• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.38 no.6
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• pp.809-814
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• 2014

An array structure of conducting polymer microtubule was fabricated for an amperometric biosensor. 3,4-Ethylenedioxythiophene (EDOT) was electropolymerized in the microporous template membrane with poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)/poly(4-styrenesulfonic acid) (PEDOT/PSS) composite as a binder. The array structure can provide enhanced current collecting capability due to large active surface area compared to the macroscopic area of the electrode itself. For a biosensor application, the array electrode was tested for $H_2O_2$ detection and showed very sluggish electrochemical response to $H_2O_2$. To enhance the detection efficiency to the oxidation of $H_2O_2$, gold was treated on the electrode by two different approaches: sputtering and electrochemical deposition. Gold treatment with either method greatly enhanced the sensitivity of the electrode to $H_2O_2$. So, conducting polymer microtubule array with gold treatment was expected to be a sensitive amperometric biosensor system based on the detection of $H_2O_2$.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.67-73
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• 2012

Spherical lithium manganese oxide spinel, $LiMn_{2-x}M_xO_4$ (M = Al, Mg, B) prepared by wet-milling, spray-drying, and sintering process has been investigated as a cathode material for lithium ion batteries. As-prepared powders exhibit various surface morphologies and internal density in terms of boron (B) doping level. It is found that the dopant B drives the growth of the primary particle and minimizes the surface area of the powder. As a result, the dopant enhances the internal density of the particles. Electrochemical tests demonstrated that the capacity of the synthesized material at 5 C could be maintained up to 90% of that at 0.2 C. The cycle performance of the material showed that the initial capacity was retained up to 80% even after 500 cycles under the high temperature of $60^{\circ}C$.

• 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.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.409-416
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• 2021

Dimensionally stable electrodes are one of the important components in electrochemical water treatment processes. In the manufacturing of the dimensionally stable electrodes, the type of metal catalyst coated on the surface of the metal substrate, the coating and sintering methods substantially influence their performance and durability. In this study, using Ir-Ru-Ta ternary metal coating, various electrodes were prepared depending on the coating method under the same pre-treatment and sintering conditions, and its performance and durability were studied. As a coating method, brush and spray coating were used. As a result, the reduction in the amount of catalyst ink was achieved because more amount of metal could be coated for the electrode using spraying with the same amount of catalyst ink. In addition, the spray_2.0_3.0 electrode prepared by a specific spray coating method shows the phenomenon of cracking and the uniform coating of the ternary metal on the surface of the coating layer, and results in a high electrochemically active specific surface area, and the decomposition performance of 4-chlorophenol was superior to the other electrodes. However, it was found that there was no significant difference in durability depending on the coating method.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.288-294
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• 2009

Various polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) startup procedures were tested to explore possible techniques for reducing performance decay and improving durability during repeated startup-shutdown cycles. The effects of applying a dummy load, which prevents cell reversal by consuming the air at the cathode, on the degradation of a membrane electrode assembly (MEA) were investigated via single cell experiments. The electrochemical results showed that application of a dummy load during the startup procedure significantly reduced the performance decay, the decrease in the electrochemically active surface area (EAS), and the increase in the charge transfer resistance ($R_{ct}$), which resulted in a dramatic improvement in durability. After 1200 startup-shutdown cycles, post-mortem analyses were carried out to investigate the degradation mechanisms via various physicochemical methods including FESEM, an on-line $CO_2$ analysis, EPMA, XRD, FETEM, SAED, FTIR. After 1200 startup-shutdown cycles, severe Pt particle sintering/agglomeration/dissolution and carbon corrosion were observed at the cathode catalyst layer when starting up a PEMFC without a dummy load, which significantly contributed to a loss of Pt surface area, and thus to cell performance degradation. However, applying a dummy load during the startup procedure remarkably mitigated such severe degradations, and should be used to increase the durability of MEAs in PEMFCs. Our results suggest that starting up PEMFCs while applying a dummy load is an effective method for mitigating performance degradation caused by reverse current under a repetition of unprotected startup cycles.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.9 no.7
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• pp.1059-1064
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• 1998

We have investigated various kind of graphite and MCMB6-28 to develop carbon negative electrode for lithium ion secondary battery. The interlayer length of them was $3.358{\sim}3.363{\AA}$ and the BET specific surface area was $2.95{\sim}26.15m^2/g$. From this study, When the interlayer of them was large and the BET specific surface area was high, the electrochemical characteristics of them was very excellent. Adding 0, 3, 5, wt% of KJ-Black as conducting agent to various graphitic carbon active materials, interface resistance of electrode and electrolyte was less, but rechargeability was better at 3 wt%. At constant current charge and discharge test, discharge capacity was small according to large current.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.180-185
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• 2011

This study is aimed to increase the activity of cathodic catalysts for PEMFCs(Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells). we investigated the temperature effect of 20wt% Pt/C catalysts at five different temperatures. The catalysts were synthesized by using chemical reduction method. Before adding the formaldehyde as reducing agent, process was undergone for 2 hours at the room temperature (RT), $40^{\circ}C$, $60^{\circ}C$, $80^{\circ}C$ and $100^{\circ}C$, respectively. The performances of synthesize catalysts are compared. The electrochemical oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) was studied on 20wt% Pt/C catalysts by using a glassy carbon electrode through cyclic voltammetric curves (CV) in a 1M H2SO4 solution. The ORR specific activities of 20wt% Pt/C catalysts increased to give a relative ORR catalytic activity ordering of $80^{\circ}C$ > $100^{\circ}C$ > $60^{\circ}C$ > $40^{\circ}C$ > RT. Electrochemical active surface area (EAS) was calculated with cyclic voltammetry analysis. Prepared Pt/C (at $80^{\circ}C$, $100^{\circ}C$) catalysts has higher ESA than other catalysts. Physical characterization was made by using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). The TEM images of the carbon supported platinum electrocatalysts ($80^{\circ}C$, $100^{\circ}C$) showed homogenous particle distribution with particle size of about 2~3.5 nm. We found that a higher reaction temperature resulted in more uniform particle distribution than lower reaction temperature and then the XRD results showed that the crystalline structure of the synthesized catalysts are seen FCC structure.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.283-289
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• 2016

In this study, electrochemical characterizations of PdCu/C catalysts that are synthesized by modified polyol method are investigated. Most of all, amount of ethylene glycol (EG) that is used as main component for catalyst synthesis is mainly modulated to optimize synthetic condition of the PdCu/C catalyst, For evaluations about catalytic activity and performance of direct formic acid fuel cell (DFAFC), half cell and full cell tests are implemented. As a result, when amount of EG is 4M, catalytic activities of the PdCu/C catalyst such as peak current of formic acid oxidation and active surface area are best, while maximum power density of DFAFC using the optimized PdCu/C catalyst is better than that using commercial Pd/C (30 wt%) by 6%. Based on that, PdCu/C catalyst synthesized by modified polyol method plays a critical role in improving (i) catalytic activity for formic acid oxidation and (ii) DFAFC performance by employing as anodic catalyst.

• Carbon letters
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• v.19
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• pp.66-71
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• 2016

The development of nanostructured functional materials derived from biomass and/or waste is of growing importance for creating sustainable energy-storage systems. In this study, nanoporous carbonaceous materials containing numerous heteroatoms were fabricated from waste coffee grounds using a top-down process via simple heating with KOH. The nanoporous carbon nanosheets exhibited notable material properties such as high specific surface area (1960.1 m² g⁻¹), numerous redox-active heteroatoms (16.1 at% oxygen, 2.7 at% nitrogen, and 1.6 at% sulfur), and high aspect ratios (>100). These unique properties led to good electrochemical performance as supercapacitor electrodes. A specific capacitance of ~438.5 F g⁻¹ was achieved at a scan rate of 2 mV s⁻¹, and a capacitance of 176 F g⁻¹ was maintained at a fast scan rate of 100 mV s⁻¹. Furthermore, cyclic stability was achieved for over 2000 cycles.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.58 no.1
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• pp.100-106
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• 2009

A novel 8 V DC power source with an external series-parallel connection of 50 Dye-sensitized Solar Cells (DSCs) has been proposed. One DSC has the optimized length to width ratio of $5.2{\times}2.6\;cm$ and an active area $8\;cm^2$ ($4.62{\times}1.73\;cm$) which attained a conversion efficiency of 4.02%. From the electrochemical impedance spectroscopic analysis, it was found that the resistance elements related to the Pt electrode and electrolyte interface behave like that of diode and the series resistance corresponds to the sum of the other resistance elements. Surface morphology and sheet resistance of Pt counter electrode did not degrade the performance of the cell. This novel 8V-0.33A DC power source shows stable performance with an energy conversion efficiency of 4.24% under 1 sun illumination (AM 1.5, Pin of $100\;mW/cm^2$).