• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.89.1-89.1
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• 2011

The influence of potential and humidity on the electrochemical carbon corrosion in high temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells(HT-PEMFCs) is investigated by measuring $CO_2$ emission at different potentials for 30 min using on-line mass spectrometry. These results are compared with low tempterature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells(LT-PEMFCs) operated at lower temperature and higher humidity condition. Although the HT-PEMFC is operated at non humidified condition, the emitted $CO_2$ in the condition of HT-PEMFC is more than LT-PEMFC at the same potential in carbon corrosion test. Thus, carbon corrosion shows a stronger positive correlation with the cell temperature. In addition, the presence of a little amount of water activate electrochemical carbon corrosion considerably in HT-PEMFC. With increased carbon corrosion, changes in fuel cell electrochemical characteristics become more noticeable and thereby indicate that such corrosion considerably affects fuel cell durability.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.147-147
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• 2010

An electrolyte membranes for high temperature/low humidity is a demand for the proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). In this work, we prepared hybrid membranes, which have novel glass content in the hydrophilic and hydrophobic part of sulfonated poly(arylene ether sulfone) (SPAES) by in-situ sol-gel synthesis of various functional silane. The effect of silicate from functional silane content on the proton conductivity, water uptake of the hybrid membranes under high temperature and low humidity was quantitatively identified. The silicate content contributed to the enhancement of not only proton conductivity, but also water retention ability for PEMFCs operation.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.50-60
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• 2013

High temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) using phosphoric acid (PA) doped polybenzimidazole (PBI) membranes have been concentrated as one of solutions to the limits with traditional low temperature PEMFCs. However, the amount of reported experimental data is not enough to catch the operational characteristics correlated with cell performance and durability. In this study, design of experiments (DOE) based operational optimization method for high temperature PEMFCs has been proposed. Response surface method (RSM) is very useful to effectively analyze target system's characteristics and to optimize operating conditions for a short time. Thus RSM using central composite design (CCD) as one of methodologies for design of experiments (DOE) was adopted. For this work, the statistic models which predict the performance and degradation rate with respect to the operating conditions have been developed. The developed performance and degradation models exhibit a good agreement with experimental data. Compared to the existing arbitrary operation, the expected cell lifetime and average cell performance during whole operation could be improved by optimizing operating conditions. Furthermore, the proposed optimization method could find different new optimal solutions for operating conditions if the target lifetime of the fuel cell system is changed. It is expected that the proposed method is very useful to find optimal operating conditions and enhance performance and durability for many other types of fuel cell systems.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.1397-1400
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• 2012

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.1902-1906
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• 2011

Sulfonated poly(fluorinated arylene ether)s (SDF-F)/poly[(N-vinylimidazole)-co-(3-methacryloxypropyl-trimethoxysilane)] (poly(VI-co-MPS))/poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (PTFE) is prepared for a high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). The reaction of the membrane with phosphoric acid forms silicate phosphor, as a chemically bound proton carrier, in the membrane. Thus-formed silicate phosphor, nitrogen in the imidazole ring, and physically bound phosphoric acid act as proton carriers in the membrane. The physico-chemical and electrochemical properties of the membrane are investigated by various analytical tools. The phosphoric acid uptake and proton conductivity of the SDF-F/poly(VI-co-MPS)/PTFE membrane are higher than those of SDF-F/PVI/PTFE. The power densities of cells with SDF-F/poly(VI-co-MPS)/PTFE membranes at 0.6 V are 286, 302, and 320 mW $cm^{-2}$ at 150, 170, and 190 $^{\circ}C$, respectively. Overall, the SDFF/poly(VI-co-MPS)/PTFE membrane is one of the candidates for anhydrous HT-PEMFCs with enhanced mechanical strength and improved cell performance.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.439-445
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• 2007

Proton exchange membrane Fuel Cells(PEMFCs) have been spotlighted because of their broad potential application for potable electrical devices, automobiles and residential usages. However, their utilization is limited to low temperature operation due to the electrolyte dehydration at high temperature. High temperature PEMFC operation offers high CO tolerance and easy water management. This review presents development of high temperature($120{\sim}200^{\circ}C$) PEMFC. Especially, PEMFC which is based on acid-doped PBI membrane is discussed.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.223-229
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• 2013

Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) is a power generation system to convert chemical energy of fuels and oxidants to electricity directly by electrochemical reactions. As a catalyst support for PEMFCs, carbon black has been generally used due to its large surface area and high electrical conductivity. However, under certain circumstances (start up/shut down, fuel starvation, ice formation etc.), carbon supports are subjected to serve corrosion in the presence of water. Therefore, it would be desirable to switch carbon supports to corrosion-resistive support materials such as metal oxide. $TiO_2$ has been attractive as a support with its stability in fuel cell operation atmosphere, low cost, commercial availability, and the ease to control size and structure. However, low electrical conductivity of $TiO_2$ still inhibits its application to catalyst support for PEMFCs. In this paper, to explore feasibility of $TiO_2$ as a catalyst support for PEMFCs, $TiO_2$ nanofibers were synthesized by electrospinning and calcinated at 600, 700, 800 and $900^{\circ}C$. Effects of calcination temperature on crystal structure and electrical conductivity of electrospun $TiO_2$ nanofibers were examined. Electrical conductivity of $TiO_2$ nanofibers increased significantly with increasing calcination temperature from $600^{\circ}C$ to $700^{\circ}C$ and then increased gradually with increasing the calcination temperature from $700^{\circ}C$ to $900^{\circ}C$. It was revealed that the remarkable increase in electrical conductivity could be attributed to phase transition of $TiO_2$ nanofibers from anatase to rutile at the temperature range from $600^{\circ}C$ to $700^{\circ}C$.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.300-308
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• 2009

In a pursuit of the development of alternative mobile power sources with a high energy density, a planar and air-breathing PEMFCs with a new type of hydrogen cartridge which uses onsite $H_2$ generated from sodium borohydride ($NaBH_4$) hydrolysis have been investigated for use in advanced power systems. Two types of $H_2$ generation through $NaBH_4$ hydrolysis are available: (1) using organic acids such as sulphuric acid, malic acid, and sodium hydrogen carbonate in aqueous solution with solid $NaBH_4$ and (2) using solid selected catalysts such as Pt, Ru, CoB into the stabilized alkaline $NaBH_4$ solution. It might therefore be relevant at this stage to evaluate the relative competitiveness of the two methods mentioned above. The effects of flow rate of stabilized $NaBH_4$ solution, MEA (Membrane Electrode Assembly) improvement, and type and flow control of the catalytic acidic solution have been studied and the cell performances of the planar, air-breathing PEMFCs using $NaBH_4$ has been measured from aspects of power density, fuel efficiency, energy density, and fast response of cell. In our experiments, planar, air-breathing PEMFCs using $NaBH_4$ achieved to maximum power density of 128mW/$cm^2$ at 0.7V and energy efficiency of 46% and has many advantages such as low operating temperature, sustained operation at a high power density, compactness, the potential for low cost and volume, long stack life, fast star-up and suitability for discontinuous operation.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.293-300
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• 2006

KIER has been developing a Ru-based preferential oxidation catalysts and a novel fuel processing system to provide hydrogen rich gas to residential PEMFCs system. The catalytic activity of Ru-based catalysts was investigated at different Ru loading amount and different support structure. The obtained result indicated that 2 wt% loaded Ru-based catalyst supported on ${\alpha}-Al_2O_3$ showed high activity in low temperature range and suppressed the methanation reaction. The developed prototype fuel processor showed thermal efficiency of 78% as a HHV basis with methane conversion of 92%. CO concentration below 10 ppm in the produced gas is achieved with separate preferential oxidation unit under the condition of $[O_2]/[CO]=2.0$. The partial load operation have been carried out to test the performance of fuel processor from 40% to 80% load, showing stable methane conversion and CO concentration below 10 ppm. The durability test for the daily start-stop and 8 h operation procedure is under investigation and shows no deterioration of its performance after 50 start-stop cycles. In addition to the system design and development.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.659-666
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• 2019

Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) generate electricity by electrochemical reactions of hydrogen and oxygen. PEMFCs are expected to alternate electric power generator using fossil fuels with various advantages of high power density, low operating temperature, and environmental-friendly products. PEMFCs have widely been used in a number of applications such as fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) and stationary fuel cell systems. However, there are remaining technical issues, particularly the long-term durability of each part of fuel cells. Degradation of a carbon supported-platinum catalyst in the anode and cathode follows various mechanistic origins in different fuel cell operating conditions, and thus accelerated stress test (AST) is suggested to evaluate the durability of electrocatalyst. In this article, comparable protocols of the AST durability test are intensively explained.