• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.329-334
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• 2009

This study is to develop a fuel cell system applicable to an in situ NMR (Nuclear magnetic resonance) diagnosis. The in situ NMR can be used in real time monitoring of various reactions occurring in the fuel cell, such as oxidation of fuel, reduction of oxygen, transport phenomena, and component degradation. The fuel cell for this purpose is, however, to be operated in a specifically designed tubular shape toroid cavity detector (TCD), which constrains the fuel cell to have a tubular shape. This may cause difficulties in effective mass transport of reactants/products and uniform distribution of assembly pressure. Therefore, a new flow field designed in a particular way is necessary to enhance the mass transport in the tubular fuel cell. In this study, a tubular-shaped close-type flow field made of non-magnetic material is developed. With this flow field, oxygen is effectively delivered to the cathode surface and the produced water is readily removed from the membrane-electrode assembly to prevent flooding. The resulting DMFC (direct methanol fuel cell) outperforms the open-type flow field and exhibits $36\;mW/cm^2$ even at room temperature.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.118-123
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• 2011

Manufacturing of the bipolar plate of a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) by direct laser melting technology (DLM) was attempted. The DLM technology is highly influenced by process parameters such as laser power, scan rate and layering height. Therefore, an analysis of the DLM technology was performed under various conditions. The bipolar plates were fabricated using the DLM process with 316L stainless steel (STS 316L) plates and powder. Powder melting trials at various energy density were performed in order to select a feasible melting range for a given laser power. The melting line height increases and eventually saturates when the energy density increases, but decreases when the laser power increases at a given energy density. For the estimation of the potential performance of the bipolar plate, the surface roughness and contact resistance of the DLM layer were also analyzed. The changes of line height and thickness are useful information to report when manufacturing bipolar plate of fuel cell through the DLM process.

• 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.6 no.1
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• pp.23-27
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• 2003

In this study investigations have been carried out for the evaluation of small DMFCS under passive operation conditions for use in portable powers. Under passive conditions, a maximum performance was obtained at a methanol concentration of 4 M and at a catalyst loading of $8mg/cm^2$ on both electrodes. By optimizing various parameters, we could achieve the highest performance of $55mW/cm^2$ at 1 attn and at R.T.A monopolar stack consisting of 6 unit cells with active area of $4.5cm^2/cell$ was prepared and it showed a uniform voltage distribution all over the cells and it had a power output of 1 watt and a power density of $37mW/cm^2$ A monopolar stack which consisted of 16 cells and produced a 2.4W power was also fabricated and was tested for operation of a miniature car.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.93-102
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• 2007

The objective of this study is to develop a 3D DMFC model for modeling gas evolution and flow patterns to design optimal flow field for gas management. The gas management on the anode side is an important issue in DMFC design and it greatly influences the performance of the fuel cell. The flow field is tightly related to gas management and distribution. Since experiment for the optimal design of various flow fields is difficult and expensive due to high bipolar plate cost, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is implemented to solve the problem. A two-fluid model was developed for CFD based flow field design. The CFD analysis is used to visualize and to analyze the flow pattern and to reduce the number of experiments. Case studies of typical flow field designs such as serpentine, zigzag, parallel and semi-serpentine type illustrate applications of the model. This study presents simulation results of velocity, pressure, methanol mole fraction and gas content distribution. The suggested model is verified to be useful for the optimal flow field design.

• Proceedings of the Polymer Society of Korea Conference
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• 2006.10a
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• pp.269-269
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• 2006

The molecular structure of poly(2,6-dimethyl-4,4' -phenylene oxide)-g-poly (styrenesulfonic acid) (PPO-g-PSSA) graft copolymer was designed, and synthesized via living radical polymerization. Obtained graft copolymers were transformed into proton exchange membranes for direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) application. The performance of the membranes was measured in terms of water uptake, proton conductivity, methanol permeability, and thermal stability. Very low methanol permeability and good proton conductivity were observed by adjusting grafting frequency and PSSA block content.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2005.07a
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• pp.409-411
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• 2005

A series of inorganic-organic hybrid membranes were prepared with a systematic variation of titanium dioxidenanoparticles content. Their water 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 water swelling. 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 nation membrane.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.413-421
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• 2004

Sulfonated poly(phthalazinone ether sulfone ketone) (SPPESK) membranes and sol-gel derived SPPESK/silica hybrid membranes have been investigated as potential polymer electrolyte membranes for direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) applications. In comparison with the SPPESK membrane, the SPPESK/silica membranes exhibited higher water content, improved proton conductivity, and lower methanol permeability. Notably, the silica embedded in the membrane acted as a material for reducing the fraction of free water and as a barrier for methanol transport through the membrane. From the results of proton conductivity and methanol permeability studies, we suggest that the fractions of bound and free water should be optimized to obtain desirable proton conductivities and methanol permeabilities. The highly sulfonated PPESK hybrid membrane (HSP-Si) displayed higher proton conductivity (3.42 ${\times}$ 10$^2$ S/cm) and lower methanol permeability (4.15 ${\times}$ 10$\^$7/ $\textrm{cm}^2$/s) than those of Nafion 117 (2.54 ${\times}$ 10$^2$ S/cm; 2.36 ${\times}$ 10$\^$6/ $\textrm{cm}^2$/s, respectively) at 30$^{\circ}C$. This characteristic of the SPPESK/silica membranes is desirable for future applications related to DMFCs.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.43-46
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• 2007

To find out the optimum design of hydrogen storage and supply tank using Metal Hydride (briefly MH) and to make clear the performance characteristics under various conditions are our research purpose. In order to use the low-temperature exhaust heat, $LaNi_{4.7}Al_{0.3}$ which operates under the low pressure of 1MPa is chosen, and we measure the basic properties, namely density, specific heat, PCT(Pressure-Concentration-Temperature) characteristic, and effective thermal conductivity. Then, a numerical calculation model of hydrogen storage using MH alloy is suggested and this thermal diffusion equation of model is solved by the backward difference method. This calculation results rate compared with the experimental results of the systems which installed 1kg MH alloy and, it is found out that our calculation model can well predict the experimental results. By the experimental using MH alloy, it is recognized that the hydrogen flow rate can control by the step adjustment of brine temperature.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.173-184
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• 2004

For the application of direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC), sulfonated polystyrene/teflon (PS/PTFE) composite membranes were developed by changing monomer ratio of styrene and DVB. The composite membranes were prepared as follows: first, the monomer mixtures consisting of styrene, divinyl benzene and AIBN were impregnated in porous PTFE film and then, polymerized under 8$0^{\circ}C$ to give PS/PTFE membranes. Finally, the membranes were reacted with chlorosulfonic acid in 1,2-dichloroethane to give the sulfonated composite membranes. The measurements of ATR-FTIR, SEM, solvent uptake test and ion exchange capacity (IEC) were done for the resulting membranes before or after sulfonation, respectively, which showed the composite membranes with proper crosslinking degree and sulfonic acid content were prepared well as a function of styrene/DVB ratio. ion conductivity and methanol permeability were studied for the sulfonated membranes. It was found that with decreasing the ratio of styrene/DVB, methanol permeability decreased from $6.6{\times}10^{-7}∼1.3{\timas}10^{-7}$ $\textrm{cm}^2$/s, which are much lower values than that of Nafion$^{(R)}$117($1.02{\times}10^{-6}$ $\textrm{cm}^2$/s). Under the same monomer condition, ion conductivity decreased from 0.11 S/cm ($25^{\circ}C$) to 0.08 S/cm ($25^{\circ}C$), which are similar or a little higher values compared with $Nafion^{(R)}117 (1.02{\times}10^{-6}$ $\textrm{cm}^2$/s, 0.0824 S/cm). These two results confirmed the composite membranes prepared could be applied successfully to DMFC.C.