• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.60 no.1
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• pp.12-19
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• 2022

Cathode open-type PEMFC (Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells) stacks, which are widely used in small transport-type PEMFC, have a problem with poor durability. Through the accelerated durability test of the 13-cell PEMFC stack, we tried to find the cause of the degradation of the stack and to contribute to the improvement of the durability of the cathode open stack. A hydrogen/air boundary is formed during start-up/shut-down (SU/SD) due to the structural problem of the cathode open stack in which the cathode is open to the atmosphere and it is difficult to maintain airtightness, thereby deteriorating the cathode. In this study, it was possible to evaluate the durability in a relatively short time by reducing the 54% of the initial performance by repeating SU/SD 1,800 times on the cathode open stack. After dismantling the stack, each cell was divided into two and the performance was analyzed. Overall, the anode outlet MEA, which facilitates air inflow, showed more severe electrode deterioration than the inlet MEA, confirming that the hydrogen/air boundary formation during SU/SD is the main cause of degradation.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.550-553
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• 2008

In this paper, experiments of air-breathing proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) for mobile devices were carried out according to the 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 this experiments. The experimental results showed that the open type cathode flow field plate gave better performance for small size PEMFCs because the open type cathode plate allowed better air convection than the channel type cathode plate. 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 slit cell. With respect to the cathode surface direction, when the cathode surface is placed in the direction normal to the ground, PEMFC generated more stable power in the mass transport loss region.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.118-124
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• 2017

An air cooling, open cathode type polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) has the advantages of system simplification and cost effectiveness. Open cathode PEMFC could suffer from reduced performance due to the membrane dehydration in low humidity of air. Effects of the cathode air flow rate, anode purge interval and long term storage on PEMFC performance were investigated in this work. Fan voltage is an important factor on air cooling PEMFC performance because the cathode air flow rate and stack temperature were controlled by fan voltage. The dead ended anode (DEA) method was applied to increase hydrogen usage. Periodical purge was used to discharge accumulated water and gas. The influence of long term non-operating condition on PEMFC performance degradation due to the membrane dehydration was also studied and the quick recovery method was developed.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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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.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.171-174
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• 2016

Enzyme fuel cells were composed of enzyme cathode and PEMFC anode. Enzyme cathode was fabricated by compression of a mixture of graphite particle, laccase as a enzyme and ABTS as a redox mediator, and then coated with Nafion ionomer. Open circuit voltage (OCV) were measured with variation of cathode manufacture factors, to find optimum condition of enzyme cathode. Optimum pressure was 4.0 bar for enzyme cathode pressing process. Highest OCV was obtained at 95% graphite composition in enzyme cathodee. Optimum glucose concentration was 0.4 mol/l in cathode substrate solution.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.369-376
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• 2017

Temperature and humidity regulations of an open-cathode PEM fuel cell with balance of plant (BOP) are developed in this study. The axial fan, a bubble humidifier, set of solenoid valves and a controller are used to perform temperature and humidity control simultaneously. A fuzzy controller is designed, and it shows its superiority in real-time controlling for strong non-linear dynamical fuel cell system. The axial fan speed is used for temperature control and solenoid valve on/off signal of the bubble humidifier is used for humidity control. The axial fan speed is controlled to keep the fuel cell temperature within the desired point. Meanwhile, the bubble humidifier is utilized to moisture hydrogen to manage the water content of membrane. The results show that the proposed fuzzy controller effectively increases the output power of 10% for a PEM fuel cell.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.59 no.11
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• pp.2026-2031
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• 2010

The electrical characteristics of galvanic cell which is composed of the cathode electrode(graphite, carbon and copper) and the anode electrode(Zn and Mg) were investigated. For this research as electrolyte 2~12 wt% NaCl aqueous solution were used. At graphite cathode electrodes which use Zn and Mg with the anode electrode, the open circuit voltage was 1.3V most highly. The maximum output power increased as the electrolyte concentration increased, due to a increase in ion density. When Zn and Mg with the anode electrode, the maximum output power respectively was evaluated as 2.2mW and 5.5mW about the graphite cathode electrode in the NaCl 4wt%. The research results indicated that the output power of cell which is composed with graphite with the cathode and Mg with the anode was most excellent and the efficiency of the cell could be enhanced by increasing the electrolyte concentration.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.917-922
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• 2012

In order to improve applicability of a microbial fuel cell the laboratory-scaled study has been performed by adopting an air-cathode MFC system with high concentrated anaerobic slugies in this study. The concentrations of microbes are grouped into three types, Type A (TS 1.7%), Type B (TS 1.1%) and Type C (TS 0.51%). The open circuit voltage $(V_{oc})$ characteristics showed that the medium microbes concentration of 1.10% (Type B) kept a constant voltage of 1.0 V for 150 hours, which showed the longest time among three types (Type A and Type C). The discharge charge curves for a closed circuit with $500 \Omega$ also showed that Type B generated a stable discharge voltage of 0.8 V for a longer time as in the open circuit voltage case. This could be explained by the relatively large amount of the attached microbes. Under the $V_{oc}$condition the COD removal efficiency of Type B was found to be low for a long time, but those of Type A and C were found to be high for a short period of time. Therefore, the suspended microbes could decrease the coulombic efficiency. It was concluded that the high $V_{oc}$ was caused by low COD and the $V_{oc}$ became low after the COD removal. The COD reduction resulted in an unstable and low working voltage. From the polarization characteristics Type A was found to show the highest power density of $193\;mW/m^2$ with a fill factor of 0.127 due to the relatively high remaining COD even after the MFC reaction.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.394-394
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• 2009

Water solubility of conjugated polymers may offer many applications. Potential applications of water-soluble conjugated polymers include the polymer light-emitting diode and new materials for nano and micro hollow-capsules, and bio- or chemo-sensors. We synthesized neutral polyfluorenes containing bromo-alkyl groups by the palladium catalyzed Suzuki coupling reaction. Bromo-alkyl side groups in neutral polyfluorenes were quaternized by tri-methyl amine solution. The electrochemical and optical properties of water-soluble conjugated polymers are discussed. This novel synthesized water-soluble conjugated polymers were used as a interfacial dipole layer between active layer and metal cathode in polymer solar cell for enhancement of open-circuit voltage (Voc), which is one of the most critical factors in determining device characteristics. We also investigated the device performance of polymer solar cell with different metal cathode such as Al, Ag, Au and Cu. In polymer solar cell, novel cationic water-soluble conjugated polymers were inserted between active layer and high-work function cathode (Al, Ag, Au and Cu).

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.23 no.12
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• pp.1002-1006
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• 2010

In this study, magnesium (Mg), zinc (Zn) and aluminium (Al) as anode electrode and the solution of NaCl dissolved with 2~20 wt% as electrolytes were used for the metal-air cell. The open circuit voltage, short circuit current and I-V characteristics upon different kinds of anode electrode and electrolyte concentration were investigated. The open circuit voltage, initially about 1.45 V, rises to 1.6 V during the first 10 minutes indicating the necessity of an induction time to activate the catalyst on the air cathode. The short circuit current increases with an increased concentration of NaCl, causes an increase in the conductivity of the electrolyte solution, but the open circuit voltage did not under undergo influence of electrolyte. From NaCl 20 wt% electrolyte, the maximum output power of the magnesium electrode materials was measured with 177mW. It is found that the power characteristics of metal-air cell could be improved by using magnesium electrode materials in the NaCl electrolyte.