• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.313-318
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• 2008

The influence of the particle size of platinum(Pt) on the stability and activity was studied. The particle size of platinum was controlled in the range of $3.5{\sim}9\;nm$ by heat treatment of commercial Pt/C and confirmed by XRD and TEM. An accelerated degradation test was performed to evaluate the stability of platinum catalysts. Oxygen reduction reaction was monitored for the measurement of activity. As increasing the Pt particle size, the stability of Pt/C electrode was enhanced and the activity was reduced. It was confirmed that the stability of Pt/C electrode was in inverse proportion to the activity. PtCo/C alloy catalyst was used to improve the activity and stability of large-sized platinum particle. The maximum power density of commercial Pt/C was $507.6\;mV/cm^2$ and PtCo/C alloy catalyst was $585.8\;mV/cm^2$. The decrement of electrochemical surface area showed Pt/C(60%) and PtCo/C alloy catalyst(24%). It was possible to enhance both of stability and activity of catalyst by the combination of particle size control and alloying.

• Carbon letters
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.38-40
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• 2010

Carbon supported electrocatalysts are commonly used as electrode materials for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells(PEMFCs). These kinds of electrocatalysts provide large surface area and sufficient electrical conductivity. The support of typical PEM fuel cell catalysts has been a traditional conductive type of carbon black. However, even though the carbon particles conduct electrons, there is still significant portion of Pt that is isolated from the external circuit and the PEM, resulting in a low Pt utilization. Herein, new types of carbon materials to effectively utilize the Pt catalyst are being evaluated. Carbon nanofiber/activated carbon fiber (CNF/ACF) composite with multifunctional surfaces were prepared through catalytic growth of CNFs on ACFs. Nickel nitrate was used as a precursor of the catalyst to synthesize carbon nanofibers(CNFs). CNFs were synthesized by pyrolysising $CH_4$ using catalysts dispersed in acetone and ACF(activated carbon fiber). The as-prepared samples were characterized with transmission electron microscopy(TEM), scanning electron microscopy(SEM). In TEM image, carbon nanofibers were synthesized on the ACF to form a three-dimensional network. Pt/CNF/ACF was employed as a catalyst for PEMFC. As the ratio of prepared catalyst to commercial catalyst was changed from 0 to 50%, the performance of the mixture of 30 wt% of Pt/CNF/ACF and 70wt% of Pt/C commercial catalyst showed better perfromance than that of 100% commercial catalyst. The unique structure of CNF can supply the significant site for the stabilization of Pt particles. CNF/ACF is expected to be promising support to improve the performance in PEMFC.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.505-506
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• 2008

The direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) is a promising power source for portable applications due to many advantages such as simple construction, compact design, high energy density, and relatively high energy-conversion efficiency. In this work, an electrochemical methanol sensor for monitoring the methanol concentration in direct methanol fuel cells was fabricated using a thin composite nafion membrane as the electrolyte. We have analyzed the I-V characteristic of the fabricated methanol sensor as a function of methanol concentration, catalyst electrode and platinum(Pt) dot.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.523-530
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• 2019

For the low-Pt electrodes for polymer electrolyte fuel cells (PEMFCs), the optimization of ionomer content for anode catalyst layers was carried out. A commercial catalyst of 20 wt.% Pt/C was used instead of 50 wt.% Pt/C which is commonly used for PEMFCs. The ionomer content varies from 0.6 to 1.2 based on ionomer to carbon ratio (I/C) and the catalyst layer is formed over the electrolyte by the ultrasonic spray process. Evaluation of the prepared MEA in the unit cell showed that the optimal ionomer content of the air electrode was 0.8 on the I/C basis, while the hydrogen electrode was optimal at the relatively high ionomer content of 1.0. In addition, a large difference in cell performance was observed when the ionomer content of the hydrogen electrode was changed. Increasing the ionomer content from 0.6 to 1.0 by I/C in a hydrogen electrode with 0.05 mg/㎠ platinum loading resulted in more than double cell performance improvements on a 0.6 V. Through the analysis of various electrochemical properties in the single cell, it was assumed that the change in ionomer content of the hydrogen electrode affects the water flow between the hydrogen and air electrodes bounded by the membrane in the cell, which affects the overall performance of the cell. A more specific study will be carried out to understand the water flow mechanism in the future, and this study will show that the optimization process of hydrogen electrode can also be a very important cell design variable for the low-Pt and high-performance MEA.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.193-200
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• 2019

$RuO_2$, $PtO_2$, and various $(Ru,Pt)O_2$ colloidal solution were prepared using modified Watanabe method. Electrodes were manufactured by dipping of Ni mesh into the colloidal solution. Manufactured electrodes were characterized by XRD, SEM, and EDS. $(Ru,Pt)O_2$ electrodes showed $RuO_2$ crystal structure and high roughness. The hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activities were evaluated by Linear Sweep Voltammetry. 1Ru2Pt electrode showed similar activity with commercial electrode, HER potentials are -0.9 V for both.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.68-72
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• 2013

Until a recent day, degradation of PEMFC MEA (membrane and electrode assembly) has been studied, separated with membrane degradation and electrode degradation, respectively. But membrane and electrode were degraded coincidentally at real PEMFC operation condition. During simultaneous degradation, there was interaction between membrane degradation and electrode degradation. The effect of electrode degradation on membrane degradation was studied in this work. We compared membrane degradation after electrode degradation and membrane degradation without electrode degradation. I-V performance, hydrogen crossover current, fluoride emission rate (FER), impedance and TEM were measured after and before degradation of MEA. Electrode degradation reduced active area of Pt catalyst, and then radical/$H_2O_2$ evolution rate decreased on Pt. Decrease of radical/$H_2O_2$ reduced the velocity of membrane degradation.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.49-53
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• 2007

The direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) is a promising power source for portable applications due to many advantages such as simple construction, compact design, high energy density, and relatively high energy-conversion efficiency. In this work, an electrochemical methanol sensor for monitoring the methanol concentration in direct methanol fuel cells was fabricated using a thin composite nafion membrane as the electrolyte. We have analyzed the I-V characteristic of the fabricated methanol sensor as a function of methanol concentration, catalyst electrode and platinum(Pt) thickness. The fabricated sensor was analyzed by I-V measurement with various methanol concentration. When we measured the sensor characteristics with 10nm Pt and at 1V, the current value was $1.30{\times}10^{-6}A,\;1.96{\times}10^{-6}A\;and\;2.80{\times}10^{-6} A$ for three methanol concentration of 1M, 2M and 3M, respectively. When the methanol concentration was fixed at 2M, the current value of the fabricated device with Pt layers of 5, 10 and 15 nm thickness was $3.06{\times}10^{-6}A,\;1.96{\times}10^{-6}A\;and\;1.00{\times}10^{-6}A$, respectively. These results lead us to the conclusion that when the methanol concentration increases, the output current increases and when the catalyst electrode become thinner, the current increase more. It showed that, the thinner the catalyst electrode, the more electrochemistry become activation.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.146.2-146.2
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• 2010

PEMFC를 구성하는 여러 부품 중 핵심부품은 MEA(Membrane Electrode Assembly)으로서 실제 연료전지 반응이 일어나며 연료전지의 성능을 결정하는 부품이다. 그러나 PEMFC의 특성 상 촉매로 귀금속인 Pt가 사용됨에 따라 경제성이 확보된 MEA의 성능을 얻기 위해선 현재 Pt 담지량을 0.3mg/$cm^2$ 이하로 크게 감소시키면서 Pt촉매의 고분산화와 미반응 사이트의 감소가 필요하다. 본 연구에서는 Pt 촉매의 미반응 사이트를 줄이고자 전기영동법에 의해 카본전극(carbon black + GDL) 상에 Pt 나노입자를 직접 석출시켜 Pt/C 촉매 전극을 제조 하였다. 본 실험에서는 가장 좋은 Pt 나노입자의 석출거동을 나타낸 30mA/$cm^2$, pH 2, duty cycle 25% 조건을 기준으로 하여 electro-deposition time을 통한 석출량 제어와 carbon paper의 wet proofing 정도에 따른 Pt의 석출거동을 조사하였으며, 종래의 방법으로 제조한 Pt/C 촉매전극의 전기화학적 특성과 비교 분석하였다. 전기영동 석출법에 사용된 Pt나노입자는 $H_2PtCl_6{\cdot}6H_2O$로부터 화학적 환원법으로 합성한 2~3nm 입경을 갖는 Pt콜로이드를 사용하였으며, magnetic stirring과 항온 ($20^{\circ}C$)을 유지하여 실험하였다. 전기영동 석출량 제어는 electro-deposition time을 5~25분까지 5분 간격으로 나누어 실험하였고 카본전극을 구성하는 carbon paper의 wet proofing 정도가 Pt 나노입자 석출거동에 미치는 영향을 조사하기 위하여 20, 40, 60%의 서로 다른 wet proofing 값을 갖는 carbon paper를 사용하여 Pt/C 촉매 전극을 제조하였다. 전기영동법으로 석출된 카본블랙 전극 상 Pt나노입자의 분산도와 담지량는 각각 FE-SEM과 TGA 장비를 사용하여 측정하였고, 제조된 Pt/C 촉매 전극의 전기화학적 촉매 특성은 cyclic voltammetry(CV)법으로 측정하였다.

• 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.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.540-546
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• 2010

In order to confirm the effect of Nafion ionomer content in catalyst layer on the performance of PEMFC, we have fabricated several electrodes which were prepared by varying the quantity of Nafion ionomer from 24 wt.% to 39 wt.% in catalyst layer. The effect of Nafion ionomer of each electrode was evaluated with cyclic voltammetry measurement. In addition, cell performance was obtained through single cell test using hydrogen and air. The Pt utilization and performance of single cell were changed by addition of Nafion ionomer to the electrode. Single cell fabricated with 33 wt.% of Nafion ionomer in catalyst layer showed the maximum Pt utilization and performance.