• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
• /
• v.27 no.4
• /
• pp.341-348
• /
• 2016

The experiments related on structure and water electrolysis performance of HALE UAV stack were conducted in this study. Anode catalyst $IrRuO_2$ was prepared by Adam's fusion methods as 2~3 nm nano sized particles, and the cathode catalyst was used as commercial product of Premetek. The MEA (membrane electrode assembly) was manufactured by decal methods, anode and anode catalytic layers were prepared by electro-spray. HALE stack was composed of 5 multi-cells as $0.2Nm^3/hr$ hydrogen production rate with hydrogen pressure as 10 bar. The water electrolysis performance was investigated at atmospheric pressure and temperature of $55^{\circ}C$. Best performance of HALE UAV stack was recorded as cell voltage efficiency as 86%.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
• /
• v.14 no.1
• /
• pp.50-55
• /
• 2011

To enhance the performance of a MEA (membrane electrode assembly) in a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), optimum contents of Nafion ionomer as electrolyte in the 20 and 40 wt% Pt/C used in electrodes were examined. Variety characterization techniques were applied to examine optimum Nafion contents: cell performance test, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and cyclic voltammetry (CV). According to Pt wt% supported on carbon support, it has been observed that polarization, ohmic, and mass transfer resistances were changed so that the cell performance was significantly dependent on the content of Nafion ionomer. Optimum Nafion ionomer contents in the 20 wt% Pt/C and 40 wt% Pt/C were showed 35 wt% and 20 wt%, respectively. This is due to different surface area of the Pt/C catalyst, and formation of triple phase boundary seems to be affected by the Nafion contents.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
• /
• v.28 no.5
• /
• pp.471-480
• /
• 2017

A proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) operated at $150^{\circ}C$ was evaluated by a controlling different amount of phosphoric acid (PA) to a membrane-electrode assembly (MEA) without humidification of the cells. The effects on MEA performance of the amount of PA in the cathode are investigated. The PA content in the cathodes was optimized for higher catalyst utilization. The highest value of the active electrochemical area is achieved with the optimum amount of PA in the cathode confirmed by in-situ cyclic voltammetry. The current density-voltage experiments (I-V curve) also shows a transient response of cell voltage affected by the amount of PA in the electrodes. Furthermore, this information was compared with the production variables such as hot pressing and vacuum drying to investigate those effect to the electrochemical performances.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.56 no.4
• /
• pp.469-473
• /
• 2018

When pure hydrogen was supplied to the stationary PEMFC generally using the reforming gas, its characteristics were compared with the vehicle PEMFC. The effect of varying the amount of hydrogen supply to the anode on the overall performance was compared. The variation of hydrogen supply in the range of 1.0~1.7 excess (stoi.) had little effect on the OCV of stationary and vehicle MEA (Membrane and Electrode Assembly). At 0.7 V, the current density of the stationary MEA was about 16% higher than that of the vehicle MEA. I-V performance, impedance, and LSV were measured with varying relative humidity. Both OCV and electrolyte membrane resistances decreased with increasing relative humidity. The hydrogen permeability of the stationary MEA was lower than that of the vehicle MEA, showing that the durability of the stationary membrane could be higher than that of the vehicle membrane.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.148-154
• /
• 2009

With respect to the durability of large scale ($150cm^2$) membrane electrode assembly (MEA) of direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC), degradation phenomena at cathode is monitored and analyzed according to the position on the cathode surface. After constant current mode operation of large scale MEA for 500 hr, the MEA is divided into three parts along the cathode channel; (close to) inlet, middle, and (close to) outlet. The performance of each MEA is tested and it is revealed that the MEA from the cathode outlet of large MEA shows the worst performance. This is due to the catalyst degradation and GDL delamination caused by flooding at cathode outlet of large MEA during the 500 hr operation. Particularly on the catalyst degradation, the loss of electrochemically active surface area (ECSA) of catalyst gets worse along the cathode channel from inlet to outlet, of which the reason is believed to be loss of catalysts by dissolution and migration rather than their agglomeration. The extent of loss in the performance and catalyst degradation has strong relation to the cathode flooding and it is required to develop proper water management techniques and separator channel design to control the flooding.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
• /
• v.11 no.1
• /
• pp.19-27
• /
• 2000

The polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) system was developed. In order to enhance the performance of membrane electrode assembly (MEA), the transfer printing method of the electrocatalyst layer on membrane was developed. The $H_2/O_2$ single cell with an electrode area of $50cm^2$ was fabricated and tested using 20 wt.% Pt/C as an electrocatalyst and the commercial and hand-made MEA such as Nafion 115, Hanwha, Dow, Flemion T and Gore Select. The 100-cell PEMFC stack with an active electrode area of $300cm^2$ was designed and fabricated using 40 wt.% Pt/C and 30 wt.% Pt-Ru/C as a cathode and anode electrocatalysts, respectively. The performance of PEMFC system was obtained to be 7kW (250A at 28V) and 3.5kW (70A at 50V) at $80^{\circ}C$ by flowing $H_2/air$ and methanol reformed fuel gas/air, respectively.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.54 no.3
• /
• pp.305-309
• /
• 2016

Recently, there are many efforts focused on development of more economical non-fluorinated membranes for PEMFCs (Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells). In this study, to test the durability of sPEEK MEA (Membrane and Electrode Assembly), ADT (Accelerated Degradation Test) of MEA degradation was done at the condition that membrane and electrode were degraded simultaneously. Before and after degradation, I-V polarization curve, hydrogen crossover, electrochemical surface area, membrane resistance and charge transfer resistance were measured. Although the permeability of hydrogen through sPEEK membrane was low, sPEEK membrane was weaker to radical evolved at low humidity and OCV condition than fluorinated membrane such as Nafion. Performance after MEA degradation for 144 hours and 271 hours were reduced by 15% and 65%, respectively. It was showed that the main cause of rapid decrease of performance after 144 hours was shorting due to Pt/C particles in the pinholes.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.12-18
• /
• 2012

The prohibitively high cost of Pt catalyst might be the biggest barrier for the commercialization of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) of which wide application is expected. Worldwide research efforts for the development of alternative to Pt oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) catalyst are made recently. One of the important considerations in the catalyst development is durability issue as well as economic aspect. From this point of view, platinum group metals (PGM) except Pt can be a candidate for replacing Pt catalyst because the material properties and the catalytic activity of PGM are expected to be similar to Pt. In contrast to Ir, Rh and Os to which not so much attention has been paid as an ORR catalyst, Pd that is most similar to Pt in terms of material properties and catalytic activity and Ru that is in the form of chalcogenide have been studied intensively. Activity comparison between non-Pt and Pt oxygen reduction catalysts by half cell test using RDE (rotating disk electrode) or PEMFC MEA (membrane electrode assembly) operation indicates that Pd-based catalysts show the most similar activity to Pt. In this paper we analyze the composition of PGM ORR catalyst in literature to promote the development of non-Pt ORR catalyst.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.28 no.6
• /
• pp.330-336
• /
• 2018

In this study, a membrane electrode assembly(MEA) composed of three electrodes(anode, cathode, and reference electrode) is designed to investigate the effects of methanol concentration on the overpotentials of anode and cathode in direct methanol fuel cells(DMFCs). Using the three-electrode cell, in-situ analyses of the overpotentials are carried out during direct methanol fuel cell operation. It is demonstrated that the three-electrode cell can work effectively in transient state operating condition as well as in steady-state condition, and the anode and cathode exhibit different overpotential curves depending on the concentration of methanol used as fuel. Therefore, from the real-time separation of the anode and cathode overpotentials, it is possible to more clearly prove the methanol crossover effect, and it is expected that in-situ analysis using the three-electrode cell will provide an opportunity to obtain more diverse results in the area of fuel cell research.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
• /
• v.35 no.3
• /
• pp.345-351
• /
• 2024

The unitized regenerative fuel cell (URFC) is a method that can reduce costs and increase system simplification by unitizing a fuel cell system and a water electrolysis system. The spray method is suitable as the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) manufacturing method for URFC because it is easy to control the amount of catalyst, the size of the system is small, and economical manufacturing is possible. In this study, a numerical analysis of the effect of solution concentration on the spray method was performed to use it as basic data for the spray method to be used in MEA manufacturing. As result, as the Nafion solution concentration decreases it was found that the spray speed and the mass flow rate and the discrete phase model concentration increases and the spray range widens.