• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.63-70
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• 2024

Lithium-ion batteries (LIB) are widely used in various sectors, such as transportation (e.g., electric vehicles (EV)) and energy (e.g., energy storage facilities) due to their high energy density, broad operating temperature (-20 ℃ ~ 60 ℃), and high capacities. LIBs are powerful but fragile on external factors, including pressure, physical damage, overheating, and overcharging, that cause thermal runaway causing fires and explosions. During a LIB fire, a large amount of oxygen is generated from the decomposition of ionogenic materials. A water fire extinguisher that helps with cooling and suffocating must be essentially required at the same time. In fact, however, it is difficult to suppress LIB fires in the case of EVs because a LIB is installed with a battery pack housing that interrupts direct extinguishing by water. Thus, this study aims to investigate effective fire extinguishing measurements for LIB fires by using an EV. Relevant documents, including research articles and reports, were reviewed to identify effective ways of LIBs fire extinguishing. A real-scale fire experiment generating thermal runaway was carried out to figure out the combustion characteristics of EVs. This study revealed that the most effective fire extinguishing measurements for LIB fires are applying fire blankets and water tanks. However, there is still a lack of adequate regulation and guidelines for LIB fire extinguishment. Taking this into account, developing functional fire extinguishment measurements and available regulatory instruments is an urgent issue to secure the safety of firefighters and citizens.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.103-110
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• 2014

In the study, a room temperature ionic liquids as a co-solvent was used to evaluate the feasibility with various electrodes in Li-ion batteries. 1-Ethyl-1-methyl piperidinium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl) imide(PP12 TFSI) is an ionic liquid that melts at $85^{\circ}C$. Pure PP12 TFSI is not able to be used as an electrolyte because it is a solid salt at room temperature. PP12 TFSI is mixed with EC/DEC(1/1 vol.%) to prepare mixed solvents. The electrolyte 1.5M $LiPF_6$ in a mixed solvent having 44 wt.% PP12 TFSI is prepared to evaluated the various electrodes. The electrolytes provides good cycles life of cells with $LiNi_{0.5}Mn_{1.5}O_4(LNMO)$, $LiFePO_4(LFP)$, $Li_4Ti_5O_{12}(LTO)$ and artificial graphite. Further improvement of the cell performances can be accomplished by enhancing wettability of electrolytes to electrodes.

• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.199-205
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• 2014

In the field of neutron detections, $^3He$ gas, the so-called "the gold standard," is the most widely used material for neutron detections because of its high efficiency in neutron capturing. However, from variable causes since early 2009, $^3He$ is being depleted, which has maintained an upward pressure on its cost. For this reason, the demands for $^3He$ replacements are rising sharply. Research into neutron converting materials, which has not been used well due to a neutron detection efficiency lower than the efficiency of $^3He$, although it can be chosen for use in a neutron detector, has been highlighted again. $^{10}B$, which is one of the $^3He$ replacements, such as $BF_3$, $^6Li$, $^{10}B$, $Gd_2O_2S$, is being researched by various detector development groups owing to a number of advantages such as easy gamma-ray discrimination, non-toxicity, low cost, etc. One of the possible techniques for the detection is an indirect neutron detection method measuring secondary radiation generated by interactions between neutrons and $^{10}B$. Because of the mean free path of alpha particle from interactions that are very short in a solid material, the thickness of $^{10}B$ should be thin. Therefore, to increase the neutron detection efficiency, it is important to make a $^{10}B$ thin film. In this study, we fabricated a $^{10}B$ thin film that is about 60 um in thickness for neutron detection using well-known technology for the manufacturing of a thin electrode for use in lithium ion batteries. In addition, by performing simple physical tests on the conductivity, dispersion, adhesion, and flexibility, we confirmed that the physical characteristics of the fabricated $^{10}B$ thin film are good. Using the fabricated $^{10}B$ thin film, we made a proportional counter for neutron monitoring and measured the neutron pulse height spectrum at a neutron facility at KAERI. Furthermore, we calculated using the Monte Carlo simulation the change of neutron detection efficiency according to the number of thin film layers. In conclusion, we suggest a fabrication method of a $^{10}B$ thin film using the technology used in making a thin electrode of lithium ion batteries and made the $^{10}B$ thin film for neutron detection using suggested method.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.105-112
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• 2020

Transition metal oxide, which undergoes a conversion reaction in the negative electrode material for a lithium-ion batteries, has a high specific capacity, but still has several critical problems. In this study, manganese pyrophosphate (Mn₂P₂O₇), nickel pyrophosphate (Ni₂P₂O₇), and carbon composite materials with pyrophosphates as novel negative electrode materials instead of transition metal oxide, are synthesized through simple solid-state reaction. The initial reversible capacity of Mn₂P₂O₇ and Ni₂P₂O₇ are 333 and 340 mAh g^-1, and when the composite materials are composed with carbon, the reversible capacity increases to 433 and 387 mAh g^-1, respectively. The initial Coulombic efficiency is also improved by about 10%. The Mn₂P₂O₇ and carbon composite material has the highest initial capacity and efficiency, and has the best cycle performance. Mn₂P₂O₇ containing polyanion, has a lower specific capacity due to the large mass of polyanion compared to MnO (manganese oxide). However, since Mn₂P₂O₇ shows a voltage curve with a slope, the charging (lithiation) voltage increases from 0.51 to 0.57 V (vs. Li/Li⁺), and the discharge (delithiation) voltage decreases from 1.15 to 1.01 V (vs. Li/Li⁺). Therefore, the voltage efficiency of the cell is improved because the voltage difference between charging and discharging is greatly reduced from 0.64 to 0.44 V, and the operating voltage of the full cell increases because the negative electrode potential is lowered during the discharging process.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.27-34
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• 2012

$Li_3V_2(PO_4)_3$/carbon composite materials are synthesized from a sucrose-containing precursor. Amorphous $Li_3V_2(PO_4)_3/C$ (a-LVP/C) and crystalline $Li_3V_2(PO_4)_3/C$ (c-LVP/C) are obtained by calcining at $600^{\circ}C$ and $800^{\circ}C$, respectrively, and electrochemical performance as the negative electrode for lithium secondary batteries is compared for two samples. The a-LVP electrode shows much larger reversible capacity than c-LVP, which is ascribed to the spatial $Li^+$ channels and flexible structure of amorphous material. In addition, this electrode shows an excellent rate capability, which can be accounted for by the facilitated $Li^+$ diffusion through the defect sites. The sloping voltage profile is another advantageous feature for easy SOC (state of charge) estimation.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.85-90
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• 2013

Graphite is a commercial anode material to have the specific capacity of 372 mAh/g and the true density of 2.2 g/ml. Many effort had been pouring to find out the better material than graphite. Good candidates are silicon, tin, etc. Zinc is also a plausible candidate to have the specific capacity of 412 mAh/g and the true density of 7.14 g/ml. In this study, the Zn based anode material including indium and nickel as minor additives was synthesised. In order to get the homogeneouly mixed Zn-In-Ni composite material, the sol-gel method was used. The anode prepared by Zn-In-Ni composite material has the $1^{st}$ specific capacity of 910 mAh/g. Through prolonged charge-discharge cycling, the specific capacities were reduced to 365 (at $31^{st}$ cycle) and 378 mAh/g (at $62^{th}$ cycle). The $1^{st}$ Ah efficiency was 45% and Ah efficiencies were exhibited at the prolonged cycle.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 1993.05a
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• pp.79-84
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• 1993

This paper describes the development of lithium rechargeable cell. $LiCoO_2$ is recently recognized as a suitable cathode active material of a high voltage, high energy lithium rechargeable batteries because $Li^+$ ion can be electrochemically deintercalated/intercalated from/to $Li_xCoO_2$. The transition metal oxide of $LiCoO_2$ was investigated for using as a cathode active material of 4V class Li rechargeable cell. $LiCoO_2$ cathode was prepared by using a active material of 85 wt%, graphite powder of 12 wt% as a conductor and poly-vinylidene fluoride of 3 wt% as a binder. The electrochemical and charge/discharge properties of $LiCoO_2$ were investigated by cyclic voltammetry and galvanostatic charge/discharge. The open circuit voltage of prepared $LiCoO_2$ electrode exhibited approximately. potential range between 3.32V and 3.42V. During the galvanostatic charge/discharge, $LiCoO_2/Li$ cell showed stable cycling behavior at scan rate of 1mV/sec and potential range between 3.6V and 4.2V. Also its coulombic efficiency as function of cycling was 81%~102%. In this study the $LiCoO_2/Li$ cell showed the available discharge capacity of 90.1 mAh/g at current density of $1mA/cm^2$ and cell discharge voltage range between 3.6V~4.2V.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.19-26
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• 2012

SEI (solid electrolyte interphase) layers are generated on a graphite negative electrode from three different electrolytes and low-temperature ($-30^{\circ}C$) charge/discharge performance of the graphite electrode is examined. The electrolytes are prepared by adding 2 wt% of vinylene carbonate (VC) and fluoroethylene carbonate (FEC) into a standard electrolyte solution. The charge-discharge capacity of graphite electrode shows the following decreasing order; FEC-added one>standard>VC-added one. The polarization during a constant-current charging shows the reverse order. These observations illustrate that the SEI film resistance and charge transfer resistance differ according to the used additives. This feature has been confirmed by analyzing the chemical composition and thickness of three SEI layers. The SEI layer generated from the standard electrolyte is composed of polymeric carbon-oxygen species and the decomposition products ($Li_xPF_yO_z$) of lithium salt. The VC-derived surface film shows the largest resistance value even if the salt decomposition is not severe due to the presence of dense film comprising C-O species. The FEC-derived SEI layer shows the lowest resistance value as the C-O species are less populated and salt decomposition is not serious. In short, the FEC-added electrolyte generates the SEI layer of the smallest resistance to give the best low-temperature performance for the graphite negative electrode.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.189-195
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• 2009

$\beta-Ga_{2}O_{3}$ nanorods were synthesized by chemical vapor deposition method using nickel-oxide nanoparticle as a catalyst and gallium metal powder as a source material. The average diameter of nanorods was around 160 nm and the average length was $4{\mu}m$. Also, we confirmed that the synthesis of nanorods follows the vapor-solid growth mechanism. From the results of X-ray diffraction and HR-TEM observation, it can be found that the synthesized nanorods consisted of a typical core-shell structure with single-crystalline $\beta-Ga_{2}O_{3}$ core with a monoclinic crystal structure and an outer amorphous gallium oxide layer. Li/$\beta-Ga_{2}O_{3}$ nanorods cell delivered capacity of 867 mAh/g-$\beta-Ga_{2}O_{3}$ at first discharge. Although the Li/$\beta-Ga_{2}O_{3}$ nanorods cell showed low coulombic efficiency at first cycle, the cell exhibited stable cycle life property after fifth cycle.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.145-152
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• 2010

The gel polymer electrolyte(GPE) were prepared by in-situ thermal cross-linking reaction of homogeneous precursor solution of perfluorinated phosphate-based cross-linker and liquid electrolyte. Ionic conductivities and electrochemical properties of the prepared gel polymer electrolyte with the various contents of liquid electrolytes and perfluorinated organophosphate-based cross-linker were examined. The stable gel polymer electrolyte was obtained up to 97 wt% of the liquid electrolyte. Ionic conductivity and electrochemical properties of the gel polymer electrolytes with the various chain length of perfluorinated ethylene oxide and different content of liquid electrolytes were examined. The maximum ionic conductivity of liquid electrolyte was measured to be $1.02\;{\times}\;10^{-2}\;S/cm$ at $30^{\circ}C$ using the cross-linker($PFT_nGA$). The electrochemical stability of the gel polymer electrolyte was extended to 4.5 V. The electrochemical performances of test cells composed of the resulting gel polymer electrolyte were also studied to evaluate the applicability on the lithium polymer batteries. The test cell carried a discharge capacity of 136.11mAh/g at 0.1C. The discharge capacity was measured to be 91% at 2C rate. The discharge capacity decreased with increase of discharge rate which was due to the polarization. After 500th charge/discharge cycles, the capacity of battery decreased to be 70% of the initial capacity.