• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.57 no.5
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• pp.672-678
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• 2019

The electrochemical properties of pitch-coated natural graphite(NG) were investigated as an anode for lithium-ion batteries. The anode materials were prepared by heat-treatment of mixture of NG and petroleum pitch at $1000^{\circ}C$. The pitches with various softening points were used as carbon precursor. The physical properties of anode materials were analyzed by TGA, SEM, PSA and BET. As the softening point increased, the thickness of the coating layer increased and the specific surface area decreased. The electrochemical performances were investigated by initial charge/discharge efficiency, cycle stability, cyclic voltammetry, rate performance and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The carbon-coated NG using pitch with softening points of $250^{\circ}C$ showed an initial discharge capacity of 361 mAh/g and a coulombic efficiency of 92.6%. Also, the rate performance(5 C/0.2 C) was 1.6 times higher than that of NG, and it had a capacity retention (90%) after 50 cycles at 0.5 C.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.30-37
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• 2020

Polymer/inorganic composites were used as a protective layer of lihitum metal electrode for effective suppression of lithium dendrite. PVDF-HFP was used as an polymer material and TiO₂ nanoparticle was used as an inorganic material. PVDF-HFP is a highly flexible polymer that acts as a matrix of inorganic materials while TiO₂ nanoparticle improves the mechanical strength and ion conductivity of the protective layer. The as-synthesized protective hybrid membrane exhibited good dispersion of TiO₂ in the PVDF-HFP matrix by SEM, AFM and XRD analyses. Furthermore, the electrochemical analysis showed that the polymer-inorganic composite retained high coulombic efficiency of 80% and low overpotential, less than 20 mV until the 100^th cycles due to the improved mechanical properties and ion conductivity in comparison to the control sample (untreated and PVDF-HFP polymers/Cu).

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SC
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.9-19
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• 2002

An NAC(Natural Admittance Control) system design is presented for interaction controller that achieves high-performance and guarantees stability. The NAC can be classified as a particular flavor of impedance control similar to control schemes that have velocity compensator and force compensator. The NAC significantly improves the response characteristics when Coulomb friction is presented in One-link Robot System and guarantees stability when robot contacts with environment. Pragmatic rules for NAC synthesis are derived. It shows method to choose a target impedance for realizable force compensator. Important parameters are found experimentally. It is demonstrated, by the experimental result, that NAC algorithm is successful in rejecting Coulomb friction through velocity compensator and guarantees stability through force compensator. We implement an experimental set-up consisting of environment-generated one-link robot system and DSP system for controller development. We apply the natural admittance controller to the One-link robot system, and show the good performance on desired force control in case of contacting with arbitrary environment.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.57 no.1
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• pp.5-10
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• 2019

In this study, electrochemical characteristics of artificial graphite coated with petroleum pitch using solvent method as anode material of lithium ion battery were investigated. As the solvent, n-hexane, toluene, tetrahydrofuran and quinoline were used. The surface of the prepared anode material was analyzed by SEM and TEM. Also the electrochemical performances of the prepared anode materials were performed by constant current first charge/discharge, cycle, cyclic voltammetry and impedance tests in the electrolyte of $LiPF_6$ dissolved inorganic solvents (EC:DEC=1:1 vol%). The coating thickness of the prepared graphite was about 100-500 nm and the graphite coated with THF solvent had a smoother surface than that using other solvents. It was found that pitch-coated graphite (THF) show the low initial irreversible capacity (51 mAh/g), the high discharge capacity (360 mAh/g) and coulombic efficiency (99%).

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.467-471
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• 2021

A ladder-like polysilsesquioxane (LPMA64) functionalized with a crosslinkable group was synthesized and used for the preparation of organic-inorganic hybrid gel polymer electrolytes through a thermal crosslinking process of the liquid electrolytes. A small weight percent of LPMA64 polymer crosslinker (5 wt%) was able to form a well-developed network structure, resulting in good dimensional stability with high ionic conductivity. The lithium-sulfur batteries fabricated with organic-inorganic hybrid gel polymer electrolytes exhibited stable C-rate and cycling performance with excellent Coulombic efficiency due to the alleviated lithium polysulfide shuttling effect during prolonged cycling. The result demonstrates that the organic-inorganic hybrid gel polymer electrolytes could be a promising candidate electrolyte for application in lithium-sulfur batteries.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.21-26
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• 2022

Zinc is emerging as a environment-friendly plating material to replace cadmium, which is harmful to the human body, to prevent hydrogen gas penetration or release from metal materials. Electroplating of Zn and Zn alloys, which is usually performed in an aqueous acidic atmosphere, has disadvantages such as low coulombic efficiency, corrosion, and hydrogen release, resulting in industrial use difficult. In this study, a deep-eutectic solvent was synthesized using choline chloride and ethylene glycol. Using this as a solvent, an electrolyte for Zn plating was prepared, and then zinc was plated on the STS 304 substrate. The surface microstructure and roughness were observed using SEM and AFM. The crystal structure of the electro-plated film was analyzed using XRD. Finally, the preventing effects of hydrogen release through Zn-based deep-eutectic plating on the STS 304 substrate were compared with the uncoated substrate.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.51-68
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• 2022

Although lithium metal batteries have a high energy density, experimental skills capable of solving lots of problems induced by dendrite such as short circuit, low coulomb efficiency, capacity loss, and cycle performance are still only in academic research stage. In this paper, research cases for dendrite growth inhibition on lithium metal electrode were classified into four types: flexible SEI (solid electrolyte interface) layer responding to volume expansion of lithium metal electrode, SEI supporting layer to inhibit dendrite growth physically, SHES (self-healing electrostatic shield) mechanism to adjust lithium growth by leading uniform diffusion of Li⁺ ions, and finally micro-patterning to induce uniform deposition of lithium. We hope to advance the practical use of lithium metal electrode by analyzing pros and cons of this classification.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.639-645
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• 2020

Among the components of redox flow battery (RFB), the electrode serves as a diffusion layer of an electrolyte and a path for electrons and also is a major component that directly affects the RFB performance. In this paper, chloric/sulfuric mixed acidwas used as a supporting electrolyte in RFB system with Fe2+/Fe3+ and V2+/V3+ as redox couple. The optimum electrode and activation temperature were suggested by comparing the capacity, coulombic efficiency and energy efficiency according to the electrode type and activation temperature. In the RFB single cell evaluation using 5 types of carbon electrodes used in the experiments, all of them showed close to the theoretical capacity to retain the reliability of the evaluation results. GFD4EA showed relatively excellent energy efficiency and charge/discharge capacity. In order to investigate the electrochemical performance according to the activation temperature, GFD4EA electrode was activated by heat treatment at different temperatures of 400, 450, 500, 600 and 700 ℃ under an air atmosphere. Changes in physical properties before and after the activation were observed using electrode mass retention, scanning electron microscope (SEM), XPS analysis, and electrochemical performance was compared by conducting RFB single evaluation using electrodes activated at each temperature given above.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.290-298
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• 2021

A purification process was performed for the application of natural graphite as an anode material. The influence of the structural change and impurity content of graphite according to the process on the anode electrochemical characteristics was investigated. Natural graphite was chemically/physically purified by acid-treatment which used different amounts of solution of ammonium fluoride/sulfuric acid in the same ratio and thermal treatment used different temperatures (800~2500 ℃). Acid-treatment had limitation to remove impurities, and identified that all impurity contents was removed except some traces of atom such as Si by after progressed thermal-treatment until 2500 ℃. The anode materials characteristic of graphite treated by purification process was improved, and changes in the structure and impurity contents affected dominantly the capacity, rate property and initial Coulombic efficiency. Consequently, the complex purification process improved the graphite structure and also the performance of lithium ion battery by controlling the excessive formation of solid electrolyte interphase and expanding Li⁺ insertion space originated from the effective removal of impurities.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.77-92
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• 2021

The energy density of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) determines the mileage of electric vehicles. For increasing the energy density of LIBs, it is necessary to develop high-capacity active materials that can store more lithium ions within constrained weight. The rapid progress made in cathode technology has realized the utilization of the near-theoretical capacity of cathode materials. In contrast, commercial LIBs have still exploited graphite as active material in anodes since the 1990s. The most promising way to increase anodes' capacity is to mix high-capacity and long-cycle-life silicon oxides (SiOx) with graphite. However, the low initial Coulombic efficiency (ICE) of SiOx limits its content below 15 wt%, impeding the capacity increase in anodes. To address this issue, various prelithiation techniques have been proposed, which can improve the ICE of high-capacity anode materials. In this review paper, we introduce the principles and expected effects of prelithiation techniques reported so far. According to the reaction mechanisms, the strategies are categorized. Mainly, we focus on the recent progress of solution-based chemical prelithiation methods with commercial viability, of which lithiation reaction occurs homogeneously at liquid-solid interfaces. We believe that developing a cost-effective and mass-scalable prelithiation process holds the key to dominating the anode market for next-generation LIBs.