• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.233-239
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• 2009

The electrocatalytic behavior of the PtCo catalyst supported on the multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) has been evaluated and compared with commercial Pt/C catalyst in a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell(PEMFC). A PtCo/MWNTs electrocatalyst with a Pt:Co atomic ratio of 79:21 was synthesized and applied to a cathode of PEMFC. The structure and morphology of the synthesized PtCo/MWNTs electrocatalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. As a result of the X-ray studies, the crystal structure of a PtCo particle was determined to be a face-centered cubic(FCC) that was the same as the platinum structure. The particle size of PtCo in PtCo/MWNTs and Pt in Pt/C were 2.0 nm and 2.7 nm, respectively, which were calculated by Scherrer's formula from X-ray diffraction data. As a result we concluded that the specific surface activity of PtCo/MWNTs is superior to Pt/C's activity because of its smaller particle size. From the electrochemical impedance measurement, the membrane electrode assembly(MEA) fabricated with PtCo/MWNTs showed smaller anodic and cathodic activation losses than the MEA with Pt/C, although ohmic loss was the same as Pt/C. Finally, from the evaluation of cyclic voltammetry(CV), the unit cell using PtCo/MWNTs as the cathode electrocatalyst showed slightly higher fuel cell performance than the cell with a commercial Pt/C electrocatalyst.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.75-80
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• 2015

Multi-block sulfonated poly(arylene ether sulfone) (SPAES) copolymer was synthesized via nucleophilic aromatic substitution reaction for proton exchange membrane fuel cell application. After synthesizing the hydrophilic and hydrophobic precursor oligomers having different end-groups (F-terminated or OH-terminated), the effect of end group on the molecular weight was investigated. Hydrophilic oligomers with hydroquinone showed better performance as fuel cell membranes. SPAES membranes showed comparable proton conductivity to that of Nafion at $80^{\circ}C$ and above 70% RH. In particular, SPAES 9 with hydroquinone showed higher proton conductivity than SPAES 10 in the whole RH range studied. Increased local concentration of sulfonic acids within hydrophilic block might develop the hydrophilic-hydrophobic phase separation in the block copolymers.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.109-114
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• 2012

The cathode catalyst layer in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) was fabricated with anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) template and its structure was characterized with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis. The SEM analysis showed that the catalyst layer was fabricated the Pt nanowire with uniform shape and size. The BET analysis showed that the volume of pores in range of 20-100 nm was enhanced by AAO template. The electrochemical properties with the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) were evaluated by current-voltage polarization measurements and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The results showed that the MEA with AAO template reduced the mass transfer resistance and improved the cell performance by approximately 25% through controlling the structure of catalyst layer.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.118-127
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• 2012

TiN or Ti/TiN was coated on stainless steel as bipolar plate in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) to improve their corrosion resistance and electric conductivity, and their properties were examined under fuel cell operating condition. After 200 hours operation, the behaviors for the corrosion, crack and dissolution of coating layer were investigated by various techniques. The corrosion and exfoliation of coating layer were considerably generated except for SUS316L-Ti/TiN after fuel cell operation even if the electric conductivity and corrosion resistance of coated stainless steel bipolar plates were improved. The adoption of Ti layer between TiN layer and the surface of stainless steel enhanced the adhesion of TiN layer and decreased the possibility of corrosion by the increase of coating layer.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.155-161
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• 2013

In this study, a metal-plated polycarbonate was adopted as a material for bipolar plates in a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). The coated layers included 40-${\mu}m$-thick copper, 10-${\mu}m$-thick nickel, and 0.3-${\mu}m$-thick gold that respectively played the roles of current conduction, adhesion between copper and gold, and minimization of surface corrosion. The maximum power of the air-breathing PEMFC with polycarbonate bipolar plates was $120mW/cm^2$, which was similar to that of graphite bipolar plates. Finally, the maximum power of a 12-cell stack of polycarbonate bipolar plates was $132.7mW/cm^2$, and it had an operating time of 12 h. Therefore, this was considered a suitable material for bipolar plates in PEMFCs.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.86-91
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• 2008

The rubber was compounded with carbon black and silica series-filler to examine the effects of the various rubber fillers on a gasket material's suitability and fuel cell stack conclusion. The evaluation of a long term heat resistance and oil resistance of the mixed rubber material was performed considering at the drive environment of PEMFC. Test results of compression set for the most influencing property of gasket showed that it was about less than 15% at long term of up to 1000 h. In this experiment, FEM analysis is carried out about the rubber material's properties depending on each filler and the stress which is produced when a gasket is contracted by using various filler. Sealing force was expected to maximum 2.5 MPa from minimum 0.2 MPa by using FEM (finite element method) at stacking gasket to gasket.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.230-239
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• 2024

Efforts are being made to replace ship diesel engines with electric propulsion motors in response to emission regulations. In particular, in the case of short-range small ships, research is being conducted to replace polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) with power sources. However, PEMFC has problems such as slow dynamic response characteristics and reduced durability at high temperatures. To solve this problem, a high-precision ship model was developed with power distribution and thermal management strategies applied, and through this, the required power, heat, and power characteristics of the propulsion system according to the ship's speed profile were analyzed.

• 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.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.549-554
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• 2008

Proton conducting crosslinked membranes were prepared using polymer blends of polystyrene-b-poly(hydroxyethyl acrylate)-b-poly(styrene sulfonic acid) (PS-b-PHEA-b-PSSA) and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA). PS-b-PHEA-b-PSSA triblock copolymer at 28:21:51 wt% was synthesized sequentially using atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). FT-IR spectroscopy showed that after thermal ($120^{\circ}C$, 2 h) and chemical (sulfosuccinic acid, SA) treatments of the membranes, the middle PHEA block of the triblock copolymer was crosslinked with PVA through an esterification reaction between the -OH group of the membrane and the -COOH group of SA. The ion exchange capacity (IEC) decreased from 1.56 to 0.61 meq/g with increasing amount of PVA. Therefore, the proton conductivity at room temperature decreased from 0.044 to 0.018 S/cm. However, the introduction of PVA resulted in a decrease in water uptake from 87.0 to 44.3%, providing good mechanical properties applicable to the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) of fuel cells. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) showed that the membrane was microphase-separated with a nanometer range with good connectivity of the $SO_3H$ ionic aggregates. The power density of a single $H_2/O_2$ fuel cell system using the membrane with 50 wt% PVA was $230\;mW/cm^2$ at $70^{\circ}C$ with a relative humidity of 100%. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) also showed a decrease in the thermal stability of the membranes with increasing PVA concentration.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.44-46
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• 2008

Air-breathing polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) are highly promising particularly for small-power applications up to tens watts class. A distinctive feature of the air-breathing PEMFC is its simple system configuration in which axial fans operate for dual purposes, supplying both oxidant and coolant in a single manner. In the present study, a nominal 80W air-breathing PEMFC system is developed and investigated to determine the optimal operating strategy through parametric studies (i.e., reactant humidity, and fanblowing flow rate). The cell voltage distributions are examined as a function of time to evaluate the system performance under various operating conditions.