• Membrane Journal
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.241-251
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• 2006

In this study, crosslinked copolyimides with random (r-) and block (b-) structure were fabricated using N,N-bis(2-hydroxyethyl)-2-aminoethanesulfonic acid and pentanediol as crosslinkers. Linear r- and b-sulfonated copolyimides were also fabricated for comparison. Ion exchange capacities of r- and b-copolyimides were very similar to each other owing to their strong dependence of sulfonic acid content. The physical crosslinking via dimerization of carboxylic acid groups induced a reduced average interchain distance in b-copolyimide without crosslinkers. Consequently, its water uptake and methanol permeability were lower than those of r-sulfonated copolyimides. Simultaneously, the reduced interchain distance increased the content of fixed-charged ions per unit volume. The high fixed-charged ion density contributed to an enhancement of proton conductivity In the b-sulfonated copolyimide. Crosslinking caused the reduction of average interchain distance between polymer chains irrespective of types of crosslinker and polymer structure, leading to low methanol permeability. On the contrary, their proton conductivity was improved owing to formation of effective hydrophilic channels responsible for proton conduction. In particular, this trend was observed in r-copolyimide containing a fixed charged ion.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.2243-2257
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• 2016

This paper presents a two stage three-phase proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) generation system. When the system is connected to a three-phase load, it is very sensitive to the characteristics and type of the load. Especially unbalanced three-phase loads, which result in a pulsating power that is twice the output frequency at the inverter output, and cause the dc-link to generate low frequency ripples. This penetrates to the fuel cell side through the front-end dc-dc converter, which makes the fuel cell work in an unsafe condition and degrades its lifespan. In this paper, the generation and propagation mechanism of low frequency ripple is analyzed and its impact on fuel cells is presented based on the PEMFC output characteristics model. Then a novel method to evaluate low frequency current ripple control capability is investigated. Moreover, a control scheme with bandpass filter inserted into the current feed-forward path, and ripple duty ratio compensation based on current mode control with notch filter is also proposed to achieve low frequency ripple suppression and dynamic characteristics improvement during load transients. Finally, different control methods are verified and compared by simulation and experimental results.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.191-200
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• 2012

New composite membranes were manufactured by impregnating post-sulfonated poly(arylene ether sulfone)s containing perfluorocyclobutane (PFCB) groups into porous polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) films. Two kinds of post-sulfonated poly(arylene ether sulfone)s with two different monomer ratios (sulfonable biphenylene monomer : non-sulfonable sulfonyl monomer = 6 : 4, 4 : 6) were first prepared through three synthetic steps: synthesis of trifluorovinylether-terminated monomers, thermal cycloaddition polymerization and post-sulfonation using chlorosulfonic acid (CSA). The composite membranes were then prepared by adjusting the concentrations (5~20 wt%) of the resulting copolymers impregnated in the PTFE films. The water uptake, ion exchange capacity (IEC) and ion conductivity of the composite membranes were characterized and compared with their unreinforced dense membranes and Nafion. All the synthesized compounds, monomers and polymers were characterized by $^1H$-NMR, $^{19}F$-NMR and FT-IR and the composite membranes were observed with scanning electron micrographs (SEM).

• Membrane Journal
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.279-304
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• 2023

Polybenzimidazole (PBI) based membranes have evolved in literature as a popular membrane material for various applications in the past two decades because of their high temperature thermal durability, strong mechanical and tensile properties, high glass transition temperature (T_g), ion conduction ability at elevated temperature (up to 200℃), oxidative or chemical durability along with robust network like structural rigidity, which make PBI membranes suitable for various potential applications in chemically challenging environments. Ion conducting PBI based membranes have been extensively utilized in high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells (HT-PEMFC). In addition, PBI based membranes have been vastly utilized for the development of gas separation membranes and organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) membranes for their unique characteristics. This review will cover the recent progress and application of various types of flat sheet PBI based membranes for HT-PEMFC, gas separation and OSN application.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.462-471
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• 2022

In this study, the electrochemical impedance characteristics of CO₂/H₂O co-reduction to produce CO/H₂ syngas were investigated in a low-temperature single cell. The effect of the operating conditions on the single-cell performance was evaluated at different feed concentrations and cell voltages, and the corresponding electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) data were collected and analyzed. The Nyquist plots exhibited two semicircles with separated characteristic frequencies of approximately 1 kHz and tens of Hz. The high-frequency semicircles, which depend only on the catholyte concentration, could be correlated to the charge transfer processes in competitive CO₂ reduction and hydrogen evolution reactions at the cathodes. The EIS characteristics of the CO₂/H₂O co-reduction single cell could be explained by the equivalent circuit suggested in this study. In this circuit, the cathodic mass transfer and anodic charge transfer processes are collectively represented by a parallel combination of resistance and a constant phase element to show low-frequency semicircles. Through nonlinear fitting using the equivalent circuit, the parameters for each electrochemical element, such as polarization resistances for high- and low-frequency processes, could be quantified as functions of feed concentration and cell voltage.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.46-52
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• 2010

Membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) for proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) have been extensively studied to improve their initial performance as well as their durability and to facilitate the commercialization of fuel cell technology. To improve the MEA performance, particularly at low Pt loadings, many approaches have been made. In the present study, MEA performance improvement was performed by adding $TiO_2$ particles into the catalyst layer of MEA. Most of previous studies have focused on the MEA performance enhancement under low humidity conditions by adding metal oxides into the catalyst layer mainly due to the water keeping ability of those metal oxides particles such as $Al_2O_3$, $SiO_2$ and zeolites. However, this study mainly focused on the improvement of MEA performance under fully humidified normal conditions. In this study, the MEA was prepared by decal method aiming for a continuous MEA fabrication process. The decal process can make very thin and uniform catalyst layer on the surface of electrolyte membrane resulting in very low interfacial resistance between catalyst layer and the membrane surface and uniform electrode structure in the MEA. It was found that the addition of $TiO_2$ particles into the catalyst layer made by decal method can minimize water flooding in the catalyst layer, resulting in the improvement of MEA performance.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.101-104
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• 2006

Water management is considered to be one of the main issues to be addressed for the performance improvement of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell. For good water management, the detailed information on the water distribution inside an operating PEM fuel cell should be available to main an adequate level of hydration in the PEM While avoiding performance decline due to liquid rater flooding. For the PEM fuel cell to be commercially viable as vehicle applications, the flooding on the cathode side should be minimized during the fuel ceil operation. In this study to investigate cathode flooding and its relation with temperature distribution in flow channels, visualization study was performed on the cathode side of a PEM fuel cell. For the direct visualization of temperature field and water transport in cathode flow channels, a transparent cell was designed and manufactured using quartz window. Water transport and its two-phase flow characteristics in flow channels were investigated experimentally. Also, the visualization of temperature distribution In cathode flow channels was made by using IR camera. Results indicated that the temperature rise near the exit of cathode flow channel was found. It is found that this area corresponds to the flooding area from both temperature and flooding visualization results It is expected that this study can effectively contribute to get the detailed data on water transport linked with heat management during the operation of a PEM fuel cell

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.432-438
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• 2007

The reforming process for hydrogen production generates some impurities. Impurities in hydrogen such as $CO_2$, CO, $H_2S$, $NH_3$ affect fuel cell performance. It is well known that CO generated by the reforming process may negatively affect performance of cell, cause damage on catalysts resulting performance degradation. Hydrogen produced by reforming process includes about 2% methane. The presence of methane up to 10% is reported negligible degradation in cell performance. However, methane more than 10% in hydrogen stream had not been researched. The concentration of impurity supplied to the fuel cell was verified by gas chromatography(GC). In this study, the influence of $CH_4$ on performance of PEM fuel cell was investigated by means of current vs. potential experiment, long run(10 hr) test and electrochemical impedance measurement when the concentrations of impurities were 10%, 20% and 30%.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.50-60
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• 2013

High temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) using phosphoric acid (PA) doped polybenzimidazole (PBI) membranes have been concentrated as one of solutions to the limits with traditional low temperature PEMFCs. However, the amount of reported experimental data is not enough to catch the operational characteristics correlated with cell performance and durability. In this study, design of experiments (DOE) based operational optimization method for high temperature PEMFCs has been proposed. Response surface method (RSM) is very useful to effectively analyze target system's characteristics and to optimize operating conditions for a short time. Thus RSM using central composite design (CCD) as one of methodologies for design of experiments (DOE) was adopted. For this work, the statistic models which predict the performance and degradation rate with respect to the operating conditions have been developed. The developed performance and degradation models exhibit a good agreement with experimental data. Compared to the existing arbitrary operation, the expected cell lifetime and average cell performance during whole operation could be improved by optimizing operating conditions. Furthermore, the proposed optimization method could find different new optimal solutions for operating conditions if the target lifetime of the fuel cell system is changed. It is expected that the proposed method is very useful to find optimal operating conditions and enhance performance and durability for many other types of fuel cell systems.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.155-162
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• 2012

Sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) (SPEEK) nanofibers were prepared by electrospinning. The nanofibrous membrane for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) was fabricated by compression molding. The maximum degree of sulfonation was 95% and the initial thermal degradation temperature was $280^{\circ}C$ and it's value was lower than that of PEEK. The contact angle of SPEEK increased with decreasing the degree of sulfonation. The optimum voltage, flow rate, tip to collector distance (TCD) and concentration of electrospinning conditions were 22 kV, 0.3 mL/hr, 15 cm, and 23 wt%, respectively. The average nanofibrous diameter was 47.6 nm. The water uptake and ion exchange capacity of SPEEK nanofibrous membrane increased with increasing the sulfonation time and the amount of sulfonating agent. The electrical resistance and proton ionic conductivity of SPEEK membrane increased with decreasing and increasing the sulfonation time, respectively. Their values were 0.58~0.06 ${\Omega}{\cdot}cm^2$and 0.099 S/cm.