• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.1975-1979
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• 2011

The modification of a gas diffusion layer (GDL), a vital component in polymer electrolyte fuel cells, is described here for use in the electrochemical detection of antibody-antigen biosensors. Compared to other substrates (gold foil and graphite), mouse anti-rHBsAg monoclonal antibody immobilized on gold-coated GDL (G-GDL) detected analytes of goat anti-mouse IgG antibody-ALP using a relatively low potential (-0.0021 V vs. Ag/AgCl 3 M NaCl), indicating that undesired by-reactions during electrochemical sensing should be avoided with G-GDL. The dependency of the signal against the concentration of analytes was observed, demonstrating the possibility of quantitative electrochemical biosensors based on G-GDL substrates. When a sandwich method was employed, target antigens of rHBsAg with a concentration as low as 500 ng/mL were clearly measured. The detection limit of rHBsAg was significantly improved to 10 ng/mL when higher concentrations of the 4-aminophenylphosphate monosodium salt (APP) acting on substrates were used for generating a redox-active product. Additionally, it was shown that a BSA blocking layer was essential in improving the detection limit in the G-GDL biosensor.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.169-182
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• 2017

Iron and nitrogen codoped carbon (Fe-N/C) catalysts have emerged as one of the most promising replacements for state-of-the-art platinum-based electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in polymer electrolyte fuel cells. During the last decade, significant progress has been achieved in Fe-N/C catalysts in terms of ORR activity improvement and active site identification. In this review, we focus on recent efforts towards advancing our understanding of the structure of active sites in Fe-N/C catalysts. We summarize the spectroscopic and electrochemical methods that are used to analyze active site structure in Fe-N/C catalysts, and the relationship between active site structure and ORR activity in these catalysts. We provide an overview of recently reported synthetic strategies that can generate active sites in Fe-N/C catalysts preferentially. We then discuss newly suggested active sites in Fe-N/C catalysts. Finally, we conclude this review with a brief future outlook.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.33 no.8
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• pp.604-612
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• 2009

Water management has been recognized as a crucial factor for achieving better performance and stability in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Proper water management should provide favorable water conditions, including the local humidity, membrane water content, and liquid water saturation in PEMFCs, thereby leading to more uniform electrochemical reaction and current generation. In this study, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation was conducted to investigate the effects of the cathode relative humidity (RH) on the performance of a 3 by $3\;cm^2$ PEMFC with serpentine flow fields. The CFD results showed that the best performance of the PEMFC was obtained for the cathode RH of 80%, but the performance variation was small for the cathode RH range of $60{\sim}100%$. However, the loss of the PEMFC performance was significant when the cathode RH was reduced below 40%. The reason for such performance variation was investigated through the detailed inspection of ohmic loss, activation and concentration overpotential, and water and current distributions.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.235-245
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• 2024

DLC coatings have been widely applied in industrial fields that require high corrosion resistance due to their excellent mechanical characteristics and chemical stability. In this research, effects of DLC coating thickness and defects on corrosion resistance were investigated for application of metallic bipolar plates in polymer membrane electrolyte fuel cells (PEMFCs). Results revealed that a DLC coating thickness of 0.7 ㎛ could lead to a defect size reduction of about 75.9% compared to that of 0.3 ㎛.As a result of potentiodynamic polarization experiments, the current density under a potential of 0.6 V was measured to be less than 1 ㎂/cm²,which was an excellent value. Inparticular, the delamination ratio and the decrease rate of maximum pitting depth were up to 84.8% and 63.3%, respectively, with an increase in the DLC coating thickness. These results demonstrate that DLC coating thickness and defects are factors that can affect corrosion resistance of DLC coating and its substrate.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.6-10
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• 2016

Until a recent day, degradation of PEMFC (Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells) has been mainly studied in unit cell. But operation and degradation of real PEMFC going along in stack instead of unit cell. Therefore in this work, ADT (Accelerated Degradation Test) of PEMFC was done in stack and the result from stack's test was compared with that of unit cell. The polymer electrolyte membrane was degraded by repeated electrochemical and mechanical degradation method among several ADT methods. Current densities of MEA at 0.6V decreased in stack and unit cell, 28.4% and 27.8% respectively after ADT for 312 hours. Hydrogen crossover current densities of membrane increased in stack and unit cell, 16.8% and 15.2% respectively after ADT for 312 hours. The result of ADT in stack was similar that of ADT in unit cell, which showed that ADT method of unit cell was available to the stack.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.50-55
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• 2005

New fast proton-conducting organic-inorganic nanocomposite membranes were successfully fabricated using polymer matrix obtained through proper oxidation of thiol ligands in (3-Mercaptopropyl) trimethoxysilane (MPTS) and hydrolysis/condensation reaction of (3-glycidoxypropyl) trimethoxysilane (GPTS). The obtained nanocomposite membranes showed relatively hirh proton-conductivity over $10^{-2}S/cm$ at $ 25^{circ}C$. The proton conductivities of the fabricated composite membranes increased up to $3.6{\times}10^{-1}$ S/cm cm by increasing temperature and relative humidity to $70^{circ}C$ and 100 $100RH\%$. The high proton conductivity of the composites Is due to the proton conducting path through the GPTS-derived 'pseudo-polyethylene oxide 'network in which sulfonic acid ligands work as a proton donor.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.228-236
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• 2009

ABA type triblock copolymer of poly(hydroxyl ethyl acrylate )-b-polystyrene-b-poly(hydroxyl ethyl acrylate), i.e. PHEA-b-PS-b-PHEA, was synthesized throughatom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). This block copolymer was thermally crosslinked with 4,5-imidazole dicarboxylic acid (IDA) via the esterification between the -OH groups of PHEA in block copolymer and the -COOH groups of IDA. Upon doping with ${H_3}{PO_4}$ to form imidazole-${H_3}{PO_4}$ complexes, the proton conductivity of membranes continuously increased with increasing ${H_3}{PO_4}$ content. The PHEA-b-PS-b-PHEA/IDA/${H_3}{PO_4}$ polymer membrane with [HEA]:[IDA]:[${H_3}{PO_4}$]=3:4:4 exhibited a maximum proton conductivity of 0.01 S/cm at $100^{\circ}C$ under anhydrous conditions. Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) shows that the PHEA-b-PS-b-PHEA/IDA/${H_3}{PO_4}$ complex membranes were thermally stable up to $350^{\circ}C$, indicating their applicability in fuel cells.

• 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.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.255-260
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• 2011

$NH_4{^+}-{\beta}^{{\prime}{\prime}}$-alumina which is expected to an inorganic solid electrolyte of high temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) was prepared by ion-exchange reaction of $K^{+}-{\beta}^{{\prime}{\prime}}$-alumina pellet with $NH_4NO_3$ aqueous solution and molten $NH_4NO_3$ salts as an ion-exchange medium in the autoclave and the heating mentle reaction. In the autoclave reaction, the concentrations of $NH_4NO_3$ solution was chosen at 5 and 10 M. Each ion-exchange reaction was carried out at 130, 150, 170, and $200^{\circ}C$ for 2, 4, 6 and 8 h. In the heating mentle reaction, ion-exchange was performed at $200^{\circ}C$ for 2, 4, 6 and 8 h with molten $NH_4NO_3$ salts. In order to determine the effect of reaction times, each ion-exchange reaction was repeated 3 times. The phase stability and the ion-exchange rate of $NH_4{^+}-{\beta}^{{\prime}{\prime}}$-alumina were analyzed by XRD and ICP.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.142-147
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• 2009

The influence of graphitization of carbon support on the electrochemical corrosion of carbon and sintering of Pt particles are investigated by measuring $CO_2$ emission at a constant potential of 1.4 V for 30 min using on-line mass spectrometry and cyclic voltammogram. In comparison to commercial Pt/C (from Johnson Matthey), highly graphitized carbon nanofiber (CNF) supported Pt catalyst exhibits lower performance degradation and $CO_2$ emission. As the more carbon corrosion occurred, the more prominent changes were detected in electrochemical characteristics of fuel cell. This indicates that the carbon corrosion affects significantly the fuel cell durability. From the observed results, CNF is considered to be more corrosion resistant material as a catalyst support. However, CNF shows higher aggregation of Pt particles under repeated cyclic voltammetry between 0 and 0.8 V where the carbon corrosion is not initiated.