• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.208-214
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• 2024

To fabricate intermetallic nanoparticles with high oxygen reduction reaction activity, a high-temperature heat treatment of 700 to 1,000 ℃ is required. This heat treatment provides energy sufficient to induce an atomic rearrangement inside the alloy nanoparticles, increasing the mobility of particles, making them structurally unstable and causing a sintering phenomenon where they agglomerate together naturally. These problems cannot be avoided using a typical heat treatment process that only controls the gas atmosphere and temperature. In this study, as a strategy to overcome the limitations of the existing heat treatment process for the fabrication of intermetallic nanoparticles, we propose an interesting approach, to design a catalyst material structure for heat treatment rather than the process itself. In particular, we introduce a technology that first creates an intermetallic compound structure through a primary high-temperature heat treatment using random alloy particles coated with a carbon shell, and then establishes catalytic active sites by etching the carbon shell using a secondary heat treatment process. By using a carbon shell as a template, nanoparticles with an intermetallic structure can be kept very small while effectively controlling the catalytically active area, thereby creating an optimal alloy catalyst structure for fuel cells.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.20-27
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• 2018

We describe a redox-enhanced electric double-layer capacitor (EDLC) that turns the electrolyte in a conventional EDLC into an integral, active component for charge storage-charge is stored both through faradaic reactions with soluble redox-active molecules in the electrolyte, and through the double-layer capacitance in a porous carbon electrode. The mixed-redox electrolyte, composed of vanadium and iodides, was employed to achieve high power density. The electrochemical reaction in a supercapacitor with vanadium and iodide was studied to estimate the charge capacity and energy density of the redox supercapacitor. A redox supercapacitor with a mixed electrolyte composed of 0.75 M NaI and 0.5 M $VOSO_4$ was fabricated and studied. When charged to a potential of 1 V, faradaic charging processes were observed, in addition to the capacitive processes that increased the energy storage capabilities of the supercapacitor. The redox supercapacitor achieved a specific capacity of 13.44 mAh/g and an energy density of 3.81 Wh/kg in a simple Swagelok cell. A control EDLC with 1 M $H_2SO_4$ yielded 7.43 mAh/g and 2.85 Wh/kg. However, the relatively fast self-discharge in the redox-EDLC may be due to the shuttling of the redox couple between the polarized carbon electrodes.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.28 no.11
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• pp.646-652
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• 2018

During a long-term operation of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells(PEMFCs), the fuel cell performance may degrade due to severe agglomeration and dissolution of metal nanoparticles in the cathode. To enhance the electrochemical durability of metal catalysts and to prevent the particle agglomeration in PEMFC operation, this paper proposes a hybrid catalyst structure composed of PtCo alloy nanoparticles encapsulated by porous carbon layers. In the hybrid catalyst structure, the dissolution and migration of PtCo nanoparticles can be effectively prevented by protective carbon shells. In addition, $O_2$ can properly penetrate the porous carbon layers and react on the active Pt surface, which ensures high catalytic activity for the oxygen reduction reaction. Although the hybrid catalyst has a much smaller active surface area due to the carbon encapsulation compared to a commercial Pt catalyst without a carbon layer, it has a much higher specific activity and significantly improved durability than the Pt catalyst. Therefore, it is expected that the designed hybrid catalyst concept will provide an interesting strategy for development of high-performance fuel cell catalysts.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.567-575
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• 2023

Water electrolysis is undergoing active research as one of the promising technologies for producing effective green hydrogen. Using seawater directly as a raw material for a water electrolysis system can solve the problem of the limitations of existing freshwater raw materials, as seawater accounts for approximately 97% of the water on Earth. At the same time, abundant by-product materials can be obtained, representative examples of which are Cl₂, ClO^-, Br₂, and Mg(OH)₂ produced during electrolysis, depending on their composition and pH environment. In order to develop a successful seawater electrolysis system and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalysts, it is necessary to understand the causes and consequences of reactions that occur in the seawater environment. Therefore, in this paper, we will investigate the reaction mechanism and characteristics of the seawater electrolysis system as well as the research and development trends of electrochemical catalysts used in anode and cathode electrodes.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.25 no.6_3
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• pp.1275-1284
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• 2022

This study provides an investigating the electrolyte reaction characteristics during thermal runaway of a lithium-ion battery(LIB). Dimethyl carbonate(DMC) is known as the main substance that makes up the electrolyte. The mono-molecular decomposition characteristics of DMC were derived through numerical analysis. Cobalt oxide can release oxygen under high temperature conditions. Also, DMC is converted to CH₄, H₂, CO, and CO₂. Especially, it was found that the decomposition of the DMC begins at a temperature range of 340-350℃, which dramatically increases the internal pressure of the LIB. In the by-products gases, the molar ratio of CO and CO₂ changed according to the molecular structure of DMC and temperature conditions. The correlation of the [CO]/[CO₂] ratio according to the temperature during thermal runaway was derived, and the characteristics of the reaction temperature could be estimated using the molar ratio as an indicator. In addition, the oxidation and decomposition characteristics of DMC according to the residence time for each temperature were estimated. When DMC is exposed to low temperature for a long time, both oxidation and decomposition may occur. There is possibility of not only increasing the internal pressure of the LIB, but also promoting thermal runaway. In this study, internal environment of LIB was identified and the reaction characteristics between the active materials of the cathode and electrolyte were investigated.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.198-203
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• 2014

In this study, steam reforming reaction and surface characteristics of Ni metal foam plate were investigated. Valence state of Ni could be changed by pretreatment, and metallic Ni species exposed on surface as a active site play important role in steam reforming reaction. Porous catalytic membrane also was prepared by mixing of Ni metal foam plate and Ni-YSZ catalyst to control the pore size and assign the catalytic function in Ni metal foam plate. In SEM analysis results, Pore size of Ni metal foam plate could be controlled and Ni-YSZ catalyst well dispersed on surface. Ni based porous catalytic membrane had a similar steam reforming activity regardless of space velocity.

• 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.

• Clean Technology
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.321-328
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• 2020

This experiment compared V/W/TiO2 and V/Mo/TiO2 catalysts that were used for commercial catalysts. The effects of SCR reactions on low-temperature activity were studied. NH3-TPD, DRIFT, and H2-TPR analysis, alongside O2-on/off experiments, were conducted to identify the effects of NH3 acid sites and oxygen participating in the SCR reaction, which had a significant impact on the NH3-SCR reaction. The effect on activity was analyzed at 250 ℃, a high temperature of reaction activity, and 180 ℃, which showed significant activity degradation. In NH3 involved in the SCR reaction at 250 ℃, B and L acid sites contributed to the reaction. In particular, the B acid site was found to have significantly participated in the reaction and affected the NH3-SCR activity, which was reduced at 180 ℃ to affect the activity degradation. Also, atmospheric oxygen contributed to the SCR reaction, causing the active property to facilitate reaction activity at 250 ℃. However, oxygen did not comprise the reaction at 180 ℃, indicating a drop inactivity. Therefore, the B acid site was reduced, and the activity was judged to be degraded due to failure to share in the reaction and low effects by atmospheric oxygen.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.61 no.4
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• pp.604-610
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• 2023

The nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR), which produces NH₃ by reducing N₂ under ambient conditions, is attracting attention as a promising technology that can reduce energy consumption in industrial processes. We investigated the adsorption behaviors at various active sites on the Ni (100) surface, which is widely used among catalytic metal surfaces capable of adsorbing and activating N₂, based on density-functional theory calculations. We also investigated two N₂ adsorption structures, so-called end-on and side-on structures. We find that for the end-on case, N₂ is adsorbed on a top site, and the reaction proceeded in a distal pathway, while for the side-on case, N₂ is adsorbed on a bridge site, and the reaction proceeded with enzymatic pathway. Finally, this study provides insight into the adsorption of metal catalyst surfaces for the NRR reactions based on the calculated Gibbs free energy profiles of the thermodynamically most favorable pathways.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.597-597
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• 2012

A simple solution-based method is developed to deposit crystalline ultrathin (2 nm) nickel hydroxide on vertically grown ZnO nanowires to achieve high specific capacitance and long-term life for flexible and wearable energy storage devices. Ultrathin crystalline $Ni(OH)_2$ enables fast and reversible redox reaction to improve the specific capacitance by utilizing maximum number of active sites for the redox reaction while vertically grown ZnO nanowires on wearable textile fiber effectively transport electrolytes and shorten the ion diffusion path. Under the highly flexible state $Ni(OH)_2$ coated ZnO nanowires electrode shows a high specific capacitance of 2150 F/g (based on pristine $Ni(OH)_2$ in 1 M LiOH aqueous solution with negligible decrease in specific capacitance after 1000 cycles. The synthesized energy-storage electrodes are easy-to-assemble which can provide unprecedented design ingenuity for a variety of wearable and flexible electronic devices.