• Membrane Journal
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.395-408
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• 2020

Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) have gained much attention as eco-friendly energy conversion devices without emission of environmental pollutant. Polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) that can transfer proton from anode to cathode and also prevent fuel cross-over has been regarded as a key component of PEMFCs. Although perfluorinated polymer membranes such as Nafion® were already commercialized in PEMFCs, their high cost and toxic byproduct generated by degradation have still limited the wide spread of PEMFCs. To overcome these issues, development of hydrocarbon based PEMs have been studied. Incorporation of cross-linked structure into the hydrocarbon based PEM system has been reported to fabricate the PEMs showing both high proton conductivity and outstanding physicochemical stability. This study focused on the various cross-linking strategies to the preparation of cross-linked PEMs based on hydrocarbon polymers with ion conducting groups for application in PEMFCs.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.442-449
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• 2018

Research on High temperature polymer electrolyte fuel cell (HT-PEMFC) has actively been conducted all over the world. Since the HT-PEMFC can be operated at a high temperature of $120-180^{\circ}C$ using phosphoric acid-doped polybenzimidazole (PBI) electrolyte membrane, it has considerable advantages over conventional PEMFC in terms of operating conditions and system efficiency. However, If the thermal distribution is not uniform in the stack unit, degradation due to local reaction and deterioration of lifetime are difficult to prevent. The thin plate separator reduces the volume of the fuel cell stack and improves heat transfer, consequently, enhancing the cooling effect. In this paper, a large area flow field of thin plate separator for HT-PEMFC is designed and sub-stack is fabricated. We have studied stack performance evaluation under various operating conditions and it has been verified that the proposed design can achieve acceptable stack performance at a wide operating range.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.471-473
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• 2006

An object of the present study is to provide a hollow fiber membrane humidifier capable of improving the humidification efficiency while lowering the pressure loss, and is suitably usable for PEMFC(Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell). The performance of PEMFC is decisively dependent on the humidity of the electrolyte membrane(fluorinated membrane) and a humidifier plays an important role in moisturizing electrolyte membrane. Especially this humidifier is adaptable for lower price to promote the commercialization of fuel cell vehicles and is passive type to be power free and to be volumetrically optimized. In this research, we propose the substitutes for the expensive fluorinated materials and the optimum dry-jet wet spinning conditions of hollow fiber membrane to get the fuel cell humidifier. In addition to that we established the standard method of evaluating the moisturizing performance of the humidifier of various materials.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2009.04b
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• pp.212-214
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• 2009

The polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell(PEMFC) with the advantages of low-operating temperature, high current density, low cost and volume, fast start-up ability, and suitability for discontinuous operation becomes the most reasonable and attractive power system for transportation vehicle and micro-grid power plant in a household. 200W PEMFC(Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell) system applied to middle and small-scaled micro-grid power system was constructed by this study, then the electrical characteristics and diagnosis of the fuel cell were analyzed with thermal variation.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.96-110
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• 2024

Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are green energy conversion devices, for which commercial markets have been established, owing to their application in fuel cell vehicles (FCVs). Development of cathode electrocatalysts, replacing commercial Pt/C, plays a crucial role in factors such as cost reduction, high performance, and durability in FCVs. PtNi octahedral catalysts are promising for oxygen reduction reactions owing to their significantly higher mass activity (10-15 times) than that of Pt/C; however, their application in membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) is challenged by their low stability. To overcome this durability issue, various approaches, such as third-metal doping, composition control, halide treatment, formation of a Pt layer, annealing treatment, and size control, have been explored and have shown promising improvements in stability in rotating disk electrode (RDE) testing. In this review, we aimed to compare the features of each strategy in terms of enhancing stability by introducing a stability improvement factor for a direct and reasonable comparison. The limitations of each strategy for enhancing stability of PtNi octahedral are also described. This review can serve as a valuable guide for the development of strategies to enhance the durability of octahedral PtNi.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.269-276
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• 2016

Carbon-supported ordered Pt-Ti alloy nanoparticles were prepared as a durable and efficient oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) electrocatalyst for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) via wet chemical reduction of Pt and Ti precursors with heat treatment at $800^{\circ}C$. X-ray diffraction analysis confirmed that the prepared electrocatalysts with Ti precursor molar compositions of 40% (PtTi40) and 25% (PtTi25) had ordered $Pt_3Ti$ and $Pt_8Ti$ structures, respectively. Comparison of the ORR polarization before and after 1500 electrochemical cycles between 0.6 and 1.1 V showed little change in the ORR polarization curve of the electrocatalysts, demonstrating the high stability of the PtTi40 and PtTi25 alloys. Under the same conditions, commercial carbon-supported Pt nanoparticle electrocatalysts exhibited a negative potential shift (10 mV) in the ORR polarization curve after electrochemical cycling, indicating degradation of the ORR activity.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.364-374
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• 2010

Design of a reformer consisting of combustion chamber and reforming chamber was investigated for a 1 kW and a 5 kW polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), respectively, using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD). First, the 1kW reformer was considered to obtain the reliability of the numerical study. It was modeled, calculated and compared with experimental data. Second, the 5kW reformer was considered for a geometric study. Three tip sizes (35, 40, and 45 mm) and five aspect ratios was selected. It was found that the optimum was at tip sizes of 40 and 45 mm, at aspect ratios of -10% and -20% of the standard length.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.449-455
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• 2006

Ionic cluster mimic, polymer electrolyte membranes were prepared using polymer composites of crosslinked poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) with sulfated-${\beta}$-cyclodextrins (${\beta}-CDSO_3H$) or phosphated-${\beta}$-cyclodextrins (${\beta}-CDPO(OH)_2$). When Nafion, developed for a fuel cell using low temperature, polymer electrolyte membranes, is used in a direct methanol fuel cell, it has a methanol crossover problem. The ionic inverted micellar structure formed by micro-segregation in Nafion, known as ionic cluster, is distorted in methanol aqueous solution, resulting in the significant transport of methanol through the membrane. While the ionic structure formed by the ionic sites in either ${\beta}-CDSO_3H$ or ${\beta}-CDPO(OH)_2$ in this composite membrane is maintained in methanol solution, it is expected to reduce methanol transport. Proton conductivity was found to increase in PVA membranes upon addition of ionized cyclodextrins. Methanol permeability through the PVA composite membrane containing cyclodextrins was lower than that of Nafion. It is thus concluded that the structure and fixation of ionic clusters are significant barriers to methanol crossover in direct methanol fuel cells.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 2003.07a
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• pp.29-32
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• 2003

Polymer electrolyte membranes are developed for the applications to facilitated transport membranes, fuel cells and solar cells. The polymer electrolyte membranes containing silver salt show the remarkably high separation performance for olefin/paraffin mixture in the solid state; the propylene permeance is 45 GPU and the ideal selectivity of propylene/propane is 15,000. For fuel cell membranes, the effects of the presence and size of the proton transport channels on the proton conductivity and methanol permeability were investigated. The cell performance for dye-sensitized solar cells employing polymer electrolytes are measured under light illumination. The overall energy conversion efficiency reaches 5.44 % at 10 ㎽/$\textrm{cm}^2$, to our knowledge the highest value ever reported in the polymer electrolytes.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.278-281
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• 2009

Proton exchange membrane is the key material for proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC). Currently widely-used perfluorosulfonic acid membranes have some disadvantages, such as low thermal stability, easy swelling, excessive crossover of methanol and high price etc. Other membranes, including sulfonated polymer, radiation grafted membranes, organic-inorganic hybrids and acid-base blends, do not satisfy the criteria for PEMFC, which set a barrier to the development and commercialization of PEMFC. Pore-filling type proton exchange membrane is a new proton exchange membrane, which is formed by filling porous substrate with electrolytes. Compared with traditional perfluorosulfonic acid membranes, pore-filling type proton exchange membranes have many advantages, such as non- swelling, low methanol permeation, high proton conductivity, low cost and a wide range of materials to choose. In this research, preparation methodology of pore-filling membranes by particularly using all hydrocarbon polymers and fuel cell performances with the membranes are evaluated.