• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.194-199
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• 1993

Gas diffusion passes are introduced to catalyst layer so as to enlarge reaction region in cathode and anode and then improve electrode performances. The catalyst layer was manufactured with PTFE/carbon (none catalyst loaded) for gas diffusion and Pt/carbon (10 w/o Pt catalyst loaded) by varing the mixing ratio of (PTFE/carbon) to (Pt/carbon) by catalyst powdering method. The electrodes made by mixing Pt(10 w/o)/carbon powders and PTFE/carbon powders containing 60 w/o PTFE at the ratio of 7 : 3 showed the best electrode performances. It was known that by comparing the porosities to electrode performances the electrode performances were increased as both macro pore for gas diffusion and micro pore for electrolyte intrusion were formed much more. The platinum catalyst content in electrode was 0.2 mg/$\textrm{cm}^2$ and the PTFE content was 42 w/o. The electrode performance in unit cell was 220 ㎃/$\textrm{cm}^2$/0.7 V at operating temperature of 150$^{\circ}C$.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.285-292
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• 2021

To study the effect of the mixture ratio of Ni-Pt nanocatalysts on water electrolysis characteristics in anion exchange membrane system, Ni-Pt nanocatalysts were loaded on carbon black by using a spontaneous reduction reaction of acetylacetonate compounds. The loading weight of Ni-Pt nanocatalysts on the carbon black was measured by thermogravimetric analyzer and the elemental ratio of Ni and Pt was estimated by energy dispersive x-ray analyzer. It was found that the loading weight of Ni-Pt nanoparticles was 5.36-5.95 wt%, and the loading weight increased with increasing Pt wt%. As the Ni-Pt loading weight increased, the specific surface area decreased, because Ni-Pt nanoparticles block the pores of carbon black. It was confirmed by BET analysis and dynamic vapor sorption analysis. I-V characteristics were estimated.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.301-308
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• 2006

The present work explores the effect of carbon-supported platinum catalyst on the HI decomposition using gas adsorption analyzer, thermogravimetry, X-ray diffractometry, scanning electron microscopy, and gas chromatography. For this purpose, three types of activated carbon (C), Pt/C-1 wt.%, and Pt/C-5 wt.% were prepared. The HI gas conversion is crucially influenced by the amount of Pt on the carbon support. The more the amount of Pt was, the higher results in the HI gas conversion. For three types of catalysts, HI conversion increased with increasing the decomposition temperature but with decreasing the space velocity. The increase of HI conversion with temperature was more pronounced in activated carbon than that in Pt/C. From EDX result, it was found that the activated carbon comprised higher amount of iodine than the Pt/C after the decomposition reaction. This implies that the HI conversion is closely related to the amount of Iodine.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.28 no.11
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• pp.646-652
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• 2018

During a long-term operation of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells(PEMFCs), the fuel cell performance may degrade due to severe agglomeration and dissolution of metal nanoparticles in the cathode. To enhance the electrochemical durability of metal catalysts and to prevent the particle agglomeration in PEMFC operation, this paper proposes a hybrid catalyst structure composed of PtCo alloy nanoparticles encapsulated by porous carbon layers. In the hybrid catalyst structure, the dissolution and migration of PtCo nanoparticles can be effectively prevented by protective carbon shells. In addition, $O_2$ can properly penetrate the porous carbon layers and react on the active Pt surface, which ensures high catalytic activity for the oxygen reduction reaction. Although the hybrid catalyst has a much smaller active surface area due to the carbon encapsulation compared to a commercial Pt catalyst without a carbon layer, it has a much higher specific activity and significantly improved durability than the Pt catalyst. Therefore, it is expected that the designed hybrid catalyst concept will provide an interesting strategy for development of high-performance fuel cell catalysts.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.61 no.3
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• pp.341-347
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• 2023

In PEMFC, PtCo/C alloy catalysts are widely used because of good performance and durability. However, few studies have been reported on the durability of carbon supports of PtCo/C evaluated at high voltages (1.0~1.5 V). In this study, the durability of PtCo/C catalysts and Pt/C catalysts were compared after applying the accelerated degradation protocol of catalyst support. After repeating the 1.0↔1.5V voltage change cycles, the mass activity, electrochemical surface area (ECSA), electric double layer capacitance (DLC), Pt dissolution and the particle growth were analyzed. After 2,000 cycles of voltage change, the current density per catalyst mass at 0.9V decreased by more than 1.5 times compared to the Pt/C catalyst. This result was because the degradation rate of the carbon support of the PtCo/C catalyst was higher than that of the Pt/C catalyst. The Pt/C catalyst showed more than 1.5 times higher ECSA reduction than the PtCo/C catalyst, but the corrosion of the carbon support of the Pt/C catalyst was small, resulting in a small decrease in I-V performance. In order to improve the high voltage durability of the PtCo/C catalyst, it was shown that improving the durability of the carbon support is essential.

• 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.30 no.6
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• pp.549-555
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• 2019

Electrocatalysis of oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) using Pt nanoparticles or bimetal on carabon was studied. Currently, the best catalyst is platinum, which is a limited resource and expensive to commercialize. In this paper, we investigated the cheaper and more active electrocatalysts by making Pt nanoparticles and adding 3D transition metal such as copper. Electrocatalysts were obtained by chemical reduction based on ethylene glycol solutions. Elemental analysis and particle size were confirmed by XRD and TEM. The electrochemical surface area (ECSA) and activity of the catalyst were determined by electrochemical techniques such as cyclic voltammetry and linear sweep voltammetry method. The commercialized Pt support on carbon (Pt/C, JM), synthesis Pt/C and synthesis Pt3Cu1 alloy nanoparticles supported on carbon were compared. We confirmed that the synthesized Pt3-Cu1/C has high electrochemical performance than commercial Pt/C. It is expected to develop an electrocatalyst with high activity at low price by increasing the oxygen reduction reaction rate of the fuel cell.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.164-169
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• 2023

Nano Pt particles were dispersed on carbon-based supports by a polyol process for a catalyst application in a polymer electrolyte fuel cell. We tried to optimize the effect of pH on the electrostatic forces between the support and the Pt colloids. We investigated the relationship among the surface charges on the carbon support, the solution pH, and the concentration of a glycolate, and the Pt particle size. The produced catalyst with nano Pt particles on the support was evaluated by the long-term cyclic voltammetry (CV) performance test and compared with the results from a commercial catalyst. Our experimental results reveal that the pH-control can modify the particle size distribution and the dispersion of the nano Pt particles. This resulted in a cost-effective method for the synthesis of highly Pt loaded Pt/C catalysts for fuel cells better than a commercial catalyst system.

• 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.

• Carbon letters
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.213-216
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• 2009

The electrochemical deposition of Pt nanoparticles on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) supports and their catalytic activities for methanol electro-oxidation were investigated. Pt catalysts of 4~12 nm average crystalline size were grown on supports by potential cycling methods. Electro-plating of 12 min time by potential cycling method was sufficient to obtain small crystalline size 4.5 nm particles, showing a good electrochemical activity. The catalysts' loading contents were enhanced by increasing the deposition time. The crystalline sizes and morphology of the Pt/support catalysts were evaluated using X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). The electrochemical behaviors of the Pt/support catalysts were investigated according to their characteristic current-potential curves in a methanol solution. In the result, the electrochemical activity increased with increased plating time, reaching the maximum at 12 min, and then decreased. The enhanced electroactivity for catalysts was correlated to the crystalline size and dispersion state of the catalysts.