• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.106-112
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• 2000

A FET-type reference electrode(REFET) is an effective method to eliminate typical problems with ISFET(ion sensitive field-effect transistor) such as drift, temperature, light-dependence and miniaturization of reference electrode. However, it is difficult to make the highly reliable REFET with excellent long-term stability and reproducibility. In this paper, an ion-blocking membrane was applied to the REFET for the PET-type electrolyte sensors(pH, pNa-ISFET). The fabricated REFET indicated the stable sensitivity (55.4 mV/pH, 53.5 mV/decade) and good linearity in the pH and pNa measurement. In the measurement, ISFET/Pt/REFET configuration showed excellent stability and reproducibility.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.61-67
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• 2009

Flow-field design has much influence over the performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) because it affects the pressure magnitude and distribution of the reactant gases. To obtain the pressure magnitude and distribution of reactant gases in five kinds of flow-field designs, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis was performed. After the CFD analysis, a single cell test was carried out to obtain the performance values. As expected, the pressure differences due to different flow-field configurations were related to the PEMFC performance because the actual performance results showed the same tendency as the results of the CFD analysis. A large pressure drop resulted in high PEMFC performance. The single serpentine configuration gave the highest performance because of the high pressure difference magnitudes of the inlet/outlet. On the other hand, the parallel flow-field configuration gave the lowest performance because the pressure difference between inlet and outlet was the lowest.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.233-239
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• 2009

The electrocatalytic behavior of the PtCo catalyst supported on the multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) has been evaluated and compared with commercial Pt/C catalyst in a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell(PEMFC). A PtCo/MWNTs electrocatalyst with a Pt:Co atomic ratio of 79:21 was synthesized and applied to a cathode of PEMFC. The structure and morphology of the synthesized PtCo/MWNTs electrocatalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. As a result of the X-ray studies, the crystal structure of a PtCo particle was determined to be a face-centered cubic(FCC) that was the same as the platinum structure. The particle size of PtCo in PtCo/MWNTs and Pt in Pt/C were 2.0 nm and 2.7 nm, respectively, which were calculated by Scherrer's formula from X-ray diffraction data. As a result we concluded that the specific surface activity of PtCo/MWNTs is superior to Pt/C's activity because of its smaller particle size. From the electrochemical impedance measurement, the membrane electrode assembly(MEA) fabricated with PtCo/MWNTs showed smaller anodic and cathodic activation losses than the MEA with Pt/C, although ohmic loss was the same as Pt/C. Finally, from the evaluation of cyclic voltammetry(CV), the unit cell using PtCo/MWNTs as the cathode electrocatalyst showed slightly higher fuel cell performance than the cell with a commercial Pt/C electrocatalyst.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.212-217
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• 2006

An experimental study on Electro-electrodialysis (EED) for IS (Iodine-Sulfur) process which is well known as hydrogen production system was carried out for the HI concentration from HIx (HI: $H_2O$ : $I_2$ = 1 : 5 : 1) solution. The polymer electrolyte membrane and the activated carbon cloth were adopted as a cation exchange membrane and electrode, respectively. In order to evaluate the temperature effect about HI concentration in fixed molar ratio, three case of temperature were selected to $60^{\circ}C$, $90^{\circ}C$ and $120^{\circ}C$. The electro-osmosis coefficient and transport number of proton have been changed from 1.95 to 1.21 (mol/Faraday) and 0.91 to 0.76, respectively as temperature increase from $60^{\circ}C$ to $120^{\circ}C$. It can be realized that the HI mole fraction in final stage of EED experiments already over the quasi-azeotrope composition.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.370-375
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• 2013

We analyze the effects of CO poisoning and air bleeding on the performance of a PEM (polymer electrolyte membrane) fuel cell stack fabricated using commercial MEA (membrane electrode assembly). Dynamic response data from the experiments on the performance of a stack are identified by obtaining steady-state gains and time-constants of the first-order system model expressed as a first-order differential equation. It is found that the cell voltage of the stack decreases by 1.3-1.6 mV as the CO concentration rises by 1 ppm. The time elapsed to reach a new steady state after a change in the CO concentration is shortened as the magnitude of the change in the CO concentration increases. In general, the steady-state gain becomes bigger and the time-constant gets smaller with increasing the air concentration (air-bleeding level) in the reformate gas to restore the cell voltage. However, it is possible to recover 87%-96% of the original cell voltages, which are measured with free of CO, within 1-30 min by introducing the bleed air as much as 1% of the reformate gas into the stack.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.442-448
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• 2021

Flow field is an important parameter for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) performance to have an effect on the reactant supply, heat and water diffusion, and contact resistance. In this study, PEMFC performance was investigated using Cu foam flow field at the cathode of 25 cm² unit cell. Polarization curve and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy were performed at different pressure and relative humidity conditions. The Cu foam showed lower cell performance than that of serpentine type due to its high ohmic resistance, but lower activation and concentration loss due to the even reactant distribution of porous structure. Cu foam has the advantage of effective water transport because of its hydrophobicity. However, it showed low membrane hydration at low humidity condition. The metal foam flow field could improve fuel cell performance with a uniform pressure distribution and effective water management, so future research on the properties of metal foam should be conducted to reduce electrical resistance of bipolar plate.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.50-58
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• 2021

We proposed an MEA development methodology that accurately measures intrinsic MEA performance while considering the uneven reaction environments formed inside a large-area BP. To facilitate measurement of the inherent MEA performance, we miniaturized the active area of the MEA to 3 cm², and prepared two MEAs with different ionomer contents of 0.65 and 0.80 (I/C). By simulating the operating conditions of a 100 cm² BP at the inlet (I), center (C), and outlet (O), the oxygen concentration and relative humidity were determined to be 20.7, 13.8, 11.7%, and 50, 66.1, and 70.1% respectively. We measured the performance and electrochemical analysis of the prepared MEAs under the three simulated conditions. Based on the results of statistical analysis of the evaluated MEA performance data, I/C 0.65 MEA had a higher average performance and lower performance deviation than I/C 0.80 MEA. Hence, it can be concluded that an I/C 0.65 MEA is a more effective MEA for large-area BP. Based on the above research process, we confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed MEA development methodology.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.618-623
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• 2022

The bipolar plate is a key component of the polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) that transfers reactants and electrons, discharges water and heat as by-products, and serves as a mechanical support for the membrane electrode assembly (MEA). Therefore, the flow field structure of the bipolar plate plays an important role in improving fuel cell performance. In this study, PEMFC performance was investigated with copper foams with different compressibility ratios applied to cathode bipolar plates using a 25 cm² unit cell. The total resistance decreased as the compressibility ratio of the metal foams increased, and, in particular, the charge transfer and mass transfer resistance were significantly improved compared to the serpentine flow field, lowering voltage loss in medium and high current density region. In the case of pressurized air reactant flow with serpentine structure, fuel cell performance was similar to that of a compressed metal foam flow field (S3) up to the medium current density region, but low performance appeared in the high current density region due to flow field structure limitations.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.178-186
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• 2023

Three activation methods (constant voltage, current cycling, and hydrogen pumping) were applied to investigate the effects on the performance of the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) loaded with PtCo/C catalyst. The current cycling protocol took the shortest time to activate the MEA, while the performance after activation was the worst among the all activation methods. The constant voltage method took a moderate activation time and exhibited the best performance after activation. The hydrogen pumping protocol took the longest time to activate the MEA with moderate performance after activation. According to the distribution of relaxation time analysis, the improved performance after the activation mainly comes from the decrease of charge transfer resistance rather than the ionic resistance in the cathode catalyst layer, which suggests that the existence of water on the electrode is the key factor for activation.