• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.60 no.4
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• pp.550-556
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• 2022

The performance of enzymatic fuel cells that convert chemical energy contained in various organic molecules such as sugar, alcohol, organic acids, and amino acids into electrical energy is greatly affected by the cathode as well as the anode. This study aimed to develop a laccase-based cathode with high performance. An enzyme composite composed of an laccase, redox mediator, and carbon nanotubes was immobilized on the surface of electrode in multiple layers, and the effect of the number of layers and the presence or absence of carbon nanotubes on electrode performance was investigated. As the number of layers of the enzyme-mediator (Lac-(PVI-Os-dCl)) on the electrode surface increased, the amount of reduction current generated at the electrode increased. The enzyme-carbon nanotube-mediator composite electrode (Lac-SWCNTs-(PVI-Os-dCl)) generated a current 1.7 times greater than that of the Lac-(PVI-Os-dCl). It was found that the largest amount of current (10.1±0.1 µA) was generated in the electrode composed of two layers of Lac-(PVI-Os-dCl) and two layers of Lac-SWCNTs-(PVI-Os-dCl) in the evaluation of electrodes with different ratio of Lac-SWCNTs-(PVI-Os-dCl) and Lac-(PVI-Os-dCl). The maximum power density of the cell using the cathode composed of a single layer of Lac-(PVI-Os-dCl) and the cell using the optimized cathode were 0.46±0.05 and 1.23±0.04 µW/cm², respectively. In this study, it was demonstrated that the performance of cathode and the enzymatic fuel cell using the same can be improved by optimizing the layers of composites composed of laccase, redox mediator, and carbon nanotubes on the electrode surface.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.109-114
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• 2008

Though ethanol can theoretically generate 12 electrons during oxidation to carbon dioxide, the complete oxidation of ethanol is hard to achieve due to the strong bond between the two carbons in its molecular structure. Therefore, development of high activity catalyst for ethanol oxidation is necessary for the commercialization of direct ethanol fuel cell. In this study, some binary and ternary electrocatalysts of PtSn/C and PtSnAu/C have been synthesized and characterized. The catalysts were fabricated with modified polyol method with the amounts of 20 wt%, where the Pt : Sn ratios in the PtSn/C were 1 : 0, 4 : 1, 3 : 1, 2 : 1, 1.5 : 1, 1 : 1, 1 : 1.5 and Pt:Sn:Au ratios in the PtSnAu/C were 5 : 5 : 0, 5 : 4 : 1, 5 : 3 : 2, 5 : 2 : 3. From the XRD and TEM analysis results, the catalysts were found to have face centered cubic structure with particle size of around $1.9{\sim}2.4\;nm$. The activity in the ethanol oxidation was examined with cyclic voltammetry and the results indicated that PtSn(1.5 : 1)/C and PtSnAu(5 : 2 : 3)/C had the highest activity in each catalyst system. Further tests with single cell were performed with those catalysts. It was found that PtSn/C(1.5 : 1) exhibited the best performance while the long term stability of PtSnAu/C(5 : 2 : 3) is better than PtSn/C(1.5 : 1).

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.7-12
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• 2014

There is increasing demand on the reducing the weight and the volume of the major components in lithium secondary battery to improve energy density. Separator not only provides pathway for lithium ion movement but also prevents direct contact between anode and cathode. Herein we fabricated polyethylene separator by varying biaxial stretching ratio to obtain membrane thickness of 16, 12, and $9{\mu}m$. Mechanical and thermal properties of the separator with different thickness were investigated. Also rate capability and charge-discharge cycle property up to 500 cycles were studied using coin type full-cell with $LiCoO_2$ and graphite as a cathode and an anode, respectively. All the cells using separator with different thickness demonstrated excellent capacity retention after 500cycles (around 80%). Considering the rate capability, cell using separator with thickness of $9{\mu}m$ showed best performance. Interestingly, separator thickness of $9{\mu}m$ was more resistant to heat contraction compared to that of $16{\mu}m$ separator.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.27 no.9
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• pp.1310-1314
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• 2006

Sulfur-substituted $LiMn_{0.9}Cr_{0.1}O_{2-x}S_x$ $(0\;\leq\;x\;\leq\;0.1)$ layered oxides have been prepared by solid state reaction under inert atmosphere. From powder X-ray diffraction analyses, all the present lithium manganates were found to be crystallized with monoclinic-layered structure. Electrochemical measurements clearly demonstrated that, in comparison with the pristine $LiMn_{0.9}Cr_{0.1}O_2$, the sulfur-substituted derivatives exhibit smaller discharge capacities for the entire cycle range but the recovery of discharge capacity after the initial several cycles becomes faster upon sulfur substitution. The effect of the sulfur substitution on the chemical bonding nature of $LiMn_{0.9}Cr_{0.1}O_{2-x}S_x$has been investigated using X-ray absorption spectroscopic (XAS) analyses at Mn and Cr K-edges. According to Mn K-edge XAS results, the trivalent oxidation state of manganese ion remains unchanged before and after the substitution whereas the local structure around manganese ions becomes more distorted with increasing the substitution rate of sulfur. On the other hand, the replacement of oxygen with sulfur has negligible influence on the local atomic arrangement around chromium ions, which is surely due to the high octahedral stabilization energy of $Cr^{+III} $ ions. Based on the present experimental findings, we have suggested that the decrease of discharge capacity upon sulfur substitution is ascribable to the enhanced structural distortion of $MnO_6$ octahedra and/or to the formation of covalent Li-S bonds, and the accompanying improvement of cyclability would be related to the depression of Mn migration and/or to the pillaring effect of larger sulfur anion.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.280-288
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• 2017

Nanocarbon base materials such as, graphene and graphene hybrid with high electrochemical performances have great deal of attention to investigate flexible, stretchable display and wearable electronics in order to develop portable and high efficient energy storage devices. Battery, fuel cell and supercapacitor are able to achieve those properties for flexible, stretchable and wearable electronics, especially the supercapacitor is a promise energy storage device due to their remarkable properties including high power and energy density, environment friendly, fast charge-discharge and high stability. In this study, we have fabricated flexible supercapacitor composed of graphene/conductive polymer composite which could improve its electrochemical performance. As a result, specific capacitance value of the flexible supercapacitor (unbent) was $198.5F\;g^{-1}$ which decreased to $128.3F\;g^{-1}$ (65% retention) after $500^{th}$ bending cycle.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.191-198
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• 2018

SnSb alloy powders with excess Sn or Sb are fabricated by the high energy ball-milling of pure Sn and Sb powders with different Sn/Sb molar ratios, and then their material properties and lithium electrochemical performances are investigated. It is revealed by X-ray diffraction that SnSb alloys are successfully synthesized, and the powder size is decreased via ball-milling. Charge-discharge test using a coin-cell shows that the best result, in terms of the cyclability and the capacity after 50 cycles, comes from the electrode composed of Sn : Sb = 4 : 6, i.e. the capacity of $580mAh\;g^{-1}$ after 50 cycles. When the electrode is composed of Sn : Sb = 3 : 7, however, the capacity is noticeably decreased by the restrained Sn reaction with Li-ion. The pure SnSb alloy powders (Sn : Sb = 5 : 5) results in the second best performance. In the case of Sn-rich SnSb alloys, the initial capacity is relatively high, but the capacity is quickly fading after 20 cycles.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.172-175
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• 2001

Nanophase catalyst layer for direct methanol fuel cell has been fabricated by magnetron sputtering method. Catalyst metal targets and carbon were sputtered simultaneously on the Nafion membrane surface at abnormally higher gas (Ar/He mixture) pressure than that of normal thin film processing. They could be coated as a novel structure of catalyst layer containing porous PtRu or Pt and carbon particles both in nanometer range. Membrane electrode assembly made with this layer led to a reduction of the catalyst loading. At the catalyst loading of 1.5mg $PtRu/cm^2$ for anode and 1mg $Pt/cm^2$ for cathode, it could provide $45 mW/cm^2$ in the operation at 2 M methanol, 1 Bar Air at 80"C. It is more than $30\%$ increase of the power density performance at the same level of catalyst loading by conventional method. This was realized due to the ultra fine particle sizes and a large fraction of the atoms lie on the grain boundaries of nanophase catalyst layer and they played an important role of fast catalyst reaction kinetics and more efficient fuel path. Commercialization of direct methanol fuel cell for portable electronic devices is anticipated by the further development of such design.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.7-12
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• 2002

The gas diffusion electrodes as oxygen cathodes f3r the brine electrolysis process were investigated. The gas diffusion electrode consists of a reaction layer, a gas diffusion layer, and a current distributor. The reaction layer was made from hydrophilic carbon black, hydrophobic carbon black, PTFE(polyterafluoroethylene), and Ag catalyst loaded by the silver mirror reaction or impregnation method. The gas diffusion layer was made from hydrophobic carbon black and PTFE, and Ni mesh was used as the current distributor in the reaction layer. The result that the gas diffusion electrode $(10wt\%\;Ag\;catalyst\;and\;20wt\%\;binder)$ manufactured by applying impregnation method to the carbon black f3r reaction layer showed the better performance was obtained from experiments. From the half-cell test, the measured overpotential of this oxygen cathode was about 700mV, And through the electrolysis experiment under the condition of $80^{\circ}C,\;32wt\%$ NaOH, and $300mA/cm^2$, the electrolysis voltage of this electrode was about 2.2 V, The gas diffusion electrodes manufactured in the present research were capable of continuous operations for three months.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.18-25
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• 2008

The membrane electrode assembly(MEA) was prepared by a nonequilibrium impregnation- reduction (I-R) method. Nafion 117 and covalently cross-linked sulfonated polyetherether with tungsto- phosphoric acid (CL-SPEEK/TPA30) prepared by our laboratory, were chosen as polymer electrolyte membrane(PEM). $Pt(NH_3)_4Cl_2$, $RuCl_3$ and reducing agent $(NaBH_4)$ were used as electrocatalytic materials. Electrochemical activity surface area(ESA) and specific surface area(SSA) of Pt cathodic electrode with Nafion 117 were $22.48m^2/g$ and $23.50m^2/g$ respectively under the condition of 0.8 M $NaBH_4$. But Pt electrode prepared by CL-SPEEK/TPA30 membrane exhibited higher ESA $23.46m^2/g$ than that of Nafion 117. In case of Pt-Ru anodic electrode, the higher concentration of Ru was, the lower potential of oxygen reduction and region of hydrogen desorption was, and Pt-Ru electrode using 10 mM $RuCl_3$ showed best properties of SSA $34.09m^2/g$ with Nafion 117. In water electrolysis performance, the cell voltage of Pt/PEM/Pt-Ru MEA with Nafion 117 showed cell property of 1.75 V at $1A/cm^2$ and $80{\circ}C$. On the same condition, the cell voltage with CL-SPEEK/TPA30 was the best of 1.73 V at $1A/cm^2$.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.689-696
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• 2009

In this study, electro-deposition method was applied to heal cracks in various blended concrete. The performance of the method was indirectly monitored by measuring impressed voltage, electrolyte, galvanic current monitoring, linear polarization resistance, and directly by image analysis of the cracks. The indirect and direct monitoring values are compared to develop guidelines for relating the indirect measures to actual crack healing. As a result, It was found that impressed voltage was convergence to 2.9V after 20000 minutes. From the galvanic current test results of artificial crack healing, the corrosion resistance showed that the order of 0.4 $>$ 0.6 $>$ 0.5 water to cement ratio. Furthermore, in view of binder, the corrosion resistance order was calculated OPC $>$ 60%GGBS $>$ 10%SF $>$ 30%PFA. Finally, It was found that 76.47% of healed crack surface calculated from the artificial crack healing technique using electrochemical deposition method.