• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.224-224
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• 2012

For decades, carbon fiber has expanded their application fields from reinforced composites to energy storage and transfer technologies such as electrodes for super-capacitors and lithium ion batteries and gas diffusion layers for proton exchange membrane fuel cell. Especially in fuel cell, water repellency of gas diffusion layer has become very important property for preventing flooding which is induced by condensed water could damage the fuel cell performance. In this work, we fabricated superhydrophobic network of carbon fiber with high aspect ratio hair-like nanostructure by preferential oxygen plasma etching. Superhydrophobic carbon fiber surfaces were achieved by hydrophobic material coating with a siloxane-based hydrocarbon film, which increased the water contact angle from $147^{\circ}$ to $163^{\circ}$ and decreased the contact angle hysteresis from $71^{\circ}$ to below $5^{\circ}$, sufficient to cause droplet roll-off from the surface in millimeter scale water droplet deposition test. Also, we have explored that the condensation behavior (nucleation and growth) of water droplet on the superhydrophobic carbon fiber were significantly retarded due to the high-aspect-ratio nanostructures under super-saturated vapor conditions. It is implied that superhydrophobic carbon fiber can provide a passage for vapor or gas flow in wet environments such as a gas diffusion layer requiring the effective water removal in the operation of proton exchange membrane fuel cell. Moreover, such nanostructuring of carbon-based materials can be extended to carbon fiber, carbon black or carbon films for applications as a cathode in lithium batteries or carbon fiber composites.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.123-129
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• 2017

Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (FEMFC) is a strong candidate for future automobile and power generation because of its high power density, low emission and low operation temperature. The major concerns of the gas diffusion layer (GDL) inside a FEMFC is water management. The GDL is typically comprised of carbon for electrical conductivity and PTFE for Hydrophobicity. In this simulation, GDL flooding was investigated using a simplified approach method of an established equation models(Fick' Law, Darcy, Law, Stefan-Maxwell diffusion). The performance of GDL was shown using result of the inner heat, water density and oxygen density of the cell using model equations. The catalyst layer mode in FEMFC showed results of effectiveness factor, Butler-volmer and hydrogen flux density. These results are interesting because the influence of several factors has been shown and the information will be helpful for fuel cell design.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.149-154
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• 2000

Bi-layer Mo films were deposited on soda-lime glass substrates using DC magnetron supttering. Increasing gas pressure, the resistivity varied from $1\times10^{-5}\; to\; 8.3\times10^{-3}\; \Omega.cm$. Furthermore, stress direction yielded compressive-to-tensile transition stress curves. The micro-structure of the compressively-stressed film which had poor adhesion consists of tightly packed columns, but of the tensile-stressed films had less dense structure. Under all gas pressure conditions, Mo films exhibited distinctly increasing optical reflection with decreasing gas pressure. The expansion of (110) peak width with the gas pressure meant the worse crystalline growth. The impurity levels in the Mo film exhibited highly concentrated Na, Se and O elements due to less dense micro-structure. The degree of Na diffusion depends on the type of the glass substrate used and the nature of the Mo film.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.64-69
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• 2013

The structure of pore network of gas diffusion layers (GDLs) in PEMFCs plays a critical role in determining the transport phenomena of reaction gas as well as generated water. In addition, the interactive characteristics between water and surface of pore are no less important than the structural characteristics of pore network. In this study, porometric investigation is conducted for two kinds of GDL using method of standard porosimetry which enable to distinguish hydrophobic pores from hydrophilic pores of GDLs. The porosity of TGPH-120 decreases by 6% by adding 30 wt.% of PTFE, but the porosity of hydrophilic pores decreases by 12%. The relation of $p_c-S_{nw}$ varies with the addition of PTFE, especially at low $p_c$.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.27-32
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• 2004

High temperature superconducting coated conductor has a structure of /< superconducting layer>//. The buffer layer consists of multi layer, and the architecture most widely used in RABiTS approach is CeO$_2$(cap layer)/YSZ(diffusion barrier layer)/CeO$_2$(seed layer). Evaporation technique is used for the CeO$_2$ layer and DC reactive sputtering technique is used for the YSZ layer, A chamber was set up specially for DC reactive sputtering, Detailed features are as following. A separator divided the chamber into two halves a sputtering chamber and a reaction chamber. The argon gas for sputtering target elements flows out of the cap of sputtering gun, and water vapor for reaction with depositing species spouts near the substrate. Turbo pump is connected with reaction chamber. High speed deposition of YSZ film could be achieved in the chamber. Detailed deposition conditions (temperature and partial pressure of reaction gas) were investigated for the rapid growth of high quality YSZ film.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.615-620
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• 1996

Chromium-Molybdenum steel was plasma-nitrided at 823 K for 10.8 ks in an atmosphere of 30% $N_2$-70% $H_2$ gas under 665 Pa without and with a subsidiary cathode of $MoS_2$ to compare ion-nitriding and plasma-sulfnitriding using subsidiary cathode. When the steel was ion-nitrided without $MoS_2$, iron nitride layer of 4$\mu\textrm{m}$ and nitrogen diffusion layer of 400mm were formed on the steel. A compound layer of 15$\mu\textrm{m}$ and nitrogen diffusion layer of 400$\mu\textrm{m}$ were formed on the surface of the steel plasma-sulfnitrided with subsidiary cathode of $MoS_2$. The compound layer consisted of FeS containing Mo and iron nitrides. The nitrides of $\varepsilon$-$Fe_2$, $_3N$ and $\gamma$-$Fe_4N$ formed under the FeS. The thicker compound layer was formed by plasma-sulfnitriding than ion-nitriding. In plasma-sulfnitriding, the surface hardness was about 730 Hv. The surface hardness of the steel plasma-sulfnitrided with $MoS_2$ was lower than that of ion-nitrided without $MoS_2$. This may be due to the soft FeS layer formed on the surface of the plasma-sulfnitrided steel.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.37 no.8
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• pp.767-773
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• 2013

This study suggested the variations of porosity and gas permeability of gas diffusion layers (GDLs), which are easily deformed among the components of a highly compressed PEMFC stack. The volume change owing to compression was measured experimentally, and the variations in the porosity and gas permeability were estimated using correlations published in previous literature. The effect of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) which is added to the GDLs to enhance water discharge was investigated on the variations of porosity and gas permeability. The gas permeability which strongly affects the mass transport through GDL, decreases sharply with increasing compression when the GDL has high PTFE loading. As a result, the mass transport through the pore network of GDL can be changed considerably according to the PTFE loading even with the same clamping force. The accuracy of modeling of transport phenomena through GDL can be improved due to the enhanced correlations developed based on the results of this study.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.34-42
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• 2012

Gas diffusion layers (GDLs) of carbon composite type in polymer electrolyte fuel cells were prepared by simple and cheap manufacturing process. To obtain the carbon composite GDLs, carbon black with polymer binder was mixed in solvent, rolled to make sheet, and finally heat-treated at $340^{\circ}C$. The performance of fuel cell using composite GDLs was changed by PTFE content. The physical properties of composite GDLs for pore, conductivity and air permeability were analyzed to compare with the variation of fuel cell performance. The conductivity of composite GDLs was very similar to carbon paper as commercial GDL but pore properties and air flux were considerably different. The porosity, PTFE content and conductivity for composite GDLs did not have an influence on the cell performance much. The increase of pore diameter and air flux led to enhance cell performance.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.194-199
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• 1993

Gas diffusion passes are introduced to catalyst layer so as to enlarge reaction region in cathode and anode and then improve electrode performances. The catalyst layer was manufactured with PTFE/carbon (none catalyst loaded) for gas diffusion and Pt/carbon (10 w/o Pt catalyst loaded) by varing the mixing ratio of (PTFE/carbon) to (Pt/carbon) by catalyst powdering method. The electrodes made by mixing Pt(10 w/o)/carbon powders and PTFE/carbon powders containing 60 w/o PTFE at the ratio of 7 : 3 showed the best electrode performances. It was known that by comparing the porosities to electrode performances the electrode performances were increased as both macro pore for gas diffusion and micro pore for electrolyte intrusion were formed much more. The platinum catalyst content in electrode was 0.2 mg/$\textrm{cm}^2$ and the PTFE content was 42 w/o. The electrode performance in unit cell was 220 ㎃/$\textrm{cm}^2$/0.7 V at operating temperature of 150$^{\circ}C$.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.677-684
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• 2016

Various commercially available gas diffusion layers (GDLs) from different manufacturers were used to prepare an air electrode using $La_{0.8}Sr_{0.2}CoO_3$ perovskite (LSCP) as the catalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in an alkaline solution. Various GDLs have different physical properties, such as porosity, conductivity, hydrophobicity, etc. The ORR and OER of the resulting cathode were electrochemically evaluated in an alkaline solution. The electrochemical properties of the resulting cathodes were slightly different when compared to the physical properties of GDLs. Pore structure and conductivity of GDLs had a prominent effect and their hydrophobicities had a minor effect on the electrochemical performances of cathodes for ORR and OER.