It is necessary to fabricate uniformly dispersed nanoscale catalyst materials with high activity and long-term stability for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells with excellent electrochemical characteristics of the oxygen reduction reaction and hydrogen oxidation reaction. Platinum is known as the best noble metal catalyst for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells because of its excellent catalytic activity. However, given that Pt is expensive, considerable efforts have been made to reduce the amount of Pt loading for both anode and cathode catalysts. Meanwhile, the atomic layer deposition (ALD) method shows excellent uniformity and precise particle size controllability over the three-dimensional structure. The research progress on noble metal ALD, such as Pt, Ru, Pd, and various metal alloys, is presented in this review. ALD technology enables the development of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells with excellent reactivity and durability.

In this study, the compound Li₃BO₃ (LBO) is intended to be prepared by a polymeric complex method as a sintering aid for the densification of Li₇La₃Zr₂O₁₂ (LLZ) solid electrolyte. A polymeric precursor containing Li and B is heat-treated in an air atmosphere at a temperature range between 600°C and 800°C. Instead of LBO, the compound Li_2+xC_1-xB_xO₃ (LCBO) is unexpectedly synthesized after a heat-treatment of 700°C. The effect of LCBO addition on sintering behavior and ion conductivity of LLZ is studied. It is found that the LCBO compound could lead to significant improvements in the densification and ionic conductivity of LLZ compared to pure LLZ. After sintering at 1100°C, the density of the LLZ-12wt%LBO composite is 3.72 g/cm³, with a high Li-ion conductivity of 1.18 × 10⁻⁴ Scm^-1 at 28°C, while the pure LLZ specimen had a densify of 2.98 g/cm³ and Li-ion conductivity of 5.98 × 10⁻⁶ Scm^-1.

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• Characterization of Li1.5Al0.5Ge1.5(PO4)3 Solid Electrolyte with an Added Sintering Aid
  Hyun-Joon Lee, Liyu-Liu, Won-Jong Jeong, Seoung-Ki Lee, Bong-Ki Ryu
  Electronic Materials Letters.2023; 19(1): 55.     CrossRef

Spherical-type zirconia granules are successfully fabricated by a spray-drying process using a water solvent slurry, and the change in the green density of the granule powder compacts is examined according to the organic polymers used. Two organic binders, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA), which are dissolved in a water solvent and have different degrees of polymerization, are applied to the slurry with a plasticizer (polyethylene glycol). The granules employing a binder with a higher degree of polymerization (PVA) are not broken under a uniaxial press; consequently, they exhibit a poor green density of 2.4 g/cm³. In contrast, the granule powder compacts employing a binder with a lower degree of polymerization (HEMA) show a higher density of 2.6 g/cm³ with an increase in plasticizer content. The packing behavior of the granule powders for each organic polymer system is studied by examining the microstructure of the fracture surface at different applied pressures.

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• Uniaxial compaction and sintering of ZrO2−3 mol% Y2O3 using rubber and PEG solutions as binders
  M.I. Dvornik, O.O. Shichalin, E.A. Mikhailenko, A.A. Burkov, S.V. Nikolenko, N.M. Vlasova, E.V. Chernyakov, A.A. Gnidenko, P.G. Chigrin, I. Yu Buravlev, N.S. Konovalova
  Materials Chemistry and Physics.2024; 328: 129981.     CrossRef

Carbonyl iron (CI) is successfully incorporated as an additive into a polystyrene (PS) matrix via a highenergy ball milling method, under an n-hexane medium with volume fractions between 1% and 5% for electromagnetic interference shielding applications by the combination of magnetic CI and an insulating PS matrix. The morphology and the dispersion of CI are investigated by field emission scanning electron microscopy, which indicates a uniform distribution of CI in the PS matrix after 2 h of milling. The thermal behavior results indicate no significant degradation of the PS when there is a slight increase in the onset temperature with the addition of CI powder, when compared to the as-received PS pellet. After milling, there are no interactions between the CI and the PS matrix, as confirmed by Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy. In this study, the milled CI-PS powder is extruded to make filaments, and can have potential applications in the 3-D printing industry.

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• Progress toward sustainable polymer technologies with ball-mill grinding
  Antonio Rizzo, Gregory I. Peterson
  Progress in Polymer Science.2024; 159: 101900.     CrossRef

Porous thick film of alumina which is fabricated by freeze tape casting using a camphene-camphor-acrylate vehicle. Alumina slurry is mixed above the melting point of the camphene-camphor solvent. Upon cooling, the camphene-camphor crystallizes from the solution as particle-free dendrites, with the Al₂O₃ powder and acrylate liquid in the interdendritic spaces. Subsequently, the acrylate liquid is solidified by photopolymerization to offer mechanical properties for handling. The microstructure of the porous alumina film is characterized for systems with different cooling rate around the melting temperature of camphor-camphene. The structure of the dendritic porosity is compared as a function of ratio of camphene-camphor solvent and acrylate content, and Al₂O₃ powder volume fraction in acrylate in terms of the dendrite arm width.

In this study, we prepare polymer solar cells incorporating organic ligand-modified Ag nanoparticles (OAgNPs) highly dispersed in the P3HT:PCBM layer. Ag nanoparticles decorated with water-dispersible ligands (WAgNPs) were also utilized as a control sample. The existence of the ligands on the Ag surface was confirmed by FTIR spectra. Metal nanoparticles with different surface chemistries exhibited different dispersion tendencies. O-AgNPs were highly dispersed even at high concentrations, whereas W-AgNPs exhibited significant aggregation in the polymer layer. Both dispersion and blending concentration of the Ag nanoparticles in P3HT:PCBM matrix had critical effects on the device performance as well as light absorption. The significant changes in short-circuit current density (J_SC) of the solar cells seemed to be related to the change in the polymer morphology according to the concentration of AgNPs introduced. These findings suggested the importance of uniform dispersion of plasmonic metal nanoparticles and their blending concentration conditions in order to boost the solar cell performance.

Flake-like LiCoO₂ nanopowders were fabricated using electrospinning. To investigate their formation mechanism, field-emssion scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy were carried out. Among various parameters of electrospinning, we controlled the molar concentration of the precursor and the PVP polymer. When the molar concentration of lithium and cobalt was 0.45 M, the morphology of LiCoO₂ nanopowders was irregular and round. For 1.27 M molar concentration, the LiCoO₂ nanopowders formed with flake-like morphology. For the PVP polymer, the molar concentration was set to 0.011 mM, 0.026 mM, and 0.043 mM. Irregular LiCoO₂ nanopowders were formed at low concentration (0.011 mM), while flake-like LiCoO₂ were formed at high concentration (0.026 mM and 0.043 mM). Thus, optimized molar concentration of the precursor and the PVP polymer may be related to the successful formation of flake-like LiCoO₂ nanopowders. As a results, the synthesized LiCoO₂ nanopowder can be used as the electrode material of Li-ion batteries.

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• Electrochemical Behavior of Well-dispersed Catalysts on Ruthenium Oxide Nanofiber Supports
  Geon-Hyoung An, Hyo-Jin Ahn
  Journal of Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute.2017; 24(2): 96.     CrossRef
• Synthesis and Characterization of SnO2-CoO/carbon-coated CoO Core/shell Nanowire Composites
  Yu-Jin Lee, Bon-Ryul Koo, Hyo-Jin Ahn
  Journal of Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute.2014; 21(5): 360.     CrossRef