• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.59 no.4
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• pp.487-492
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• 2021

In this study, the electrochemical properties of pitch coated silicon sheets/graphite anode materials were investigated. Using NaCl as a template, silicon sheets were prepared through the stöber method and the magnesiothermic reduction methode. In order to synthesize the anode composite, the silicon sheets and graphite were combined with SDBS. The pitch coated silicon sheets/graphite was synthesized using THF as a solvent for the anode material composite. The physical properties of the prepared anode composites were analysed by XRD, SEM, EDS and TGA. The electrochemical performances of the prepared anode composites were performed by the current charge/discharge, rate performance, cyclic voltammetry and EIS tests in the electrolyte LiPF₆ dissolved solvents (EC:DMC:EMC=1:1:1 vol%). As the silicon composition of silicon sheets/graphite composite material increased, the discharge capacity also increased, but the cycle stability tended to decrease. The anode material of pitch coated silicon sheets/graphite composite (silicon sheets:graphite=3:7 weight ratio) showed the initial discharge capacity of 1228.8 mAh/g and the capacity retention ratio of 77% after 50 cycles. From these results, it was found that the cycle stability of pitch coated silicon sheets/graphite was improved.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2023

The cathode, which is one of the four major components of a lithium secondary battery, is an important component responsible for the energy density of the battery. The mixing process of active material, conductive material, and polymer binder is very essential in the commonly used wet manufacturing process of the cathode. However, in the case of mixing conditions of the cathode, since there is no systematic method, in most cases, differences in performance occur depending on the manufacturer. Therefore, LiMn₂O₄ (LMO) cathodes were prepared using a commonly used THINKY mixer and homogenizer to optimize the mixing method in the cathode slurry preparation step, and their characteristics were compared. Each mixing condition was performed at 2000 RPM and 7 min, and to determine only the difference in the mixing method during the manufacture of the cathode other experiment conditions (mixing time, material input order, etc.) were kept constant. Among the manufactured THINKY mixer LMO (TLMO) and homogenizer LMO (HLMO), HLMO has more uniform particle dispersion than TLMO, and thus shows higher adhesive strength. Also, the result of the electrochemical evaluation reveals that HLMO cathode showed improved performance with a more stable life cycle compared to TLMO. The initial discharge capacity retention rate of HLMO at 69 cycles was 88%, which is about 4.4 times higher than that of TLMO, and in the case of rate capability, HLMO exhibited a better capacity retention even at high C-rates of 10, 15, and 20 C and the capacity recovery at 1 C was higher than that of TLMO. It's postulated that the use of a homogenizer improves the characteristics of the slurry containing the active material, the conductive material, and the polymer binder creating an electrically conductive network formed by uniformly dispersing the conductive material suppressing its strong electrostatic properties thus avoiding aggregation. As a result, surface contact between the active material and the conductive material increases, electrons move more smoothly, changes in lattice volume during charging and discharging are more reversible and contact resistance between the active material and the conductive material is suppressed.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.60 no.2
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• pp.184-192
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• 2022

Porous NiO synthesized via hydrothermal synthesis was used in the electrodes of lithium-sulfur batteries to inhibit the elution of lithium polysulfide. The electrode of the lithium-sulfur battery was manufactured as a freestanding flexible electrode using an economical and simple vacuum filtration method without a current collector and a binder. The porous NiO-added S/CNT/NiO electrode exhibited a high initial discharge capacity of 877 mA h g^-1 (0.2 C), which was 125 mA h g^-1 higher than that of S/CNT, and also showed excellent retention of 84% (S/CNT: 66%). This is the result of suppressing the dissolution of lithium polysulfide into the electrolyte by the strong chemical bond between NiO and lithium polysulfide during the charging and discharging process. In addition, for the flexibility test of the S/CNT/NiO electrode, the 1.6 × 4 cm² pouch cell was prepared and exhibited stable cycle characteristics of 620 mA h g^-1 in both the unfolded and folded state.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.10 no.10
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• pp.4766-4786
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• 2016

Looking for missing companions who are out of touch in public places might suffer a long and painful process. With the help of mobile crowdsourcing, the missing person's location may be reported in a short time. In this paper, we propose MissingFound, an assistant system that applies mobile crowdsourcing for finding missing companions. Discovering valuable users who have chances to see the missing person is the most important task of MissingFound but also a big challenge with the requirements of saving battery and protecting users' location privacy. A customized metric is designed to measure the probability of seeing, according to users' movement traces represented by WiFi RSSI fingerprints. Since WiFi RSSI fingerprints provide no knowledge of users' physical locations, the computation of probability is too complex for practical use. By parallelizing the original sequential algorithms under MapReduce framework, the selecting process can be accomplished within a few minutes for 10 thousand users with records of several days. Experimental evaluation with 23 volunteers shows that MissingFound can select out the potential witnesses in reality and achieves a high accuracy (76.75% on average). We believe that MissingFound can help not only find missing companions, but other public services (e.g., controlling communicable diseases).

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.93-99
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• 2021

In order to decrease the weight of stretchable energy storage devices, interest in developing lightweight materials to replace metal current collectors is increasing. In this study, nanofibers prepared by electrospinning a conductive polymer, PEDOT:PSS, were used as current collectors for lithium ion batteries. The nanofiber showed improved electrical conductivity by using DMSO, a dopant, and indicated a stretch rate of 30% or more from the elasticity evaluation result. In addition, the use of the nanofiber current collector facilitates penetration of the liquid electrolyte and exhibits the effect of increasing the electronic conductivity through the nanofiber network. The lithium-ion battery using the DMSO-doped PEDOT:PSS@PAM nanofiber current collector indicated a high discharge capacity of 135mAh g^-1, and indicated a high capacity retention rate of 73.5% after 1000 cycles. Thus, the excellent electrochemical stability and mechanical properties of conductive nanofibers showed that they can be used as lightweight current collectors for stretchable energy storage devices.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.26-37
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• 2019

Recently, standardization of installation progress and technology of site acceptance test(SAT) for energy storage system(ESS) are being required due to performance of ESS depending on working condition and environment even though the quality and safety of each component of ESS　is guaranteed. And also, it has been required to perform not only performance testing by H/W equipments but also performance verification by S/W tool, in order to more accurately and reliably validate the performance of the ESS in advanced countries. Therefore, this paper proposes evaluation algorithm for SAT to evaluate performance of ESS and presents modeling of SAT test equipment for ESS by using PSCAD/EMTDC. Furthermore, 30[kW] scaled portable test equipments is implemented based on the proposed algorithm and modeling. From the various simulation and test results, it is confirmed that performance of ESS related to characteristics of capacity and Round-trip efficiency, Duty-cycle efficiency, low voltage ride through(LVRT) and Anti-islanding can be accurately evaluated and that the simulation results of PSCAD/EMTDC are identical to test results of 30[kW] test equipment.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.197-201
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• 2014

As the importance of rare metal is increasing globally, Japan introduced the concept of Strategic Elements in 2004, and started Strategic Elements Project in 2007. The Goal of this project run by MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) is to develop high-function materials and components that do not use rare or harmful elements by studying the role and characteristics of the elements that compose materials and components and decide their functions and characteristics. In September 2010, Japanese coast guard arrested a Chinese fishing boat near Senkaku Islands (Diaoyudao Islands by China), which escalated to the territory issue and eventually a big diplomatic and economic conflict. In order to put pressure on Japanese Government, China used an economic option, which is the ban of rare earth export to Japan. This incident doubled Japan's motivation to develop Strategic Elements and put more efforts into this Project. MEXT set the following three research areas in February 2012: Study of alternative materials using sufficient and harmless elements, Study of applications for the high-functions of Strategic Elements, Study of practical design for components using Strategic Elements. Through a course of gathering the opinion of professionals, MEXT settled down with the following 4 research and study areas for the Strategic Elements Project in June 2012. 1. Magnetic materials to replace Dy, Nd. 2. Catalyst/Battery materials to replace Pt, Rh/Li, Co. 3. Electronic materials to replace In, Ta. 4. Structural materials to replace Nb, Mo. This paper deals with the first area and reviews the results of the research and study as of now.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2014

Lithium ion batteries (LIBs) are the state-of-the-art technology among electrochemical energy storage and conversion cells, and are still considered the most attractive class of battery in the future due to their high specific energy density, high efficiency, and long cycle life. Rapid development of power-hungry commercial electronics and large-scale energy storage applications (e.g. off-peak electrical energy storage), however, requires novel anode materials that have higher energy densities to replace conventional graphite electrodes. Germanium (Ge) and silicon (Si) are thought to be ideal prospect candidates for next generation LIB anodes due to their extremely high theoretical energy capacities. For instance, Ge offers relatively lower volume change during cycling, better Li insertion/extraction kinetics, and higher electronic conductivity than Si. In this focused review, we briefly describe the basic concepts of LIBs and then look at the characteristics of ideal anode materials that can provide greatly improved electrochemical performance, including high capacity, better cycling behavior, and rate capability. We then discuss how, in the future, Ge anode materials (Ge and Ge oxides, Ge-carbon composites, and other Ge-based composites) could increase the capacity of today's Li batteries. In recent years, considerable efforts have been made to fulfill the requirements of excellent anode materials, especially using these materials at the nanoscale. This article shall serve as a handy reference, as well as starting point, for future research related to high capacity LIB anodes, especially based on semiconductor Ge and Si.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.60 no.3
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• pp.446-451
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• 2022

In this study, to improve capacity and cycle stability, the pitch coated nano silicon sheets/CNT composites were prepared through electrostatic bonding of nano silicon sheets and CNT. Silica sheets were synthesized by hydrolyzing TEOS on the crystal planes of NaCl, and then nano silicon sheets were prepared by using magnesiothermic reduction method. To fabricate the nano silicon sheets/CNT composites, the negatively charged CNT after the acid treatment was used to assemble the positively charged nano silicon sheets modified with APTES. THF as a solvent was used in the coating process of PFO pitch. The physical properties of the prepared anode composites were analysed by FE-SEM, XRD and EDS. The electrochemical performances of the synthesized anode composites were performed by current charge/discharge, rate performances, differential capacity and EIS tests in the electrolyte LiPF₆ dissolve solvent (EC:DMC:EMC = 1:1:1 vol%). It was found that the anode material with high capacity and stability could be synthesized when high composition of silicon and conductivity of CNT were used. The pitch coated nano silicon sheets/CNT anode composites showed initial discharge capacity of 2344.9 mAh/g and the capacity retention ratio of 81% after 50 cycles. The electrochemical property of pitch coated anode material was more improved than that of the nano silicon sheets/CNT composites.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.638-646
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• 2023

Recently, active research has been conducted to enhance the power characteristics and thermal stability of lithium-ion batteries (LiBs) by modifying separators using a ceramic coating method. However, since the thermal properties and surface features of the separator vary depending on the characteristics of the ceramic powders applied to the separator, it is crucial to manufacture ceramic powders optimized for the separator's performance. In this study, we evaluated the characteristics of three types of α-alumina (A-1, A-2, and A-3) produced with varying dispersant contents and milling times, in addition to commercial α-alumina (AES-11). Subsequently, the optimized powders (A-3) were coated onto the separator using an aqueous binder for comparison with the characteristics of an AES-11 coated separator and an uncoated PE separator. The A-3 coated separator improved electrolyte wettability with a low contact angle (44.69°) and increased puncture strength (538 gf). Furthermore, it exhibited excellent thermal stability, with a shrinkage value of 5.64% when exposed to 140℃ for 1 hour, compared to the AES11 coated separator (6.09%) and the bare PE separator (69.64%).