• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.277-282
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• 2010

Durability of automotive polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) strongly depends the startup/shutdown procedure. Formation of hydrogen/air boundary in the anode gas channel, so-called reverse current condition, particularly induces fast degradation of the cathode. Under the reverse current condition, high voltage is present at the cathode facing air in the anode gas channel and is a function of residual oxygen concentration in the gas channels, that increases with storage time and reaches 21% (air) eventually. In this study, effects of residual oxygen concentration in a PEMFC on degradation of the PEMFC.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.223-234
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• 2010

In this review, the theory and applications of the complex capacitance analysis, which can be utilized in analyzing capacitor-like electrochemical systems, were summarized. Theoretically, it was suggested that the imaginary capacitance plots (Cim vs. log f) can provide a simple way to analyze electrochemical characteristics of capacitive systems, without complicated mathematical calculations. The usefulness of the complex capacitance analysis has been demonstrated by applying it to analyze EDLC characteristics of practical porous carbon electrodes, ionic conductivities inside small pores, and ionic resistances in the catalyst layers of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.205-215
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• 2024

This study introduced a direct contact heat exchanger to enhance the efficiency of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) systems. According to previous research, 28% of the operating costs of fuel cell systems are attributed to heat exchanger devices, prompting the design of a direct contact heat exchanger to address this issue. Optimal configurations were determined through computational fluid dynamics analysis and experimental device fabrication, and the enhanced heat exchange performance of the heat exchanger was experimentally confirmed. Through this, the contribution of the direct contact heat exchanger to the heat management and efficiency enhancement of PEMFC systems was established.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.311-319
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• 2013

A clear understanding on cell voltage-reversal behavior due to local hydrogen starvation in a stack is of paramount importance to operate the fuel cell vehicle (FCV) stably since it affects significantly the cell performance and durability. In the present study, a novel experimental method to simulate the local cell voltage-reversal behavior caused by local hydrogen starvation, which typically occurs only one or several cells out of several hundred cells in a stack of FCV, has been proposed. Contrary to the conventional method of overall fuel starvation, the present method of local hydrogen starvation caused the local cell voltage-reversal behavior in a stack very well. Degradation of both membrane electrode assembly (i.e., pin-hole formation) and gas diffusion layer due to an excessive exothermic heat under voltage-reversal condition was also observed clearly.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.553-554
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• 2006

This paper presents the effects of different operating parameters on the performance of a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell by a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model. The effects of different operating parameters on the performance of PEM fuel cell studied using pure hydrogen on the anode side and air on the cathode side. The various parameters are temperatures, pressures, humidification of the gas steams and various combinations of these parameters. In addition, geometrical and material parameters such as the gas diffusion layer (GDL) thickness and porosity as well as the ratio between the channel width and the land area were investigated.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.336-344
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• 2008

This manuscript deals with the investigation of the possibility of the crosslinked poly(vinyl alcohol) membranes with both poly(styrene sulfonic acid-co-maleic acid) and 3-(trihydroxysilyl)-1-propanesulfonic acid (THS-PSA) for the fuel cell application. The studies were focused on the characterization of the resulting membranes through water content, thermal gravimetric analysis, ion exchange capacity, ion conductivity and methanol permeability measurements and then compared with the existing Nafion membrane. Typically, the ion conductivity lied in the range of $10^{-3}$ to $10^{-2}\;S/cm$ while the methanol permeability showed the range of $10^{-6}$ to $10^{-8}\;cm^2/s$.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.141-145
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• 2016

Polymer electrolyte membranes (PEMs) are key components to determine electrochemical fuel cell performances, in addition to electrode materials. The PEMs need to satisfy selective transport behaviors to small molecules including gases and protons; the PEMs have to transport protons as fast as possible, while they should act as hydrogen barriers, since the permeated gas induces the thermal degradation of cathode catalyst, resulting in rapid electrochemical reduction. To date, limited tools have been used to measure how fast hydrogen gas permeates through PEMs (e.g., Constant volume/variable Pressure (time-lag) method). However, most of the measurements are conducted under vacuum where PEMs are fully dried. Otherwise, the obtained hydrogen permeance is easily changeable, which causes the measurement errors to be large. In this study, hydrogen permeation properties through Nafion212 used as a standard PEM are evaluated using an in-situ measurement system in which both temperature and humidity are controlled at the same time.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.101-106
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• 2006

The transport of reactant gas, electrons and protons at the three phase interfaces in the catalytic layers of membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) in proton exchange, membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) must be optimized to provide efficient transport to and from the electrochemical reactions in the solid polymer electrolyte. The aim of reducing proton transport loss in the catalytic layer by increasing the volume of the conducting medium can be achieved by filling the voids in the layer with small-sized electrolytes, such as dendrimers. Generation 1.5 and 3.5 polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimer electrolytes are well-controlled, nanometer-sized materials with many peripheral ionic exchange, -COOH groups and were used for this purpose in this study. The electrochemically active surface area of the deposited catalyst material was also investigated using cyclic voltammetry, and by analyzing the Pt-H oxidation peak. The performances of the fuel cells with added PAMAM dendrimers were found to be comparable to that of a fuel cell using MEA, although the Pt utilization was reduced by the adsorption of the dendrimers to the catalytic layer.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.42-50
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• 2011

The Montmorillonite (MMT) in the polymer matrix is expected to reduce methanol permeability due to the tortous path formed by dispersed silicate layers. However, the polymer composite membranes containing non-proton conducting inorganic particle tend to show low proton conductivity. To solve this problem, we used an ion exchange method to prepare functionalized MMT with various silane coupling agents. The modified MMT was randomly dispersed in sulfonated poly (arylene ether sulfone) (SPAES) matrix to prepare SPAES/modified MMT composite membranes. The performances of hybrid membranes for DMFCs application were investigated. The SPAES/modified composite membrane showed increased proton conductivity compared with the non-modified MMT composite membrane. However, the methanol permeability of the SPAES/modified membrane was higher than that of the non-modified MMT.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.154-157
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• 2009

Fuel cell is spotlighted as next energy source of future. The fuel of vehicle will be changed from fossil fuel such as gasoline, diesel to hydrogen. Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell(PEMFC) will be used to fuel cell vehicle because of its suitability. PEMFCs need oxygen for cathode. Because PEMFCs in vehicle use air for oxygen, air pollutant will be effect to performance of PEMFC. In this study, we examine a type of filter and pollutant gas how can be effect to performance of fuel cell electric vehicle.