• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.60 no.1
• /
• pp.7-11
• /
• 2022

In the membrane forming process of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), drying and annealing heat treatment processes are required for performance and durability. In this study, the optimal annealing temperature for improving the durability of the polymer membrane was studied. It was annealed in the temperature range of 125~175 ℃, and thermal stability and hydrogen permeability were measured as basic data of durability at each annealing temperature. The electrochemical durability was analyzed by Fenton reaction and open circuit voltage (OCV) holding. The annealing temperature of 165 ℃ was the optimal temperature in terms of thermal stability and hydrogen permeability. In the Fenton reaction, the fluorine emission rate of the membrane annealed at 165 ℃ was the lowest, and the lifespan of the membrane annealed at 165 ℃ was the longest in the OCV holding experiment, confirming that 165 ℃ was the optimal temperature for the durability of the polymer membrane.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.61 no.4
• /
• pp.517-522
• /
• 2023

A chemical/mechanical durability test of polymer membrane evaluation method is used in which air and hydrogen are supplied to the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) and wet/dry is repeated in the open circuit voltage (OCV) state. In this protocol, when wet/dry is repeated, voltage increase/decrease is repeated, resulting in electrode degradation. When the membrane durability is excellent, the number of voltage changes increases and the evaluation is terminated due to electrode degradation, which may cause a problem that the original purpose of membrane durability evaluation cannot be performed. In this study, the same protocol as the department of energy (DOE) was used, but oxygen was used instead of air as the cathode gas, and the wet/dry time and flow rate were also increased to increase the chemical/mechanical degradation rate of the membrane, thereby shortening the durability evaluation time of the membrane to improve these problems. The durability test of the Nafion 211 membrane electrode assembly (MEA) was completed after 2,300 cycles by increasing the acceleration by 2.6 times using oxygen instead of air. This protocol also accelerated degradation of the membrane and accelerated degradation of the electrode catalyst, which also had the advantage of simultaneously evaluating the durability of the membrane and the electrode.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.60 no.1
• /
• pp.12-19
• /
• 2022

Cathode open-type PEMFC (Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells) stacks, which are widely used in small transport-type PEMFC, have a problem with poor durability. Through the accelerated durability test of the 13-cell PEMFC stack, we tried to find the cause of the degradation of the stack and to contribute to the improvement of the durability of the cathode open stack. A hydrogen/air boundary is formed during start-up/shut-down (SU/SD) due to the structural problem of the cathode open stack in which the cathode is open to the atmosphere and it is difficult to maintain airtightness, thereby deteriorating the cathode. In this study, it was possible to evaluate the durability in a relatively short time by reducing the 54% of the initial performance by repeating SU/SD 1,800 times on the cathode open stack. After dismantling the stack, each cell was divided into two and the performance was analyzed. Overall, the anode outlet MEA, which facilitates air inflow, showed more severe electrode deterioration than the inlet MEA, confirming that the hydrogen/air boundary formation during SU/SD is the main cause of degradation.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
• /
• v.34 no.6
• /
• pp.673-681
• /
• 2023

Hydrocarbon-based polymer membranes to replace perfluorinated polymer membranes are being continuously researched. However, hydrocarbon-based membranes have a problem in that they are less durable than fluorine-based membranes. In this study, we sought to compare the annealing effect to improve the durability of sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) (SPEEK). After membranes formation, thermogravimetric analysis and tensile strength were measured to compare changes in membranes properties due to annealing. After manufacturing the membrane and electrode assembly (MEA), the initial performance and chemical durability was compared with unit cell operation. During the 24-hour annealing process, the strength increased due to the increase in-S-O-S-crosslinking, and the sulfonic acid group decreased, leading to a decrease in I-V performance. By annealing, the hydrogen permeability was reduced to less than 1/10 of that of the nafion membrane, and as a result, open circuit voltage (OCV) and durability was improved. The SPEEK membranes annealed for 24 hours showed higher durability than the nafion 211 membranes of the same thickness.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
• /
• v.11 no.4
• /
• pp.13-20
• /
• 1999

Recently, the study for practical construction application no recycled aggregate concrete is actively being proceeded, on the purpose of technical development for recycling on the construction waste concrete occurred at the time of destruction of building construction by the rapid increase of building wastes and exhaustion of natural aggregates. But, the durability of investigation with all sorts of fluidity and engineering property for application recycled aggregate concrete to practical construction must be done at the same time. Especially, because of the real condition for chemical attack of concrete construction by the acid rain, acidification of soil, deepening of air pollution and dirty water etc. being come to the fore a serious problem, the study on the chemical soundness of concrete durability must be accompanied. This study is composed as: I series: Analysis for chemical soundness of aggregates. II series: Analysis for chemical soundness of natural and recycled aggregate concrete against $Na_2$$SO_4$ solution in drying and wet curing condition ($at20~80^{\circ}C$).

• Advances in concrete construction
• /
• v.5 no.6
• /
• pp.671-683
• /
• 2017

Commonly used concrete in general, consists of cement, fine aggregate, coarse aggregate and water. Natural river sand is the most commonly used material as fine aggregate in concrete. One of the important requirements of concrete is that it should be durable under certain conditions of exposure. The durability of concrete is defined as its ability to resist weathering action, chemical attack or any other process of deterioration. Durable concrete will retain its original form, quality and serviceability when exposed to its environment. Deterioration can occur in various forms such as alkali aggregate expansion, freeze-thaw expansion, salt scaling by de-icing salts, shrinkage, attack on the reinforcement due to carbonation, sulphate attack on exposure to ground water, sea water attack and corrosion caused by salts. Addition of admixtures may control these effects. In this paper, an attempt has been made to replace part of fine aggregate by tailing material and part of cement by fly ash to improve the durability of concrete. The various durability tests performed were chemical attack tests such as sulphate attack, chloride attack and acid attack test and water absorption test. The concrete blend with 35% Tailing Material (TM) in place of river sand and 20% Fly Ash (FA) in place of OPC, has exhibited higher durability characteristics.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.57 no.3
• /
• pp.344-350
• /
• 2019

Durability is very important for the commercialization of membranes and electrode assemblies (MEA) developed for proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC). Durability evaluation of stationary PEMFC MEA has a problem that the voltage change rate should be measured for a long time over 1000 hours under constant current conditions. In this study, the electrochemical durability evaluation protocol of membranes (OCV holding method) using to vehicle MEAs was applied to the stationary MEA for the purpose of shortening the durability evaluation time. After operation of the stationary and automobile MEA for 168 hours under conditions of OCV, cathode oxygen, $90^{\circ}C$ and relative humidity of 30%, I-V, LSV, CV, impedance and FER were measured and compared. When the hydrogen permeability, OCV change, ionic conductivity, and fluorine flow rate, which represent the durability of the membrane after degradation, were all examined, it was shown that durability of stationary MEA membrane was better than that of vehicles MEA membrane. In addition, the electrode degradation of stationary MEA was smaller than that of vehicles MEA after degradation operation. It was possible to evaluate in a short time using automotive protocol that the durability of stationary MEA was superior that of vehicle MEA in terms of membrane and the electrode.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.61 no.1
• /
• pp.19-25
• /
• 2023

Although a lot of research and development has been conducted on the performance improvement of PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane) water electrolysis, the research on durability is still in early stage. This study investigated effect of temperature on the water electrolysis durability when driving temperature of the PEM water electrolysis was increased to improve performance. Voltage change, I-V, CV (Cyclic Voltammetry), LSV (Linear Sweep Voltammetry), Impedance, and FER (Fluoride Emission Rate) were measured while driving under a constant current condition in a temperature range of 50~80 ℃. As the operating temperature increased, the degradation rate increased. At 50~65 ℃, the degradation of the IrO₂ electrocatalyst mainly affected the durability of the PEM water electrolysis cell. At 80 ℃, the polymer membrane and electrode degradation proceeded similarly, and the short resistance decreased to 1.0 kΩ·cm² or less, and the performance decreased to about 1/3 of the initial stage after 144 hours of operation due to the shorting phenomenon.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.59 no.3
• /
• pp.339-344
• /
• 2021

In order to improve the PEMFC (Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell) durability, it is important to accurately evaluate the durability of the membrane in a short time. Recently, DOE (Department of Energy) reported a protocol that combines the chemical and mechanical durability of membranes to evaluate them effectively. This protocol applies chemical/mechanical deterioration to the membrane by repeating wet/dry while OCV (Open Circuit Voltage) holding. The problem of this protocol is that it is highly affected by electrode degradation due to change cycles in OCV and that the evaluation time is long. By using oxygen instead of air as the cathode gas while leaving the other conditions of the DOE protocol as it is, the durability evaluation time could be reduced from 408 hours to 144 hours. By reducing the number of voltage change cycles to 1/3, the electrode degradation due to the voltage change cycle was reduced to 1/12 when oxygen was used compared to air at the end, thereby enabling more accurate evaluation of polymer membrane durability.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2010.11a
• /
• pp.82.2-82.2
• /
• 2010

The development of bipolar plate having high efficiency and chemical properties has a major impact on fuel cell applications commercialization. Even though graphite bipolar plate has high electric conductivity and chemical resistance, it has demerits about mass production and brittle property for commercialization. Hence, metallic bipolar plate can be substitute for fuel cell bipolar plate. Although its inadequate corrosion behavior under PEMFC environment lead to a deterioration of membrane by dissolved metal ions, metallic bipolar plate for PEMFC is more suitable for automotive and residential power generation system because of its high mechanical strength, low gas permeability and applicability to mass production. Therefore, several types of coating has been applied to prevent corrosion and oxide film growth and to achieve more high durability. This work presents durability of coated metal bipolar plate for low temperature PEMFC which made for fuel cell vehicle. This results showed surface treatment increase long-term durability, even electric conductivity and corrosion resistance.