• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.71.1-71.1
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• 2012

Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFCs) have been of great interest particularly in the automobile industries because of their high energy density and low pollutant emission. However, some of the issues such as, the necessarily high contents of Pt catalysts and their slow kinetics of cathode oxygen reduction reaction remain as obstacles in the commercialization of the PEMFC. In this presentation, after brief explanation on basic principles of PEMFC and its application to FC vehicles, recent researches to improve the activity and durability of Pt-based nano catalysts toward oxygen reduction will be introduced. It covers size and shape control of Pt nano particle, binary and ternary Pt-M alloys, novel core-shell nano structures of Pt, and a little bit about non-Pt catalysts. Strategies and methodologies for design and synthesis of novel catalysts will also be included.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.355-360
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• 2012

The characteristics of power generation were investigated by changing the electrical conductivity from 10 to 40mS/cm using air-cathode microbial fuel cell, which had graphite fiber fabric(GFF) anode. There were three kinds of cathode used: one was carbon cloth cathode coated with Pt, another was carbon nanotube(CNT) cathode with non-precious catalyst of Fe-Cu-Mn, and the other was carbon nanotube(CNT) cathode without any catalyst. When it was operated in batch mode, power density of 1369.5mW/$m^2$ was achieved at conductivity of 20mS/cm. Power density from MFC with CNT cathode coated with multi-catalyst of Fe-Cu-Mn was shown about 985.55mW/$m^2$, which was 75.1% compared the power density of carbon cloth coated with Pt. This meant that CNT cathode coated with multi-catalyst of Fe-Cu-Mn could be an alternative of carbon cloth cathode.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.52-58
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• 2013

In order to overcome the cost issue for commercialization of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), this research was conducted for replacing platinum cathode catalyst with non-precious metal catalyst. The non-precious metal catalyst (Co-PANI-C) was synthesized by the simple reduction method with polyaniline (PANI), carbon black, and cobalt precursor without any heat treatment. Characterization of new Co-PANI-C composite catalysts was done by the measurement of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) for structure analysis and performed by rotating disk electrode (RDE) and rotating ring disk electrode (RRDE) for electrochemical analysis. As a result, Co-PANI-C catalyst showed 60 mV lower on-set potential for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) than Pt/C catalyst, but the overall reduction current of Co-PANI-C catalysts by ORR was still smaller than that of Pt/C. In addition, the ORR behavior of Co-PANI-C catalysts depending on the rotation speed of electrode and the stability of Co-PANI-C catalyst under potential cycling and the performance of fuel cell conditions are also discussed.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.343-347
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• 2012

The decomposition behaviors of gaseous cyanides in non-thermal plasma-catalyst hybrid reactor have been investigated with the variation of discharge power, influent concentration of cyanide, humidity of air carrier and packed materials in the reactor. Destruction of cyanides by plasma only process was very difficult compared to that of trichloroethylene. But the destruction efficiencies of cyanides were dramatically improved through packing alumina or Pt/alumina bead in the plasma discharge region. From the results, it could be assumed that thermal catalytic effect is involved simultaneously with plasma in the reaction of cyanides destruction on the alumina or Pt/alumina packed plasma reactor.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.95.2-95.2
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• 2011

In order to achieve high performance and low cost for commercial applications, the development of membrane electrode assemblies (MEA), in which the electrochemical reactions actually occur, must be optimized. Expensive platinum is currently used as an electrochemical catalyst due to its high activity. Although various platinum alloys and non-platinum catalysts are under development, their stabilities and catalytic activities, especially in terms of the oxygen reduction (ORR), render them currently unsuitable for practical use. Therefore, it is important to decrease platinum loading by optimizing the catalysts and electrode microstructure. In this study, we prepared several different MEAs (non-uniform Nafion$^{(R)}$ ionomer loading electrode) which have dual catalyst layers to find the optimal Nafion$^{(R)}$ ionomer distribution in the electrodes. We changed Nafion$^{(R)}$ ionomer content in the layers to find the ideal composition of the binder and Pt/C in the electrode. For MEAs with various ionomer contents in the anodes and cathodes, the electrochemical activity (activation overpotential) and the mass transport properties (concentration overpotential) were analyzed and correlated with the single cell performance. The dual catalyst layers MEA showed higher cell performance than uniformly fabricated MEA, especially at the high current density region.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.132-136
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• 2018

We report the development of a room-temperature hydrogen ($H_2$) gas sensor based on carbon nanotubes (CNT) yarn. To detect $H_2$ gas in room temperature, a highly ordered CNT yarn was placed on a substrate from a spin-capable CNT forest, followed by the deposition of a platinum (Pt) layer on surface of the CNT yarn. To examine the effect of the Pt-layer on the response of the CNT sensor, a comparative sensing performance was characterized on both the Pt deposited and non-deposited CNT yarn at room temperature. The Pt-CNT yarn yielded high response, whereas the non-deposited CNT yarn showed negligible response for $H_2$ detection at room temperature. Pt is a reliable and efficient catalyst that can substantially improve the detection of $H_2$ gas by chemical sensitization via a "spillover" effect. It can be efficiently utilized to increase the sensitivity and selectivity as well as to obtain fast response and recovery times.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.157-165
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• 2003

A combined process of non-thermal plasma and catalytic technique has been investigated to treat $CH_3$CN gas in the atmosphere. A planar type dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) reactor has been used to generate the non-thermal plasma that produces various chemically active species, such as O, N, OH, $O_3$, ion, electrons, etc. Several different types of the beads. which are Molecular Sieve (MS) 5A, MS 13X, Pt/alumina beads, are packed into the DBD reactor, and have been tested to characterize the effects of adsorption and catalytic process on treating the $CH_3$CN gas in the DBD reactor. The test results showed that the operating power consumption and the amounts of the by-products of the non-thermal plasma process can be reduced by the assistance of the adsorption and catalytic process.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.33 no.7
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• pp.793-801
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• 1996

The effect of catalysts which was catalyzed by acid($HNO_3$) and base ($NH_4OH$) or not on the surface microst-ructures and consequent dielectric characteristics of the $PbTiO_3$ thin films prepared by sol-gel method were investigated. The result indicated that bse catalyst promoted the phase transformation of perovskite phase while acid catalyst was found to produce most uniform surface microstructure and improved dielectric properties However degradation of properties due to secondary phase formation and non-uniform microstructure at high annealing temperature (>75$0^{\circ}C$) by rapid diffusion of lead was unavoidable in any case as long as $Si_{(100)}$ \ $SiO_2$ \Pt substrate used.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.90-96
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• 2020

Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells, which convert the chemical reaction energy of hydrogen into electric power directly, are a type of eco-friendly power for future vehicles. Due to the sluggish oxygen reduction reaction and costly Pt catalyst in the cathode, the research related to the replacement of Pt-based catalysts has been vitally carried out. In this case, however, the performance is significantly different from each other and a variety of factors have existed. In this review paper, we rearrange and summarize relevant papers published within 5 years approximately. The selection of precursors, synthesis method, and co-catalyst are represented as a core factor, while the necessity of research for the further enhancement of activity may be raised. It can be anticipated to contribute to the replacement of precious metal catalysts in the various fields of study. The final objective of the future research is depicted in detail.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.207-219
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• 2024

Metal-N-C (MNC) catalysts have been anticipated as promising candidates for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) to achieve low-cost polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells. The structure of the M-N_x moiety enabled a high catalytic activity that was not observed in previously reported transition metal nanoparticle-based catalysts. Despite progress in non-precious metal catalysts, the low density of active sites of MNCs, which resulted in lower single-cell performance than Pt/C, needs to be resolved for practical application. This review focused on the recent studies and methodologies aimed to overcome these limitations and develop an inexpensive catalyst with excellent activity and durability in an alkaline environment. It included the possibility of non-precious metals as active materials for ORR catalysts, starting from Co phthalocyanine as ORR catalyst and the development of methodologies (e.g., metal-coordinated N-containing polymers, metal-organic frameworks) to form active sites, M-N_x moieties. Thereafter, the motivation, procedures, and progress of the latest research on the design of catalyst morphology for improved mass transport ability and active site engineering that allowed the promoted ORR kinetics were discussed.