• Membrane Journal
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.425-433
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• 2017

As the problems related to the environmental pollution such as carbon dioxide emission are emerging, the need for the renewable energy and environmentally friendly energy is getting intense. Fuel cells are eco-friendly energy generation devices that generate electrical energy and produce water as a sole by-product. Compared to the traditional proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), anion exchange membrane alkaline fuel cell (AEMAFC) has a main advantage of possibility to use low cost metal catalysts due to its faster kinetics. The AEM, which conducts $OH^-$ ions, should possess high ion conductivity as well as high chemical stability at high pH conditions. We hereby introduce a crosslinked poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide) having a spacer-type conducting group as novel AEM, and report a high ion conductivity ($67.9mScm^{-1}$ at $80^{\circ}C$) and mechanical properties (Young's modulus : 0.53 GPa) as well as chemical stability (6.8% IEC loss at $80^{\circ}C$ for 1,000 h,) for the developed membrane.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.212-219
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• 2018

Perovskite type ceramic membranes which exhibit dual ion conduction (proton and oxygen ion conduction) can permeate water and can aid solving operational problems such as temperature gradient and carbon deposition associated with a working solid oxide fuel cell. From this point of view, it is crucial to reveal water transport mechanism and especially the nature of the surface sites that is necessary for water incorporation and evolution. $BaCe_{0.8}Y_{0.2}O_{3-{\alpha}}$ (BCY20) was used as a model proton and oxygen ion conducting membrane in this work. Four different catalytically modified membrane configurations were used for the investigations and water flux was measured as a function of temperature. In addition, CO was introduced to the permeate side in order to test the stability of membrane against water and $CO/CO_2$ and post operation analysis of used membranes were carried out. The results revealed that water incorporation occurs on any exposed electrolyte surface. However, the magnitude of water permeation changes depending on which membrane surface is catalytically modified. The platinum increases the water flux on the feed side whilst it decreases the flux on the permeate side. Water flux measurements suggest that platinum can block water permeation on the permeate side by reducing the access to the lattice oxygen in the surface layer.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.42-45
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• 2003

Inorganic polymer based hybrid membranes consisting of zirconium oxide and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) have been synthesized by sol-gel processes. The hybrid membranes showed thermal stability and flexibility up to $300^{\circ}C$. The membrane becomes proton conducting polymer electrolyte when added with 12-phosphotungstic acid (PWA). The conductivity of the membranes was measured in the temperature range from room temperature to $150^{\circ}C$ under saturated humidity and a maximum conductivity of $5{\times}10^{-5}\;Sm^{-1}$ was obtained at $150^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.226-231
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• 2008

The dense sintered bodies with >95% theoretical densities were successfully obtained from the $BaZrO_3,\;BaCeO_3,\;Ba(Zr_{0.7}Ce_{0.3})O_3$ solid solution, and core-shell structured $0.7BaZrO_3-0.3BaCeO_3$ composite powders prepared by sol-gel methods. The activation energy of $Ba(Zr_{0.7}Ce_{0.3})O_3$ solid solution calculated from the Arrhenius plot of the proton conductivities was similar to that of $BaZrO_3$. The activation energy of core-shell structured $0.7BaZrO_3-0.3BaCeO_3$ composite, however, was much lower than that of $BaZrO_3$ or $Ba(Zr_{0.7}Ce_{0.3})O_3$ solid solution, and was very similar to that $BaCeO_3$. These results could be assigned to the Ce-rich grain boundary which was clearly observed by EDX in core-shell structured $0.7BaZrO_3-0.3BaCeO_3$ composite.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.161-167
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• 2011

Proton conductors have attracted considerable attention for solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC), hydrogen pump, gas sensor, and membrane separators. Doped $SrCeO_3$ exhibits appreciable proton conductivity in hydrogen-containing atmosphere at high temperature. However commercial realization has been hampered due to the reactivity of $SrCeO_3$ with $CO_2$. The chemical stability and proton conductivity are dependent on dopant type. The purpose of this work is to investigate chemical stability of $SrCe_{0.95}Gd_{0.05}O_{3-\alpha}-Ce_{0.9}Gd_{0.1}O_{2-\beta}$ composites in $CO_2$ and $H_2$ gases. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was performed in gaseous $CO_2$ and electrical conductivity of the composites were also measured between 500 and $900^{\circ}C$ in air and $H_2$ atmosphere. $SrCe_{0.95}Gd_{0.05}O_{3-\alpha}-Ce_{0.9}Gd_{0.1}O_{2-\beta}$ composite membranes showed good chemical stability of in $CO_2$ atmosphere and high conductivity at hydrogen condition. The hydrogen permeation of $SrCe_{0.95}Gd_{0.05}O_{3-\alpha}-Ce_{0.9}Gd_{0.1}O_{2-\beta}$ composite membranes was investigated as a function of volumetric content of $SrCe_{0.95}Gd_{0.05}O_{3-\alpha}$. The $SrCe_{0.95}Gd_{0.05}O_{3-\alpha}-Ce_{0.9}Gd_{0.1}O_{2-\beta}$(6:4) membrane with a thickness of 1.0 mm showed the highest hydrogen permeability with the flux reaching of 0.12 $ml/min{\cdot}cm^2$ at $800^{\circ}C$ in 100%$H_2/N_2$ as feed gas.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.92-99
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• 2011

Barium cerate ($BaCeO_3$) related perovskite ceramics currently dominate the high-temperature proton conductor field. Unfortunately, these materials have very stringent environmental limitations necessitating the costly and complex conditioning or cleaning of the application feed-gas. Commercial realization has been hampered, in part, because of the reactivity of $BaCeO_3$ with $CO_2$, and to some extent $H_2O$. And sintered $BaCeO_3$ decomposed at a rate comparable to the powder samples. In this article, the chemical stability and the structural changes of $BaCe_{0.9-X}Y0.1La_XO_{3-\delta}$ (X=0, 0.1, 0.2) have been systematically investigated in the atmosphere containing carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) and water vapor ($H_2O$). The sintering characteristics were studied in $1600^{\circ}C$, sintered pellets disintegrate and decompose upon contacting boiling water on the surface only.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.141-145
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• 2007

Due to their excellent catalytic activity with respect to methanol oxidation on platinum at low temperature, platinum nanosized catalysts have been a topic of great interest for use in direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs). Since pure platinum is readily poisoned by CO, a by-product of methanol electrooxidation, and is extremely expensive, a number of efforts to design and characterize Pt-based alloy nanosized catalysts or Pt nanophase-support composites have been attempted in order to reduce or relieve the CO poisoning effect. In this review paper, we summarize these efforts based upon our recent research results. The Pt-based nanocatalysts were designed by chemical synthesis and thin-film technology, and were characterized by a variety of analyses. According to bifunctional mechanism, it was concluded that good alloy formation with $2^{nd}$ metal (e.g., Ru) as well as the metallic state and optimum portion of Ru element in the anode catalyst contribute to an enhanced catalytic activity for methanol electrooxidation. In addition, we found that the modified electronic properties of platinum in Pt alloy electrodes as well as the surface and bulk structure of Pt alloys with a proper composition could be attributed to a higher catalytic activity for methanol electooxdation. Proton conducting contribution of nanosized electrocatalysts should also be considered to be excellent in methanol electrooxidation (Spillover effect). Finally, we confirmed the ensemble effect, which combined all above effects, in Pt-based nanocatalsyts especially, such as PtRuRhNi and $PtRuWO_{3}$, contribute to an enhanced catalytic activity.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.648-653
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• 2012

Hybridization of dense ceramic membranes for hydrogen separation with an electronically conductive metallic phase is normally utilized to enhance the hydrogen permeation flux and thereby to increase the production efficiency of hydrogen. In this study, we developed a nickel and proton conducting oxide ($BaCe_{0.9}Y_{0.1}O_{3-{\delta}}$: BCY) based cermet (ceramic-metal composites) membrane. Focused on the general criteria in that the hydrogen permeation properties of a cermet membrane depend on its microstructural features, such as the grain size and the homogeneity of the mix, we tried to optimize the microstructure of Ni-BCY cermets by controlling the fabrication condition. The Ni-BCY composite powder was synthesized via a solid-state reaction using $2NiCO_3{\cdot}3Ni(OH)_2{\cdot}4H_2O$, $BaCeO_3$, $CeO_2$ and $Y_2O_3$ as a starting material. To optimize the mixing scale and homogeneity of the composite powder, we employed a high-energy milling process. With this high-energy milled composite powder, we could fabricate a fine-grained dense membrane with an excellent level of mixing homogeneity. This controlled Ni-BCY cermet membrane showed higher hydrogen permeability compared to uncontrolled Ni-BCY cermets created with a conventionally ball-milled composite powder.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.51 no.4
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• pp.271-277
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• 2014

To overcome the limitations of the solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) due to the high temperature operation, there has been increasing interest in proton conducting fuel cells (PCFCs) for reduction of the operating temperature to the intermediate temperature range. In present work, the perovskite $BaCe_{0.85-x}Zr_xY_{0.15}O_{3-\delta}$ (BCZY, x = 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, and 0.7) were synthesized via solid state reaction (SSR) and adopted as an electrolyte materials for PCFCs. Powder characteristics were examined using X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) surface area analysis. Single phase BCZY were obtained in all compositions, and chemical stability was improved with increasing Zr content. Anode-supported cell with $Ni-BaCe_{0.55}Z_{0.3}Y_{0.15}O_{3-\delta}$ (BCZY3) anode, BCZY3 electrolyte and BCZY3-$Ba_{0.5}Sr_{0.5}Co_{0.8}Fe_{0.2}O_{3-\delta}$ (BSCF) composite cathode was fabricated and electrochemically characterized. Open-circuit voltage (OCV) was 1.05 V, and peak power density of 370 ($mW/cm^2$) was achieved at $650^{\circ}C$.