• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.94-102
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• 2014

Cation exchange membrane (Nafion) was modified to reduce the vanadium ion permeation through the membrane and to increase the vanadium redox flow battery (VRB) system performance by coating the graphene oxide (GO) which has nano-plate like morphology. Modified membrane properties were studied by measuring the ion exchange capacity (I.E.C), water uptake and proton conductivity. The thickness of the coated layer on the surface of the Nafion membrane was observed as $0.93{\mu}m$ by SEM. Proton conductivity and vanadium ion permeability of the modified membrane were decreased to 27% and 25% compared to that of the commercial Nafion membrane respectively. VRB single cell performance test was performed to compare the system performance of the VRB applied with commercial Nafion membrane and modified membrane. VRB system applied with modified membrane showed higher coulombic efficiency and energy efficiency than the VRB system applied with the commercial Nafion membrane due to the reduction of the vanadium ion permeation. From these result, we could suggest that the membrane modification by coating the GO on the surface of the Nafion membrane could be one of the promising strategies to reduce the vanadium ion permeation and to increase the VRB system performance effectively.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.52 no.7
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• pp.298-304
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• 2003

IPMC(Ionic Polymer-Metal Composite) is a highly sensitive actuator that shows a large deformation in presence of low applied voltage. Generally, IPMC can be fabricated by electroless plating of platinum on both sides of a Nafion (perfluorosulfonic acid) film. When a commercial Nafion film is used as a base structure of the IPMC membrane, the micro-pump structure and the IPMC membrane are fabricated separately and then later assembled, which makes the fabrication inefficient. Therefore, fabrication of an IPMC membrane and the micro-pump structure on a single wafer without the need of assembly have been developed. The silicon wafer was partially etched to hold liquid Nafion to be casted and a 60-${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ thick IPMC membrane was realized. IPMC membranes with various size were fabricated by casting and they showed 4-2${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ displacements from $4mm{\times}4mm$ , $6mm{\times}6mm$, $8mm{\times}8mm$ membranes at the applied voltage ranging from 2Vp-p to 5Vp-p at 0.5Hz. The displacement of the fabricated IPMC membranes is fairly proportional to the membrane area and the applied voltage.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.74-80
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• 2019

$Nafion/TiO_2$ composite membranes were prepared via an in-situ sol-gel process with different immersing periods from 1 day to 7 days for the low humidifying proton exchange membrane fuel cell. As the immersing time increased, the $TiO_2$ content within the Nafion membrane increased. The contact angle decreased with the increased $TiO_2$ content in the composite membrane due to the increased hydrophilicity. The water uptake and proton conductivity reached to the highest level for 4 day immersing period, then decreased as the immersing period increased. A 7 days of immersing time was shown to be too long because too much $TiO_2$ aggregates were formed on the membrane surface as well as interior of the membrane, interfering the proton transfer from anode to cathode. Cell performance results were in good agreement with those of the water uptake and proton conductivity; current densities under a relative humidity (RH) of 40% were 0.54, 0.6, $0.63A/cm^2$ and $0.49A/cm^2$ for the immersing time of 1, 3, 4 and 7 days, respectively at a 0.6 V. The composite membrane prepared via the in-situ sol-gel process exhibited the enhancement in the cell performance under of RH 40% by a maximum of about 66% compared to those of using the recasting composite membrane and Nafion 115.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.307-318
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• 2020

Conventional perfluorinated sulfonic acid membrane, Nafion is widely used for vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB). It is desired to prevent vanadium ion permeation through a membrane to retain the capacity, and to keep the cell efficiency of a VRFB. Highly proton conductive and chemically stable Nafion membranes, however, suffer from high vanadium permeation, which induce the reduction in charge and discharge capacity by side reactions of vanadium ions. In this study, to resolve the issue, silica nanoparticles, which are functionalized with 3-aminopropyl group (fS) are introduced to enhance the long-term performance of a VRFB by lowering vanadium permeation. It is expected that amine groups on silica nanoparticles are converted to positive ammonium ion, which could deteriorate positively charged vanadium ions' crossover by Gibbs-Donnan effect. There is reduction in proton conductivity may due to acid-base complexation between fS and Nafion side chains, but ion selectivity of proton to vanadium ion is enhanced by introducing fS to Nafion membranes. With the composite membranes of Nafion and fS, VRFBs maintain their discharge capacity up to 80% at a high current density of 150 mA/㎠ during 200 cycles.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.159-166
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• 2003

The preparation method for composite membranes of high temperature operation above $100^{\circ}C$ for Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs ) was presented, using perfluorosulfonylfluoride Nafion resin and mordenite, in addition to the physical properties, proton conductivity and single cells performance for it. The composite membranes were fabricated via melting of Nafion resin with various mordenite content. As the increase of mordenite content, at high temperature range, proton conductivity of the composite membrane increased due to the late dehydration rate of existent water in the mordenite. Also, from the result of the current-voltage relationship for single cells under $130^{\circ}C$ operation condition, the composite membrane cell with l0 wt% mordenite content showed better performance than that of the others over the entire current density range. This result indicated that the existent water in the composite membrane with l0 wt% mordenite content was higher than that with the others, thereby maintains its conductivity. Based upon the results of experiments, therefore, a Nafion/mordenite composite membrane prepared by this work is thought to be a satisfactory polymer electrolyte membrane for PEMFC operation above $100^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.9-13
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• 2016

Electrospun poly(ether sulfone) (PES) membrane impregnated with Nafion (PES-N) have been developed for high-temperature polymer-electrolyte membrane fuel cell (HT-PEMFC). The PES-N obtains highly thermal stability up to $430^{\circ}C$, which is higher than that of the commercial Nafion 212. The PES-N membrane shows a good proton conductivity of about $10^{-2}S\;cm^{-1}$ in a temperature range from $75^{\circ}C$ to $120^{\circ}C$. The membrane-electrode assembly (MEA) with the PES-N membrane exhibits a current density of $1.697A\;cm^{-2}$ at $75^{\circ}C$, and $0.813A\;cm^{-2}$ at $110^{\circ}C$ when the applied voltage is 0.6 V, whereas the MEA with the Nafion 212 membrane shows the current density of $0.647Acm^{-2}$ at $110^{\circ}C$. The results suggest that the PES-N can be a good candidate for a polymer electrolyte membrane of the HT-PEMFC.

• 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

• Membrane Journal
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.285-300
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• 2012

Vanadium redox flow battery is believed to be one of important energy storage technologies, because it has many advantages, including long cycle life, high energy efficiency, low cost of maintenance, and environmental friendship. As one of the key components of vanadium redox flow battery system, an ion exchange membrane is required to prevent cross-mixing of the positive and negative electrolytes while allowing ionic continuity. However, ion exchange membrane such as Nafion using in VRBs still face some challenges in meeting performance and cost requirements for broad penetration. Therefore, to resolve these problems, developed various ion exchange membranes are investigated and compared with Nafion membranes in terms of their performance in vanadium redox flow battery.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.214-219
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• 2006

Cast Nafion-based composite membranes containing different amounts of organic, nanorod-shaped polyrotaxane were prepared and characterized, with the aim of improving the properties of polymer electrolyte membranes for direct methanol fuel cell applications. Polyrotaxane was prepared using the inclusion-complex reaction between ${\alpha}$-cyclodextrin and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) of different molecular weights. The addition of polyrotaxane to Nafion changed the morphology and reduced the crystallinity. The conductivity of the composite membranes increased with increasing polyrotaxane content up to 5 wt%, but then decreased at higher polyrotaxane contents. Well-dispersed, organic polyrotaxane inside the membrane can provide a tortuous path for the transport of methanol, as the methanol permeability depends on the aspect ratio of polyrotaxane, which is controlled by the molecular weight of PEG. All of the Nafion-based, polyrotaxane composite membranes showed a higher selectivity parameter than the commercial Nafion films did.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.514-520
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• 2005

Composite membranes of Nafion and sulfonated poly(arylene ether sulfone) were prepared. Sulfonated poly(arylene ether sulfone)s with different degrees of sulfonation were blended with Nafion to reduce the methanol crossover. The morphology, proton conductivity and methanol permeability of the resulting composite membranes were investigated by SEM, EDAX, AC impedance spectroscopy and permeability measuring instrument. The cross­sections of the composite membranes showed a phase separated morphology. The morphology and phase separation mechanism could be controlled by varying the blend ratio and the degree of sulfonation of poly(arylene ether sulfone). These complex morphologies can be applied for reducing methanol crossover. The methanol permeability and proton conductivity of the composite membranes were lower than those of Nafion 117 membrane since the development of an ionic pathway in the blend membrane was more difficult than that in Nafion itself.