• Membrane Journal
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.94-109
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• 2023

1,3-Dioxolane is an exciting material that has attracted widespread interest in the chemical, paint, and pharmaceutical industries as a solvent, electrolyte, and reagent because 1,3-dioxolane is not toxic, carcinogenic, explosive, auto-flammable, and multifunctional, and due to their excellent miscibility in most organic and aqueous solvent conditions. Recently, this material has received increasing attention as a CO₂-selective polymer precursor to separating CO₂ from flue gas and natural gas mixtures. Poly(1,3-dioxolane) (PDXL) possesses higher ether oxygen content than polyethylene oxide (PEO), which demonstrates superior membrane CO₂/N₂ separation properties owing to their polar ether oxygen groups exhibiting strong affinity toward CO₂. Thus, PDXL-based membranes displayed an outstanding CO₂ solubility selectivity over non-polar (N₂, H₂, and CH₄) gases. However, the polar groups of PDXL, like PEO, promote chain packing efficiency and cause polymer crystallization, thereby reducing its gas permeability, which should be improved. In this short review, we discuss the recent advancement and limitations of PDXL membranes in gas separation applications. To conclude, we provide future perspectives for inhibiting the limits of 1,3-dioxolane-based polymers in the CO₂ separation process.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.159-168
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• 2010

In this study, high porous PVdF flat sheet membranes were prepared to obtain reinforced membrane support for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell. Nano-size laponite was randomly dispersed in the membranes to improve mechanical property which lowered by the high porosity. The morphology and porosity of prepared PVdF/Laponite composite membranes were examined using the SEM analysis and the weight method and all membranes showed over 60% porosity. The membrane thermal stability depending on the laponite contents in the composite membranes was evaluated by membrane heat shrinkage at $105^{\circ}C$ and $135^{\circ}C$. MD and TD heat shrinkage of the PVdF composite membrane containing 5 wt% laponite was 2~3% and 2~3.5% at $135^{\circ}C$, respectively. The mechanical strength was enhanced after incorporating laponite particles and 30% increase in the modulus compared to pure PVdF membrane was obtained.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.37 no.9
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• pp.815-821
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• 2013

The efficiency and lifetime of a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) system is critically affected by the humidity of the incoming gas, which should be maintained properly under normal operating conditions. Typically, the incoming gas of a fuel cell is humidified by an external humidifier, but few studies have reported on the device characteristics. In this study, a laboratory-scale planar membrane humidifier is designed to investigate the characteristics of water transport through a hydrophilic membrane. The planar membrane humidifier is immersed in a constant temperature bath to isolate the humidifier from the effect of temperature variations. The mass transfer capability of the hydrophilic membrane is first examined under isothermal conditions. Then, the mass transfer capability is investigated under various conditions. The results show that water transport in the hydrophilic membrane is significantly affected by the flow rate, operating temperature, operating pressure, and flow arrangement.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.536-541
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• 1998

The porous size alumina membrane was prepared by anodic oxidation with current method in an aqueous solution of oxalic acid. The aluminum metal plate was pretreated with thermal oxidation, chemical polishing and electropolishing before anodic oxidation. Membrane thickness and pore size distribution were investigated with several anodizing conditions; reaction temperature, cumulative charge, electrolyte concentration and current density. The porous alumina membrane obtained was $55{\sim}75{\mu}m$ thick with straight micropore of 45~100nm. Also, the porous alumina membrane has an uniform pore diameter and pore distribution. It was inorganic ultrafiltration membrane as a kind of the ceramic membrane.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.302-309
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• 2009

A block copolymer of polystyrene-b-poly (hydroxyl ethyl methacrylate), PS-b-PHEMA, was synthesized via atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) and crosslinked with 4,5-imidazole dicarboxylic acid (IDA) via esterification of the -OH groups of PHEMA in the block copolymer and the -COOH groups of IDA. Upon doping with $H_3PO_4$ to form imidazole-$H_3PO_4$ complexes, the proton conductivity of the membranes continuously increased as the content of $H_3PO_4$ increased. In addition, both the tensile strength and the elongation at break increased with IDA content. A proton conductivity of 0.01 S/cm at $100^{\circ}C$ was obtained for the PS-b-PHEMA/IDA/$H_3PO_4$ membrane with [HEMA]:[IDA]:[$H_3PO_4$] = 3:4:4 under anhydrous conditions. All of the PS-b-PHEMA/IDA/$H_3PO_4$ membranes were thermally stable up to $350^{\circ}C$, as revealed by thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA).

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.877-887
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• 1996

The ideal membranes for membrane-covered oxygen probes system should be selectively permeable for oxygen and chemically inert, and have good mechanical strength. Polysulfone(PSf) was selected to develop the membrane for membrane-covered oxygen electrodes system. PSf membranes have properties such as good reproducibility, good mechanical strength, chemical inertness, and high heat resistance. PSf membranes were cast from polymer solution on the glass plate at constant temperature, and casting solvents used were tetrahydrofuran(THF), methylene chloride, and N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone(NMP). Tricresyl phosphate(TCP) as plasicizer was added to PSf to increase the softness of membrane. The permeation characteristics were observed for pure oxygen and nitrogen through pure PSf membranes by variable volume method and membrane-covered electrode system. The permeability coefficients of oxygen and nitrogen measured by variable volume method were slightly decreased with increasing of upstream pressure. The permeation properties of PSf membrane using methylene choride as casting solvent were not affected by the PSf amount of polymer solution. The permeability coefficients of oxygen and nitrogen for PSf membrane containing TCP were very slightly lower than those for pure PSf membrane, but ideal separation factors were slightly higher. The flexibility of PSf membrane containing 2wt% TCP was better than that of pure PSf membrane. It was expected that this increase in flexibility would solve the difficulty of fixing the membrane to the cathode. The membrane-covered oxygen probes system was composed of anode, cathode and electrolyte. The type of the anode was Ag/AgCl half-cell, that of cathode was Ag, and the electrolyte was 4N KCl solution. The result of sampled current voltametry for PSf membrane showed the plateu region at -0.3V~-1.0V. The correlation coefficient of oxygen partial pressure versus current for PSf membrane was relatively high, 0.99949. It was concluded that PSf membrane was the good candidate for the membrane-covered oxygen probes system.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.61 no.4
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• pp.517-522
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• 2023

A chemical/mechanical durability test of polymer membrane evaluation method is used in which air and hydrogen are supplied to the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) and wet/dry is repeated in the open circuit voltage (OCV) state. In this protocol, when wet/dry is repeated, voltage increase/decrease is repeated, resulting in electrode degradation. When the membrane durability is excellent, the number of voltage changes increases and the evaluation is terminated due to electrode degradation, which may cause a problem that the original purpose of membrane durability evaluation cannot be performed. In this study, the same protocol as the department of energy (DOE) was used, but oxygen was used instead of air as the cathode gas, and the wet/dry time and flow rate were also increased to increase the chemical/mechanical degradation rate of the membrane, thereby shortening the durability evaluation time of the membrane to improve these problems. The durability test of the Nafion 211 membrane electrode assembly (MEA) was completed after 2,300 cycles by increasing the acceleration by 2.6 times using oxygen instead of air. This protocol also accelerated degradation of the membrane and accelerated degradation of the electrode catalyst, which also had the advantage of simultaneously evaluating the durability of the membrane and the electrode.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.491-499
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• 2014

It is important to accurately measure and control the relative humidity of humidified gas entering a PEM (polymer electrolyte membrane) fuel cell stack because the level of humidification strongly affects the performance and durability of the stack. Humidity measurement devices can be used to directly measure the relative humidity, but they cost much to be equipped and occupy spaces in a fuel cell system. We present soft sensors for predicting the relative humidity without actual humidity measuring devices. By combining FIR (finite impulse response) model with PLS (partial least square) and SVM (support vector machine) regression models, DPLS (dynamic PLS) and DSVM (dynamic SVM) soft sensors were developed to correctly estimate the relative humidity of humidified gases exiting a planar-type membrane humidifier. The DSVM soft sensor showed a better prediction performance than the DPLS one because it is able to capture nonlinear correlations between the relative humidity and the input data of the soft sensors. Without actual humidity sensors, the soft sensors presented in this work can be used to monitor and control the humidity in operation of PEM fuel cell systems.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.547-553
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• 2015

For commercialization of fuel cell electric vehicles, one of the key objectives is to reduce cost of full stack assembly. Regarding Membrane Electrode Assembly, the major issue is to improve fuel cell activation process in the initial Hydrogen Oxidation Reaction and Oxygen Reduction Reaction. In this research, the VD (Vacuum Drying) process has been developed for improvement of activation process. The VD condition is developed by controlling the temperature and degree of vacuum to remove the remaining solvent of electrode. Consequently, the electrode applied to VD process showed the low characteristics such as 3.5% of remaining solvent content and the improved efficiency such as 15% of activation process speed.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.95.2-95.2
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• 2011

In order to achieve high performance and low cost for commercial applications, the development of membrane electrode assemblies (MEA), in which the electrochemical reactions actually occur, must be optimized. Expensive platinum is currently used as an electrochemical catalyst due to its high activity. Although various platinum alloys and non-platinum catalysts are under development, their stabilities and catalytic activities, especially in terms of the oxygen reduction (ORR), render them currently unsuitable for practical use. Therefore, it is important to decrease platinum loading by optimizing the catalysts and electrode microstructure. In this study, we prepared several different MEAs (non-uniform Nafion$^{(R)}$ ionomer loading electrode) which have dual catalyst layers to find the optimal Nafion$^{(R)}$ ionomer distribution in the electrodes. We changed Nafion$^{(R)}$ ionomer content in the layers to find the ideal composition of the binder and Pt/C in the electrode. For MEAs with various ionomer contents in the anodes and cathodes, the electrochemical activity (activation overpotential) and the mass transport properties (concentration overpotential) were analyzed and correlated with the single cell performance. The dual catalyst layers MEA showed higher cell performance than uniformly fabricated MEA, especially at the high current density region.