• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.442-448
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• 2021

Flow field is an important parameter for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) performance to have an effect on the reactant supply, heat and water diffusion, and contact resistance. In this study, PEMFC performance was investigated using Cu foam flow field at the cathode of 25 cm² unit cell. Polarization curve and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy were performed at different pressure and relative humidity conditions. The Cu foam showed lower cell performance than that of serpentine type due to its high ohmic resistance, but lower activation and concentration loss due to the even reactant distribution of porous structure. Cu foam has the advantage of effective water transport because of its hydrophobicity. However, it showed low membrane hydration at low humidity condition. The metal foam flow field could improve fuel cell performance with a uniform pressure distribution and effective water management, so future research on the properties of metal foam should be conducted to reduce electrical resistance of bipolar plate.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.660-660
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• 2005

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.46.2-46.2
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• 2008

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.118-127
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• 2012

TiN or Ti/TiN was coated on stainless steel as bipolar plate in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) to improve their corrosion resistance and electric conductivity, and their properties were examined under fuel cell operating condition. After 200 hours operation, the behaviors for the corrosion, crack and dissolution of coating layer were investigated by various techniques. The corrosion and exfoliation of coating layer were considerably generated except for SUS316L-Ti/TiN after fuel cell operation even if the electric conductivity and corrosion resistance of coated stainless steel bipolar plates were improved. The adoption of Ti layer between TiN layer and the surface of stainless steel enhanced the adhesion of TiN layer and decreased the possibility of corrosion by the increase of coating layer.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.146-151
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• 2013

This paper reveals the performance decrease and recovery of PEMFC when the contaminated fuel gas and air source with sulfur impurities such as hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide were simultaneously introduced to anode and cathode, respectively. Three different GDLs were fabricated with different carbon black and activated carbon to prevent an introduction of sulfur compound impurities into MEA. components. The severity of $SO_2$ and $H_2S$ poisoning was depended on concentrations(3 ppm - 10 ppm) of sulfur impurities. Especially, cell performance degradation rate was rapid when MEA fabricated with CN-2 GDL because it had little porosity on GDL surface. Moreover, the cell performance can be recovered up to 90%-95% only with neat hydrogen and fresh air feeding.. Conclusively, MEA fabricated with porous CN-1 GDL showed the best cell performance and recovery efficiency during exposure to poisoning condition by simultaneous sulfur impurities.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.438-442
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• 2006

The degradation of Nafion membrane by hydrogen peroxide was investigated in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). Degradation tests were carried out in a solution of $10{\sim}30%$ hydrogen peroxide containing 4ppm $Fe^{2+}$ ion which is well known as Fenton's reagent at $80^{\circ}C$ for 48hr. Characterization of degraded membranes were examined through the IR, Water-uptake, Ion exchange capacity, mechanical strength and $H_2$ permeability. After degradation, C-F, S-O and C-O chemical bonds of membrane were broken by radical formed by $H_2O_2$ decomposition. Breaking of C-F bond which is the membrane backbone reduced the mechanical strength of Nafion membrane and hence induced pinholes, resulting in increase of $H_2$ crossover through the membrane. Also the decomposition of C-O and S-O, side chain and terminal bond of membrane, decreased the ion exchange capacity of the membrane.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.6-10
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• 2016

Until a recent day, degradation of PEMFC (Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells) has been mainly studied in unit cell. But operation and degradation of real PEMFC going along in stack instead of unit cell. Therefore in this work, ADT (Accelerated Degradation Test) of PEMFC was done in stack and the result from stack's test was compared with that of unit cell. The polymer electrolyte membrane was degraded by repeated electrochemical and mechanical degradation method among several ADT methods. Current densities of MEA at 0.6V decreased in stack and unit cell, 28.4% and 27.8% respectively after ADT for 312 hours. Hydrogen crossover current densities of membrane increased in stack and unit cell, 16.8% and 15.2% respectively after ADT for 312 hours. The result of ADT in stack was similar that of ADT in unit cell, which showed that ADT method of unit cell was available to the stack.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.33-36
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• 2008

Cell degradation when anode channels are blocked during cold start up was tested and measured. Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) stacks with several configurations of channel blockages were operated and decay in performance was analyzed. When only channels near hydrogen inlet were blocked, performance was rarely changed. In contrast, significant cell reversal occurred and considerable amount of $CO_2$ was produced when all channels near inlet and outlet were blocked. In the case, it was also observed that performance was severely decreased in the area where hydrogen was not supplied sufficiently.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.8-18
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• 2012

This paper presents a three-dimensional, transient cold-start polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) model to numerically evaluate the effects of membrane electrode assembly (MEA) design and cell location in a PEFC stack on PEFC cold start behaviors. The cold-start simulations show that the end cell experiences significant heat loss to the sub-freezing ambient and thus finally cold-start failure due to considerable ice filling in the cathode catalyst layer. On the other hand, the middle cells in the stack successfully start from $-30^{\circ}C$ sub-freezing temperature due to rapid cell temperature rise owing to the efficient use of waste heat generated during the cold-start. In addition, the simulation results clearly indicate that the cathode catalyst layer (CL) composition and thickness have an substantial influence on PEFC cold-start behaviors while membrane thickness has limited effect mainly due to inefficient water absorption and transport capability at subzero temperatures.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.33 no.8
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• pp.1095-1099
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• 2009