• Membrane Journal
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.325-343
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• 2023

Direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) have been attracting attention as energy conversion devices that can directly supply methanol liquid fuel without a fuel reforming process. The commercial polymer electrolyte membranes (PEMs) currently applied to DMFC are perfluorosulfonic acid ionomer-based PEMs, which exhibit high proton conductivity and physicochemical stability during the operation. However, problems such as high methanol permeability and environmental pollutants generated during decomposition require the development of PEMs for DMFCs using novel ionomers. Recently, studies have been reported to develop PEMs using hydrocarbon-based ionomers that exhibit low fuel permeability and high physicochemical stability. This review introduces the following studies on hydrocarbon-based PEMs for DMFC applications: 1) synthesis of grafting copolymers that exhibit distinct hydrophilic/hydrophobic phase-separated structure to improve both proton conductivity and methanol selectivity, 2) introduction of cross-linked structure during PEM fabrication to reduce the methanol permeability and improve dimensional stability, and 3) incorporation of organic/inorganic composites or reinforcing substrates to develop reinforced composite membranes showing improved PEM performances and durability.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.700-704
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• 2009

The electrochemical properties of porous carbon electrodes as a function of their internal electrolyte concentration were investigated. Cyclic voltammetry, chronoamperometry, and impedance spectroscopic analysis were conducted for carbon electrodes equilibrated with 0.01, 0.05, 0.1, and 0.5 M KCl solution and covered with a cation-exchange membrane. The specific capacitance of the electrodes increased as the internal electrolyte concentration increased, due to a decrease in charging resistance. Experimental results indicated that the salt removal efficiency of the membrane capacitive deionization process could be enhanced by increasing the internal electrolyte concentration, even for an influent with a low salt concentration.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.442-449
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• 2018

Research on High temperature polymer electrolyte fuel cell (HT-PEMFC) has actively been conducted all over the world. Since the HT-PEMFC can be operated at a high temperature of $120-180^{\circ}C$ using phosphoric acid-doped polybenzimidazole (PBI) electrolyte membrane, it has considerable advantages over conventional PEMFC in terms of operating conditions and system efficiency. However, If the thermal distribution is not uniform in the stack unit, degradation due to local reaction and deterioration of lifetime are difficult to prevent. The thin plate separator reduces the volume of the fuel cell stack and improves heat transfer, consequently, enhancing the cooling effect. In this paper, a large area flow field of thin plate separator for HT-PEMFC is designed and sub-stack is fabricated. We have studied stack performance evaluation under various operating conditions and it has been verified that the proposed design can achieve acceptable stack performance at a wide operating range.

• Proceedings of the Polymer Society of Korea Conference
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• 2006.10a
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• pp.185-185
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• 2006

The performances of proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), direct formic acid fuel cell (DFAFC) and direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) with sulfonated poly(ether sulfone) membrane are reported. Pt/C was coated on the membrane directly to fabricate a MEA for PEMFC operation. A single cell test was carried out using $H_2/air$ gases as fuel and oxidant. A current density of $730\;mA/cm^2$ at 0.60 V was obtained at $70^{\circ}C$. Pt-Ru (anode) and Pt (cathode) were coated on the membrane for DMFC operations. It produced $83\;mW/cm^2$ of maximum power density. The sulfonated poly(ether sulfone) membrane was also used for DFAFC operation under several different conditions. It showed good cell performances for several different kinds of polymer electrolyte fuel cell applications.

• Korean Membrane Journal
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2009

This work reports the preparation of proton conductive crosslinked polymer electrolyte membranes by blending poly(vinyl chloride)-g-poly(hydroxyl ethyl acrylate) (PVC-g-PHEA) and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA). The PHEA chains of the graft copolymer were crosslinked with PVA using sulfosuccinic acid (SA) via the esterification reaction between -OH of polymer matrix and -COOH of SA. The PVC-g-PHEA graft copolymer was synthesized via atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) using direct initiation of the secondary chlorines of PVC backbones. Ion exchange capacity (IEC) continuously increased with increasing concentrations of SA, due to the increasing portion of charged groups in the membrane. However, the water uptake increased up to 20.0 wt% of SA concentration above which it decreased monotonically. The membrane exhibited a maximum proton conductivity of 0.026 S/cm at 20.0 wt% of SA concentration, which is presumably due to competitive effect between the increase of ionic sites and the crosslinking reaction.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.138.2-138.2
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• 2010

Scandium-doped zirconium, ScSZ-based electrolyte, provides higher oxygen conductivity than YSZ and nano-based electrolyte materials are ideal for fabricating thin film electrolyte membrane of SOFC unit cell. Moreover, it may be applied to anode and cathode as well as electrolyte as ionic conductor. In this report, nano-based ScSZ-based electrolyte powder was prepared by co-precipitation synthesis. The particle size, surface area and morphology of the powder were observed by SEM and BET. Thin film electrolyte of under $10{\mu}m$ was fabricated by tape casting and co-firing using the synthesized ScSZ-based powders, and ionic conductivity and gas permeability of electrolyte film were evaluated. Finally, the SOFC unit cell was fabricated using the anode-supported electrolyte prepared by a tape casting method and co-sintering. Electrochemical evaluations of the SOFC unit cell, including measurements such as power density and impedance, were performed and analyzed.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.37-43
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• 2007

The effect of anionic and cationic exchange polymer layer on the chronopotentiometry (CP) and current voltage curves (I-V) of charged composite membrane are investigated. Also, the ion transport near the interface between electrolyte and ionic exchange polymer membranes (anionic and cationic ones) and charged mosaic polymer composite membrane is studied. The results show that both anionic and cationic polymer exchange membranes exhibit lower voltage drop over range of applied current density and possess favorable industrial application potentials, especially at low KCl concentration. While the charged mosaic polymer composite membrane didn't show any current-voltage change, irrespective to the type and the concentration of used electrolyte. CP and I-V measurements are effectively used to give some fundamental understanding for ion transport behavior of ion exchange polymer membrane near the interlace.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.191-199
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• 2003

Cation exchange polymer electrolyte membrane for the application of direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) was studied. Poly(vinyl alcohol)(PVA) well known as a methanol barrier in pervaporation separation was used fur the base materials and poly(acrylic acid)(PAA) was used for the crosslinking agent with various concentration. Methanol permeability, ion conductivity, ion exchange capacity, water contents and fixed ion concentration of the membranes were investigated to evaluate the performance of the fuel cell electrolyte membrane. Methanol permeability and ion conductivity of the membranes were decreased with increasing PAA content and were increased over 15% of PAA content. These phenomena would be explained with the introduction of hydrophilic crosslinking agent. The membranes with 15% content of PAA showed methanol permeability of $6.49{\times}10^{-8}/cm^2/s,\; 2.85{\times}10^{-7}CM^2/s$ at $25^{\circ}C,\; 50^{\circ}C$ of operating temperatures, respectively. ion conductivities of the membrane were $2.66{\times}10^{-3}\;S/cm,$ $9.16{\times}10^{-3}\;S/cm$ at $25^{\circ}C,\; 50^{\circ}C$ of operating temperatures, respectively. ion exchange capacity, water content and fixed ion concentration of the membrane were revealed 1.32 meq/g membrane,0.25 g $H_2$O/g membrane and 5.25 meq/g $H_2O$, respectively.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.27 no.9
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• pp.965-969
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• 2005

Current density is an important operating parameter in the ion-exchange membrane process. We observed the effects of fouling of a Neosepta AMX anion-exchange membrane(Tokuyama Soda, Japan) in 0.02 M NaCl solution containing 100 mg/L sodium humate. Membrane fouling was analyzed by measuring the change in the electrical resistance in the under- and over-limiting current density regions. The experimental results found that membrane fouling was negligible at under-limiting current densities, but was increased significantly when an over-limiting current was supplied. After the fouling experiments, the current-voltage curves for the fouled membranes were measured. From the curves, we observed increased electric resistance and reduced limiting current density(LCD), caused by the accumulation of humic acid on the membrane surface. Furthermore, membrane fouling increased as the acidity of the electrolyte solution containing humic acid increased. This occurred because the fouling of an anion-exchange membrane is affected more by the physicochemical properties of the humic substance than by the surface charge of the humate.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.597-601
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• 2006

The degradation of the Nafion membrane by oxygen radical (OH, $HO_2$) was investigated in Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). Nafion membrane was degraded in Fenton solution consisted with hydrogen peroxide (10-30％) and ferrous ion (1-4 ppm) at $80^{\circ}C$. After degradation in Fenton solution, C-F, S-O and C-O chemical bonds of membrane were broken by oxygen radical attack. Breaking of C-F bond reduced the mechanical strength of Nafion membrane, and hence induced pinholes, resulting in increase of $H_2$ crossover through the membrane. Decomposition of S-O and C-O bonds decreased the ion exchange capacity of the electrolyte membrane. The performance of unit cell composed the membrane, which was degraded in 30％ $H_2O_2$ with 4ppm $Fe^{2+}$ solution for 48 hr, was about half times as low as one with normal membrane.