• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.54 no.3
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• pp.305-309
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• 2016

Recently, there are many efforts focused on development of more economical non-fluorinated membranes for PEMFCs (Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells). In this study, to test the durability of sPEEK MEA (Membrane and Electrode Assembly), ADT (Accelerated Degradation Test) of MEA degradation was done at the condition that membrane and electrode were degraded simultaneously. Before and after degradation, I-V polarization curve, hydrogen crossover, electrochemical surface area, membrane resistance and charge transfer resistance were measured. Although the permeability of hydrogen through sPEEK membrane was low, sPEEK membrane was weaker to radical evolved at low humidity and OCV condition than fluorinated membrane such as Nafion. Performance after MEA degradation for 144 hours and 271 hours were reduced by 15% and 65%, respectively. It was showed that the main cause of rapid decrease of performance after 144 hours was shorting due to Pt/C particles in the pinholes.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.10-18
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• 2018

The primary purposes of this study are to understand a fundamental aspect of current uniformity around a reinforcing bar (rebar) in cement mortar, and to develop an accurate monitoring method in a wet-dry cycling process with the alternative current (AC) impedance method. Three cement mortar specimens with two embedded rebars were prepared in the laboratory. As a main variable, the distance between two rebars was designed to be 10, 20 and 30 mm with the same thickness of 20 mm. To simulate the corrosion of rebars in concrete structures in a marine environment, three cement mortar specimens were exposed to 15 wet-drying cycles (24-hour-immersion in seawater and 48-hour-drying in a room temperature) in the laboratory. It was observed that the potential level shifted to a noble value during corrosion potential monitoring, which is attributed to acceleration of dissolved oxygen diffusion at the drying process. AC impedance was measured in a frequency range from 100 kHz to 1 mHz on a wet-drying process. A theoretical model was proposed to explain the interface condition between the rebars and cement mortar by using the equivalent circuit consisting of a solution resistance, a charge transfer resistance and a CPE (constant phase element). It was observed that the diffusion impedance appeared in a low frequency range as corrosion of rebars progresses. At the drying stage of the wet-drying cycles, the currents line for monitoring tended to be non-uniform at the interface of rebar/mortar, being phase shift, ${\theta}$, close to $-45^{\circ}$.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.870-877
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• 1998

With impedance spectrum measurements, impedance was studied in the interface between sample solutions for $K^+-ion$ selective PVC membrane electrode containing neutral carriers [dibenzo-18-crown-6 (D18Cr6) and valinomycine (Val)]. Response characteristics of electrode were examined by measuring AC impedance spectra that were resulted from the chemical structure and the content of carrier, variation of plasticizer, membrane thickness, doping of base electrolytes, and concentration variation of sample solution. Transport characteristics of PVC membrane electrode were also studied. It was found that the equivalent circuit for the membrane in $K^+$ solution could be expressed by a series combination of solution resistance and a parallel circuit consisting of the bulk resistance and geometric capacitance of the membrane system. But the charge transfer resistance and Warburg resistance were overlapped a little in the low concentration and low frequency ranges. The carrier, D18Cr6 was best for electrode and impedance characteristics, and ideal electrode characteristics were appeared especially in case of doping of the base electrolyte[potassium tetraphenylborate(TPB)]. The optimum carrier content was about 3.23 wt% in case of D18Cr6 and Val. DBP was best as a plasticizer. As membrane thickness decreased the impedance characteristics was improved, but electrode characteristics were lowered for membrane thickness below the optimum. In the case of D18Cr6, the selectivity coefficients by the mixed solution method for the $K^+$ ion were the order of $NH_4{^+}>Ca^{2+}>Mg^{2+}>Na^+$.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.187-194
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• 2020

Two types of sodium cobalt pyrophosphates, triclinic Na_3.12Co_2.44(P₂O₇)₂ and orthorhombic Na₂CoP₂O₇, are compared as high-voltage cathode materials for Na-ion batteries. Na₂CoP₂O₇ shows no electrochemical activity, delivering negligible capacity. In contrast, Na_3.12Co_2.44(P₂O₇)₂ exhibits good electrochemical performance, such as high redox potential at ca. 4.3 V (vs. Na/Na⁺) and stable capacity retention over 50 cycles, although Na_3.12Co_2.44(P₂O₇)₂ delivered approximately 40 mA h g^-1. This is attributed to the fact that Na₂CoP₂O₇ (~3.1 Å) has smaller diffusion channel size than Na_3.12Co_2.44(P₂O₇)₂ (~4.2 Å). Moreover, the electrochemical performance of Na_3.12Co_2.44(P₂O₇)₂ is examined using Na cells and Li cells. The overpotential of Na cells is smaller than that of Li cells. This is due to the fact that Na_3.12Co_2.44(P₂O₇)₂ has a smaller charge transfer resistance and higher diffusivity for Na⁺ ions than Li⁺ ions. This implies that the large channel size of Na_3.12Co_2.44(P₂O₇)₂ is more appropriate for Na⁺ ions than Li⁺ ions. Therefore, Na_3.12Co_2.44(P₂O₇)₂ is considered a promising high-voltage cathode material for Na-ion batteries, if new electrolytes, which are stable above 4.5 V vs. Na/Na⁺, are introduced.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.15-20
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• 2011

The contamination effect of toluene in the airstream on PEM fuel cell performance was studied with various toluene concentration under different operation conditions. And the recovery of the cell performance by applying clean air and the removal of toluene in the air by adsorption of active carbon were investigated. The toluene concentration range used in the experiments was from 0.1 ppm to 5.0 ppm. The performance degradation and recovery were measured by constant-current discharging and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy(EIS). Toluene adsorption capacity of KOH impregnated active carbon was obtained from the adsorption isotherm curve. The severity of the contamination increased with increasing toluene concentration, current density and air stoichiometry, but decrease with increasing relative humidity. The cell performance was recovered by toluene oxidation with oxygen and water in humidified neat air. EIS showed that the increase of charge transfer resistance due to toluene adsorption on Pt surface mainly reduced the performance of PEMFC. Toluene adsorption capacity of active carbon decreased as KOH weight increased in KOH impregnated active carbon.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.149-155
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• 2014

In this study, a positive-electrode material in a lithium secondary battery $Li[Ni_{0.575}Co_{0.1}Mn_{0.325}]O_2$ was synthesized as precursor by co-precipitation. Cathode material was synthesized by adding iron. The synthesized cathode material was analyzed by scanning electron microscope and x-ray diffraction. The analysis of x-ray diffraction showed that the a-axis and c-axis is increased by doping iron. And $I_{(003)}/I_{(104)}$ is increased and $I_{(006)}+I_{(102)}/I_{(101)}$ is decreased. Through this result, it was confirmed that the structural stability is improved. And impedance measurements show that the charge transfer resistance ($R_{ct}$) is lowered by doping iron. Consequently, electrochemical properties are improved by doping iron. In particular, the cycle characteristics are improved at a high temperature condition (328 K). Structural stabilities are contributing to the cycle properties.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.191-197
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• 2013

The one of the cathode material, $Li(Ni_{0.5}Co_{0.2}Mn_{0.3})O_2$, was synthesized by the precursor, $Ni_{0.5}Co_{0.2}Mn_{0.3}(OH)_2$, from the co-precipitation method and the morphologies of the primary particle of precursors were flake and needle-shape by controlling the precipitation parameters. Identical powder properties, such as particle size, tap density, chemical composition, were obtained by same process of lithiation and heat-treatment. The relation between electrochemical performances of $Li(Ni_{0.5}Co_{0.2}Mn_{0.3})O_2$ and the primary particle morphology of precursors was analyzed by SEM, XRD and EELS. In the $Li(Ni_{0.5}Co_{0.2}Mn_{0.3})O_2$ cathode from the needle-shape precursor, the primary particle size was smaller than that from flake-shape precursor and high Li concentration at grain edge comparing grain center. The cycle and rate performances of the cathode from needle-shape precursor shows superior to those from flake-shape precursor, which might be attributed to low charge-transfer resistance by impedance measurement.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.57 no.5
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• pp.695-700
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• 2019

n this study, the evaluation of performance of AORFB using anthraquinone derivative and TEMPO derivative as active materials in neutral supporting electrolyte with various membrane types was performed. Both anthraquinone derivative and TEMPO derivative showed high electron transfer rate (the difference between anodic and cathodic peak potential was 0.068 V) and the cell voltage is 1.17 V. The single cell test of the AORFB using 0.1 M active materials in 1 M KCl solution with using Nafion 212 membrane, which is commercial cation exchange membrane was performed, and the charge efficiency (CE) was 97% and voltage efficiency (VE) was 59%. In addition, the discharge capacity was $0.93Ah{\cdot}L^{-1}$ which is 35% of theoretical capacity ($2.68Ah{\cdot}L^{-1}$) at $4^{th}$ cycle and the capacity loss rate was $0.018Ah{\cdot}L^{-1}/cycle$ during 10 cycles. The single cell tests were performed with using Nafion 117 membrane and SELEMION CSO membrane. However, the results were more not good because of increased resistance because of thicker thickness of membrane and increased cross-over of active materials, respectively.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.411-417
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• 2022

Environmental issues such as global warming due to fossil fuel use are now major worldwide concerns, and interest in renewable and clean energy is growing. Of the various types of renewable energy, green hydrogen energy has recently attracted attention because of its eco-friendly and high-energy density. Electrochemical water splitting is considered a pollution-free means of producing clean hydrogen and oxygen and in large quantities. The development of non-noble electrocatalysts with low cost and high performance in water splitting has also attracted considerable attention. In this study, we successfully synthesized a NiCo₂O₄/NF electrode for an oxygen evolution reaction in alkaline water splitting using a hydrothermal method, which was followed by post-heat treatment. The effects of heat treatment on the electrochemical performance of the electrodes were evaluated under different heat-treatment conditions. The optimized NCO/NF-300 electrode showed an overpotential of 416 mV at a high current density of 50 mA/cm² and a low Tafel slope (49.06 mV dec^-1). It also showed excellent stability (due to the large surface area) and the lowest charge transfer resistance (12.59 Ω). The results suggested that our noble-metal free electrodes have great potential for use in developing alkaline electrolysis systems.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.43-49
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• 2022

Solid-state supercapacitors with high safety and robust mechanical properties are attracting global attention as next-generation energy storage devices. As an electrode of a supercapacitor, an economical carbon-based electrode is widely used. However, when an aqueous electrolyte is introduced, the charge transfer resistance increases because the interfacial contact between the hydrophobic electrode surface and aqueous electrolyte is not good. In this regard, we propose a method to obtain higher electrochemical performance based on improved interfacial properties by treating the electrode surface with oxygen plasma. The surface hydrophilization induced by the enriched oxygen functionalities was confirmed by the contact angle measurement. As a result, the degree of hydrophilization was easily adjusted by controlling the power and duration of the oxygen plasma treatment. As the electrolyte of the supercapacitor, PVA/H₃PO₄, which is a typical solid-state aqueous electrolyte, was used. Free-standing membranes of PVA/H₃PO₄ electrolyte were prepared and then pressed onto the electrode. The optimal condition was to perform oxygen plasma treatment for 5 seconds with a low power of 15 W, and the energy density of the supercapacitor increased by about 8%.