• Membrane Journal
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.442-455
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• 2022

High-temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (HT-PEMFC) has been studied as an alternative to low-temperature PEMFC due to its fast activation of electrodes and high resistance to electrode poisoning by carbon monoxide. It is highly required to develop stable PEMs operating at high temperatures even doped by ion-conducting materials for the development of high-performance and durable HT-PEMFC systems. A number of studies have been conducted to develop polybenzimidazole (PBI)-based PEMs for applications in HT-PEMFC due to their high interaction with doped ion-conducting materials and outstanding thermomechanical stability under high-temperature operation. This review focused on the development of PBI-based PEMs showing high performance and durability. Firstly, the characteristic behavior of PBI-based PEMs doped with various ion-conducting materials including phosphoric acid was systematically investigated. And then, a comparison of the physicochemical properties of the PEMs according to the different membrane manufacturing processes was conducted. Secondly, the incorporation of porous polytetrafluoroethylene substrate and/or inorganic composites to PBI matrix to improve the membrane performances was studied. Finally, the construction of cross-linked structures into PBI-based PEM systems by polymer blending method was introduced to improve the PEM properties.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.32 no.9
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• pp.683-694
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• 2008

The performance and durability of Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells (PEFCs) are strongly influenced by the uniformity of current density, temperature, species distributions inside a cell In order to obtain uniform distributions in them, the optimal design of flowfield must be a key factor. In this paper, the numerical study of land/channel flowfield optimizations is performed, using a multi-dimensional, multi-phase, non-isothermal PEFC model. Numerical simulations reveal more uniform current density and HFR(High Frequency Resistance) distributions and thus better PEFC performance with narrower land/channel width where the less severe oxygen depletion effect near the land region and more uniform contact resistance variation along the in-plane direction are achieved. The present study elucidates detailed effects of land/channel width and assist in identifying optimal flow-field design strategies for the operation of PEFCs.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.257-265
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• 2001

Placing a hydrogen conducting, methanol impermeable metallic barrier like palladium (Pd) is a well-known method for preventing methanol crossover through solid polymer electrolyte for direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC). Applying a bias potential between the anode and the barrier can further develop this concept so that the hydrogen transfer rate is enhanced. Since hydrogen diffuses in Pd as atomic form while it moves through nafion electrolyte as ion, it has to be reduced or oxidized whenever it passes the interface formed by Pd and the electrolyte. We performed experiments to measure the hydrogen transport through the Pd membrane placed in Nafion electrolyte of hydrogen/oxygen fuel cell (PEMFC). Applying a bias potential between the hydrogen electrode of the cell and the Pd membrane facilitated the hydrogen passage through the Pd membrane. The results show that the cell current measured with the Pd membrane placed reached almost 40 % the value measured with the cell without Pd membrane. It was found that the current flown through the bias path is only a few percent of the cell current.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.324-330
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• 2021

In recent years, polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) based cogeneration system has received more and more attention from energy researchers because beside electricity, the system also meets the residential thermal demand. However, the low-quality heat exited from PEMFC should be increased temperature before direct use or storage. This study proposes a method to utilize the heat exhausted from a 10 kW PEMFC by coupling a heat pump. Two different configuration using heat pump and a reference layout with heater are analyzed in term of thermal and total efficiency. The system coefficient of performance (COP) increases from 0.87 in layout with heaters to 1.26 and 1.29 in configuration with heat pump and cascade heat pump, respectively. Lastly, based on system performance result, another study in economics point of view is proposed.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.1763-1770
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• 2013

A series of the block copolymers were successfully synthesized from post-sulfonated hydrophilic and hydrophobic macromers via three-step copolymerization. The degrees of sulfonation (DS) of the copolymers (10%, 30%, or 50%) were controlled by changing the molar ratio of the hydrophilic and hydrophobic parts. The resulting block copolymers were characterized by $^1H$ NMR and other technologies. The membranes were successfully cast using dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) solution at $100^{\circ}C$. The copolymers were characterized to confirm chemical structure by $^1H$ NMR and FT-IR. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) demonstrated that all sulfonated block copolymers exhibited good thermal stability with an initial weight loss at temperatures above $240^{\circ}C$. The membranes showed acceptable ion exchange capacity (IEC) and water uptake values in accordance with DS. The maximum proton conductivity was 184 mS $cm^{-1}$ in block copolymer-50 at $60^{\circ}C$ and 100% relative humidity, while the conductivity of Nifion-115 was 160 mS $cm^{-1}$ under the same measurement conditions. AFM images of the block copolymer membranes showed well separated the hydrophilic and hydrophobic domains. From the observed results it is that the prepared block membranes can be considered as suitable polymer electrolyte membranes for the application of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC).

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.91-101
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• 2012

A 200 W portable polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) system is developed. The PEMFC system consists of an air-cooled fuel cell stack module, a fuel supply subsystem, a power management subsystem, and a control electronics subsystem. The control logic is designed for the stable system operation. The system-level performance evaluation discloses that the present PEMFC system provides a rated power output of 200.5 W at 13.4 V with the maximum balance-of-plant (BOP) efficiency of 72%, and maximum system efficiency based on lower heating value (LHV) is 37% at 120.7 W system power output.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.10 no.12
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• pp.831-837
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• 2000

To improve the catalytic activity of platinum on polymer electrolyte fuel cell(PEFC), platinum was alloyed with cobalt and nickel at various temperature. By XRD, it was observed the crystal structure of alloy catalysts were the ordered face centered cubic(f.c.c) due to the superlattice line at $33^{\circ}$. As heat-treatment temperature was increased, the particle size of alloys also were increased and the crystalline lattice parameters were decreased. According to the results from mass activity, specific activity and Tafel slope measured by cell performance test and cyclic voltammogram, the catalyst activities of alloys are higher than that pure platinum.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2016

Fuel cells are regarded as a representative energy source expected to replace fossil fuels particularly used in internal combustion engines. One of the most important components is polymer electrolyte membranes (PEMs) acting as a proton conducting barrier to prevent fuel gas crossover. Since water channels act as proton pathways through PEMs, many researchers have been focused on the 'good phase-separation of hydrophilic moiety' which ensures high water retention under low humidity enough to keep the water channel for good proton conduction. Here, we summarized the strategies which have been adopted to synthesize sulfonated PEMs having high proton conductivities even under low humidified conditions, and hope this review will be helpful to design high performance hydrocarbon PEMs.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.313-315
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• 2006

Proper water management is important to achieve high performance and durability of Polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC). Among various stack components, gas diffusion layer (GDL) is considered as a core part to determine the gas and water transportation in a cell. To optimize the water management, the changes of properties as well as basic properties of GDLs were investigated before and after clamping of colls. Thickness, electric conductivity, porosity, hydroppobicity etc. were characterized by the same criteria. The amount of residual water after cell operation also was compared by direct measuring of weight. Based on the amount of residual water the endurance on the freeze condition was evaluated.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.413-419
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• 2019

In the recent, as a world demand of energy resources has been transformed from fossil fuels to hydrogen-based clean energy resources, a huge attention has been attracted to increase the performance and decrease a production cost of core materials in fuel cell technology. The utilization of reinforced composite membranes as electrolytes in the polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells can reduce the use of high cost perfluorosulfonic acid (PFSA), mitigate the cell impedance, and improve the dimensional stability as well as the interfacial stability, giving rise to achieve both an improved performance and a reduction of production costs of the fuel cell devices. In this study, we investigate the effects of physical characteristics and cell performances according to the various ionomer solvents in the solution based manufacturing process of reinforced composite electrolyte membrane.