• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2017

Design of novel materials in renewable energy systems plays a key role in powering transportation vehicles and portable electronics. This review introduces the research work of first principles-based computational design for the materials over the last decade to accomplish the goal with less financial and temporal cost beyond the conventional approach, especially, focusing on electrocatalyst toward a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). It is proposed that the new method combined with experimental validation, can provide fundamental descriptors and mechanical understanding for optimal efficiency control of a whole system. Advancing these methods can even realize a computational platform of the materials genome, which can substantially reduce the time period from discovery to commercialization into markets of new materials.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.179-184
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• 2018

In this study, Ni and tungsten carbide (WC) nanoparticles are simultaneously synthesized with the mesoporous carbon nanoparticles (CNP) using a solution plasma processing (SPP) in the benzene. The Ni and WC nanoparticles were formed through the sputtering effect of electrodes during discharge, and mean time CNP were formed through reduction reaction. TEM observation showed that loaded Ni and WC nanoparticles were evenly dispersed on the CNP. The results of electrochemical analysis demonstrated that an introduction of Ni nanoparticles promoted to improve catalytic activity for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Moreover, Ni-WC/CNP lead to fast electron transfer process compared to that of WC/CNP. Therefore, the inexpensive Ni-WC/CNP might be a promising as catalytic material for cathodes in fuel cell applications.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.65-72
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• 2014

The use of nanoscale electrocatalysts is a promising strategy for achieving high catalyst activity due to their large surface area. However, catalyst activity is not directly correlated to particle size. To understand this discrepancy, many studies have been conducted, but a full understanding has still not been achieved, despite the importance of particle size effects in designing an active catalyst. In this review, we focus on the discussion of particle size effects on the oxygen reduction reaction, and also discussed the nanoscale design beyond the nanoparticle to the meso and macroscale design.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1994.07b
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• pp.1409-1412
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• 1994

The electrodes for Phosphoric Acid Fuel Ceil were fabricated as a condition of PTFE contents in electrocatalyst layer and sintering temperature in the range of 25 -- 65 wt% and 310 -- $390^{\circ}C$, respectively. For the fabricated electrode, the accelation testing of cathode half cell at open circuit potential was investigated. While the performance of electrode showed maximum at the low level of PTFE contents in the initial stage of accelation testing, the maximum performance was shifted to higher PTFE contents of 45wt% after 24hrs accelation testing.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.1303-1308
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• 1999

Conducting poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDT) films with metalloporphyrins incorporated as the counter ions were prepared by electropolymerization of the monomer in the presence of metal-tetra(sulfonatophenyl) porphyrin anions. Cathodic reduction of oxygen on the resulting conducting polymer films was studied. The overpotential for O2 reduction on electrodes with cobalt-porphyrin complex was significantly smaller in acidic solutions than on gold. In basic solutions, the overpotential at low current densities was close to those on platinum and gold. Polymer electrode with Co-complex yielded higher limiting currents than with Fe-complex, although the Co-complex polymer electrode was a poorer electrocatalyst for O2 reduction in the activation range of potential than the Fe counterpart. From the rotating ring-disk electrode experiments, oxygen reduction was shown to proceed through either a 4-electron pathway or a 2-electron pathway. In contrast to the polypyr-role-based electrodes, the PEDT-based metalloporphyrin electrodes were stable with wider potential windows, including the oxygen reduction potential. Their electrocatalytic properties were maintained at temperatures up to 80℃ in KOH solutions.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.261-267
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• 2024

An unconventional fabrication technique of nanoelectrode was developed using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and hydrogel. Until now, the precise control of electroactive area down to a few nm² has always been an obstacle, which limits the wide application of nanoelectrodes. Here, the nanometer-sized contact between the boron-doped diamond (BDD) as conductive AFM tip and the agarose hydrogel as solid electrolyte was well governed by the feedback amplitude of oscillation in the non-contact mode of AFM. Consequently, this low-cost and feasible approach gives rise to new possibilities for the fabrication of nanoelectrodes. The electroactive area controlled by the set point of AFM was investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV) of the ferrocenmethanol (FcMeOH) combined with quasi-solid agarose hydrogel as an electrolyte. Single copper (Cu) nanoparticle was deposited at the apex of the AFM tip using this platform whose electrocatalytic activity for nitrate reduction was then investigated by CV and Field Emission-Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM), respectively.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.417-417
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• 2016

Global environmental deterioration has become more serious year by year and thus scientific interests in the renewable energy as environmental technology and replacement of fossil fuels have grown exponentially. Photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell consisting of semiconductor photoelectrodes that can harvest light and use this energy directly to split water, also known as photoelectrolysis or solar water splitting, is a promising renewable energy technology to produce hydrogen for uses in the future hydrogen economy. A major advantage of PEC systems is that they involve relatively simple processes steps as compared to many other H2 production systems. Until now, a number of materials including TiO2, WO3, Fe2O3, and BiVO4 were exploited as the photoelectrode. However, the PEC performance of these single absorber materials is limited due to their large charge recombinations in bulk, interface and surface, leading low charge separation/transport efficiencies. Recently, coupling of two materials, e.g., BiVO4/WO3, Fe2O3/WO3 and CuWO4/WO3, to form a type II heterojunction has been demonstrated to be a viable means to improve the PEC performance by enhancing the charge separation and transport efficiencies. In this study, we have prepared a triple-layer heterojunction BiVO4/WO3/SnO2 photoelectrode that shows a comparable PEC performance with previously reported best-performing nanostructured BiVO4/WO3 heterojunction photoelectrode via a facile solution method. Interestingly, we found that the incorporation of SnO2 nanoparticles layer in between WO3 and FTO largely promotes electron transport and thus minimizes interfacial recombination. The impact of the SnO2 interfacial layer was investigated in detail by TEM, hall measurement and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) techniques. In addition, our planar-structured triple-layer photoelectrode shows a relatively high transmittance due to its low thickness (~300 nm), which benefits to couple with a solar cell to form a tandem PEC device. The overall PEC performance, especially the photocurrent onset potential (Vonset), were further improved by a reactive-ion etching (RIE) surface etching and electrocatalyst (CoOx) deposition.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.79-89
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• 2023

Development of efficient and stable electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) under acidic conditions is desirable goal for commercializing proton exchange membrane (PEM) water electroyzer. Herein, we report iridium-doped hydrogenated titanate (Ir-HTO) nanobelts as a promising catalyst with a low-Ir content for the acidic OER. Addition of low-Ir (~ 3.36 at%) into the single-crystalline HTO nanobelts with large exposed {100} facets significantly boost catalytic activity and stability for OER under acidic conditions. The Ir-HTO outperforms the commenrcial benchmark IrO₂ catalyst; an overpotential for delivering 10 mA cm^-2 current density was reduced to about 25% for the Ir-HTO. Moreover, the catalytic performance of Ir-HTO is positioned as the most efficient electrocatalyst for the acidic OER. An improved intrinsic catalytic activity and stability are also confirmed for the Ir-HTO through in-depth electrochemical characterizations. Therefore, our results suggest that low-Ir doped single-crystalline HTO nanobelts can be a promising catalyst for efficient and durable OER under acidic conditions.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2016.11a
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• pp.186-186
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• 2016

수소는 연료전지 등의 에너지원으로 사용될 경우 NOx, SOx, $CO_2$ 등의 한경오염물질, 온실가스를 발생시키지 않기 때문에 친환경 에너지원으로 각광을 받고 있다. 수전해는 수소를 생산하는 가장 간단하고 효율적인 방법 중의 하나로서, 잉여전력 또는 신재생에너지에 의한 전기에너지를 통해 환경오염물질 발생 없이 고순도의 수소를 얻을 수 있으며 분산/대량 생산이 용이하다. 수전해에서 환원전극에서는 수소발생반응이 일어나고, 산화전극에서는 산소발생반응이 일어난다. 이때 주로 산소발생전극 촉매로는 과전압이 작게 걸리고 활성이 우수한 귀금속 계열의 $IrO_2$와 $RuO_2$ 등의 촉매가 현재 사용되고 있다. 본 연구에서는 고분자 용액을 만들어 전기방사를 이용하여 공정변수에 따른 직경과 morphology를 확인하였고, 고가의 귀금속 산화물 대신 저렴한 전이금속산화물인 Cu와 Co를 이용하여 1D 나노섬유를 산소발생 촉매로 합성하였다. 합성된 나노섬유의 구조적, 물리화학적 특성을 분석하고 산소발생반응(OER)에 대한 전기화학적 활성 및 내구성을 평가하였다.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.413-416
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• 2006

PtRu catalyst is most widely used as anode catalyst for a direct methanol fuel cell(DMFC). To promote the efficiency of the catalysts, it Is important to increase the triple phase boundary. In this study, we have tried to increase the triple phase boundaries in preparing electrocatalysts of the fuel cells, based on the process of grafting a proton-conducting agent onto the catalyst This grafted proton-conducting agent can act as an ionomer like Nafion, currently widely used ionomer. First, we have prepared the 80wt% PtRu/Ketjen Black electrocatalyst by an improved colloidal method. And, we have grafted methylsulfonate groups $(-CH_2SO_3H)$ into the catalyst as proton-conducting agents. As results of cyclic voltammety and single cell test of the membrane electrode assembly (MEA), we can conclude that the activity of the grafted electrocatalysts is superior to that of conventional ones, in performance of DMFCs. For our further study, we will investigate the optimum ratio of catalyst/grafted proton conduct Ing agent with maximum performance of a DMFC.