• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.166-169
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• 2009

Poly(benzimidazole-co-aniline) (PBIANI), a self-crosslinked, net-structured, proton conducting polymer has been synthesized for the membrane of high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells (HT-PEMFC) with improved proton conductivity and mechanical strength. The stress at break (26$\pm$3MPa)and proton conductivity (167 mS cm-1)of the phosphoric acid doped PBIANI (DPBIANI)membrane is much higher than those of other doped polybenzimidazole(PBI) type membranes.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.29-33
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• 1996

Mono-, or di-substituted chlorodicyanovinyl benzene compound was reacted with an excess amount of ethylenediamine to give corresponding imidazoline product with high reaction yield. This reaction occurs by stable imidazoline ring-forming process through nucleophilic attack of terminal amine on the enaminonitrile adduct, the reaction intermediate, toward electropositive enamine carbon, which is accompanied by the release of neutral malononitrile moiety. The similar reaction with 1,2-phenylenediamine produced stable enaminonitrile-amine adduct at lower temperature which could be cyclized intramolecularly to thermally stable benzimidazole at elevated temperature in solution or in solid state. From the difunctional compound of both reactants, poly(enaminonitrile-amine) could be prepared as a new soluble precursor polymer for well-known polybenzimidazole (PBI). The thermal cyclization reaction accompanying the release of malononitrile molecules was studied using thermalanalysis and infrared spectroscopy.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.453-466
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• 2020

As the demand for eco-friendly energy increases to overcome the energy shortage and environmental pollution crisis, hydrogen economy has been proposed as a potential solution. Accordingly, an economical and efficient hydrogen production is considered to be an essential industrial process. Research on applying hydrogen separation membranes for H₂/CO₂ separation to the production of highly concentrated hydrogen by purifying H₂ and capturing CO₂ simultaneously from synthetic gas produced by gasification is in progress nowadays. In high temperature environments, the membrane separation process using glassy polymeric membrane with H₂ selectivity has the potential for CO₂ capture performance, and is an energy and cost effective system since polybenzimicazole (PBI)-based separators show excellent chemical and mechanical stability under high-temperature operation conditions. Thus, the development of high-performance PBI hydrogen separators has been rapidly progressing in recent years. This overview focuses on the recent developments of PBI-based membranes including structure modified, cross-linked, blended and carbonized membranes for applications to the industrial hydrogen separation process.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.1-24
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• 2011

The deficiency of clean water is a major global concern because all the living creatures rely on the drinkable water for survival. On top of this, abundant of clean water supply is also necessary for household, metropolitan inhabitants, industry, and agriculture. Among many purification processes, advances in low-energy membrane separation technology appear to be the most effective solution for water crisis because membranes have been widely recognized as one of the most direct and feasible approaches for clean water production. The aim of this article is to give an overview of (1) two new emerging membrane technologies for water reuse and desalination by forward osmosis (FO) and membrane distillation (MD), and (2) the molecular engineering and development of highly permeable hollow fiber membranes, with polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and polybenzimidazole (PBI) as the main focuses for the aforementioned applications in National University of Singapore (NUS). This article presents the main results of membrane module design, separation performance, membrane characteristics, chemical modification and spinning conditions to produce novel hollow fiber membranes for FO and MD applications. As two potential solutions, MD and FO may be synergistically combined to form a hybrid system as a sustainable alternative technology for fresh water production.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.81.1-81.1
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• 2011

High temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell (HT-PEMFC) has been regarded as a promising clean energy sources. In this study, a quasi-three-dimensional dynamic model of HT-PEMFC has been developed and the local dynamic characteristics are investigated. The model has the geometrical simplification of 2+1D reduction (quasi-3D). The one-dimensional model consists of nine control volumes in cross-sectional direction to solve the energy conservation and the species conservation equations. Then, the one-dimensional model is discretized into 25 local sections along the gas flow direction to account for gas and thermal transport in channels. With this discretization, the local characteristics of HT-PEMFC such as species conservation, temperature, and current density can be captured. In order to study the basic characteristics of HT-PEMFC, it is important to investigate the local dynamic characteristics. Thus, the model is simulated at various operating conditions and the local dynamic characteristics related to them are observed. The model is useful to investigate the distribution of HT-PEMFC characteristics and the physical phenomena in HT-PEMFC.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.442-449
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• 2018

Research on High temperature polymer electrolyte fuel cell (HT-PEMFC) has actively been conducted all over the world. Since the HT-PEMFC can be operated at a high temperature of $120-180^{\circ}C$ using phosphoric acid-doped polybenzimidazole (PBI) electrolyte membrane, it has considerable advantages over conventional PEMFC in terms of operating conditions and system efficiency. However, If the thermal distribution is not uniform in the stack unit, degradation due to local reaction and deterioration of lifetime are difficult to prevent. The thin plate separator reduces the volume of the fuel cell stack and improves heat transfer, consequently, enhancing the cooling effect. In this paper, a large area flow field of thin plate separator for HT-PEMFC is designed and sub-stack is fabricated. We have studied stack performance evaluation under various operating conditions and it has been verified that the proposed design can achieve acceptable stack performance at a wide operating range.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.144-154
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• 2016

HT-PEMFC (high temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell) using PA (phosphoric acid) doped PBI (polybenzimidazole) membrane has been researched for extending the lifetime. However, the existing work on durability of HT-PEMFC focuses on identifying degradation causes of lab scale. The short life time of HT-PEMFC is still the problem for its commercialization. In this paper, an operating method to maximize life time of 5kW HT-PEMFC stack are proposed. The proposed method includes major steps such as minimization of OCV (Open Circuit Voltage) exposure, control of the proper stack temperature, and N2 purging for the stack. This long life operating method was based on the fragmentary results of degradation from previous research works. Experimentally, the 5 kW homemade HT-PEMFC stack was operated for a long time based on the proposed method and the stack successfully can operate within the desired degradation rate for the target life time.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.578-586
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• 2018

In this study, we prepared the modified PBI random copolymer to reduce the problems of the pristine PBI about low solubility and proton conductivity. The random copolymer was synthesized from suberic acid, 5-aminoisophthalic acid, and 3,3'-diaminobenzidine to obtain $X_1Y_9$, $X_1Y_1$, $X_9Y_1$. Then, the membrane was fabricated by using solvent casting method with methanesulfonic acid at $140^{\circ}C$. Subsequently, the membrane was doped with phosphoric acid at $40^{\circ}C$. The chemical structure of the polymers was characterized by FT-IR. In addition, the physiochemical properties of the PBI were investigated by TGA, oxidative stability, acid uptake. Finally, the proton conductivity was measured at $100-180^{\circ}C$ without humidification. As the result, $X_1Y_9$ PBI random copolymer membrane showed higher conductivity.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.33 no.10
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• pp.3279-3284
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• 2012

Poly(benzimidazole-co-benzoxazole)s (PBI-co-PBO) are synthesized by polycondensation reaction with 3,3'-diaminobenzidine, terephthalic acid and 3,3'-dihydroxybenzidine or 4,6-diaminoresorcinol in polyphosphoric acid (PPA). All polymer membranes are prepared by the direct casting method (in-situ fabrication). The introduction of benzoxazole units (BO units) into a polymer backbone lowers the basic property and $H_3PO_4$ doping level of the copolymer membranes, resulting in the improvement of mechanical strength. The proton conductivity of $H_3PO_4$ doped PBI-co-PBO membranes decrease as a result of adding amounts of BO units. The maximum tensile strength reaches 4.1 MPa with a 10% molar ratio of BO units in the copolymer. As a result, the $H_3PO_4$ doped PBI-co-PBO membranes could be utilized as alternative proton exchange membranes in high temperature polymer electrolyte fuel cells.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.183-196
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• 2017

The research efforts directed at advancing water electrolysis technology continue to intensify together with the increasing interest in hydrogen as an alternative source of energy to fossil fuels. Among the various water electrolysis systems reported to date, systems employing a solid polymer electrolyte membrane are known to display both improved safety and efficiency as a result of enhanced separation of products: hydrogen and oxygen. Conducting water electrolysis in an alkaline medium lowers the system cost by allowing non-platinum group metals to be used as catalysts for the complex multi-electron transfer reactions involved in water electrolysis, namely the hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions (HER and OER, respectively). We briefly review the anion exchange membranes (AEMs) and electrocatalysts developed and applied thus far in alkaline AEM water electrolysis (AEMWE) devices. Testing the developed components in AEMWE cells is a key step in maximizing the device performance since cell performance depends strongly on the structure of the electrodes containing the HER and OER catalysts and the polymer membrane under specific cell operating conditions. In this review, we discuss the properties of reported AEMs that have been used to fabricate membrane-electrode assemblies for AEMWE cells, including membranes based on polysulfone, poly(2,6-dimethyl-p-phylene) oxide, polybenzimidazole, and inorganic composite materials. The activities and stabilities of tertiary metal oxides, metal carbon composites, and ultra-low Pt-loading electrodes toward OER and HER in AEMWE cells are also described.