• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.195-196
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• 2009

술폰화 폴리아릴렌에테르술폰 공중합체를 기본구조로 한, 6F OH를 알코올 단량체로 사용하여 블록 공중합체를 직접 중합법으로 합성하였다. 이때 각각의 소수성-친수성 소중합체들은 동일한 분자량을 이용하여 합성했으며 그때의 두 소중합체의 몰비는 1:1로 하여 블록 공중합체의 술폰화도를 50%로 고정하였다. N-메틸-2피롤리돈(NMP) 용매 상에서 연료전지용 고분자 전해질 막을 제조하여 이온전도도 및 메탄올 투과도등의 측정을 통하여 최종 블록 공중합체 전해질 막의 기본 특성을 파악했다. 소수성-친수성 소중합체의 분자량을 조절함에 따라 최종 전해질 막의 이온 전도도를 향상시킬 수 있음이 확인되었고, 연료전지 성능 테스트 결과에서도 나피온(Nafion 115)과 비슷한 성능을 보였다.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.187-192
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• 2006

The preparation and characterization of new polymer composite membranes containing polyphenylene oxide (PPO) thin films with hetropoly acid (HPA) are presented. PPO thin films with phosphotungstic acid (PWA) or phosphomolybdic acid (PMA) have been prepared by using the solvent mixture. The PWA and PPO can be blended using the solvent mixture, because PPO and PWA are not soluble in the same solvent. In this study, methanol was used as a solvent dissolving PWA and chloroform was used as a solvent dissolving PPO. PPO-PWA solutions were cast onto a glass plate with uniform thickness. The composite membranes were prepared by casting Nafion mixture on porous PPO-PWA films. The morphology and structure of these PPO-PWA films were observed with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS). The composite membranes were characterized by measuring their ion conductivity and methanol permeability. The performance was evaluated with composite membranes as electrolytes in fuel cell conditions. The methanol cross-over of composite membranes containing PPO-PWA barrier films in the DMFC reduced by 66％.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.177-180
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• 2005

A series of inorganic-organic hybrid membranes were prepared with a systematic variation of titanium dioxide nano particles content. Their liquid uptake, methanol permeability and proton conductivity as a function of inorganic oxide content were investigated. The results obtained show that the inorganic oxide network decreases the proton conductivity and liquid uptake. It is also found that increase in inorganic oxide content leads to decrease of methanol permeability. In terms of the morphology, membranes are homogeneous and exhibit a good adhesion between inorganic domains and the polymer matrix. The properties of the composite membranes are compared with the standard nafion membrane.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.21-27
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• 2016

Vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs) using the electrolytes containing various vanadium ions in sulfuric acid as supporting solution are one of the energy storage devices in alternatively charging and discharging operation modes. The positive electrolyte contains $V^{5+}/V^{4+}$ and the negative electrolyte $V^{2+}/V^{3+}$ depending on the operation mode. To prevent the mixing of two solutions, proton exchange membranes are mainly used in VRFBs. Nafion 117 could be the most promising candidate due to the strong oxidative property of $V^{5+}$ ion, but causes high crossover of electroactive species to result in a decrease in coulombic efficiency. In this study, the composite membranes using Nafion ionomer and porous polyethylene substrate were prepared to keep good chemical stability and to decrease the cost of membranes, and were compared to the properties and performance of the commercially available electrolyte membrane, Nafion 117. As a result, the water uptake and ionic conductivity of the composite membranes increased as the thickness of the composite membranes increased, but those of Nafion 117 slightly decreased. The permeability of vanadium ions for the composite membranes significantly decreased compared to that for Nafion 117. In a single cell test for the composite membranes, the voltage efficiency decreased and the coulombic efficiency increased, finally resulting in the similar energy efficiency. In conclusion, the less cost of the composite membranes by decreasing 6.4 wt.% of the amount of perfluorinated sulfonic acid polymer due to the introduction of porous substrate and lower vanadium ion permeability to decrease self-discharge were achieved than Nafion 117.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.39-44
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• 2016

Oxygen reduction reaction in the fuel cell (ORR) plays a dominant role in the overall reaction. In addition, the low compatibility between the membrane and the binder consisted of different materials, greatly reduces the efficiency of the fuel cell performance. In view of these two problems, geometrically modified copolymers with 9.9_Bis (4-hydroxyphenyl) were synthesized via condensation reaction instead of conventional biphenol and were adopted as hydrocarbon ionomer binders. By utilizing these binders, two kinds of MEAs using fluorinated Nafion membrane and hydrocarbon based membrane were manufactured in order to electrochemical performance evaluation. With current-voltage curves, there was no significant difference in the 0.6 V when two types of membrane were applied. Also, tafel slope became considerably lower as compared to the Nafion membrane. Thus, it is determined that the new hydrocarbon binder is expected to contribute the improvement in performance of fuel cells.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.19-25
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• 2012

The efficiency and life time of the Proton Exchange Membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) system is critically affected by incoming gas with humidity which should be maintained properly at normal operating conditions. Typically, incoming gas of automotive fuel cell is humidified by external humidifier but the characteristics of device is rarely reported. In this study, characteristics of water transfer in the membrane humidifiers have been experimentally investigated for flow rates of gas and for different flow arrangement under steady state condition. At first, capability of mass transfer through the membrane is examined at constant temperature. Then, the temperature distribution effect on the capability of mass transfer is tested over various inlet conditions. In summary, this research presents the mass transfer capability of hydrophilic membrane over various operating conditions.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.400-407
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• 2011

The stress distribution and stress amplitude of a membrane are major factors to decide the mechanical fatigue life of PEMFC (Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell). In this paper, mechanical stresses under operating hygro-thermal condition of the membrane are numerically modelled. Contact analysis between gas diffusion layer (GDL) and the membrane is performed under various temperature-humidity conditions. The structural model has nonlinear material properties depending on temperature and relative humidity. Several geometric conditions are applied to the model. The numerical analysis results indicate that deformations of the membrane are strongly related with assembly conditions of the fuel cell. The fatigue life is predicted for practical operating condition through experimental data.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.307-318
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• 2020

Conventional perfluorinated sulfonic acid membrane, Nafion is widely used for vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB). It is desired to prevent vanadium ion permeation through a membrane to retain the capacity, and to keep the cell efficiency of a VRFB. Highly proton conductive and chemically stable Nafion membranes, however, suffer from high vanadium permeation, which induce the reduction in charge and discharge capacity by side reactions of vanadium ions. In this study, to resolve the issue, silica nanoparticles, which are functionalized with 3-aminopropyl group (fS) are introduced to enhance the long-term performance of a VRFB by lowering vanadium permeation. It is expected that amine groups on silica nanoparticles are converted to positive ammonium ion, which could deteriorate positively charged vanadium ions' crossover by Gibbs-Donnan effect. There is reduction in proton conductivity may due to acid-base complexation between fS and Nafion side chains, but ion selectivity of proton to vanadium ion is enhanced by introducing fS to Nafion membranes. With the composite membranes of Nafion and fS, VRFBs maintain their discharge capacity up to 80% at a high current density of 150 mA/㎠ during 200 cycles.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.171-179
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• 2015

Perfluorinated sulfonic acid ionomers (PFSAs) have been widely as solid electrolyte materials for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells, since they exhibit excellent chemical durability under their harsh application conditions as well as good proton conductivity. Even PFSA materials, however, suffer from physical failures associated with repeated membrane swelling and deswelling, resulting in fairly reduced electrochemical lifetime. In this study, pore-filling membranes are prepared by impregnating a Nafion ionomer into the pore of a porous PTFE support film and their fundamental characteristics are evaluated. The developed pore-filling membranes exhibit extremely high proton conductivity of about $0.5S\;cm^{-1}@90^{\circ}C$ in liquid water.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.429-432
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• 2006

Characteristics of heat and water transfer in gas-to-gas membrane humidifiers have been experimentally investigated for various humidity rod flow rates of gas and for different thickness of Nafion membrane. The results emphasizes the importance of flow velocity for both water and heat transfer. Also, the effect of membrane thickness has been revealed to be significant to water transfer especially for unsaturated flows, while the significance of membrane thickness is minimal to heat transfer.