• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.695-700
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• 2014

Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC) can generate hydrogen and oxygen from water by electrolysis. But the electrode and polymer electrolyte membrane degrade rapidly during PEM water electrolysis because of high operation voltage over 1.7V. In order to reduce the rate of anode electrode degradation, unsupported $IrO_2$ catalyst was used generally. In this study, Pt/C catalyst for PEMFC was used as a water electrolysis catalyst, and then the degradation of catalyst and membrane were analysed. After water electrolysis reaction in the voltage range from 1.8V to 2.0V, I-V curves, impedance spectra, cyclic voltammograms and linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) were measured at PEMFC operation condition. The degradation rate of electrode and membrane increased as the voltage of water electrolysis increased. The hydrogen yield was 88 % during water electrolysis for 1 min at 2.0V, the performance at 0.6V decreased to 49% due to degradation of membrane and electrode assembly.

• Composites Research
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.243-248
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• 2016

Although thermoset carbon fiber composite bipolar plates not only have high mechanical properties but also high corrosion resistance in acid environment, high manufacturing cost and low bulk electrical conductivity are the biggest obstacle to overcome. In this research, thermoplastic polymer is employed for the matrix of carbon composite bipolar plate to increase both the manufacturing productivity and bulk electric conductivity of the bipolar plate. In order to increase the electrical conductivity and strength, plain type carbon fabric rather than chopped or unidirectional fibers is used. Also nano particles are embedded in the thermoplastic matrix to increase the bulk resistance of the bipolar plate. The area specific resistance and the mechanical strength of the developed bipolar plate are measured with respect to the environmental temperature and stack compaction pressure.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.164-175
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• 2022

In this work, sulfonated poly (ether ether ketone) (SPEEK) composite membranes including strontium zirconate (SrZrO₃) were fabricated by the electrospinning method. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopic analysis and X-ray diffraction analysis were used to identify the chemical structure and the crystallinity of SrZrO₃ and electrospun composite membranes. The thermal stability of the pure SPEEK and SPEEK/SrZrO₃ electrospun composite membranes were investigated by using thermogravimetric analysis. The physicochemical properties and proton conductivity were enhanced with the addition of different weight ratio of SrZrO₃ nanofiller (2, 4 and 6 wt%) in SPEEK polymer. The optimized SPEEK/SrZrO₃-4 electrospun membrane containing 4 wt% of SrZrO₃ showed a high proton conductivity compared to other electrospun SPEEK/SrZrO₃ composite membranes. The results indicate that electrospun composite membranes incorporating these perovskite nanofillers should be explored as potential candidates for use in proton exchange membrane fuel cells.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.5 no.5
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• pp.204-207
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• 2004

In this work, we present the electrochemical properties of Al bipolar plate, which can be re-searched for the application of PEMFC system. Bulk resistance of the plate was measured with a four-point probe method. The electrical conductivity of noble metal coated Al plate was 4.40 x 10$^4$ S/cm. On the other hand, the electrical interfacial resistance of the noble metal coated Al plate valued at 0.15 mΩ-$\textrm{cm}^2$ and that of graphite was 0.26 mΩ-$\textrm{cm}^2$ under the holding pressure of 140 N/$\textrm{cm}^2$ at the applied current of 5 A. And the performance of Al bipolar plate for PEMFC was evaluated at various conditions. The single cell performance was more than 0.43 W/$\textrm{cm}^2$ (0.47 Wig) for noble metal coated Al bipolar plate at 5$0^{\circ}C$ under atmospheric pressure in external humidified hydrogen and oxygen condition. As the present results, we could show the results that the noble metal coated Al bipolar plates were favorable in the aspect of electrical properties compared with those of the commercialized resin-impregnated graphite plates.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.149-157
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• 2006

Hydrogen as new energy sources is highly efficient and have very low environmental emissions. The proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is an emerging technology that can meet these demands. Therefore, the preparation of stable polymeric membranes with good proton conductivity and durability are very important for hydrogen production via water electrolysis with PEM at medium temperature above $80^{\circ}C$. Currently Nafion of Dupont and Aciflex of Asahi, etc., solid polymer electrolytes of perfluorosulfonic acid membrane, are the best performing commercially available polymer electrolytes. However, these membrane have several flaws including its high cost, and its limited operational temperature above $80^{\circ}C$. Because of this, significant research efforts have been devoted to the development of newer and cheaper membranes. In order to make up for the weak points and to improve the mechanical characteristics with cross -linking, acid-base complexes were prepared by the combination PSf-co-PPSS-$NH_2$ with PEEK-$SO_3H$. The results showed that the proton conductivity decreased in 17.6% and 40% but tensile strength increased in 78% and 98%, about $20.65\;{\times}\;10^6N/m^2$, in comparison with SBPSf/HPA and SPEEK/HPA complex membrane.

• New Physics: Sae Mulli
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• v.68 no.11
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• pp.1173-1182
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• 2018

Mesoporous silica allows proper hydration of an ion exchange membrane under low relative humidity due to its strong hydrophilicity and structural characteristic. A mesoporous silica and Nafion composite membrane shows good proton conductivity under low relative humidity. An understanding of ion-channel formation and proton transfer through an ion-channel network in mesoporous silica and Nafion composite membranes is essential for the development and the optimization of ion exchange membranes. In this study, a mesoporous cellular foam $SiO_2/Nafion$ composite membrane is fabricated, and its proton conductivity and performance are measured. Also, the ion-channel distribution is analyzed by using electrostatic force microscopy to measure the surface charge density of the mesoporous cellular foam $SiO_2/Nafion$ composite membrane. The research reveals a few remarkable results. First, the composite membrane shows excellent proton conductivity and performance under low relative humidity. Second, the composite membrane is observed to form ion-channel-rich and ion-channel-poor region locally.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.15-20
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• 2011

The contamination effect of toluene in the airstream on PEM fuel cell performance was studied with various toluene concentration under different operation conditions. And the recovery of the cell performance by applying clean air and the removal of toluene in the air by adsorption of active carbon were investigated. The toluene concentration range used in the experiments was from 0.1 ppm to 5.0 ppm. The performance degradation and recovery were measured by constant-current discharging and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy(EIS). Toluene adsorption capacity of KOH impregnated active carbon was obtained from the adsorption isotherm curve. The severity of the contamination increased with increasing toluene concentration, current density and air stoichiometry, but decrease with increasing relative humidity. The cell performance was recovered by toluene oxidation with oxygen and water in humidified neat air. EIS showed that the increase of charge transfer resistance due to toluene adsorption on Pt surface mainly reduced the performance of PEMFC. Toluene adsorption capacity of active carbon decreased as KOH weight increased in KOH impregnated active carbon.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.301-310
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• 2014

In this study, the silica nanoparticles were considerably chosen to improve a dimensional stability, proton transport and electrochemical performance of the resulting inorganic-organic nanocomposite membranes. For this purpose, hydrophobic silica (Aerosil$^{(R)}$ 812, Degussa) and hydrophilic silica (Aerosil$^{(R)}$ 380, Degussa) nanoparticles were, respectively, introduced into a Sulfonated poly(arylene ether sulfone) (SPAES) polymer matrix. The $SiO_2$ particles are evenly dispersed in a SPAES matrix by the aid of a non-ionic surfactant (Pluronics$^{(R)}$ L64). A $SiO_2$ content plays an important role in membrane microstructures and membrane properties such as proton conductivity and water uptake. Therefore, to study nanocomposite membranes with excessive amount of silica, the content of silica nanoparticles were increased up to 5 wt%. Interestingly, a hydrophobic $SiO_2$ containing nanocomposite membrane showed better electrochemical performance (29% higher than pristine SPAES) despite of low proton conductivity due to its adhesive properties with a catalyst layer in a single cell test. All the silica-SPAES membranes exhibited better performance than a pristine SPAES membrane.