• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.59 no.3
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• pp.339-344
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• 2021

In order to improve the PEMFC (Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell) durability, it is important to accurately evaluate the durability of the membrane in a short time. Recently, DOE (Department of Energy) reported a protocol that combines the chemical and mechanical durability of membranes to evaluate them effectively. This protocol applies chemical/mechanical deterioration to the membrane by repeating wet/dry while OCV (Open Circuit Voltage) holding. The problem of this protocol is that it is highly affected by electrode degradation due to change cycles in OCV and that the evaluation time is long. By using oxygen instead of air as the cathode gas while leaving the other conditions of the DOE protocol as it is, the durability evaluation time could be reduced from 408 hours to 144 hours. By reducing the number of voltage change cycles to 1/3, the electrode degradation due to the voltage change cycle was reduced to 1/12 when oxygen was used compared to air at the end, thereby enabling more accurate evaluation of polymer membrane durability.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 1993.05a
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• pp.79-84
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• 1993

This paper describes the development of lithium rechargeable cell. $LiCoO_2$ is recently recognized as a suitable cathode active material of a high voltage, high energy lithium rechargeable batteries because $Li^+$ ion can be electrochemically deintercalated/intercalated from/to $Li_xCoO_2$. The transition metal oxide of $LiCoO_2$ was investigated for using as a cathode active material of 4V class Li rechargeable cell. $LiCoO_2$ cathode was prepared by using a active material of 85 wt%, graphite powder of 12 wt% as a conductor and poly-vinylidene fluoride of 3 wt% as a binder. The electrochemical and charge/discharge properties of $LiCoO_2$ were investigated by cyclic voltammetry and galvanostatic charge/discharge. The open circuit voltage of prepared $LiCoO_2$ electrode exhibited approximately. potential range between 3.32V and 3.42V. During the galvanostatic charge/discharge, $LiCoO_2/Li$ cell showed stable cycling behavior at scan rate of 1mV/sec and potential range between 3.6V and 4.2V. Also its coulombic efficiency as function of cycling was 81%~102%. In this study the $LiCoO_2/Li$ cell showed the available discharge capacity of 90.1 mAh/g at current density of $1mA/cm^2$ and cell discharge voltage range between 3.6V~4.2V.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.26 no.9
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• pp.1201-1208
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• 2002

A numerical flow-field analysis is performed to investigate flow configurations in the anode, cathode and cooling channels on the bipolar plates of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). Continuous open-faced flow channels are formed on the bipolar plate surface to supply hydrogen, air and water. In this analysis, two types of channel pattern are considered: serpentine and spiral. The averaged pressure distribution and velocity profiles of the hydrogen, air and water channels are calculated by two-dimensional flow-field analysis. The equations for the conservation of mass and momentum in the two-dimensional fluid flow analysis are slightly modified to include the characteristics of the PEMFC. The analysis results indicate that the serpentine flow-fields are locally unstable (because two channels are cross at right angles). The spiral flow-fields has more stable than the serpentine, due to rotational fluid-flow inertia forces. From this study, the spiral channel pattern is suggested for a channel pattern of the bipolar plate of the PEMFC to obtain better performance.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.227-230
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• 2007

In the Li ion battery fabrication process, an aging step has treated as a miner step because there is not so much data to define the relationship between the phenomena generated in aging process and the battery performances. However, the OCV(open circuit voltage) change in the aging process is shown by the electrochemical absorption of the electrolyte component to the both electrodes(anode or cathode) and the absorbed layer to the electrode affects to form the solid electrolyte interface(SEI) layer during the first charge process. In this report, the adsorbed materials are designed deliberately and are cleared to affect to the SEI layer formation.

• Proceedings of the Polymer Society of Korea Conference
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• 2006.10a
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• pp.58-59
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• 2006

Less than a decade ago, most alternate membrane materials for fuel cells relied upon a post-sulfonation process to generate ionic groups capable of transporting protons from the anode to the cathode. These random post sulfonations showed some promise, but in general they produced materials that were not sufficiently stable or protonically conductive at ion exchange capacities where aqueous swelling could be restricted. Our group began to synthesize disulfonated monomers that could be used to incorporate into random copolymer proton exchange membranes. The expected limitation was that the aromatic polymers might not be stable enough to withstand fuel cell conditions. However, this was mostly based upon an accelerated test known was the Fenton's Reagent Test, which did not seem to this author as being a reliable predictor of performance. A much better approach has been to evaluate the open circuit voltage (OCV) for alternate membranes, as well as the benchmark perfluorosulfonic acid systems. When this is done, the aromatic ionomers of this study, primarily based upon disulfonated polyarylene ether sulfones, show up quite well. Real time 3000 hours DMFC results have also been generated. Obtaining conductive materials at low humidities is another major issue where alternate membranes have not been particularly successful. In order to address this problem, multiblock copolymers with relatively high water diffusion coefficients have been designed, which show promise for conductivity at lowered humidity.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.136-147
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• 2015

Dead-ended operation of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell(PEMFC) provides the simplification of fuel cell systems to reduce fuel consumption and weight of fuel cell. However, the water accumulation within the channel prohibits a uniform supply of fuel. Optimization of the purge strategy is required to increase the fuel cell efficiency since fuel and water are removed during the purge process. In this study, we investigated the average voltage output which depends on two interrelated conditions, namely, the supply gas pressure, purging valve open time. In addition, flow visualization was performed to better understand the water build-up on the anode side and cathode side of PEMFC in terms of a variety of the current density. We analyzed the correlation between the purge condition and water flooding.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.17 no.9
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• pp.1358-1370
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• 2003

The effects of anode, cathode, and cooling channels for a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) on flow fields have been investigated numerically. Continuous open-faced fluid flow channels formed in the surface of the bipolar plates traverse the central area of the plate surface in a plurality of passes such as a serpentine manner. The pressure distributions and velocity profiles of the hydrogen, air and water channels on bipolar plates of the PEMFC are analyzed using a two-dimensional simulation. The conservation equations of mass, momentum, and energy in the three-dimensional flow solver are modified to include electro-chemical characteristics of the fuel cell. In our three-dimensional numerical simulations, the operation of electro-chemical in Membrane Electrolyte Assembly (MEA) is assumed to be steady-state, involving multi-species. Supplied gases are consumed by chemical reaction. The distributions of oxygen and hydrogen concentration with constant humidity are calculated. The concentration of hydrogen is the highest at the center region of the active area, while the concentration of oxygen is the highest at the inlet region. The flow and thermal profiles are evaluated to determine the flow patterns of gas supplied and cooling plates for an optimal fuel cell stack design.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.635-643
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• 2003

Parametric study for the analysis of performance characteristics of a planar -type solid oxide fuel cell(SOFC) using computational flow analysis is conducted. A planar -type SOFC, which is composed by two gas channels (fuel and ai.) and one set of anode-electrolyte-cathode assembly, is modeled as a two -dimensional isothermal case. Results of computational analysis of flow field including distributions of mass fractions in gas channels are used to the performance analysis of the fuel cell. Flow analysis makes it possible to consider current density distributions along the length of the cell in the process of performance analysis of the SOFC. As results of parametric study, it is found that the mole fraction of fuel at the inlet of fuel channel, operating pressure and temperature are closely related to the performance characteristics of SOFC.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.225-233
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• 2007

Effects of alloying elements on the corrosion layer formation of Pb-grid/active materials interface has been researched for improvement of corrosion resistance of Pb-Ca alloy. For this research, various amounts of alloying elements such as Sn, Ag and Ba were added to the Pb-Ca alloys and investigated their corrosion behaviors. Batteries fabricated by using these alloys as cathode grids were subjected to life cycle test. Overcharge life cycle test was carried out at $75^{\circ}C$, 4.5 A, for 110 hrs. with KS standard (KSC 8504). And then, after keeping the battery with open circuit state for 48 hr, discharge was carried out at 300A for 30 sec. Corrosion morphology and interface between Pb-grid and active materials were investigated by using ICP, SEM, WDX, and LPM. Corrosion layer of Pb-Ca alloy got thicken with increasing Ca content. For Pb-Ca-Sn alloy, thickness of corrosion layer decreased as Sn and Ag content increased gradually. In case of Pb-Ca-Sn-Ba alloy, thickness of corrosion layer decreased up to 0.02 wt% Ba addition, whereas, it was not changed in case of above 0.02 wt% Ba addition.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 1998.06a
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• pp.395-398
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• 1998

Lithium insertion has been studied in a number of vanadium oxides with special regard to their application as the active materials in rechargeable lithium cells. Very high stoichiometric energy densities for lithium insertion are found for several of these materials. Some vanadium oxides, e.g. V$_2$ $O_{5}$ and V$_{6}$ $O_{13}$, are now being used in commercially developed rechargeable Li batteries. Another material which is receiving remarkable attention for this kind of cells is LiV$_3$ $O_{8}$. In variety of ternary lithium-vanadium oxides, the lithium content can be varied between certain limits without major changes in the vanadium oxygen lattice. In our worts, the oxides which do net form these thermodynamically stable bronzes can still accommodate large amounts of lithium at ambient temperature, forming kinetically stable insertion compounds. These compounds owe their existence to the whereas lithium is easily introduced into these open structures. The oxides investigated are rather poor electronic conductors; the conductivity decrease with increase in the lithium content. Improvements in the electrode fabrication technique are needed to alleviate this Problem.oblem.