• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.125-132
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• 2011

A unitized regenerative fuel cell (URFC) as a next-generation fuel cell technology was considered in the study. URFC is a mandatory technology for the completion of the hybrid system with the fuel cell and the renewable energy sources, and it can be expected as a new technology for the realization of hydrogen economy society in the $21^{st}$ century. Specifically, the recent research data and results concerning the polymer electrolyte membrane for the URFC technology were summarized in the study. The prime requirements of polymer electrolyte membrane for the URFC applications are high proton conductivity, dimensional stability, mechanical strength, and interfacial stability with the electrode binder. Based on the performance of the polymer electrolyte membrane, the URFC technology combining the systems for the production, storage, utilization of hydrogen can be a new research area in the development of an advanced technology concerning with renewable energy such as fuel cell, solar cell, and wind power.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.23-31
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• 2004

For the fabrication of high efficient bifunctional electrocatalyst of oxygen electrode for PEM URFC (Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Unitized Regenerative Fuel Cell), which is a promising energy storage and conversion system using hydrogen as the energy medium, several bifunctional electrocatalysts were prepared and tested in a single cell URFC system. The catalysts for oxygen electrode revealed fuel cell performance in the order of Pt black > PtIr > PtRuOx > PtRu ~ PtRuIr > PtIrOx, whereas water electrolysis performance in the order of PtIr ~ PtIrOx > PtRu > PtRuIr > PtRuOx ~ Pt black. Considering both reaction modes PtIr was the most effective elctrocatalyst for oxygen electrode of present PEM URFC system. In addition, the water electrolysis performance was significantly improved when Ir or IrOx was added to Pt black just 1 wt.% without the decrease of fuel cell performance. Based on the catalyst screening and the optimization of catalyst composition and loading, the optimum catalyst electrodes for PEM URFC were $1.0mg/cm^2$ of Pt black as hydrogen electrode and $2.0mg/cm^2$ of PtIr (99:1) as oxygen electrode.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.345-351
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• 2024

The unitized regenerative fuel cell (URFC) is a method that can reduce costs and increase system simplification by unitizing a fuel cell system and a water electrolysis system. The spray method is suitable as the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) manufacturing method for URFC because it is easy to control the amount of catalyst, the size of the system is small, and economical manufacturing is possible. In this study, a numerical analysis of the effect of solution concentration on the spray method was performed to use it as basic data for the spray method to be used in MEA manufacturing. As result, as the Nafion solution concentration decreases it was found that the spray speed and the mass flow rate and the discrete phase model concentration increases and the spray range widens.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.320-325
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• 2013

TUnitized reversible fuel cells (URFC) combine the functionality of a fuel cell and electrolyzer in one unitized device. For a URFC with proton exchange membrane, a titanium (Ti)-felt is applied to the gas diffusion layer (GDL) substrate at the oxygen electrode, and additionally titanium (Ti)-powders and TiN-powders are loaded in the GDL substrate as a micro porous layer (MPL). Double porous layer with TiN MPL was not acceptable for the URFC because both of fuel cell performance and electrolysis performance are degraded. The double porous layer with Ti-powder loading in the Ti-felt substrate influence rearly for the electrolysis performance. In contrast, the change of pore-size distribution brings a significant improvement of fuel cell performance under fully humidification conditions. This fact indicates that the hydrophobic meso-pores in the GDL play an important role for mass transport.

• 한국전기화학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.07a
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• pp.173-176
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• 2003

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.7-14
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• 2017

This study aims to examine the influences of substrates/diffusion layers (DL) and oxygen reduction reaction catalysts ($M_{ORR}$) on the performance of $M_{ORR}/IrO_2$/DL-type bifunctional oxygen electrodes for use in polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM)-type unitized regenerative fuel cells (URFC). The $M_{ORR}/IrO_2$/DL electrodes were prepared via two sequential steps: anodic electrodeposition of $IrO_2$ on various DLs and fabrication of $M_{ORR}$ layers (Pt, Pd, and Pt-Ru) by spraying on $IrO_2/DL$. Experiments using different DLs, with Pt as the $M_{ORR}$, revealed that the roughness factor of the DL mainly determined the electrode performance for both water electrolyzer (WE) and fuel cell (FC) operations, while the contributions of porosity and substrate material were insignificant. When Pt-Ru was utilized as the $M_{ORR}$ instead of Pt, WE performance was enhanced and the electrode performance was assessed by analyzing round-trip efficiencies (${\varepsilon}_{RT}$) at current densities of 0.2 and $0.4A/cm^2$. As a result, using Pt-Ru instead of Pt alone provided better ${\varepsilon}_{RT}$ at both current densities, while Pd resulted in very low ${\varepsilon}_{RT}$. Improved efficiency was related to the additional catalytic action by Ru toward ORR during WE operation.