• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.1033-1037
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• 2019

GaN-based sensors have been widely investigated thanks to its potential in detecting the presence of hydrogen. In this study, we fabricated hydrogen gas sensors with AlGaN/GaN heterojunction and investigated how the sensing performance to be affected by SiN surface passivation. The gas sensor employed a high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) with 30 nm platinum catalyst as a gate to detect the hydrogen presence. SiN layer was deposited by inductively-coupled chemical vapor deposition as post-passivation. The sensors with SiN passivation exhibited hydrogen sensing characteristics with various gas flow rates and concentrations of hydrogen in inert background gas at $200^{\circ}C$ similar to the ones without passivation. Aside from quick response time for both sensors, there are differences in sensitivity and recovery time because of the existence of the passivation layer. The results also confirmed the dependence of sensing performance on gas flow rate and gas concentration.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.26-34
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• 2010

The electrocatalystic prperties of Pt-Co and Pt-Ni with heteropolyacids (HPAs) entrapped in covalently cross-linked sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) (CL-SPEEK)/HPA membranes were investigated for water electrolysis. The HP As, including molybdophosphoric acid (MoPA), and tungstophosphoric acid (TPA) were both used as membrane additives and electrocatalysts. The membrane electrode assembly (MEA) was prepared by a nonequilibrium impregnation-reduction (I-R) method. $Pt(NH_3)_4Cl_2$, $NiCl_2$ and $CoCl_2$ as electrocatalytic materials and $NaBH_4$ as reducing agent were used. I order to enhance electrocatalytic activity, the catalyst layer prepared above was electrodeposited (Dep) with HP A. Surface morphologies and physico-chemical properties of MEA were investigated by means of SEM, EDX and XRD. The electrocatalytic properties of composite membranes such as the cell voltage and coulombic charge in CV were in the order of magnitude: CL-SPEEK/MoPA40 (wt%) > CL-SPEEK/TPA30 > Nafion117. In the optimum cell applications for water electrolysis, the cell voltage of Pt/CL-SPEEK-MoPA40/Pt-Co (Dep-MoPA) and Pt/CL-SPEEK-TPA30/Pt-Co (Dep-TPA) was 1.75 Vat $80^{\circ}C$ and $1\;A/cm^2$ and voltage efficiency was 87.1%. Also, the observed activity of Pt-Co (84:16 atomic ratio by EDX) is a little higher than that of Pt-Ni (86: 14). The current density peak of electrodeposited electrodes were better a little than those of unactivated electrodes based on the same membranes.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.118-124
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• 2005

In this study, a novel deposition method of Pt catalysts onto Nafion membranes modified with polypyrrole (PPy) has been proposed for PEMFC application. The PPy/Nafion composite membranes were fabricated by chemical polymerization of pyrrole using $FeCl_3$ and $Na_2S_2O_8$ as initiator. The proton conductivity and water uptake of the chemically prepared PPy/Nafion composites were investigated. The ionic conductivity and water uptake of PPy/Nafion composite membrane prepared with $Na_2S_2O_8$ were decreased with polymerization time of pyrrole. In the case of $FeCl_3$, the ionic conductivity was almost retained and the water uptake was decreased with polymerization time of pyrrole. When the Pt particle was deposited on PPy/Nafion composites membrane by chemical reduction of $H_2PtCl_6$, the Pt loading on Nafion membrane was enhanced by polypyrrole due to electronic conduction property. The performance evaluation with membrane electrode assembly composed of Pt/PPy/Nafion composite and diffusion electrode was carried out using a single cell. As a result of fuel cell test, current density of $569mA/cm^2$ at 0.3 V has been obtained for MEA contained with Pt/PPy/Nafion composite. This study shows that direct deposition of Pt catalysts on Nafion impregnated polypyrrole is a promising method to prepare thin catalyst layer for the PEMFC.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2000.11b
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• pp.328-334
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• 2000

The hybrid catalytic(catalytic+thermal) combustor of a lean methane-air mixture on platinum catalyst was investigated numerically using a 2-D boundary layer model with detailed homogeneous and heterogeneous chemistries. For the more accurate calculations, the actual surface site density of monolith coated with platinum was decided by the comparison with experimental data. It was found that the homogeneous reactions in the monolith had little effect on the change of temperature profile, methane conversion rate and light off location. However, the radicals such as OH and CO were produced rapidly at exit by homogeneous reactions. Thus the homogeneous reactions were important to predict the productions of CO and NOx exactly. In thermal combustor, the production of $N_2O$ was more dominant than that of NO due to the relative important of the reaction $N_2+O(+M){\to}N_2O(+M)$. Finally the production of CO and NOx by amount of methane addition were studied.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.362-367
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• 2009

Recently, the use of formic acid as a fuel for direct liquid fuel cells has emerged as a promising alternative to methanol. In the work presented herein, we evaluated direct formic acid fuel cells(DFAFCs) with various components under operating conditions, for example, the thickness of the proton exchange membrane, concentration of formic acid, gas diffusion layer, and commercial catalyst. The thickness of the proton exchange membrane influenced performance related to the fuel cross-over. To optimize the cell performance, we investigated on the proper concentration of formic acid and catalyst for the formic acid oxidation. Consequently, membrance-electrode assembly(MEA) consisted of $Nafion^{(R)}$-115 and the Pt-Ru black as a anode catalyst showed the maximum performance. This performance was superior to the DMFCs' one.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.235-240
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• 2010

We investigated the carbon monoxide (CO) gas-sensing properties of nanostructured Al-doped zinc oxide thin films deposited on self-assembled Au nanodots (ZnO/Au thin films). The Al-doped ZnO thin film was deposited onto the structure by rf sputtering, resulting in a gas-sensing element comprising a ZnO-based active layer with an embedded Pt/Ti electrode covered by the self-assembled Au nanodots. Prior to the growth of the active ZnO layer, the Au nanodots were formed via annealing a thin Au layer with a thickness of 2 nm at a moderate temperature of $500^{\circ}C$. It was found that the ZnO/Au nanostructured thin film gas sensors showed a high maximum sensitivity to CO gas at $250^{\circ}C$ and a low CO detection limit of 5 ppm in dry air. Furthermore, the ZnO/Au thin film CO gas sensors exhibited fast response and recovery behaviors. The observed excellent CO gas-sensing properties of the nanostructured ZnO/Au thin films can be ascribed to the Au nanodots, acting as both a nucleation layer for the formation of the ZnO nanostructure and a catalyst in the CO surface reaction. These results suggest that the ZnO thin films deposited on self-assembled Au nanodots are promising for practical high-performance CO gas sensors.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.288-294
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• 2009

Various polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) startup procedures were tested to explore possible techniques for reducing performance decay and improving durability during repeated startup-shutdown cycles. The effects of applying a dummy load, which prevents cell reversal by consuming the air at the cathode, on the degradation of a membrane electrode assembly (MEA) were investigated via single cell experiments. The electrochemical results showed that application of a dummy load during the startup procedure significantly reduced the performance decay, the decrease in the electrochemically active surface area (EAS), and the increase in the charge transfer resistance ($R_{ct}$), which resulted in a dramatic improvement in durability. After 1200 startup-shutdown cycles, post-mortem analyses were carried out to investigate the degradation mechanisms via various physicochemical methods including FESEM, an on-line $CO_2$ analysis, EPMA, XRD, FETEM, SAED, FTIR. After 1200 startup-shutdown cycles, severe Pt particle sintering/agglomeration/dissolution and carbon corrosion were observed at the cathode catalyst layer when starting up a PEMFC without a dummy load, which significantly contributed to a loss of Pt surface area, and thus to cell performance degradation. However, applying a dummy load during the startup procedure remarkably mitigated such severe degradations, and should be used to increase the durability of MEAs in PEMFCs. Our results suggest that starting up PEMFCs while applying a dummy load is an effective method for mitigating performance degradation caused by reverse current under a repetition of unprotected startup cycles.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.36 no.9
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• pp.885-894
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• 2012

A numerical study of a microchannel steam methane reforming reactor has been performed to understand the characteristics of heat and mass transfer. The integration of Rh-catalyzed steam methane reforming and Pt-catalyzed methane combustion has been simulated. The reaction rates for chemical reactions have been incorporated into the simulation. This study investigated the effect of contact time, flow pattern (parallel or counter), and channel size on the reforming performance and temperature distribution. The parallel and counter flow have opposite temperature distribution, and they show a different type of reaction rate and species mole fraction. As the contact time decreases and channel size increases, mass transfer between the catalyst layer and the flow is limited, and the reforming performance is decreased.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.26 no.8
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• pp.401-405
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• 2016

The cobalt silicides were investigated for employment as a catalytic layer for a DSSC. Using an E-gun evaporation process, we prepared a sample of 100 nm-thick cobalt on a p-type Si (100) wafer. To form cobalt silicides, the samples were annealed at temperatures of $300^{\circ}C$, $500^{\circ}C$, and $700^{\circ}C$ for 30 minutes in a vacuum. Four-point probe, XRD, FE-SEM, and CV analyses were used to determine the sheet resistance, phase, microstructure, and catalytic activity of the cobalt silicides. To confirm the corrosion stability, we also checked the microstructure change of the cobalt silicides after dipping into iodide electrolyte. Through the sheet resistance and XRD results, we determined that $Co_2Si$, CoSi, and $CoSi_2$ were formed successfully by annealing at $300^{\circ}C$, $500^{\circ}C$, and $700^{\circ}C$, respectively. The microstructure analysis results showed that all the cobalt silicides were formed uniformly, and CoSi and $CoSi_2$ layers were very stable even after dipping in the iodide electrolyte. The CV result showed that CoSi and $CoSi_2$ exhibit catalytic activities 67 % and 54 % that of Pt. Our results for $Co_2Si$, CoSi, and $CoSi_2$ revealed that CoSi and $CoSi_2$ could be employed as catalyst for a DSSC.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.58-64
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• 2014

The surface of an ordered mesoporous silica (OMS) was functionalized using 1H,1H,2H,2H-perfluorooctyltrimethoxysilane at $20^{\circ}C$ and $60^{\circ}C$. It was shown that only elevated temperature allows lyophobic properties on the walls of OMS, eventually preventing pore flooding with nonaqueous electrolytes. The functionalized OMSs (OMS-F) were characterized with various techniques: wettability test, $N_2$ sorption measurement, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM). Cathodes of $10mg/cm^2$ loading were prepared with a commercial Pt/C catalyst and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF, 2.5 wt.%) binder using a typical doctor blade method on a commercial gas diffusion layer (GDL) in the presence or in the absence of OMS-F additives. Subsequent discharge-charge curves were taken in a 1M LiTFSI-TEGDME electrolyte at 60oC in pure oxygen atmosphere. It was found that the discharge capacity was significantly affected by OMS-F: 5 wt.% of additive extended discharge capacity by a factor 1.5. On the other hand, a similar OMS material but synthesized at $20^{\circ}C$ did not show lyophobic properties and deteriorated cathode capacity.