• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.161-170
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• 2012

There are many factors to consider when attempting to improve the efficiency of fuel cell operation, such as the operation temperature, humidity, stoichiometry, operation pressure, geometric features, etc. In this paper, the effects of the operation pressure were investigated to find the current density and water saturation behavior on a cross section designated by the design geometry. A two-dimensional geometric model was established with a gas channel that can provide $H_2$ to the anode and $O_2$ and water vapor to the cathode gas diffusion layer (GDL). The results from this numerical modeling revealed that higher operation pressures would produce a higher current density than lower ones, and the water saturation behavior was different at operation pressures of 2 atm and 3 atm in the cathode GDL. In particular, the water saturation ratios are higher directly below the collector than in other areas. In addition, this paper presents the dependence of the velocity behavior in the cathode on pressure changes, and the velocity fluctuations through the GDL are higher in the output area than in inlet area. This conclusion will be utilized to design more efficient fuel cell modeling of real fuel cell operation.

• Clean Technology
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.329-335
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• 2020

Methanol synthesized from renewable hydrogen and captured CO2 has recently attracted great interest as a sustainable energy carrier for large-scale renewable energy storage. In this study, molten carbonate fuel cell's performance was investigated with the direct conversion of methanol into syngas inside the anode chamber of the cell. The internal reforming of methanol may significantly improve system efficiency since the heat generated from the electrochemical reaction can be used directly for the endothermic reforming reaction. The porous Ni-10 wt%Cr anode was sufficient for the methanol steam reforming reaction under the fuel cell operating condition. The direct supply of methanol into the anode chamber resulted in somewhat lower cell performance, especially at high current density. Recycling of the product gas into the anode gas inlet significantly improved the cell performance. The analysis based on material balance revealed that, with increasing current density and gas recycling ratio, the methanol steam reforming reaction rate likewise increased. A methanol conversion more significant than 90% was achieved with gas recycling. The results showed the feasibility of electricity and syngas co-production using the molten carbonate fuel cell. Further research is needed to optimize the fuel cell operating conditions for simultaneous production of electricity and syngas, considering both material and energy balances in the fuel cell.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.395-402
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• 2011

The nanomechanical properties of fully lithiated and unlithiated silicon nanowire deposited on silicon substrate have been studied with atomic force microscopy. Silicon nanowires were synthesized using the vapor-liquid-solid process on stainless steel substrates using Au catalyst. Fully lithiated silicon nanowires were obtained by using the electrochemical method, followed by drop-casting on the silicon substrate. The roughness, derived from a line profile of the surface measured in contact mode atomic force microscopy, has a smaller value ($0.65{\pm}0.05$ nm) for lithiated silicon nanowire and a higher value ($1.72{\pm}0.16$ nm) for unlithiated silicon nanowire. Force spectroscopy was utilitzed to study the influence of lithiation on the tip-surface adhesion force. Lithiated silicon nanowire revealed a smaller value (~15 nN) than that of the Si nanowire substrate (~60 nN) by a factor of two, while the adhesion force of the silicon nanowire is similar to that of the silicon substrate. The elastic local spring constants obtained from the force-distance curve, also shows that the unlithiated silicon nanowire has a relatively smaller value (16.98 N/m) than lithiated silicon nanowire (66.30 N/m) due to the elastically soft amorphous structures. The frictional forces of lithiated and unlithiated silicon nanowire were obtained within the range of 0.5-4.0 Hz and 0.01-200 nN for velocity and load dependency, respectively. We explain the trend of adhesion and modulus in light of the materials properties of silicon and lithiated silicon. The results suggest a useful method for chemical identification of the lithiated region during the charging and discharging process.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.54-62
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• 2024

SICM (Scanning Ion Conductivity Microscopy) is a technique for measuring surface topography in an environment where electrochemical reactions occur, by detecting changes in ion conductivity as a nanopipette tip approaches the sample. This study includes an investigation of the current response curve, known as the approach curve, according to the distance between the tip and the sample. First, a simulation analysis was conducted on the approach curves. Based on the simulation results, then, several measuring experiments were conducted concurrently to analyze the difference between the simulated and measured approach curves. The simulation analysis confirms that the current squeezing effect occurs as the distance between the tip and the sample approaches half the inner radius of the tip. However, through the calculations, the decrease in current density due to the simple reduction in ion channels was found to be much smaller compared to the current squeezing effect measured through actual experiments. This suggests that ion conductivity in nano-scale narrow channels does not simply follow the Nernst-Einstein relationship based on the diffusion coefficients, but also takes into account the fluidic hydrodynamic resistance at the interface created by the tip and the sample. It is expected that SICM can be combined with SECM (Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy) to overcome the limitations of SECM through consecutive measurement of the two techniques, thereby to strengthen the analysis of electrochemical surface reactivity. This could potentially provide groundbreaking help in understanding the local catalytic reactions in electroless plating and the behaviors of organic additives in electroplating for various kinds of patterns used in semiconductor damascene processes and packaging processes.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.291-303
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• 2020

Marine organism-derived toxins have negative effects not only on human health but also in aquaculture, fisheries, and marine ecosystems. However, traditional analytical methods are insufficient in preventing this threat. In this paper, we reviewed new rapid methods of toxin detection, which have been improved by adopting diverse types of nanomaterials and technologies. Moreover, we herein describe the main strategies for toxin detection and their related sensing performance. Notably, to popularize and commercialize these newly developed technologies, simplifying the process of pre-treating real samples real samples is very important. As part of these efforts, numerous studies have reported pretreatment methods based on the antibody-immobilized magnetic nanoparticles, and some cases have applied nanoparticles to enhance the sensing performance by utilizing the intrinsic catalytic activity. Furthermore, some reports have introduced fluorescent nanoparticles, such as quantum dots, to represent the lower detection limits of conventional enzyme-based colorimetric methods and lateral flow assays. Some studies using electrochemical measurements based on aptamer-nanoparticle complexes have also been announced. In addition, as the response to new toxins generated by changes in the marine environment is still lacking, further research on diagnostic and detection is also greatly needed for these kinds of marine toxins and their derivatives.