• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.315-323
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• 2021

The air-cooled proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) stacks, which is widely used in small-sized PEMFC, have a problem in that durability is weaker than that of the water-cooled type. Because the cathode is open to the atmosphere and the structural problem of the air-cooled stack, which is difficult to maintain airtightness, is highly likely to form a hydrogen/air boundary during start-up/shut-down (SU/SD). Through the accelerated durability evaluation of the 20 W air-cooled PEMFC stack, the purpose of this study was to find out the cause of the degradation of the stack and to contribute to the improvement of the durability of the air-cooled PEMFC stack. In this study, it was possible to evaluate durability in a relatively short time by reducing 20-30% of initial performance by repeating SU/SD 1,000 to 1,200 times on an air-cooled PEMFC stack. After disassembling the stack, each cell was divided into two and the performance analysis showed that the electrode degradation was more severe in the anode outlet membrane electrode assembly (MEA), which facilitates air inflow as a whole, than in the inlet MEA. It was shown that the cathode Pt was dissolved/precipitated to deteriorate the polymer ionomer inside the membrane.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.59 no.3
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• pp.333-338
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• 2021

The durability of the PEMFC stack for large commercial vehicles should be more than 5 times that for passenger vehicles. If the Chemical Accelerated Stress Test (AST) of PEMFC(Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells) membrane for passenger cars is applied as it is for large commercial vehicles, there is a problem that the AST time becomes more than 2,500 hours. In order to shorten the AST time of DOE (Department of Energy), the chemical durability of the polymer membrane was evaluated using oxygen instead of air as a cathode gas. In this study, Nafion XL was used as a polymer membrane to evaluate accelerated durability under OCV, 90?, RH 30%, H₂/(air or oxygen) conditions. Among the DOE membrane durability target criteria, the decrease rate of short resistance was the fastest. By using oxygen instead of air, the degradation rate of the polymer membrane was accelerated while being less affected by electrode deterioration, reducing the polymer membrane durability evaluation time to less than half.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.121-124
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• 2007

Stacks of solid oxide fuel cell under 1kW max power were designed on planar type employing anode supported cell and metallic interconnects. The stacks composed of 3-cells, 8-cells, and 16-cells were fabricated by using single cell purchased from Indec, sealant and interconnect prepared at RIST. In performance test of the final 16-cells stacks, OCV was recorded to be 16.7 V. Peak power and power density were 1 kW, 0.77 $W/cm^{2}$ at $820^{\circ}C$, respectively. In addition, the long term degradation rate of the power exhibited 2.25 % in 500 h at $750^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.44 no.8
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• pp.407-411
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• 2007

A 3-cell stacked anode-supported solid oxide fuel cell was designed and fabricated to achieve a complete gas seal and the facile stacking of components. The stack was assembled with a unit cell with $10{\times}10cm^2$ area, and each cell was interconnected by a stainless steel 430 separator using a proprietary sealant sheet. The stack performance was examined at various gas flow rates of $H_2+3.5vol%\;H_2O$, and air at a fixed temperature of $800^{\circ}C$. No gas leakage was found from the sealing between cells and inter-connects within a measurement system in this research during a prolonged time of 500 h in operation. The test resulted in an open circuit voltage of 3.12 V, a peak power of 149 W, and a power density of $0.61W/cm^2$, while the long term durability of the power showed 19.1% degradation during the prolonged time of 500 h when tested at $800^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of Information Display
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.63-69
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• 2000

In order to improve both the level and the stability of electron emission, Mo and Co silicides were formed from Mo mono-layer and Ti/Co bi-layers on single crystal silicon field emitter arrays (FEAs), respectively. Using the slope of Fowler-Nordheim curve and tip radius measured from scanning electron microscopy (SEM), the effective work function of Mo and Co silicide FEAs were calculated to be 3.13 eV and 2.56 eV, respectively. Compared with silicon field emitters, Mo and Co silicide exhibited 10 and 34 times higher maximum emission current, 10 V and 46 V higher device failure voltage, and 6.1 and 4.8 times lower current fluctuation, respectively. Moreover, the emission currents of the silicide FEAs depending on vacuum level were almost the same in the range of $10^{-9}{\sim}10^{-6}$ torr. This result shows that silicide is robust in terms of anode current degradation due to the absorption of air molecules.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2004.09a
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• pp.181-185
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• 2004

Electrokinetic bioremediation was conducted on phenanthrene-contaminated soil to study the effects of soil temperature and pH on microbial population and removal efficiency at different current densities from 0.63 to 3.13 mA cm$^{-2}$ . Microorganism used in the biodegradation of phenanthrene was Sphingomonas sp. 3Y, which was isolated from a diesel-contaminated site. The microorganism was successfully penetrated into the contaminated soil by electrokinetic phenomena and the highest microbial population was observed in the middle region of soil specimen where soil pH was near neutral. Therefore, phenanthrene removal occurred mainly at anode and middle parts of soil specimen due to a relatively high microbial population. Also, the highest removal efficiency of 68.8% was obtained at 1.88 mA cm$^{-2}$ while low degradation was detected at 3.13 mA cm$^{-2}$ . It was presumably because the soil temperature at 1.88 mAcm$^{-2}$ was close to the appropriate temperature of about 30'c while the temperature increase to above 45$^{\circ}C$ at 3.13 mA cm$^{-2}$ inhibited the microbial activity severely.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.495-503
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• 2011

The sealed nickel-metal hydride (Ni-MH) secondary battery are primarily used as energy storage for the HEV. But, the research on Ni-MH battery has focused on anode materials. In the present study, we investigate to improve the electrochemical characteristics of Ni-MH batteries using the surface treatment of $Ni(OH)_2$ cathode by CoOOH. Surface treated $Ni(OH)_2$ cathode showed significant improvement in the activation behavior, rate capability, charge retention, and cycle life of the batteries were significantly improved. In addition, the surface treated electrode exhibited the higher overvoltage for oxygen evolution than the untreated electrode. This phenomenon indicates that the charge efficiency can be improved by suppressing the oxygen evolution on cathode.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.77-83
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• 2017

Drastic development of ubiquitous devices requires more advanced batteries with high specific capacitance and high rate capability. Large-area microstructure characterization across the stacks of cathode, electrolyte and anode might reveal the origin of the instability or degradation of batteries upon cycling charge. In this study, sample preparation methods to observe the cross-section view of the electrodes for battery in SEM and several imaging tips are reviewed. For an accurate evaluation of the microstructure, ion milling which flats the surface uniformly is recommended. Pros and cons of cross-section polishing (CP) with Ar ion and focused ion beam (FIB) with Ga ion were compared. Additionally, a modified but new cross-section milling technique utilizing precision ion polishing system (PIPS) which can be an alternative method of CP is developed. This simple approach will make the researchers have more chances to prepare decent large-area cross-section electrode for batteries.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.281-285
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• 2006

Microbial fuel cells (MFC) stacked with bipolar plates have been constructed and their performance was tested. In this design, single fuel cell unit was connected in series by bipolar plates where an anode and a cathode were made in one graphite block. Two types of bipolar plate stacked MFCs were constructed. Both utilized the same glucose oxidation reaction catalyzed by Gram negative bacteria, Proteus vulgaris as a biocatalyst in an anodic compartment, but two different cathodic reactions were employed: One with ferricyanide reduction and the other with oxygen reduction reactions. In both cases, the total voltage was the mathematical sum of individual fuel cells and no degradation in performance was found. Electricity from these MFCs was stored in a supercapacitor to drive external loads such as a motor and electric bulb.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.259-265
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• 2008

The corrosion and degradation factors of a current collector in a molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) were investigated to determine the optimized coating thickness of nickel on STS316L. The results show that the surface morphology and electrical properties depended on the nickel coating thickness. The surface morphology gradually changed from a flat to a porous structure along as the nickel coating thickness decreased, and the electrical resistance of the nickel-coated STS316L increased as the nickel coating thickness decreased. This can be attributed to the diffusion of elements of Fe and Cr from the substrate through the nickel grain boundaries. Additionally, carburization in the metal grains or grain boundaries in an anodic environment was found to influence the electrical properties due to matrix distortion. The resistance of Cr-oxide layers formed in an anodic environment causes a drop in the potential, resulting in a decrease in the system efficiency.