• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.9-18
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• 2013

Components of zinc-air battery and their problems are explained. Energy density of zinc air battery is superior to other commercial ones including Li-ion batteries. Cycle life of the zinc air batteries is poor because of irreversible redox reactions on both electrodes. In order to improve the performance of the zinc air battery, catalysts, passivation, and the new structure of electrodes should be developed to optimize several reactions in an electrode. Multidisciplinary efforts, such as mechanics, corrosion science, composite materials are necessary from the beginning of the research to obtain a meaningful product.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.65-70
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• 2019

Simple fabrication of a powdered Ge-reduced graphene oxide (Ge-rGO) composite via spray pyrolysis and reduction is introduced herein. Successful incorporation of the rGO nanosheets with Ge hindered the aggregation of Ge and conferred enhanced structural stability to the composite by alleviating the mechanical stress associated with drastic volume changes during repeated cycling. The Li-ion storage performance of Ge-rGO was compared with that of powdered Ge metal. The reversible discharge capacity of Ge-rGO at the $200^{th}$ cycle was $748mA\;h\;g^{-1}$ at a current density of $1.0A\;g^{-1}$ and Ge-rGO showed a capacity of $375mA\;h\;g^{-1}$ even at a high current density of $5.0A\;g^{-1}$. The excellent performance of Ge-rGO is attributed to the structural robustness, enhanced electrical conductivity, and formation of open channels between the rGO nanosheets, which facilitated electrolyte penetration for improved Li-ion diffusion.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.41 no.7
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• pp.665-671
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• 2017

The alkali-Metal Thermal-to-electric Converter (AMTEC) is one of the promising static energy conversion technologies for the direct conversion of thermal energy to electrical energy. The advantages over a conventional energy converter are its high theoretical conversion efficiency of 40% and power density of 500 W/kg. The working principle of an AMTEC battery is the electrochemical reaction of the sodium through an ion conducting electrolyte. Sodium ion pass through the hot side of the beta"-alumina solid electrolyte (BASE) primarily as a result of the pressure difference. This pressure difference across the BASE has a significant effect on the overall performance of the AMTEC system. In order to build the high pressure difference across the BASE, hermeticity is required for each joined components for high temperature range of $900^{\circ}C$. The AMTEC battery was manufactured by utilizing robust joining technology of BASE/insulator/metal flange interfaces of the system for both structural and electrical stability. The electrical potential difference between the anode and cathode sides, where the electrons emitted from sodium ionization and recombined into sodium, was characterized as the open-circuit voltage. The efforts of technological improvement were concentrated on a high-power output and conversion efficiency. This paper discusses about the joining and performance of the AMTEC systems.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.78-85
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• 2019

The effect of various lithium sources such as LiCl, LiOH, and Li-metal on the microstructure and electrochemical properties of granulated $SiO_x$ powders were investigated. Various lithium sources were metallurgically added for a passive pre-lithiation of $SiO_x$ to improve its low initial coulombic efficiency. In spite of using the same amount of Li in various sources, as well as the same process conditions, different lithium silicates were obtained. Moreover, irreversible phases were formed without reduction of $SiO_x$, which might be from additional oxygen incorporation during the process. Accordingly, there were no noticeable electrochemical enhancements. Nevertheless, the $Li_4SiO_4$ phase changes the initial electrochemical reaction, and consequently the relationship between the microstructure and electrochemical properties of metallurgically pre-lithiated $SiO_x$ could provide a guideline for the optimization of the performance of lithium ion batteries.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.21-29
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• 2014

Nickel, cobalt and manganese-based(NCM, $Li(Ni_xCo_yMn_z)O_2$) cathode active materials of spent lithium-ion batteries contained valuable metals such as cobalt(15 ~ 20%), nickel(25 ~ 30%), manganese(10 ~ 15%) and lithium(5 ~ 10%). It was investigated the eco-friendly leaching process for the recovery of valuable metal from spent lithium-ion battery NCM cathode active materials by DL-malic acid($C_4H_5O_6$) as an organic leachant in this research. The experiments were carried out to optimize the process parameters for the recovery of cobalt, nickel and lithium by varying the concentration of lixivant, reductant concentration, solid/liquid ratio and temperature. The leaching solution was analyzed using ICP-OES(Inductively Coupled Plasma Optic Emission Spectrometer). Cathode active materials of 5 wt. % were introduced into the leaching solution which was 2 M DL-malic acid in addition of 5 vol. % $H_2O_2$ at $80^{\circ}C$ and it resulted in the recovery of 99.10% cobalt, 99.80% nickel and 99.75% lithium in 120 min. $H_2O_2$ in DL-malic acid solution acts as an effective reducing agents, which enhance the leaching of metals.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.30 no.8
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• pp.1733-1737
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• 2009

A new cathode material based on Li$Ni_{0.8}Co_{0.15}Al_{0.05}O_2$ (LNCA)/polyaniline (Pani) composite was prepared by in situ self-stabilized dispersion polymerization in the presence of LNCA. The materials were characterized by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Electrochemical properties including galvanostatic charge-discharge ability, cyclic voltammetry (CV), capacity, cycling performance, and AC impedance were measured. The synthesized LNCA/Pani had a similar particle size to LNCA and exhibited good electrochemical properties at a high C rate. Pani (the emeraldine salt form) interacts with metal-oxide particles to generate good connectivity. This material shows good reversibility for Li insertion in discharge cycles when used as the electrode of lithium ion batteries. Therefore, the Pani coating is beneficial for stabilizing the structure and reducing the resistance of the LNCA. In particular, the LNCA/Pani material has advantageous electrochemical properties.

• Journal of Welding and Joining
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.58-64
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• 2013

Several joining methods involving resistance welding, laser welding, ultrasonic welding and mechanical joining are currently applied in manufacturing lithium-ion batteries. Cu and Al alloys are used for tab and bus bar materials, and laser welding characteristics for these alloys were investigated with similar and dissimilar material combinations in this study. The base materials used were Al 1050 and oxygen-free Cu 1020P alloys, and a disk laser was used with a continuous wave mode. In bead-on-plate welding of both alloys, the joint strength was higher than the strength of O tempered base material. In overlap welding, the effect of welding parameters on the tensile shear strength and bead shape was evaluated. Tensile shear strength of overlap welded joint was affected by interfacial bead width and weld defect formation. The tensile-shear specimen was fractured at the heat affected zone by selecting proper laser welding parameters.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.9-16
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• 2015

In a recycling scheme of spent lithium ion batteries, a co-precipitation process for the re-synthesis of precursor is essential after the leaching of lithium ion battery scraps. In this study, the effect of ammonia as impurity during the co-precipitation process was investigated in order to re-synthesize a precursor of Ni-rich cathode active material $LiNi_{0.6}Co_{0.2}Mn_{0.2}O_2$ (NCM 622). As ammonia concentration increases from 1 M (the optimum condition for synthesis of the precursors based on 2 M of metal salt solution) to 4 M, the composition of obtained precursors deviates from the designed composition, most notably for Ni. The Ni co-precipitation efficiency gradually decreases from 100% to 87% when the concentration of ammonia solution increases from 1 M to 4 M. Meanwhile, the morphological properties of the obtained precursors such as sphericity, homogeneity and size distribution of particles were also investigated.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.92-98
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• 2020

SnO₂-based high-capacity anode materials are attractive candidate for the next-generation high-performance lithium-ion batteries since the theoretical capacity of SnO₂ can be ideally extended from 781 to 1494 mAh g^-1. Here 3D etched Cu foam is applied as a current collector for electron path and simultaneously a substrate for the SnO₂ coating, for developing an integrated electrode structure. We fabricate the 3D etched Cu foam through an auto-catalytic electroless plating method, and then coat the SnO₂ onto the self-supporting substrate through a simple sol-gel method. The catalytic dissolution of Cu metal makes secondary pores of both several micrometers and several tens of micrometers at the surface of Cu foam strut, besides main channel-like interconnected pores. Especially, the additional surface pores on etched Cu foam are intended for penetrating the individual strut of Cu foam, and thereby increasing the surface area for SnO₂ coating by using even the internal of Cu foam. The increased areal capacity with high structural integrity upon cycling is demonstrated in the SnO₂-coated 3D etched Cu foam. This study not only prepares the etched Cu foam using the spontaneous chemical reactions but also demonstrates the potential for electroless plating method about surface modification on various metal substrates.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.81-91
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• 2022

The use of lithium-ion batteries increases significantly with the rapid spread of electronic devices and electric vehicle and thereby an increase in the amount of waste batteries is expected in the near future. Therefore, studies are continuously being conducted to recover various resources of cathode active material (Ni, Co, Mn, Li) from waste battery. In order to recover the cathode active material, black mass is generally recovered from waste battery. The general process of recovering black mass is a waste battery collection - discharge - dismantling - crushing - classification process. This study focus on the crushing/classification process among the processes. Specifically, the particle size distribution of various samples at each crushing/classification step were evaluated, and the particle shape of each particle fraction was analyzed with a microscope and SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy)-EDS(Energy Dispersive Spectrometer). As a result, among the black mass particle, fine particle less than 74 ㎛ was the mixture of cathode and anode active material which are properly liberated from the current metals. However, coarse particle larger than 100 ㎛ was present in a form in which the current metal and active material were combined. In addition, this study developed a PBM(Population Balance Model) system that can simulate two-species mixture sample with two different crushing properties. Using developed model, the breakage parameters of two species was derived and predictive performance of breakage distribution was verified.