bicarbonate as additive, the primary pore was decreased and the secondary pore was increased and so more reaction gas through the primary pore could be reacted at catalyst agglomertes in the secondary pore. And the cathode current density was increased to more than 400mA.$\textrm{cm}^2$ and Tafel slope value was decreased to lower than 110mA/decade.

• Ceramist
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.416-426
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• 2018

Water splitting is regarded as one of the most environmentally benign routes for hydrogen production. Nevertheless, the low energy efficiency to produce the hydrogen has been a critical bottleneck, which is attributable to the multi-electron and multi-step reactions during water splitting reaction. In this respect, the development of efficient, durable, and inexpensive catalysts that can promote the reaction is indispensable. Extensive searching for new catalysts has been carried out for past decades, identifying several promising catalysts. Recently, researchers have found that conventional battery materials; particularly high-voltage intercalation-based cathode materials, could exhibit remarkable performance in catalyzing the water splitting process. One of the unique capabilities in this class of materials is that the valency state of metals and the atomic arrangement of the structure can be easily tailored, based on simple intercalation chemistry. Moreover, taking advantage of the rich prior knowledge on the intercalation compounds can offer the unexplored path to identify new water splitting catalysts.