• Membrane Journal
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.425-433
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• 2017

As the problems related to the environmental pollution such as carbon dioxide emission are emerging, the need for the renewable energy and environmentally friendly energy is getting intense. Fuel cells are eco-friendly energy generation devices that generate electrical energy and produce water as a sole by-product. Compared to the traditional proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), anion exchange membrane alkaline fuel cell (AEMAFC) has a main advantage of possibility to use low cost metal catalysts due to its faster kinetics. The AEM, which conducts $OH^-$ ions, should possess high ion conductivity as well as high chemical stability at high pH conditions. We hereby introduce a crosslinked poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide) having a spacer-type conducting group as novel AEM, and report a high ion conductivity ($67.9mScm^{-1}$ at $80^{\circ}C$) and mechanical properties (Young's modulus : 0.53 GPa) as well as chemical stability (6.8% IEC loss at $80^{\circ}C$ for 1,000 h,) for the developed membrane.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.223-228
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• 2006

Pore-size controlled porous carbons for the catalyst supports of the direct methanol fuel cell were prepared from the mesophase pitch by using the silica spheres with different sizes. Pitch solution in THF and spheres were mixed, carbonized and etched by 5 M NaOH to make porous carbon. Specific surface area of the porous carbons was $14.7{\sim}87.7m^2/g$ and average pore diameter was 50~550 nm which were dependent on the size of silica spheres. Aqueous reduction method was used to load 60 wt% PtRu on the prepared porous carbon supports. The electro-oxidation activity of the supported 60 wt% Pt-Ru catalysts was measured by cyclic voltammetry and unit cell test. For the 60 wt% Pt-Ru/porous carbon synthesized by 50 nm silica, current density value in the cyclic voltammetry test was $123mA/cm^2$ at 0.4 V and peak power density in the unit cell test were 105 and $162mW/cm^2$ under oxygen at 60 and $80^{\circ}C$, respectively.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.425-429
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• 2014

Until a recent day, degradation of PEMFC MEA(membrane and electrode assembly) has been studied, separated with membrane degradation and electrode degradation, respectively. But membrane and electrode were degraded coincidentally at real PEMFC operation condition. During simultaneous degradation, there was interaction between membrane degradation and electrode degradation. Hydrogen permeability was used often to measure degradation of electrolyte membrane in PEMFC. In case of hydrogen permeability measured by LSV(Linear Sweep Voltammetry) method, the degradation of electrode decrease the value of hydrogen crossover current due to LSV methode's dependence on electrode active area. In this study hydrogen permeability was measured by gas chromatograph(GC) when membrane and electrode degraded at the same time. It was showed that degradation of electrode did not affect the hydrogen permeability measured by GC because of GC methode's independence on electrode active area.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.142-149
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• 2013

Carbon materials are mainly used as catalyst supports for polymer exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). Catalyst supports are required specific characteristics of the carbon materials, such as large surface area and high electrical conductivity. Attempted were to improve electrical conductivity and to maintain high surface area of carbon materials using a microwave treatment. Microwave treatment, as a relatively new technique, takes short reaction time and reduce the consumption of the gases used for carbon treatment compared to a traditional heat treatment. Hybrid carbon (ACF/Graphene) as catalyst supports by microwave-irradiation method for PEMFC increase the cell performance because of increased electrical conductivity resulting in triple-phase contact and reduced the interfacial resistance. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) were employed to analyze carbon materials. The performance of microwave-treated carbon materials was evaluated by measuring current-voltage (I-V) characteristics and electrode impedance.

• Clean Technology
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.78-82
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• 2011

For effectively photochemical hydrogen production, P (negative semiconductor) and B (positive semiconductor) ions (0.1, 0.2, 0.5, and 1.0 mol%) incorporated $TiO_2$ (P- and B-$TiO_2$) nanometer sized particles were prepared using a solvothermal method as a photocatalyst. The characteristics of the synthesized P- and B-$TiO_2$ photocatalysts were analyzed by X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), W-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis), and Photoluminescence spectra (PL). The evolution of $H_2$ from methanol/water (1:1) photo-splitting over B-$TiO_2$ photocatalysts was enhanced compared to those over pure $TiO_2$ and P-$TiO_2$ photocatalysts; 0.42 mL of $H_2$ gas was evolved after 10 h when 0.5 g of a 1.0 mol% B-$TiO_2$ catalyst was used.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.42 no.6
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• pp.666-672
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• 1997

Twenty years' daily mean air temperature data was used to calculate the critical early seeding date(CESD), the optimum heading date(OHD), the critical late heading date for stable ripening(CHDR) and the critical late ripening date(CLRD) for rice seeded on dry paddy in different agroclimatic zones in Korea. The CESD was defined as the first day with mean air temperature of 13$^{\circ}C$, and the OHD as the first day of the 40 consecutive days with mean air temperature of 22$^{\circ}C$ or above after heading. The CHDR was defined as the date after which the cumulative daily mean air temperature would be at least 76$0^{\circ}C$. Lastly, the CLRD was defined as the last day when daily mean air temperature remains above 15$^{\circ}C$. This information was used for the estimation of periods from the earliest date of seeding to optimum heading date, the latest possible date of heading and the latest possible date of ripening in respective regions. For instance, in Suwon, those respective periods mentioned were found to be 104days, 124days, and 165days.

• 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.