• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.585-591
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• 2011

This study has focused on the development of high performance membrane-electrode assemblies (MEAs) fabricated by decal method for proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). To study the effect of ionomer contents on performance, we fabricated MEAs with several electrodes which were prepared by varying the quantity of ionomer from 20 wt.% to 45 wt.% in catalyst layer. The MEA performance was obtained through single cell test. The MEA prepared from electrode with 25wt.% of ionomer showed the best performance. We evaluated the surface area and pore volume of electrode with BET. We found that the surface area and pore volume in electrode decreased rapidly at the electrode with 40wt.% of ionomer in catalyst layer. MEA was fabricated by roll laminator machine and the roll laminating conditions for the preparation of MEA, such as laminating press, temperature and speed, were optimized. The MEA performance is not affected by laminating temperature and speed, but roll laminating press have a great effect on MEA performance.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.301-310
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• 2014

In this study, the silica nanoparticles were considerably chosen to improve a dimensional stability, proton transport and electrochemical performance of the resulting inorganic-organic nanocomposite membranes. For this purpose, hydrophobic silica (Aerosil$^{(R)}$ 812, Degussa) and hydrophilic silica (Aerosil$^{(R)}$ 380, Degussa) nanoparticles were, respectively, introduced into a Sulfonated poly(arylene ether sulfone) (SPAES) polymer matrix. The $SiO_2$ particles are evenly dispersed in a SPAES matrix by the aid of a non-ionic surfactant (Pluronics$^{(R)}$ L64). A $SiO_2$ content plays an important role in membrane microstructures and membrane properties such as proton conductivity and water uptake. Therefore, to study nanocomposite membranes with excessive amount of silica, the content of silica nanoparticles were increased up to 5 wt%. Interestingly, a hydrophobic $SiO_2$ containing nanocomposite membrane showed better electrochemical performance (29% higher than pristine SPAES) despite of low proton conductivity due to its adhesive properties with a catalyst layer in a single cell test. All the silica-SPAES membranes exhibited better performance than a pristine SPAES membrane.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.283-290
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• 2008

In this paper, experiments with an air-breathing proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) for mobile devices were carried out according to cathode conditions. These conditions are defined by the cathode flow field plate type (the channel type, the open type) and the cathode surface direction. Single-cell and 6-cell stack were used in the experiments. The experimental results showed that the open-type cathode flow field plate gave a better performance than the small channel type. In the experiments related to the direction of the slits on the cathode flow field plate, the horizontal slit cell was better than the vertical one. With respect to the cathode surface direction, when the cathode surface is placed in the direction normal to the ground, the PEMFC generated more stable power in the mass transport loss region. Since stable power in the mass transport region is closely related to the air supply, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis for air-breathing PEMFC of different cathode surface directions was performed.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.625-632
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• 2012

The objective of this paper is to demonstrate the cathode channel flooding effects at different stoichiometries in proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells by using visualization techniques. The phenomena of liquid water formation and removal caused by current variations were also examined experimentally. Tests were conducted at cathode stoichiometries of 1.5 and 2.0, and the anode stoichiometry was fixed at 1.5. It is found that at an air-side stoichiometry of 2.0, liquid water begins to form and the flooding occurs faster than at an air-side stoichiometry of 1.5. Also, when the air-side stoichiometry of 1.5 is maintained, the dry-out phenomena is observed in the dry-out area 7.8 A following the field of flooding. Thus, a stoichiometry of 1.5 produced better performance in terms of membrane electrode assembly (MEA) durability and hydrogen ion conductivity than did a stoichiometry of 2.0, in which dry-out occurs beyond 8A.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.46-52
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• 2010

Membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) for proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) have been extensively studied to improve their initial performance as well as their durability and to facilitate the commercialization of fuel cell technology. To improve the MEA performance, particularly at low Pt loadings, many approaches have been made. In the present study, MEA performance improvement was performed by adding $TiO_2$ particles into the catalyst layer of MEA. Most of previous studies have focused on the MEA performance enhancement under low humidity conditions by adding metal oxides into the catalyst layer mainly due to the water keeping ability of those metal oxides particles such as $Al_2O_3$, $SiO_2$ and zeolites. However, this study mainly focused on the improvement of MEA performance under fully humidified normal conditions. In this study, the MEA was prepared by decal method aiming for a continuous MEA fabrication process. The decal process can make very thin and uniform catalyst layer on the surface of electrolyte membrane resulting in very low interfacial resistance between catalyst layer and the membrane surface and uniform electrode structure in the MEA. It was found that the addition of $TiO_2$ particles into the catalyst layer made by decal method can minimize water flooding in the catalyst layer, resulting in the improvement of MEA performance.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.847-853
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• 2016

Here has been examined a 3-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling in order to investigate the performance analysis of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells with serpentine flow fields. The present CFD model considers the isothermal transport phenomena in a fuel cell involving mass, momentum transport, electrode kinetics, and potential fields. Co-current flow patterns for a PEMFC are considered for various geometries in the single straight cell. Current density distribution from the calculated distribution of oxygen and hydrogen mass fractions has been determined, where the activation overpotential has been also calculated within anode and cathode. CFD results showed that profiles differ from those simulations subjected to each the calculated activation overpotential. It is interesting that the present serpentine flow field shows the specific distribution of current density with respect to the aspect ratio of depth to width and the ratio of reaction area for various serpentine geometries. Simulation results were considered reasonable with the other CFD results reported in literature and global comparisons of the PEMFC model.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2010.07a
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• pp.408-409
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• 2010

본 논문에서는 소형 PEM(Proton Exchange Membrane) 연료전지를 이용하는 충전기에 관해 서술한다. 기존에 개발된 대부분의 충전기는 On-Grid 방식으로 벅타입 컨버터를 이용한 감압 충전방식을 사용하였으나, 연료전지를 이용할 경우 승압식 컨버터를 통해 배터리를 충전하여야 한다. 그러나 승압형 컨버터의 출력단에 인덕터가 없는 경우 큰 리플전류를 유도하게 되며, 이는 시스템의 효율 및 배터리의 수명에 좋지 않은 영향을 끼치게 된다. 본 논문에서는 Cuk 컨버터를 이용하는 충전용 전력변환기의 제어방법에 관해 제안하고 그 타당성을 검증하였다.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.216-222
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• 2013

Durability characteristics of Gas Diffusion Layer(GDL) is one of the important issues for accomplishing commercialization of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell(PEMFC). It is strongly related to the performances of PEMFC because one of the main functions of GDL is to work as a path of fuel, air and water. When the GDL does not work on their proposed functions due to the degradation of durability, mass transfer in PEMFC is disturbed and it might cause the flooding phenomenon. Thus, investigating the durability of GDL is important and understanding the GDL degradation process is needed. In this study, electrochemical degradation with carbon corrosion is introduced. The carbon corrosion experiment is carried out with GDLs which have different MPL penetration thicknesses. After the experiment, the amount of degradation of GDL is measured with various properties of GDL such as weight, thickness and performance of the PEMFC. The degraded GDL shows loss of their properties.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.46-54
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• 2008

In this paper, a low-cost impedance spectroscopy system(LCISS) suitable for modeling the electrochemical power sources such as fuel cells, batteries and supercapacitors is designed and implemented. Since the developed LCISS is composed of simple sensor circuits, commercial data acquisition board and LabVIEW software, a graphic language with powerful HMI(Human-Machine Interface), it is expected ta be widely used in substitution of the expensive EIS instruments. In the proposed system, the digital lock-in amplifier is adopted to achieve the accurate measurements even in the presence of the high level of noises. The developed hardware and software is applied to measure the impedance spectrum of the Ballard Nexa 1.2kW proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack and an equivalent impedance model is proposed based on the measurement results. The validity of the proposed equivalent circuit and the developed system is proven by the measurement of the ac power losses of the PEM fuel celt stack by the ripple current.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.164-175
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• 2022

In this work, sulfonated poly (ether ether ketone) (SPEEK) composite membranes including strontium zirconate (SrZrO₃) were fabricated by the electrospinning method. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopic analysis and X-ray diffraction analysis were used to identify the chemical structure and the crystallinity of SrZrO₃ and electrospun composite membranes. The thermal stability of the pure SPEEK and SPEEK/SrZrO₃ electrospun composite membranes were investigated by using thermogravimetric analysis. The physicochemical properties and proton conductivity were enhanced with the addition of different weight ratio of SrZrO₃ nanofiller (2, 4 and 6 wt%) in SPEEK polymer. The optimized SPEEK/SrZrO₃-4 electrospun membrane containing 4 wt% of SrZrO₃ showed a high proton conductivity compared to other electrospun SPEEK/SrZrO₃ composite membranes. The results indicate that electrospun composite membranes incorporating these perovskite nanofillers should be explored as potential candidates for use in proton exchange membrane fuel cells.