• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.178-186
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• 2023

Three activation methods (constant voltage, current cycling, and hydrogen pumping) were applied to investigate the effects on the performance of the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) loaded with PtCo/C catalyst. The current cycling protocol took the shortest time to activate the MEA, while the performance after activation was the worst among the all activation methods. The constant voltage method took a moderate activation time and exhibited the best performance after activation. The hydrogen pumping protocol took the longest time to activate the MEA with moderate performance after activation. According to the distribution of relaxation time analysis, the improved performance after the activation mainly comes from the decrease of charge transfer resistance rather than the ionic resistance in the cathode catalyst layer, which suggests that the existence of water on the electrode is the key factor for activation.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.493-498
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• 2019

In polymer exchange membrane fuel cells, it is crucial to fabricate a highly active and thin Pt catalyst layer for the smooth mass transport of dissolved oxygen and water. Although a highly loaded platinum (Pt) catalyst based on the hydrothermal synthesis has been reported in several studies, its growing behaviors and kinetics were yet to be understood. In this study, we investigated the growth of Pt crystal in suspension after the reduction step depending on a stirring time and evaluated the electrochemical activity. For only a couple of hours in the early stage, Pt colloids were adsorbed on the Pt-carbon catalyst and the Pt crystal was grown. After that, the small Pt colloid was formed by another nucleation step, which did not involve the growth of Pt crystal. We reveal that the Pt-Carbon catalyst with stirring for 6 h showed a high activity toward the oxygen reduction reaction.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.65-75
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• 2021

Coin cell is a basic testing platform for battery research, discovering new materials and concepts, and contributing to fundamental research on next-generation batteries. Li metal batteries (LMBs) are promising since a high energy density (~500 Wh kg^-1) is deliverable far beyond Li-ion. However, Li dendrite-triggered volume fluctuation and high surface cause severe deterioration of performance. Given that such drawbacks are strongly dependent on the cell parameters and structure, such as the amount of electrolyte, Li thickness, and internal pressure, reliable Li metal coin cell testing is challenging. For the LMB-specialized coin cell testing platform, this study suggests the optimal coin cell structure that secures performance and reproducibility of LMBs under stringent conditions, such as lean electrolyte, high mass loading of NMC cathode, and thinner Li use. By controlling the cathode/anode (C/A) area ratio closer to 1.0, the inactive space was minimized, mitigating the cell degradation. The quantification and imaging of inner cell pressure elucidated that the uniformity of the pressure is a crucial matter to improving performance reliability. The LMB coin cells exhibit better cycling retention and reproducibility under higher (0.6 MPa → 2.13 MPa) and uniform (standard deviation: 0.43 → 0.16) stack pressure through the changes in internal parts and introducing a flexible polymer (PDMS) film.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.04a
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• pp.33-35
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• 2008

We have fabricated and evaluated new high efficiency green light emitting phosphorescent devices with an emission layer of $[TCTA_{1/3}TAZ_{2/3}/TAZ]:Ir(ppy)_3$. The whole experimental devices have the basic structure of $2-TNATA(500 {\AA})/NPB(300{\AA})/EML(300{\AA})/BCP(50{\AA})/SFC137(500{\AA})$ between anode and cathode. We have also fabricated conventional phosphorescent devices with emission layers of $(TCTA_{1/3}TAZ_{2/3}):Ir(ppy)_3$ and $(TCTA/TAZ):Ir(ppy)_3$ and compared their electroluminescence characteristics with those of the device with an emission layer of $(TCTA/TCTA_{1/3}TAZ_{2/3}/TAZ):Ir(ppy)_3$. The current density(J), luminance(L), and current efficiency($\eta$) of the device with an emission layer of $(80{\AA}-TCTA/90{\AA}-TCTA_{1/3}TAZ_{2/3}/130{\AA}-TAZ):10%-Ir(ppy)_3$ were 95 $mA/cm^2$, 25000 $cd/m^2$, and 27 cd/A at an applied voltage of 10V, respectively. The maximum current efficiency was 52 cd/A under the luminance of 400 $cd/m^2$. The peak wavelength and FWHM(full width at half maximum) in the electroluminescence spectral were 513nm and 65nm, respectively. The color coordinate was (0.30, 0.62) on the CIE (Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage) chart. Under the luminance of 15000 $cd/m^2$, the current efficiency of the device with an emission layer of $(80{\AA}-TCTA/90{\AA}-TCTA_{1/3}TAZ_{2/3}/130{\AA}-TAZ):10%-Ir(ppy)_3$ was 34 cd/A, which has been improved 1.7 times and 1.4 limes compared to those of the devices with emission layers of $(300{\AA}-TCTA_{1/3}TAZ_{2/3}): 10%-Ir(ppy)_3$ and $(100{\AA}-TCTA/200{\AA}-TAZ):10%-Ir(ppy)_3$, respectively.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.361-370
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• 2021

Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) is one of the composite materials, which has a unique property that is lightweight but strong. The CFRPs are widely used in various industries where their unique characteristics are required. In particular, electric and unmanned aerial vehicles critically need lightweight parts and bodies with sufficient mechanical strengths. Vehicles using the battery as a power source should simultaneously meet two requirements that the battery has to be safely protected. The vehicle should be light of increasing the mileage. The CFRP has considered as the one that satisfies the requirements and is widely used as battery housing and other vehicle parts. On the other hand, in the battery area, carbon fibers are intensively tested as battery components such as electrodes and/or current collectors. Furthermore, using carbon fibers as both structure reinforcements and battery components to build a structural battery is intensively investigated in Sweden and the USA. This mini-review encompasses recent research trends that cover the classification of structural batteries in terms of functionality of carbon fibers and issues and efforts in the battery and discusses the prospect of structural batteries.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.12
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• pp.488-493
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• 2020

The demand for hydrogen, which is considered an environmentally friendly energy source, is increasing, and at the same time, the fuel cell market is increasing continuously. This study aimed to establish a strategy for securing intellectual property rights on fuel cell by-product utilization technology for operating expenditure reduction of hydrogen-powered residential buildings. In this patent analysis, this study investigated Korean, American, Japanese, and European patents filed/published/registered by October 2019 and established a technical classification system and classification criteria through expert discussion. To reduce the operating expenditure of hydrogen-powered residential buildings, intellectual property rights will be improved using systems and methodologies involving cathode-side purified air, product water, and oxygen-depleted air captured with the dead-end mode operation of polymer electrolyte fuel cells.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.100-101
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• 2012

The plasma damage free and room temperature processedthin film deposition technology is essential for realization of various next generation organic microelectronic devices such as flexible AMOLED display, flexible OLED lighting, and organic photovoltaic cells because characteristics of fragile organic materials in the plasma process and low glass transition temperatures (Tg) of polymer substrate. In case of directly deposition of metal oxide thin films (including transparent conductive oxide (TCO) and amorphous oxide semiconductor (AOS)) on the organic layers, plasma damages against to the organic materials is fatal. This damage is believed to be originated mainly from high energy energetic particles during the sputtering process such as negative oxygen ions, reflected neutrals by reflection of plasma background gas at the target surface, sputtered atoms, bulk plasma ions, and secondary electrons. To solve this problem, we developed the NBAS (Neutral Beam Assisted Sputtering) process as a plasma damage free and room temperature processed sputtering technology. As a result, electro-optical properties of NBAS processed ITO thin film showed resistivity of $4.0{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}m$ and high transmittance (>90% at 550 nm) with nano- crystalline structure at room temperature process. Furthermore, in the experiment result of directly deposition of TCO top anode on the inverted structure OLED cell, it is verified that NBAS TCO deposition process does not damages to the underlying organic layers. In case of deposition of transparent conductive oxide (TCO) thin film on the plastic polymer substrate, the room temperature processed sputtering coating of high quality TCO thin film is required. During the sputtering process with higher density plasma, the energetic particles contribute self supplying of activation & crystallization energy without any additional heating and post-annealing and forminga high quality TCO thin film. However, negative oxygen ions which generated from sputteringtarget surface by electron attachment are accelerated to high energy by induced cathode self-bias. Thus the high energy negative oxygen ions can lead to critical physical bombardment damages to forming oxide thin film and this effect does not recover in room temperature process without post thermal annealing. To salve the inherent limitation of plasma sputtering, we have been developed the Magnetic Field Shielded Sputtering (MFSS) process as the high quality oxide thin film deposition process at room temperature. The MFSS process is effectively eliminate or suppress the negative oxygen ions bombardment damage by the plasma limiter which composed permanent magnet array. As a result, electro-optical properties of MFSS processed ITO thin film (resistivity $3.9{\times}10^{-4}{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$, transmittance 95% at 550 nm) have approachedthose of a high temperature DC magnetron sputtering (DMS) ITO thin film were. Also, AOS (a-IGZO) TFTs fabricated by MFSS process without higher temperature post annealing showed very comparable electrical performance with those by DMS process with $400^{\circ}C$ post annealing. They are important to note that the bombardment of a negative oxygen ion which is accelerated by dc self-bias during rf sputtering could degrade the electrical performance of ITO electrodes and a-IGZO TFTs. Finally, we found that reduction of damage from the high energy negative oxygen ions bombardment drives improvement of crystalline structure in the ITO thin film and suppression of the sub-gab states in a-IGZO semiconductor thin film. For realization of organic flexible electronic devices based on plastic substrates, gas barrier coatings are required to prevent the permeation of water and oxygen because organic materials are highly susceptible to water and oxygen. In particular, high efficiency flexible AMOLEDs needs an extremely low water vapor transition rate (WVTR) of $1{\times}10^{-6}gm^{-2}day^{-1}$. The key factor in high quality inorganic gas barrier formation for achieving the very low WVTR required (under ${\sim}10^{-6}gm^{-2}day^{-1}$) is the suppression of nano-sized defect sites and gas diffusion pathways among the grain boundaries. For formation of high quality single inorganic gas barrier layer, we developed high density nano-structured Al2O3 single gas barrier layer usinga NBAS process. The NBAS process can continuously change crystalline structures from an amorphous phase to a nano- crystalline phase with various grain sizes in a single inorganic thin film. As a result, the water vapor transmission rates (WVTR) of the NBAS processed $Al_2O_3$ gas barrier film have improved order of magnitude compared with that of conventional $Al_2O_3$ layers made by the RF magnetron sputteringprocess under the same sputtering conditions; the WVTR of the NBAS processed $Al_2O_3$ gas barrier film was about $5{\times}10^{-6}g/m^2/day$ by just single layer.