• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.39 no.8
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• pp.833-837
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• 2015

Li-air batteries have a promising future for because of their high energy density, which could theoretically be equal to that of gasoline. However, substantial Li-air cell performance limitations exist, which are related to the air cathode. The cell discharge products are deposited on the surfaces of the porous carbon materials in the air electrode, which blocks oxygen from diffusing to the reaction sites. Hence, the real capacity of a Li-air battery is determined by the carbon air electrode, especially by the pore volume available for the deposition of the discharged products. In this study, a simple and fast method is reported for the large-scale synthesis of carbon nanoballs (CNBs) consisting of a highly mesoporous structure for Li-air battery cathodes. The CNBs were synthesized by the solution plasma process from benzene solution, without the need for a graphite electrode for carbon growth. The CNBs so formed were then annealed to improve their electrical conductivity. Structural characterization revealed that the CNBs exhibited both an pore structure and high conductivity.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.230-236
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• 2013

In this study, successive coating and co-sintering techniques have been used to fabricate LSM/GDC based cathode supported direct carbon fuel cells. The porous LSM/GDC cathode substrate, dense, thin and crack free GDC and ScSZ layers as bi-layer electrolyte, and a porous Ni/ScSZ anode layer was obtained by co-firing at $1400^{\circ}C$. The porous structure of LSM/GDC cathode substrate, after sintering at $1400^{\circ}C$, was obtained due to the presence of GDC phase, which inhibits sintering of LSM because of its higher sintering temperature. The electrochemical characterization of assembled cell was carried out with air as an oxidant and carbon particles in molten carbonate as fuel. The measured open circuit voltages (OCVs) were obtained to be more than 0.99 V, independent of testing temperature. The peak power densities were 116, 195 and $225mWcm^{-2}$ at 750, 800 and $850^{\circ}C$, respectively.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.19 no.7
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• pp.666-674
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• 2009

An electrochemical bioreactor (ECB) composed of a cathode compartment and an air anode was used in this study to characterize the ethanol fermentation of Zymomonas mobilis. The cathode and air anode were constructed of modified graphite felt with neutral red (NR) and a modified porous carbon plate with cellulose acetate and porous ceramic membrane, respectively. The air anode operates as a catalyst to generate protons and electrons from water. The growth and ethanol production of Z. mobilis were 50% higher in the ECB than were observed under anoxic nitrogen conditions. Ethanol production by growing cells and the crude enzyme of Z. mobilis were significantly lower under aerobic conditions than under other conditions. The growing cells and crude enzyme of Z. mobilis did not catalyze ethanol production from pyruvate and acetaldehyde. The membrane fraction of crude enzyme catalyzed ethanol production from glucose, but the soluble fraction did not. NADH was oxidized to $NAD^+$in association with $H_2O_2$reduction, via the catalysis of crude enzyme. Our results suggested that NADH/$NAD^+$balance may be a critical factor for ethanol production from glucose in the metabolism of Z. mobilis, and that the metabolic activity of both growing cells and crude enzyme for ethanol fermentation may be induced in the presence of glucose.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.14-23
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• 2012

Increasing demand of energy, the depletion of fossil fuel reserves, energy security and the climate change have forced us to look upon alternate energy resources. For today's electric vehicles that run on lithium-ion batteries, one of the biggest downsides is the limited range between recharging. Over the past several years, researchers have been working on lithium-air battery. These batteries could significantly increase the range of electric vehicles due to their high energy density, which could theoretically be equal to the energy density of gasoline. Li-air batteries are potentially viable ultra-high energy density chemical power sources, which could potentially offer specific energies up to 3000 $Whkg^{-1}$ being rechargeable. This paper provides a review on Lithium air battery as alternate energy resource for the future.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.96-102
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• 2022

Reactants of PEMFC are hydrogen and oxygen in gas phases and fuel cell overpotential could be reduced when reactants are smoothly transported. Numerous studies to modify cathode flow field design have been conducted because oxygen mass transfer in high current density region is dominant voltage loss factor. Among those cathode flow field designs, a block in flow field is used to forced supply reactant gas to porous gas diffusion layer. In this study, the block was installed on a simple fuel cell model. Using computational fluid dynamics (CFD), effects of forced convection due to blocks on a polarization curve and local current density contour were studied when different air flow rates were supplied. The high current density could be achieved even with low air supply rate due to forced convection to a gas diffusion layer and also with multiple blocks in series compared to a single block due to an increase of forced convection effect.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.39 no.8
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• pp.838-842
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• 2015

The Li-air battery is a promising candidate for the most energy-dense electrochemical power source because it has 5 to 10 times greater energy storage capacity than that of Li-ion batteries. However, the Li-air cell performance falls short of the theoretical estimate, primarily because the discharge terminates well before the pore volume of the air electrode is completely filled with lithium oxides. Therefore, the structure of carbon used in the air electrode is a critical factor that affects the performance of Li-air batteries. In a previous study, we reported a new class of carbon nanomaterial, named carbon nanoballs (CNBs), consisting of highly mesoporous spheres. Structural characterization revealed that the synthesized CNBs have excellent a meso-macro hierarchical pore structure, with an average diameter greater than 10 nm and a total pore volume more than $1.00cm^3g^{-1}$. In this study, CNBs are applied in an actual Li-air battery to evaluate the electrochemical performance. The formation mechanism and electrochemical performance of the CNBs are discussed in detail.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.42 no.6 s.277
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• pp.425-431
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• 2005

Line Shaped Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) with multilayered structure has been fabricated via direct-writing process. The cell is electrolyte of Ni-YSZ cermet anode, YSZ electrolyte and LSM cathode. They were processed into pastes for the direct writing process. Syringe filled with each electrode and electrolyte paste was loaded into the computer-controlled robe-dispensing machine and the paste was dispensed through cylindrical nozzle of 0.21 mm in diameter under the air pressure of 0.1 tow onto a moving plate with 1.22 mm/s. First of all, the anode paste was dispensed on the PSZ porous substrate, and then the electrolyte paste was dispensed. The anode/electrolyte and the PSZ substrate were co-fired at $1350^{\circ}C$ in air atmosphere for 3 h. The cathode layer was similarly dispensed and sintered at $1200^{\circ}C$ for 1 h. All the electrode/electrolyte lines were visually aligned during the direct writing process. The effective reaction area of fabricated SOFC was $0.03 cm^2$, and the thickness of anode, electrolyte and cathode was 20 $\mu$m, 15 $\mu$m, and 10 $\mu$m, respectively. The single line-shaped SOFC fabricated by direct-writing process exhibited OCV of 0.95 V and maximum power density of $0.35W/cm^2$ at $810^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.878-885
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• 2008

The FPDs(Flat Panel Displays) such as LCD(Liquid Crystal Display) and PDP(Plasma Display Panel) and OLED(Organic Light Emitting Diode), recently, have been substituted for CRT(Cathode Ray Tube) displays because they have a convex surface, small volume, light weight and lower electric power consumption. The productivity of FPDs is greatly dependent on the area of thin glass panel with 0.6 - 0.8mm thickness because FPDs are manufactured by cutting a large-scaled thin glass panel with patterns to the required product dimensions. So FPD's industries are trying to increase the area of thin glass panel. For example, the thin glass panel size of the 8th generation is 2,200mm in width, 2,600mm in length and 0.7mm in thickness. The air flows both in the thin glass panel and in the porous PE-plate surface were modeled and analyzed, from which a working condition was estimated. The thin glass panel on the porous PE-plate surface with self-lubricating characteristics was investigated and compared with that on the square duct floating bar surface with many holes of 1mm diameter when the thin glass panel contacts the floating bar surface due to malfunction of electric power supply.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.247-252
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• 2012

Of late, the development of advanced batteries with high power density and capacity has been indispensible for pushing ahead with much wider applications to electric vehicles and smart IT devices. However, a conventional Li-ion battery contains a limited energy density due to various technological challenges such that other types of Li batteries including Li-S and Li-air have been extensively studied due to their interestingly high energy capacities. Sulfur and oxygen, of which both are cathode materials, showing similar physicochemical characteristics have widely been available which may also contribute to the commercialization of these batteries. In this review, we introduce some perspectives in improving these advanced Li batteries through several approaches such as the provision of porous cathode structures, the optimization of cathode-electrolyte interfaces and the modification of Li anodes.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.82.2-82.2
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• 2011

A channel design which is closely related with the mass transport overpotential is one of the most important procedures to optimize the whole fuel cell performance. In this study, three dimensional results of a numerical study for gas distribution in channels of a molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) unit cell for a 1kW class stack was presented. The relationship between the fuel and air distribution in the anode and cathode channels of the unit cell and the electric performance was observed. A charge balance model in the electrodes and the electrolyte coupled with a heat transfer model and a fluid flow model in the porous electrodes and the channels was solved for the mass, momentum, energy, species and charge conservation. The electronic and ionic charge balance in the anode and cathode current feeders, the electrolyte and GDEs were solved for using Ohm's law, while Butler-Volmer charge transfer kinetics described the charge transfer current density. The material transport was described by the diffusion and convection equations and Navier-Stokes equations govern the flow in the open channel. It was assumed that heat is produced by the electrochemical reactions and joule heating due to the electrical currents.