• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.890-894
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• 2018

In this study, methylene blue which is one of dye materials was introduced as active material for aqueous redox flow battery. The redox potential of methylene blue was shifted to negative direction as pH increased. The full-cell performance was evaluated by using methylene blue as the negative active material and vanadium as the positive active material with acid supporting electrolytes. The cell voltage of methylene $blue/V^{4+}$ is very low (0.45 V). In addition, the maximum solubility of methylene blue in water is only 0.12 M. Therefore, the cell test was performed with very low concentration (0.0015 M methylene blue, $0.15M\;V^{4+}$) at first time. Cut-off voltage range was 0 to 0.8 V and $1mA{\cdot}cm^{-2}$ current density was adopted during cycling. As a result, current efficiency (CE) was 99.67%, voltage efficiency (VE), 88.83% and energy efficiency (EE) was 85.87% and discharge capacity was ($0.0500Ah{\cdot}L^{-1}$) at 4 cycle. In addition, the cell test was performed with increased concentration (0.1 M methylene blue, $0.15M\;V^{4+}$) with $10mA{\cdot}cm^{-2}$ current density, leading to higher discharge capacity ($3.8122Ah{\cdot}L^{-1}$) with similar efficiency (CE=99%, VE=85%, EE=85% at 4 cycle).

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.639-645
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• 2020

Among the components of redox flow battery (RFB), the electrode serves as a diffusion layer of an electrolyte and a path for electrons and also is a major component that directly affects the RFB performance. In this paper, chloric/sulfuric mixed acidwas used as a supporting electrolyte in RFB system with Fe2+/Fe3+ and V2+/V3+ as redox couple. The optimum electrode and activation temperature were suggested by comparing the capacity, coulombic efficiency and energy efficiency according to the electrode type and activation temperature. In the RFB single cell evaluation using 5 types of carbon electrodes used in the experiments, all of them showed close to the theoretical capacity to retain the reliability of the evaluation results. GFD4EA showed relatively excellent energy efficiency and charge/discharge capacity. In order to investigate the electrochemical performance according to the activation temperature, GFD4EA electrode was activated by heat treatment at different temperatures of 400, 450, 500, 600 and 700 ℃ under an air atmosphere. Changes in physical properties before and after the activation were observed using electrode mass retention, scanning electron microscope (SEM), XPS analysis, and electrochemical performance was compared by conducting RFB single evaluation using electrodes activated at each temperature given above.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.27 no.9
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• pp.1381-1385
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• 2006

Cobalt (cyclam) complex has been successfully immobilized onto SBA-15, and proven to be an active catalyst for the epoxidation of styrene with tert-butyl hydroperoxide as a terminal oxidant. The selectivity for styrene oxide was observed to be up to 66% with 40% styrene conversion after 12h reaction time. The reversible redox cycle between Co(III) and Co(II) couple which was supposed to play key role during the epoxidation reaction was supported by a cyclic voltametry analysis. The textural properties of the catalyst was characterized by XRD, N2 adsorption-desorption, and TEM analysis.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.214-222
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• 2019

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have been receiving growing attentions as a potential alternative to order photovoltaic devices due to their high efficiency and low manufacturing cost. DSSCs are composed of a photosensitizing dye adsorbed on a mesoporous film of nanocrystalline $TiO_2$ as a photoelectrode, an electrolyte containing triiodide/iodide redox couple, and a platinized counter electrode. To improve photovoltaic properties of DSSCs, new dicationic salts based on ionic liquids were synthesized. Quite comparable efficiencies were obtained from electrolytes with new dicationic iodide salts. The best cell performance of 7.96% was obtained with dicationic salt of PBDMIDI.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.362-366
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• 1987

Modification of n-Si electrodes coated by photogalvanostatically with polyaniline and polypyrrole in aqueous solutions considerably enhanced the stability and the spectral response of the photoelectrodes. A polypyrrole coated electrode incorporated with redox couple $Fe(CN)_{6}^{3-_6}$ / $Fe(CN)_{6}^{4-_6}$ yielded a photocurrent density of 400${\mu}A/cm^2$ for about 120 hours. Broad spectral responses over 300-850 nm were observed for both polymer coated electrodes of which polypyrrole coated one showed better current conversion efficiency.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.57 no.2
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• pp.239-243
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• 2019

In this study, anthraquinone-2,7-disulfonic acid (2,7-AQDS) is used as negative active material and Tiron is used as positive active material for aqueous redox flow battery (RFB). In previous results that used the 2,7-AQDS and Tiron, sulfuric acid ($H_2SO_4$) was a supporting electrolyte. However, in this study, ammonium chloride ($NH_4Cl$) is suggested as the electrolyte for the first time. By changing the supporting electrolyte from $H_2SO_4$ to $NH_4Cl$, the cell voltage of RFB is improved from 0.76 V to 1.01 V. To investigate the effect of $NH_4Cl$ supporting electrolyte of the performance of RFB, the full-cell tests of RFB using 2,7-AQDS and Tiron that are dissolved in $NH_4Cl$ supporting electrolyte are carried out, while cut-off voltage range is a main parameter to determine their performance. When the cut-off voltage range is 0.2~1.6 V, the hydrogen evolution occurs during charging step. To address the side reaction effect, the cut-off voltage range is changed to 0.2~1.2 V. When the revised cut-off voltage range is used and the current density of $40mA/cm^2$ is applied, hydrogen evolution is not observed and the optimal RFB shows the charge efficiency of 99% and discharge capacity of 3.3 Ah/L at 10cycle.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.17 no.12
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• pp.963-968
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• 2009

Liquid crystal (LC; E7 and/or ML-0249)-embedded, poly(vinylidenefluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVdF-co-HFP)-based, polymer electrolytes were prepared for use in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The electrolytes contained 1-methyl-3-propylimidazolium iodide (PMII), tetrabutylammonium iodide (TBAI), and iodine ($I_2$), which participate in the $I_3^-/I^-$ redox couple. The incorporation of photochemically stable PVdF-co-HFP in the DSSCs created a stable polymer electrolyte that resisted leakage and volatilization. DSSCs, with liquid crystal(LC)-embedded PVdF-co-HFP-based polymer electrolytes between the amphiphilic ruthenium dye N719 absorbed to the nanocrystalline $TiO_2$ photoanode and the Pt counter electrode, were fabricated. These DSSCs displayed enhanced redox couple reduction and reduced charge recombination in comparison to that fabricated from the conventional PVdF-co-HFP-based polymer electrolyte. The behavior of the polymer electrolyte was improved by the addition of optimized amounts of plasticizers, such as ethylene carbonate (EC) and propylene carbonate (PC). The significantly increased short-circuit current density ($J_{sc}$, $14.60\;mA/cm^2$) and open-circuit voltage ($V_{oc}$, 0.68 V) of these DSSCs led to a high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 6.42% and a fill factor of 0.65 under a standard light intensity of $100\;mW/cm^2$ irradiation of AM 1.5 sunlight. A DSSC fabricated by using E7-embedded PVdF-co-HFP-based polymer electrolyte exhibited a maximum incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE) of 50%.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.259-269
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• 2002

A battery based on the lithium/elemental sulfur redox couple has the advantage of high theoretical specific capacity of 1,675 mAh/g-sulfur. However, Li/S battery has bad cyclic durability at room temperature due to sulfur active material loss resulting from lithium polysulfide dissolution. To improve the cycle life of Li/S battery, PEGDME (Poly(ethylene glycol) dimethyl ether) 500 containing 1M LiTFSI salt which has high viscosity was used as electrolyte to retard the polysulfide dissolution and nano-sized $Mg_{0.6}Ni_{0.4}O$ was added to sulfur cathode as additive to adsorb soluble polysulfide within sulfur cathode. From experimental results, the improvement of the capacity and cycle life of Li/S battery was observed( maximum discharge capacity : 1,185 mAh/g-sulfur, C50/C1 = 85 % ). Through the charge-discharge test, we knew that PEGDME 500 played a role of preventing incomplete charge-discharge $behavior^{1,2)$. And then, in sulfur dissolution analysis and rate capability test, we first confirmed that nano-sized $Mg_{0.6}Ni_{0.4}O$ had polysulfide adsorbing effect and catalytic effect of promoting the Li/S redox reaction. In addition, from BET surface area analysis, we also verified that it played the part of increasing the porosity of sulfur cathode.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.16 no.9
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• pp.819-823
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• 1995

Thin films of two kinds of Prussian Blue (PB)-modified, using iron(Ⅲ) complex instead of conventional FeCl3, were prepared on a gold substrate and these films were able to be electrochemically reduced in potassium nitrate solution. In case of PB-modified films prepared from Fe(Ⅲ)-ethylenediamine-N,N'-diacetic acid (FeEN3+)/K3Fe(CN)6 solution, the mid-peak potential was 0.156 V in 0.1 M KNO3 and it was found that potassium ion migrates into or out of the film during the electrolysis. These films were shown to be electrochromic. These films exhibited smaller peak separation than those formed from Fe(Ⅲ)-tartaric acid (FeTA3+)/K3Fe(CN)6 system. The diffusion coefficient of Fe(CN)63-/4- redox couple, evaluated using the fabricated Au rotating disc electrode(rde) previously reported, was in good agreement with the existing data. Two experimental procedures, including the voltammetry at relatively low scan rates and the rde study, have been used in order to characterize the electrode kinetics. The electrode kinetics of some redox couples (FeEN2+-FeEN3+ and FeTA2+-FeTA3+) on both PB-modified thin films and bare Au electrode were studied using a Au rde. In all cases the rate constants of electron transfer obtained with the PB-modified film electrodes were only slightly less than those obtained for the same reaction on bare Au disc electrodes. The conductivities, as determined from the slopes of the i-V curves for a ca. 1 mm sample for dried PB-modified potassium-rich and deficient bulk samples pressed between graphite electrodes, were 6.21 × 10-7 and 2.03 × 10-7(Ω·cm)-1, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.79-86
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• 2019

Most of low-grad heat (< $200^{\circ}C$) generated from industrial process and human body, is abandoned as waste heat. To harvest the waste heat, the thermoelectrics (TE) technology has been widely investigated so far. However, TE suffers from poor performance and high material cost. As an alternative to the TE device, the thermoelectrical cell (TEC) is gaining growing attention these days. The TEC features several advantages such as high Seebeck coefficient, low cost and design flexibility compared to TE, but its commercial viability was limited by its low heat-to-electricity conversion efficiency. However, recent reports have demonstrated that the performance of TEC can be markedly improved by employing novel electrode/electrolyte materials and by optimizing cell design. This article summarizes the recent progress of TECs in terms of the redox couples, electrolyte solvents and additives, electrode materials and cell design.