• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.260-266
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• 2018

To enhance catalyst activity of the palladium (Pd) towards oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), iridium (Ir) and yttrium (Y) were alloyed by polyol method. Due to the low reduction potential of Y, it is hard to reduce Y ion completely by polyol method. In XPS spectra, the binding energy of the Pd is shifted to a lower value, which indicates the d-electron of Pd is filled by the electron from the Y. And other phases of Y are observed by the XPS. Among the catalysts, the $Pd_4IrY_{0.1}/C$ showed the best activity towards ORR, which indicates the metallic Y is effective for improving the catalytic activity. Thus, for further enhancing ORR activity, the novel method for complete reduction of Y is needed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Sciences Society Conference
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• 2019.10a
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• pp.83-83
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• 2019

Increasing the CO₂ concentration in the atmosphere induce high temperature and rising sea levels. So the technology that capture and reuse of the CO₂ have been recently become popular. Among other methods, CRR(CO2₂ reduction reaction) is typical method of CO₂ reusing. Electrocatalyst can show more higher efficiencies in CRR than photocatalyst because it doesn't use nature source. Nowadays, finding high efficient electrocatalyst by controlling electronic (affected by stoichiometry) and geometric (affected by atomic arrangement) factors are very important issues. Mono-atomic electro-catalyst has limitations on controlling binding energy because each intermediate has own binding energy range. So the Multi-metallic electro-catalyst is important to stabilize intermediate at the same time. Carbon monoxide(CO) which is our target product and important feedstock of useful products. Au is known for the most high CO production metal. With copper, Not only gold/copper has advantages which is they have FCC packing for easily forming solid solution regardless of stoichiometry but also presence of adsorbed CO on Cu promotes the desorption of CO on Au because of strong repulsion. And gold/copper bi-metal catalyst can show high catalytic activity(mass activity) although it has low selectivity relatively Gold. Actually, multi-metallic catalyst structure control method is limited in the solution method which is takes a lot of time. In here, we introduce CTS(carbo thermal shock) method which is using heat to make MMNP in a few seconds for making gold-copper system. This method is very simple and efficient in terms of time(very short reaction time and using carbon substrate as a direct working electrode) and increasing reaction sites(highly dispersed and mixing alloy structures). Last one is easy to control degree of mixing and it can induce 5 or more metals in one alloy system. Gold/copper by CTS can show higher catalytic activity depending on metal ratio which is altered easily by changing simple variables. The ultimate goals are making CO₂ test system by CTS which can check the selectivity depending on metal types in a very short time.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.392-398
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• 2020

Producing solar grade silicon using an inexpensive method is a key factor in lowering silicon solar cell costs; the direct electrochemical reduction of SiO₂ in molten salt is one of the more promising candidates for manufacturing this silicon. In this study, SiO₂ granules were electrochemically reduced in molten CaCl₂ (850℃) using Ag-Si eutectic droplets that catalyze electrochemical reduction and purify the Si product. When Ag is used as the working electrode, the Ag-Si eutectic mixture is formed naturally during SiO₂ reduction. However, since the Ag-Si eutectic droplets are liquid at 850℃, they are easily lost during the reduction process. To minimize the loss of liquid Ag-Si eutectic droplets, a cylindrical graphite container working electrode was introduced and Ag was added separately to the working electrode along with the SiO₂ granules. The graphite container working electrode successfully prevented the loss of the Ag-Si eutectic droplets during reduction. As a result, the Ag-Si eutectic droplets acted as stable catalysts for the electrochemical reduction of SiO₂, thereby producing one-dimensional Si rods through a mechanism similar to that of vapor-liquid-solid growth.

• 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.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.270-274
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• 2017

Formic acid has been known as one of key sources of hydrogen. Among various monometallic catalysts, hydrogen can be efficiently produced on Pd catalyst. However, the catalytic activity of Pd is gradually reduced by the blocking of active sites by CO, which is formed from the unwanted indirect oxidation of formic acid. One of promising solutions to overcome such issue is the design of alloy catalyst by adding other metal into Pd since alloying effect (such as ligand and strain effect) can increase the chance to mitigate CO poisoning issue. In this study, we have investigated formic acid deposition on the bimetallic $Pd/Pd_3Fe$ core-shell nanocatalyst using DFT (density functional theory) calculation. In comparison to Pd catalyst, the activation energy of formic acid dehydrogenation is greatly reduced on $Pd/Pd_3Fe$ catalyst. In order to understand the importance of alloying effects in catalysis, we decoupled the strain effect from ligand effect. We found that both strain effect and ligand effect reduced the binding energy of HCOO by 0.03 eV and 0.29 eV, respectively, compared to the pure Pd case. Our DFT analysis of electronic structure suggested that such decrease of HCOO binding energy is related to the dramatic reduction of density of state near the fermi level.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2011.10a
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• pp.27.1-27.1
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• 2011

The recent extensive research of one-dimensional (1D) nanostructures such as nanowires (NWs) and nanotubes (NTs) has been the driving force to fabricate new kinds of nanoscale devices in electronics, optics and bioengineering. We attempt to produce silicon oxide nanowires (SiOxNWs) in a simple way without complicate deposition process, gaseous Si containing precursors, or starting material of $SiO_2$. Nickel (Ni) nanoparticles (NPs) were applied on Si wafer and thermally treated in a furnace. The temperature in the furnace was kept in the ranges between 900 and $1,100^{\circ}C$ and a mixture of nitrogen ($N_2$) and hydrogen ($H_2$) flowed through the furnace. The SiOxNWs had widths ranging from 100 to 200 nm with length extending up to ~10 ${\mu}m$ and their structure was amorphous. Ni NPs were acted as catalysts. Since there were no other Si materials introduced into the furnace, the Si wafer was the only Si sources for the growth of SiOxNWs. When the Si wafer with deposition of Ni NPs was heated, the liquid Ni-Si alloy droplets were formed. The droplets as the nucleation sites induce an initiation of the growth of SiOxNWs and absorb oxygen easily. As the droplets became supersaturated, the SiOxNWs were grown, by the reaction between Si and O and continuously dissolving Si and O onto NPs. Photoluminescence (PL) showed that blue emission spectrum was centered at the wavelength of 450 nm (2.76 eV). The details of growth mechanism of SiOxNWs and the effect of Ni NPs on the formation of SiOxNWs will be presented.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.12 no.12
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• pp.941-946
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• 2002

Both Cu and Cu-oxide nanopowders have great potential as conductive paste, solid lubricant, effective catalysts and super conducting materials because of their unique properties compared with those of commercial micro-sized ones. In this study, Cu and Cu-oxide nanopowders were prepared by Pulsed Wire Evaporation (PWE) method which has been very useful for producing nanometer-sized metal, alloy and ceramic powders. In this process, the metal wire is explosively converted into ultrafine particles under high electric pulse current (between $10^4$ and $10^{ 6}$ $A/mm^2$) within a micro second time. To prevent full oxidations of Cu powder, the surface of powder has been slightly passivated with thin CuO layer. X-ray diffraction analysis has shown that pure Cu nanopowders were obtained at $N_2$ atmosphere. As the oxygen partial pressure increased in $N_2$ atmosphere, the gradual phase transformation occurred from Cu to $Cu_2$O and finally CuO nanopowders. The spherical Cu nanopowders had a uniform size distribution of about 100nm in diameter. The Cu-oxide nanopowders were less than 70nm with sphere-like shape and their mean particle size was 54nm. Smaller size of Cu-oxide nanopowders compared with that of the Cu nanopowders results from the secondary explosion of Cu nanopowders at oxygen atmosphere. Thin passivated oxygen layer on the Cu surface has been proved by XPS and HRPD.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.56 no.12
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• pp.910-914
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• 2018

Since catalyst technology is one of the promising technologies to improve the working performance of next generation energy and electronic devices, many efforts have been made to develop various catalysts with high efficiency at a low cost. However, there are remaining challenges to be resolved in order to use the suggested catalytic materials, such as platinum (Pt), gold (Au), and palladium (Pd), due to their poor cost-effectiveness for device applications. In this study, to overcome these challenges, we suggest a useful method to increase the surface area of a noble metal catalyst material, resulting in a reduction of the total amount of catalyst usage. By employing block copolymer (BCP) self-assembly and nano-transfer printing (n-TP) processes, we successfully fabricated sub-20 nm Pt line and cross-bar patterns. Furthermore, we obtained a highly ordered Pt cross-bar pattern on a Ni thin film and a Pt-embedded Ni thin film, which can be used as hetero hybrid alloy catalyst structure. For a detailed analysis of the hybrid catalytic material, we used scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), which revealed a well-defined nanoporous Pt nanostructure on the Ni thin film. Based on these results, we expect that the successful hybridization of various catalytic nanostructures can be extended to other material systems and devices in the near future.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.78-83
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• 2014

In this research, we evaluated the performance and characteristics of carbon supported PtM (M = Ni and Y) alloy catalysts (PtM/Cs) synthesized by a modified polyol method. With the PtM/Cs employed as a catalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) of cathodes in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), their catalytic and ORR activities and electrical performance were investigated and compared with those of commercial Pt/C. Their particle sizes, particle distributions and electrochemically active surface areas (EAS) were measured by TEM and cyclic voltammetry (CV), while their ORR activity and electrical performance were explored using linear sweeping voltammetries with rotating disk electrodes and rotating ring-disk electrodes as well as PEMFC single cell tests. TEM and CV measurements show that PtM/Cs have the compatible particle size and EAS with Pt/C. When it comes to ORR activity, PtM/C showed the equivalent or better half-wave potential, kinetic current density, transferred electron number per oxygen molecule and $H_2O_2$ production(%) to or than commerical Pt/C. Based on results gained by the three electrode tests, when the PEMFC single cell tests were carried out, the current density measured at 0.6 V and maximum power density of PEMFC single cell adopting PtM/C catalysts were better than those adopting Pt/C catalyst. It is therefore concluded that PtM/C catalysts synthesized by modified polyol can result in the equivalent or better ORR catalytic capability and PEMFC performance to or than commercial Pt/C catalyst.