• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.133-133
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• 2013

For both oxygen reduction (ORR) and hydrogen oxidation reactions (HOR) of proton electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), alloying Pt with another transition metal usually results in a higher activity relative to pure Pt, mainly due to electronic modification of Pt and bifunctional behaviour of alloy surface for ORR and HOR, respectively. However, activity and stability are closely related to the preparation of alloy nanoparticles. Preparation conditions of alloy nanoparticles have strong influence on surface composition, oxidation state, nanoparticle size, shape, and contamination, which result from a large difference in redox priority of metal precursors, intrinsic properties of metals, increasedreactivity of nanocrystallites, and interactions with constituents for the synthesis such as solvent, stabilizer, and reducing agent, etc. Carbon-supported Pt-Ni alloy nanoparticles were prepared by the borohydride reduction method in anhydrous solvent. Pt-Ru alloy nanoparticles supported on carbon black were also prepared by the similar synthetic method to that of Pt-Ni. Since electrocatalytic reactions are strongly dependent on the surface structure of metal catalysts, the atom-leveled design of the surface structure plays a significant role in a high catalytic activity and the utilization of electrocatalysts. Therefore, surface-modified electrocatalysts have attracted much attention due to their unique structure and new electronic and electrocatalytic properties. The carbon-supported Au and Pd nanoparticles were adapted as the substrate and the successive reduction process was used for depositing Pt and PtM (M=Ru, Pd, and Rh) bimetallic elements on the surface of Au and Pd nanoparticles. Distinct features of the overlayers for electrocatalytic activities including methanol oxidation, formic acid oxidation, and oxygen reduction were investigated.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.318-323
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• 2015

For commercialization of fuel cell electric vehicles, one of the key objectives is to improve durability of MEA and electrocatalysts. Regarding electrocatalysts, the major issue is to reduce carbon corrosion and dissolution of Pt caused by harsh conditions, for example, SU/SD (Start-up/Shut-down). In this research, OER (Oxygen Evolution Reaction) catalyst has been developed improvement of durability. A modified polyol process is developed by controlling the pH of the solvent to synthesize the PtIr nanocatalysts on carbon supports. Each performance of the MEAs applying PtIr and Pt are equivalent because PtIrnanocatalysts have both ORR and OER activity. Breadboard test for catalyst durability in harsh conditions and high potentialsis found that the MEA applying PtIrnanocatalysts durability is improved more than the MEA applying Pt nanocatalysts.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.22 no.8
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• pp.421-425
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• 2012

Two types of Pt nanoparticle electrocatalysts were composited on Pt nanowires by a combination of an electrospinning method and an impregnation method with NaBH4 as a reducing agent. The structural properties and electrocatalytic activities for methanol electro-oxidation in direct methanol fuel cells were investigated by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and cyclic voltammetry. In particular, SEM, HRTEM, XRD, and XPS results indicate that the metallic Pt nanoparticles with polycrystalline property are uniformly decorated on the electro-spun Pt nanowires. In order to investigate the catalytic activity of the Pt nanoparticles decorated on the electro-spun Pt nanowires, two types of 20 wt% Pt nanoparticles and 40 wt% Pt nanoparticles decorated on the electro-spun Pt nanowires were fabricated. In addition, for comparison, single Pt nanowires were fabricated via an electrospinning method without an impregnation method. As a result, the cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry results demonstrate that the electrode containing 40 wt% Pt nanoparticles exhibits the best catalytic activity for methanol electro-oxidation and the highest electrochemical stability among the single Pt nanowires, the 20 wt% Pt nanoparticles decorated with Pt nanowires, and the 40 wt% Pt nanoparticles decorated with Pt nanowires studied for use in direct methanol fuel cells.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.549-555
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• 2019

Electrocatalysis of oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) using Pt nanoparticles or bimetal on carabon was studied. Currently, the best catalyst is platinum, which is a limited resource and expensive to commercialize. In this paper, we investigated the cheaper and more active electrocatalysts by making Pt nanoparticles and adding 3D transition metal such as copper. Electrocatalysts were obtained by chemical reduction based on ethylene glycol solutions. Elemental analysis and particle size were confirmed by XRD and TEM. The electrochemical surface area (ECSA) and activity of the catalyst were determined by electrochemical techniques such as cyclic voltammetry and linear sweep voltammetry method. The commercialized Pt support on carbon (Pt/C, JM), synthesis Pt/C and synthesis Pt3Cu1 alloy nanoparticles supported on carbon were compared. We confirmed that the synthesized Pt3-Cu1/C has high electrochemical performance than commercial Pt/C. It is expected to develop an electrocatalyst with high activity at low price by increasing the oxygen reduction reaction rate of the fuel cell.

• 한국전기화학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.07a
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• pp.223-228
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• 2005

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.401-407
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• 2002

Most of organic compounds discharged from industrial wastewater are treated by chemical oxidation, adsorption and biodegradable process. This process has been demanded a new advanced environmental wastewater treatment process. From this point of view, an electrochemical oxidation process using electrocatalysts has been developed for the destruction of organic compounds. Through this study, a ruthenium oxide/iridium oxide supported on titanium expanded metal was fabricated by thermal decomposition method and its performance was excellent during this experiment.

• 한국전기화학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.07a
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• pp.183-187
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• 2003

Carbon nanotubes, prepared by the catalytic decomposition of acetylene at $700^{\circ}C$ over a Mm based $AB_5$ hydrogen storage alloy hydride catalysts, have been used as a support for platinum electrocatalysts. The performance of this electrocatalyst In proton exchange membrane fuel cells has been studied and discussed.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.106-110
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• 2015

This study investigates Cu(II) complexes of cyclam, propylene cross-bridged cyclam (PCB-cyclam), and propylene cross-bridged cyclam diacetate (PCB-TE2A) as homogeneous electrocatalysts for CO₂ reduction in comparison with Ni(II)-cyclam. It is found that Cu(II)-cyclam can catalyze CO₂ reduction at the potential close to its thermodynamic value (0.75 V vs. Ag/AgCl) in tris-HCl buffer (pH 8.45) on a glassy carbon electrode. Cu(II)-cyclam, however, suffers from severe demetalation due to the insufficient stability of Cu(I)-cyclam. Cu(II)-PCB-cyclam and Cu(II)-PCB-TE2A are revealed to exhibit much less demetalation behavior, but poor CO₂ reduction activities as well. The inferior electrocatalytic ability of Cu(II)-PCB-cyclam is ascribed to its redox potential that is too high for CO₂ reduction, and that of Cu(II)-PCB-TE2A to the steric hindrance preventing facile contact with CO₂ molecules. This study suggests that in addition to the redox potential and chemical stability, the stereochemical aspect has to be considered in designing efficient electrocatalysts for CO₂ reduction.

• 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.

• 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.