• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.46 no.2
• /
• pp.286-290
• /
• 2008

Small amounts of CO in reformate fuel gas effectively block platinum catalysts by strong adsorption on the platinum surface at the operation temperature of $60{\sim}80^{\circ}C$ in PEMFC. To oxidate CO, Ru/C layer (CO filter) was placed between Pt/C layer and GDL (gas diffusion layer) in this study. Ru/C filter provided good CO-tolerant PEMFC anode, but decreased the performance of unit cell about 10% at 0.6 V due to mass transfer resistance from Ru/C filter thickness and increase of charge transfer resistance. Membrane degradation is one of the most important factors limiting the life-time of PEMFCs. Membrane durability would be dependent on the electrode catalyst type. It seemed that Ru catalyst layer would shorten the life time of PEMFC as enhanced the fluoride emission rate of membrane in acceleration test.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
• /
• v.48 no.2
• /
• pp.69-75
• /
• 1999

The characteristics of $H_2$ gas detection have been investigated using the Pt-MIS capacitor composed of the LPCVD nitride on the oxide. The flat band voltage shift is measured as 0.1 V in 1,000 ppm $H_2$ gas ambient and to be independent of Pt catalyst thickness. It is found that the flatband voltage shift is proportional to the hydrogen concentrations. The response and recovery time of Pt-MIS capacitor are 5 mins and 25 mins respectively. The samples of 30nm thick Pt revealed much higher sensitivity than that of 150nm samples. The samples of 150nm Pt showed that the flatband voltage shift of the device is due to the formation of the dipole layer of the adsorbed hydrogen atoms at the Pt-insulator interface.

• Journal of Powder Materials
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.119-123
• /
• 2014

Pt has been widely used as catalyst for fuel cell and exhausted gas clean systems due to its high catalytic activity. Recently, there have been researches on fabricating composite materials of Pt as a method of reducing the amount of Pt due to its high price. One of the approaches for saving Pt used as catalyst is a core shell structure consisting of Pt layer on the core of the non-noble metal. In this study, the synthesis of Pt shell was conducted on the surface of $TiO_2$ particle, a non-noble material, by applying ultraviolet (UV) irradiation. Anatase $TiO_2$ particles with the average size of 20~30 nm were immersed in the ethanol dissolved with Pt precursor of $H_2PtCl_6{\cdot}6H_2O$ and exposed to UV irradiation with the wavelength of 365 nm. It was confirmed that Pt nano-particles were formed on the surface of $TiO_2$ particles by photochemical reduction of Pt ion from the solution. The morphology of the synthesized Pt@$TiO_2$ nano-composite was examined by TEM (Transmission Electron Microscopy).

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.46 no.4
• /
• pp.697-700
• /
• 2008

The underpotential deposited Bi on Pt($Bi_{upd}/Pt$) anode for formic acid fuel cells (FAFCs) was developed using multi-layered preparation method for better electrocatalytic utilization of Pt. The electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) result indicated that $Bi_{upd}$ remains through the catalyst layer during stability test. In performance test, the multilayered $Bi_{upd}$ on Pt black showed superior performance by approximately 200 mV at current density of $150mA/cm^2$ compared with PtRu black anode catalyst. Based on preparation condition of $Bi_{upd}/Pt$ black, carbon supported $Bi_{upd}/Pt/C$ electrode was prepared and it showed enhanced performance and stability.

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

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.243-248
• /
• 2011

Pt deposited porous carbon nanofibers was prepared as a highly sensitive material of hydrogen gas sensor operating at room temperature. Nanofibers was obtained by electrospinning method using polyacrylonitrile as a carbon precursor and then thermally treated for carbon nanofibers. Chemical activation of carbon nanofibers was carried out to enlarge specific surface area up to $2093m^2/g$. Sputtered Pt layer was uniformly distributed keeping the original shape of carbon nanofibers. The hydrogen gas sensing time and sensitivity were improved based on effects of high specific surface area, micropore structure and deposited Pt catalyst.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.493-498
• /
• 2019

In polymer exchange membrane fuel cells, it is crucial to fabricate a highly active and thin Pt catalyst layer for the smooth mass transport of dissolved oxygen and water. Although a highly loaded platinum (Pt) catalyst based on the hydrothermal synthesis has been reported in several studies, its growing behaviors and kinetics were yet to be understood. In this study, we investigated the growth of Pt crystal in suspension after the reduction step depending on a stirring time and evaluated the electrochemical activity. For only a couple of hours in the early stage, Pt colloids were adsorbed on the Pt-carbon catalyst and the Pt crystal was grown. After that, the small Pt colloid was formed by another nucleation step, which did not involve the growth of Pt crystal. We reveal that the Pt-Carbon catalyst with stirring for 6 h showed a high activity toward the oxygen reduction reaction.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.62 no.1
• /
• pp.7-12
• /
• 2024

The durability of the catalyst support has a significant effect on the durability of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC). The accelerated durability evaluation of the catalyst support is performed at a high voltage (1.0 to 1.5 V), and the catalyst and ionomer binder in the catalyst layer are also deteriorated, hindering the evaluation of the durability of the support. The existing protocol (DOE protocol) was improved to find conditions in which the support, which is a durability evaluation target, deteriorates further. A protocol (MDOE) was developed in which the relative humidity was lowered by 35% and the number of voltage changes was reduced. After repeating the 1.0 ↔ 1.5 V voltage change cycle, the catalyst mass activitiy (MA), electrochemical active area (ECSA), electrical double layer capacity (DLC), Pt dissolution and particle growth were analyzed. Reaching 40% reduction in mass activity, the MDOE protocol took only 500 cycles, reducing the number of voltage changes compared to the DOE method and increasing the degradation of the carbon support by 50% compared to the DOE protocol.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2011.05a
• /
• pp.95.2-95.2
• /
• 2011

In order to achieve high performance and low cost for commercial applications, the development of membrane electrode assemblies (MEA), in which the electrochemical reactions actually occur, must be optimized. Expensive platinum is currently used as an electrochemical catalyst due to its high activity. Although various platinum alloys and non-platinum catalysts are under development, their stabilities and catalytic activities, especially in terms of the oxygen reduction (ORR), render them currently unsuitable for practical use. Therefore, it is important to decrease platinum loading by optimizing the catalysts and electrode microstructure. In this study, we prepared several different MEAs (non-uniform Nafion$^{(R)}$ ionomer loading electrode) which have dual catalyst layers to find the optimal Nafion$^{(R)}$ ionomer distribution in the electrodes. We changed Nafion$^{(R)}$ ionomer content in the layers to find the ideal composition of the binder and Pt/C in the electrode. For MEAs with various ionomer contents in the anodes and cathodes, the electrochemical activity (activation overpotential) and the mass transport properties (concentration overpotential) were analyzed and correlated with the single cell performance. The dual catalyst layers MEA showed higher cell performance than uniformly fabricated MEA, especially at the high current density region.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
• /
• v.50 no.3
• /
• pp.243-247
• /
• 2012

A ruthenium (Ru) catalytic layer and a conventional Pt layer were assessed as counter electrodes (CE) for dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Ru films with different thicknesses of 34, 46, and 90 nm were deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD). Pt layers with the same thicknesses were prepared by sputtering. $0.45cm^2$ DSSCs were prepared and their properties were characterized by FE-SEM, cyclic voltammetry (CV), impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and current-voltage (I-V). FE-SEM revealed that the crystallized Ru films and Pt films had been deposited quite conformally. CV showed that the catalytic activity of Pt was much greater than that of Ru. In addition, although the catalytic activity of Pt did not depend on the thickness, that of Ru showed an increase with increasing thickness. Impedance analysis revealed high charge transfer resistance at the Ru interface and a decrease with increasing Ru thickness, whereas Pt showed low resistance with no thickness dependence. Despite the relatively small catalytic activity of Ru, the I-V result revealed the average energy conversion efficiency of Ru and Pt to be 2.98% and 6.57%, respectively. These results suggest that Ru can be used as counter electrodes in DSSCs due to its extremely low temperature process compatibility.