• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.72-81
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• 2019

Objective: To determine the effect of gut pH and rumen microbial fermentation on glycerol encapsulated in alginate and alginate-chitosan polymers. Methods: Glycerol was encapsulated at 2.5%, 5%, 7.5%, or 10% (w/w) with sodium alginate (A) and alginate-chitosan (AC) polymers. Surface morphology and chemical modifications of the beads were evaluated using scanning electron microscopy and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra. Encapsulation efficiency was determined at the 5% glycerol inclusion level in two experiments. In experiment 1, 0.5 g of alginate-glycerol (AG) and alginate-chitosan glycerol (ACG) beads were incubated for 2 h at $39^{\circ}C$ in pH 2 buffer followed by 24 h in pH 8 buffer to simulate gastric and intestinal conditions, respectively. In experiment 2, 0.5 g of AG and ACG beads were incubated in pH 6 buffer at $39^{\circ}C$ for 8 h to simulate rumen conditions. All incubations were replicated four times. Free glycerol content was determined using a spectrophotometer and used to assess loading capacity and encapsulation efficiency. An in vitro experiment with mixed cultures of rumen microbes was conducted to determine effect of encapsulation on microbial fermentation. Data were analyzed according to a complete block design using the MIXED procedure of SAS (SAS Institute, Cary, NC, USA). Results: For AG and ACG, loading capacity and efficiency were 64.7%, 74.7%, 70.3%, and 78.1%, respectively. Based on the FTIR spectra and scanning electron microscopy, ACG treatment demonstrated more intense and stronger ionic bonds. At pH 6, 36.1% and 29.7% of glycerol was released from AG and ACG, respectively. At pH 2 minimal glycerol was released but pH 8 resulted in 95.7% and 93.9% of glycerol released from AG and ACG, respectively. In vitro microbial data show reduced (p<0.05) fermentation of encapsulated glycerol after 24 h of incubation. Conclusion: The AC polymer provided greater protection in acidic pH with a gradual release of intact glycerol when exposed to an alkaline pH.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.227-236
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• 2019

In this work, preparation and characterizations of hybrid membranes containing sulfonated poly(arylene ether sulfone) (SPES) and sulfonated poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (SPVdF-co-HFP) (20, 30 or 40 wt%) were carried out. The structure of hybrid membranes was confirmed using X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis and the Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. The prepared SPAES/SPVdF-30 membrane exhibits higher ionic conductivity of 68.9 mS/cm at $90^{\circ}C$ and 100% RH. Besides, the other studies showed that the hybrid membrane has good oxidation stability, thermal stability, and mechanical stability. Thus, we believe that the prepared hybrid membrane is suitable for the development of membranes for fuel cell applications.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.210-215
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• 2022

Two types of lignin materials with a different surface ionic character were used and polypyrrole layer was introduced on the lignin surface to obtain polypyrrole@lignin and polypyrrole@lignosulfonate composites using a simple chemical oxidation polymerization, reported in a previous article. Polypyrrole was effectively prepared regardless of the lignin type and the resulting composites were investigated using scanning electron microscope (SEM), cyclic voltammetry (CV), and impedance analysis. SEM and CV results showed that the obtained composites retained stable electrochemical properties after introduction of polypyrrole on the lignin surface. Impedance analyses showed that the surface properties of composites were dependent on lignin characteristics. In addition, the composites were embedded in agarose, an gelifying agent, to obtain conductive gels. It was found that the conductive gels possessed an electrical conductivity and also retained stable electrochemical properties, which indicated that the conductive gels might be useful for some applications.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.178-186
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• 2023

Three activation methods (constant voltage, current cycling, and hydrogen pumping) were applied to investigate the effects on the performance of the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) loaded with PtCo/C catalyst. The current cycling protocol took the shortest time to activate the MEA, while the performance after activation was the worst among the all activation methods. The constant voltage method took a moderate activation time and exhibited the best performance after activation. The hydrogen pumping protocol took the longest time to activate the MEA with moderate performance after activation. According to the distribution of relaxation time analysis, the improved performance after the activation mainly comes from the decrease of charge transfer resistance rather than the ionic resistance in the cathode catalyst layer, which suggests that the existence of water on the electrode is the key factor for activation.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.173-180
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• 2009

In order to develop a novel polymer electrolyte membrane for direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC), styrene monomer was graft-polymerized into poly(tetrafluoroethylene perfluoropropyl vinyl ether) (PFA) film followed by a sulfonation reaction. The graft polymerization was prepared by the $\Upsilon$-ray radiation-grafting method. Subsequently, sulfonation of the radiation-grafted film was carried out in a chlorosulfonic acid/1,2-dichloroethane (2 v/v%) solution. The chemical, physical, electrochemical and morphological properties of the radiation-grafted membranes (PFA-g-PSSA) were characterized by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The water uptake, ionic conductivity, and methanol permeability of the PFA-g-PSSA membrane were also measured. The cell performances of MEA prepared with the PFA-g-PSSA membranes were evaluated and the cell resistances were measured by an impedance analyzer. The MEA using PFA-g-PSSA membranes showed superior performance for DMFCs in comparison with the commercial Nafion 112 membrane.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.234-240
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• 2008

This work demonstrates the preparation of proton conducting crosslinked polymer electrolyte membranes by blending polystrene-b-poly(hydroxyethyl acrylate) (PS-b-PHEA) and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) at 1 : 1 wt ratio. The PHEA block of the diblock copolymer was crosslinked with PVA using sulfosuccinic acid (SA) via the esterification reaction between -OH of membrane and -COOH of SA, as confirmed by FT-IR spectroscopy. Ion exchange capacity (IEC) continuously increased from 0.14 to 0.91 meq/g with increasing concentrations of SA, due to the increasing portion of charged groups in the membrane. In contrast, the water uptake increased up to 20.0 wt% of SA concentration above which it decreased monotonically. The membrane also exhibited a maximum proton conductivity of 0.024 S/cm at 20.0 wt% of SA concentration. The maximum behavior of water uptake and proton conductivity is considered to be due to competitive effect between the increase of ionic sites and the crosslinking reaction according to the SA concentration.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.344-349
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• 2017

Alkaline fuel cells using polymer electrolyte membranes are expected to replace proton exchange membrane fuel cells, which have similar system configurations. In particular, in alkaline fuel cells, a low-cost non-platinium catalyst can be used. In this study, to fabricate high performance and high durability anion exchange membranes for alkaline fuel cell systems, two kinds of supports, polybenzoxazole and polyethylene supports, were impregnated with Fumion FAA ionomer, by which we tried to fabricate the support-impregnated membrane which has higher mechanical strength and higher ion conductivity than the Fumion series. Finally, the Pore-filling membranes were successfully fabricated and ionic conductivity and mechanical properties were different depending on the properties of the supports. In the pore-filling membranes with Fumion ionomer on the PE support, excellent mechanical properties were obtained, but ionic conductivity decreased. On the other hand, when the PBO support was impregnated with Fumion ionomer, high ionic conductivity was shown after impregnation due to high basicity of PBO, but the mechanical strength was relatively low as compared with Fumion-PE membrane. As a result, it was concluded that it is necessary to consider the characteristics of the support according to the operating conditions of the alkaline fuel cell during the preparation of the pore-filling membranes.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.555-560
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• 2009

Sulfonic acid of the sulfonated 6FDA-based polyimides were exchanged with the monovalent ($Li^+$, $Na^+$, $K^+$) and divalent ($Mg^{2+}$, $Ca^{2+}$, $Ba^{2+}$) ions. The effect of metal cations exchanged sulfonated polyimides was investigated in terms of gas permeability and selectivity for $CO_2$, $O_2$ and $N_2$ gases. Thermogravimetric analysis showed that thermal stability of sulfonated polyimide was improved by exchanged metal cations. The permeabilities of monovalent cation-exchanged, sulfonated polyimide were reduced as the ion radius reduced [$Li^+$(0.059 nm)>$Na^+$(0.102 nm)>$K^+$(0.138 nm)], and those of divalent cations exchanged were determined by the ionic radii and electrostatic crosslinking between the polymer and metal cations, whereas the selectivities of all the metal cation-exchanged, sulfonated polyimides for $CO_2/N_2$ and $O_2/N_2$, were higher than those of sulfonated polyimide membranes. The sulfonated polyimide exchanged with the potassium cation showed the $O_2$ permeability of 89.98 Barrer [$1\times10^{-10}\;cm^3$(STP) $cm/cm^2{\cdot}s{\cdot}cmHg$] and the sulfonated polyimide exchanged with the lithium cation showed the $O_2/N_2$ selectivity of 12.9.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.73-80
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• 2010

A solid oxide fuel cells(SOFC) is a clean energy technology which directly converts chemical energy to electric energy. When the SOFC is used in cogeneration then the efficiency can reach higher than 80%. Also, it has flexibility in using various fuels like natural gases and bio gases, so it has an advantage over polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells in terms of fuel selection. A typical cathode material of the SOFC in conjunction with yttria stabilized zirconia(YSZ) electrolyte is still Sr-doped $LaMnO_3$(LSM). Recently, application of mixed electronic and ionic conducting perovskites such as Sr-doped $LaCoO_3$(LSCo), $LaFeO_3$(LSF), and $LaFe_{0.8}Co_{0.2}O_3$(LSCF) has drawn much attention because these materials exhibit lower electrode impedance than LSM. However, chemical reaction occurs at the manufacturing temperature of the cathode when these materials directly contact with YSZ. In addition, thermal expansion coefficient(TEC) mismatch with YSZ is also a significant issue. It is important, therefore, to develop cathode materials with good chemical stability and matched TEC with the SOFC electrolyte, as well as with high electrochemical activity.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.261-267
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• 2008

A graft copolymer consisting of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) backbone and poly(hydroxyethyl acrylate) (PHEA) side chains was synthesized via atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). Direct initiation of the secondary chlorines of PVC facilitates grafting of hydrophilic PHEA monomer. This graft copolymer, i.e. PVC-g-PHEA was cross-linked with sulfosuccinic acid (SA) via the esterification reaction between -OH of the graft copolymer and -COOH of SA, as confirmed by FT-IR spectroscopy. Ion exchange capacity (IEC) continuously increased to 0.87meq/g with increasing concentrations of SA, due to the increasing portion of charged groups in the membrane. However, the water uptake increased up to 20.0wt% of SA concentration above which it decreased monotonically. The membrane also exhibited a maximum proton conductivity of 0.025 S/cm at 20.0 wt% of SA concentration, which is presumably due to competitive effect between the increase of ionic sites and the crosslinking reaction.