• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.313-315
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• 2006

Proper water management is important to achieve high performance and durability of Polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC). Among various stack components, gas diffusion layer (GDL) is considered as a core part to determine the gas and water transportation in a cell. To optimize the water management, the changes of properties as well as basic properties of GDLs were investigated before and after clamping of colls. Thickness, electric conductivity, porosity, hydroppobicity etc. were characterized by the same criteria. The amount of residual water after cell operation also was compared by direct measuring of weight. Based on the amount of residual water the endurance on the freeze condition was evaluated.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.553-554
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• 2006

This paper presents the effects of different operating parameters on the performance of a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell by a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model. The effects of different operating parameters on the performance of PEM fuel cell studied using pure hydrogen on the anode side and air on the cathode side. The various parameters are temperatures, pressures, humidification of the gas steams and various combinations of these parameters. In addition, geometrical and material parameters such as the gas diffusion layer (GDL) thickness and porosity as well as the ratio between the channel width and the land area were investigated.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.218-223
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• 2012

Fe-(8.5, 18.5, 28.3, 36.9) wt% Cr alloys were corroded between 600 and $800^{\circ}C$ for up to 70 h in a 1 atm gas mixture that consisted of 0.0242 atm of $H_2S$, 0.031 atm of water vapor, and 0.9448 atm of nitrogen gas. Their corrosion resistance increased with an increment in the Cr content. The Fe-8.5%Cr alloy corroded fast, forming thick, fragile, nonadherent scales that consisted primarily of an outer FeS layer and an inner (Fe, Cr, O, S)-mixed layer. The outer FeS layer grew into the air by the outward diffusion of $Fe^{2+}$ ions, whereas the inner mixed layer grew by the inward diffusion of oxygen and sulfur ions. At the interface of the outer and inner scales, voids developed and cracking occurred. The Fe-(18.5, 28.3, 36.9)% Cr alloys displayed much better corrosion resistance than the Fe-8.5Cr alloy, because thin $Cr_2O_3$ or $Cr_2S_3$ scales formed.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.216-222
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• 2013

Durability characteristics of Gas Diffusion Layer(GDL) is one of the important issues for accomplishing commercialization of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell(PEMFC). It is strongly related to the performances of PEMFC because one of the main functions of GDL is to work as a path of fuel, air and water. When the GDL does not work on their proposed functions due to the degradation of durability, mass transfer in PEMFC is disturbed and it might cause the flooding phenomenon. Thus, investigating the durability of GDL is important and understanding the GDL degradation process is needed. In this study, electrochemical degradation with carbon corrosion is introduced. The carbon corrosion experiment is carried out with GDLs which have different MPL penetration thicknesses. After the experiment, the amount of degradation of GDL is measured with various properties of GDL such as weight, thickness and performance of the PEMFC. The degraded GDL shows loss of their properties.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.215-223
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• 1992

This study has been performed to investigate into some effects of temperature, gas mixing ratio and time on the optical microstructure, hardness and wear characteristics of medium carbon alloy steel treated by plasma nitriding. The results obtained from the experiment are summarized as follows: (1) Optical micrographs of AISI 4140 steel plasma-nitrided by the double stage technique have revealed that the nitrided layer is composed of the compound layer and the diffusion layer. The variation in temperature at the first stage gives effects, on the formation of compound layer and the growth rate is shown to be relatively fast at $460^{\circ}C$. (2) The thickness of compound layer has been found to increase with increasing nitrogen percentage in the gas mixture and the holding time. It is therefore recommended that a shorter holding time and a lower nitrogen percentage are more effective to produce a tougher compound layer and a diffusion layer only. (3) X-ray diffraction analysis for AISI 4140 steel has shown that the compound layer consist of ${\gamma}^{\prime}-Fe_4N$ and ${\alpha}-Fe$ and that tough compound layer diffustion layer only can be obtained by the double stage plasmanitriding process. (4) There is also a tendency that the total hardened layer depth increases with increasing temperature, time and nitrogen percentage in the first stage during the double stage plasma nitriding. (5) The wear resistance of plasma nitrided specimens has been found thobe considerably increased compared to the untreated specimens and the amount of increment has appeared to increase further with increasing nitriding temperature, holding time and notrogen percentage of gas mixture in the first stage treatment.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.306-310
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• 2007

Characteristics of GDL (Gas Diffusion Layer) mainly determine the gas diffusion and water removal in a cell, thereby changing the performance and affecting durability of PEFC. To optimize the water management and understand the two phase flow in a GDL, it is important to study the behaviors of GDL micro structure under the real operating condition. In the clamped condition of cell, the GDL beneath the rib is more compressed than beneath the channel. Many researches on physical, electrochemical, mechanical behaviors of gas diffusion layer has been conducted. However, changes in surface properties under clamped condition have rarely studied. In present study, the morphology of broken connections of carbon fibers and detachment of PTFE coatings on the fibers were shown from the microscopic observations. In addition, changes in wetting properties of GDL by compression were investigated by using XPS and liquid uptake methods. The hydrophobic characteristics of GDL surface beneath the rib of the flow field plate are changed due to the deformation of micro structure.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.320-325
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• 2013

TUnitized reversible fuel cells (URFC) combine the functionality of a fuel cell and electrolyzer in one unitized device. For a URFC with proton exchange membrane, a titanium (Ti)-felt is applied to the gas diffusion layer (GDL) substrate at the oxygen electrode, and additionally titanium (Ti)-powders and TiN-powders are loaded in the GDL substrate as a micro porous layer (MPL). Double porous layer with TiN MPL was not acceptable for the URFC because both of fuel cell performance and electrolysis performance are degraded. The double porous layer with Ti-powder loading in the Ti-felt substrate influence rearly for the electrolysis performance. In contrast, the change of pore-size distribution brings a significant improvement of fuel cell performance under fully humidification conditions. This fact indicates that the hydrophobic meso-pores in the GDL play an important role for mass transport.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.81.2-81.2
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• 2011

The gas diffusion layer (GDL) consists of two main parts, the GDL backing layer, called as a substrate and the micro porous layer (MPL) coated on the GDBL. In this process, carbon particles of MPL penetrates to the GDBL consequently forms MPL penetration part. In this study, the micro porous layer (MPL) penetration thickness is determined as a design parameter of the GDL which affect pore size distribution profile through the GDL inducing different mass transfer characteristics. The pore size distribution and water permeability characteristics of the GDL are investigated and the cell performance is evaluated under fully/low humidification conditions. Transient response and voltage instability are also studied. In addition, to determine the effects of MPL penetration on the degradation, the carbon corrosion stress test is conducted. The GDL that have deep MPL penetration thickness shows better performance in high current density region because of enhanced water management, however, loss of penetrated MPL parts is shown after aging and it induces worse water management characteristics.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.44 no.10
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• pp.580-584
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• 2007

The ZrC layer instead of SiC layer is a critical and essential layer in TRISO coated fuel particles since it is a protective layer against diffusion of fission products and provides mechanical strength for the fuel particle. In this study, we carried out computational simulation before actual experiment. With these simulation results, Zirconium carbide (ZrC) films were chemically vapor deposited on $ZrO_2$ substrate using zirconium tetrachloride $(ZrCl_4),\;CH_4$ as a source and $H_2$ dilution gas, respectively. The change of input gas ratio was correlated with growth rate and morphology of deposited ZrC films. The growth rate of ZrC films increased as the input gas ratio decreased. The microstructure of ZrC films was changed with input gas ratio; small granular type grain structure was exhibited at the low input gas ratio. Angular type structure of increased grain size was observed at the high input gas ratio.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.68-74
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• 2021

Gas diffusion layer (GDL) compression is important parameter of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) performance to have an effect on contact resistance, reactants transfer to electrode, water content in membrane and electrode assembly (MEA). In this study, the effect of GDL compression on fuel cell performance was investigated for commercial products, JNT20-A3. Polarization curve and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy was performed at different relative humidity and compression ratio using electrode area of 25 ㎠ unit cell. The contact resistance was reduced to 8, 30 mΩ·㎠ and membrane hydration was increased as GDL compression increase from 18.6% to 38.1% at relative humidity of 100 and 25%, respectively. It was identified through ohmic resistance change at relative humidity conditions that as GDL compression increased, water back-diffusion from cathode and electrolyte membrane hydration was increased because GDL porosity was decreased.