• Macromolecular Research
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.457-466
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• 2008

The relation between the phase separated morphologies and their transport properties in the polymer blend membrane for direct methanol fuel cell application was studied. In order to enhance the proton conductivity and reduce the methanol crossover, sulfonated poly(arylene ether sulfone) copolymer, with a sulfonation of 60 mol% (sPAES-60), was blended with nonsulfonated poly(ether sulfone) copolymer (RH-2000, Solvay). Various morphologies were obtained by varying the drying condition and the concentration of the casting solution (10, 15, 20 wt%). The transport properties of proton and methanol molecule through the polymer blend membranes were studied according to the absorbed water. AC impedance spectroscopy was used to measure the proton conductivity and a liquid permeability measuring instrument was designed to measure the methanol permeability. The state of water in the blend membranes was confirmed by differential scanning calorimetry and was used to correlate the morphology of the membrane with the membrane transport properties.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.20 no.10
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• pp.1678-1688
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• 2017

Infiltration is one of detrimental problems occurring in nursing or medical settings. Early detection of infiltration is essential to minimize the risk of injury from infiltration. To perform a preliminary study on the point of care and automated infiltration detection system, bioelectrical impedance was investigated using bioelectrical impedance analyzer. We would like to report experimental results that allow impedance parameters to effectively distinguish infiltration. Electrodes were attached to both sides of the transparent dressing on the fusion site where IV solution was being infused. Then, impedance parameters before and after infiltration were measured as a function of time and frequency. The experimental results are as follows. After infiltration was intentionally induced by puncturing the vein wall with a needle, the resistance gradually decreased with time. That is, when an alternating current having a frequency of 20 kHz was applied to the electrodes, the resistance gradually decreased with time, reflecting the accumulation of IV solution in the extracellular fluid since the current could not pass through the cell membrane. Impedance parameters and equivalent circuit model for human cell were used to examine the mechanism of current flow before and after infiltration, which could be used for early detection of infiltration.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.223-234
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• 2010

In this review, the theory and applications of the complex capacitance analysis, which can be utilized in analyzing capacitor-like electrochemical systems, were summarized. Theoretically, it was suggested that the imaginary capacitance plots (Cim vs. log f) can provide a simple way to analyze electrochemical characteristics of capacitive systems, without complicated mathematical calculations. The usefulness of the complex capacitance analysis has been demonstrated by applying it to analyze EDLC characteristics of practical porous carbon electrodes, ionic conductivities inside small pores, and ionic resistances in the catalyst layers of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.50-55
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• 2011

To enhance the performance of a MEA (membrane electrode assembly) in a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), optimum contents of Nafion ionomer as electrolyte in the 20 and 40 wt% Pt/C used in electrodes were examined. Variety characterization techniques were applied to examine optimum Nafion contents: cell performance test, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and cyclic voltammetry (CV). According to Pt wt% supported on carbon support, it has been observed that polarization, ohmic, and mass transfer resistances were changed so that the cell performance was significantly dependent on the content of Nafion ionomer. Optimum Nafion ionomer contents in the 20 wt% Pt/C and 40 wt% Pt/C were showed 35 wt% and 20 wt%, respectively. This is due to different surface area of the Pt/C catalyst, and formation of triple phase boundary seems to be affected by the Nafion contents.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1997.07d
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• pp.1252-1254
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• 1997

Direct methanol fuel cell based on a proton-exchange membrane electrolyte was investigated. 60% Pt-Ru/C and 60%Pt/C catalysts were employed for methanol oxidation and oxygen reduction, respectively. Morphologies of the catalysts were investigated by x-ray power diffraction, energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, and transmission microscopy. Electrochemical characteristics of the catalysts were tested by using cyclic voltametry technique. I-V characteristics of the fuel cell were tested by changing methanol concentration, temperature, and Nafion type as a proton-exchange membrane electrolyte. AC impedance technique was used to investigate the electrochemical performance of the fuel cell. The performance of single cell was enhance with increasing cell temperature. High operation temperature attributed to the combined effects of the reduction of ohmic resistance and polarization. High cell voltage was obtained from the concentration of 205M methanol. With Nafion 112, a current density of $230mA/cm^2$ at 0.55V was obtained from the concentration of 2.5M methanol.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.36-40
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• 2003

Freezing of water in a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) may cause severe problems in driving a fuel cell vehicle during the winter time. Characteristics of PEMFC which suffered low temperatures below zero degree was examined with the thermal cycles from 80 to $-10^{\circ}C$. With the thermal cycles, the cell performance was degraded due to the phase transformation and volume changes of water. Effects of freezing of water in PEMFC on the electrode structure and polarization resistance were examined by BET analysis, cyclic voltammetry, and AC impedance spectroscopy.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.317-322
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• 2009

To investigate degradation mechanism of PEMFC operated with repetitive startup/shutdown cycling, i-V characteristics, impedance, cyclic voltamograms were measured. OCV decreased from 0.967 to 0.951 V while the cell voltage at 800mA/$cm^2$ from 0.657 to 0.563V, implying that the electrodes rather than membrane electrolyte was damaged during the cycling operation. Electrochemical analyses supported that the performance degradation could be mainly attributed to degradation of the electrodes such as a decrease in electrochemical active surface area rather than degradation of membrane.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.46-54
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• 2008

In this paper, a low-cost impedance spectroscopy system(LCISS) suitable for modeling the electrochemical power sources such as fuel cells, batteries and supercapacitors is designed and implemented. Since the developed LCISS is composed of simple sensor circuits, commercial data acquisition board and LabVIEW software, a graphic language with powerful HMI(Human-Machine Interface), it is expected ta be widely used in substitution of the expensive EIS instruments. In the proposed system, the digital lock-in amplifier is adopted to achieve the accurate measurements even in the presence of the high level of noises. The developed hardware and software is applied to measure the impedance spectrum of the Ballard Nexa 1.2kW proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack and an equivalent impedance model is proposed based on the measurement results. The validity of the proposed equivalent circuit and the developed system is proven by the measurement of the ac power losses of the PEM fuel celt stack by the ripple current.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.16-22
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• 2024

Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells have the advantage of low operating temperatures and fast startup and response characteristics compared to others. Simulation studies are actively researched because their cost and time benefits. In this study, the resistance of water residual in the gas diffusion layer (GDL) of the unit cell was added to the existing equation to compare the actual data with the model data. The experiments were conducted with a 25 cm² unit cell, and the samples were separated into stopping times of 0, 10, and 60 minutes following primary impedance measurement, activation, and polarization curve data acquisition. This gives 0, 10, and 60 minutes for the residual water in the GDL to evaporate. Without the rest period, the magnitude of the performance improvement was not significantly different at the same potential and flow rate, but the rest period did improve the performance of the membrane electrode assembly when measuring impedance. By changing the magnitude of the resistance reduction to an overvoltage, the voltage difference between the fuel cell model with and without residual water was compared, and the error rate in the high current density region, which is dominated by concentration losses, was reduced.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.61 no.1
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• pp.19-25
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• 2023

Although a lot of research and development has been conducted on the performance improvement of PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane) water electrolysis, the research on durability is still in early stage. This study investigated effect of temperature on the water electrolysis durability when driving temperature of the PEM water electrolysis was increased to improve performance. Voltage change, I-V, CV (Cyclic Voltammetry), LSV (Linear Sweep Voltammetry), Impedance, and FER (Fluoride Emission Rate) were measured while driving under a constant current condition in a temperature range of 50~80 ℃. As the operating temperature increased, the degradation rate increased. At 50~65 ℃, the degradation of the IrO₂ electrocatalyst mainly affected the durability of the PEM water electrolysis cell. At 80 ℃, the polymer membrane and electrode degradation proceeded similarly, and the short resistance decreased to 1.0 kΩ·cm² or less, and the performance decreased to about 1/3 of the initial stage after 144 hours of operation due to the shorting phenomenon.