Design of novel materials in renewable energy systems plays a key role in powering transportation vehicles and portable electronics. This review introduces the research work of first principles-based computational design for the materials over the last decade to accomplish the goal with less financial and temporal cost beyond the conventional approach, especially, focusing on electrocatalyst toward a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). It is proposed that the new method combined with experimental validation, can provide fundamental descriptors and mechanical understanding for optimal efficiency control of a whole system. Advancing these methods can even realize a computational platform of the materials genome, which can substantially reduce the time period from discovery to commercialization into markets of new materials.

This article reports for the first time on the lateral growth of PEO (plasma electrolytic oxidation) films on Al1050 alloy by the application of anodic pulse current in an alkaline electrolyte. Generation of microarcs was observed at the edges initially and then moved towards the central region with PEO treatment time. Disc type PEO film islands with about $20{\mu}m$ diameter were formed first and they grew laterally by the formation of new disc type PEO films at the edge of pre-formed PEO islands. The PEO film islands were found to be interconnected completely and form a continuous PEO film when generation of small size microarcs are terminated at the central part of the specimen, resulting in very smooth surface with low surface roughness less than $1{\mu}m$ of $R_a$. Further PEO treatment after the complete interconnection of PEO films islands showed local thickening of PEO films by vertical growth. It is concluded that very smooth PEO film surface can be obtained by lateral growth mechanism rather than vertical growth of them.

This work demonstrates arc generation and anodic film formation behaviors on Al1050 alloy during PEO (plasma electrolytic oxidation) treatment under a constant direct current in an alkaline electrolyte containing silicate, carbonate and borate ions. Only one big arc more than 2 mm diameter was generated first at the edges and it was moving on the fresh surface or staying occasionally at the edges, resulting in the local burning due to generation of an extremely big orange colored arc at the edges. Central region of the flat surface was not fully covered with PEO films even after sufficiently long treatment time because of the local burning problem. The anodic oxides formed on the flat surface by arcing once were found to consist of a number of small oxide nodules with spherical shape of $3{\sim}6{\mu}m$ size and irregular shapes of about $5{\sim}10{\mu}m$ width and $10{\sim}20{\mu}m$ length. The anodic oxide nodules showed uniform thickness of about $3{\mu}m$ and rounded edges. These experimental results suggest that one big arc observed on the specimen surface under the application of a constant direct current is composed of a number of small micro-arcs less than $20{\mu}m$ size.

The electrodeposition of Ni-Co alloy from a sulfamate bath was investigated. The cobalt content in the Ni-Co deposits is more influenced by the temperature or stirring effect than the current density in the process parameters. As cobalt contents in the Ni-Co deposited layer increased from 0 wt.% up to 43 wt.%, hardness value of the layer rised from 400 Hv up to 700 Hv and crystal orientation (111) increased. However, (200) and crystal size significantly reduced. The tensile and yield strength also increased, while the modulus of elasticity showed the maximum value of $10.4N/mm^2$ at 29 wt.%.

Chloride plating solution was fabricated by dissolving metal Ni powders in a mixed solution with HCl and de-ionized water. Effects of $Ni^{2+}$ and saccharin concentrations in the plating baths on current efficiency, residual stress, surface morphology and microstructure of Ni films were studied. In the case of $0.2M\;Ni^{2+}$ concentration, current efficiency was decreased to about 65 % with increasing saccharin concentration, but, in the case of $0.7M\;Ni^{2+}$ concentration, it was shown more than 90 % with the increase of saccharin concentration. Residual stress of Ni thin film was appeared to be about 400 MPa up to 0.0244 M saccharin concentration at the $0.2M\;Ni^{2+}$ concentration and surface morphology with severe cracks was observed in the range of 0.0487~0.0975 M saccharin concentration. Residual stress of Ni thin films was measured to be about 750 MPa without saccharin addition and 114~148 MPa at the range of 0.0097~0.0975 M saccharin concentration for the $0.7M\;Ni^{2+}$ concentration. Relatively low residual stress values (114~148 MPa) of the Ni films at the range of 0.0097~0.0975 M saccharin concentration may be resulted from codeposition of S from saccharin. Ni films at $0.7M\;Ni^{2+}$ concentration showed smooth surface morphology and were independent of saccharin concentration. Ni films at $0.7M\;Ni^{2+}$ concentration consist of FCC(111), FCC(200), FCC(220) and FCC(311) peaks and the intensities of FCC(111) and FCC(200) peaks increased with increasing saccharin concentration. Also, the average grain size decreased with increasing saccharin concentration from about 30 nm to about 15 nm.

$TiO_2$, $Al_2O_3$, and $TiO_2-Al_2O_3$ nanolaminated films were grown by atomic layer deposition (ALD) on the 316L stainless steel (SS316L) substrates at a temperature of $150^{\circ}C$. The growth kinetics of $ALD-TiO_2$ and $Al_2O_3$ thin films were systematically investigated in order to precisely control the thickness of each layers in the $TiO_2-Al_2O_3$ nanolaminated films using a high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. And, the exact deposition rates of $ALD-TiO_2$ on $Al_2O_3$ surface and $ALD-Al_2O_3$ on $TiO_2$ surface were revealed to be 0.0284 nm/cycle and 0.11 nm/cycle, respectively. At given growth conditions, the microstructures of $TiO_2$, $Al_2O_3$ and $TiO_2-Al_2O_3$ nanolaminated films were amorphous. The potentiodynamic polarization test revealed that the $TiO_2-Al_2O_3$ nanolaminated film coated SS316L had a best corrosion resistance, although all ALDcoated SS316L exhibited a clear improvement of the corrosion resistance compared with a bare SS316L.

The magnesium-base AZ61 alloy was cast while adding 1% CaO powder into the melt. It was hot extruded, and oxidized at $550-650^{\circ}C$ in air in order to study its microstructure and oxidation behavior. Initially added CaO powder reacted with Al in the melt to $Al_2Ca$ particles that aligned along the extrusion direction. The formed $Al_2Ca$ particles increased the oxidation resistance through forming the superficial CaO scale at the upper part of the thin MgO oxide scale.

Marcel Pourbaix에 의해 만들어진 Eh-pH 도표는 화학적으로 안정한 상을 pH와 전위 (Potential or Eh)의 관점으로 도시한 것으로서 수용액 내에서 일어나는 화학반응을 부식-방식의 관점에서 이해하데 유용하게 사용되어 왔다. pH (potential of hydrogen)는 수소이온의 농도의 함수이며, Eh는 표준수소전극 (SHE, standard hydrogen electrode) 에 대한 전위를 나타낸다. 수용액에서의 도금 반응은 부식반응의 역반응이라 할 수 있으므로 도금반응도 이 도표를 이용하면 반응에 대한 열역학적 예측이 가능하다. 국내외 전기화학 및 표면공학 관련 교재들을 보면 Eh-pH 도표로 대표되는 열역학이나 분극곡선으로 대표되는 속도론에 대한 설명은 주로 부식의 관점에서 설명이 되어있어 도금을 공부하는 학생들에게는 직접적인 이해가 쉽지 않은 것이 사실이다. 저자는 출연연구소에 근무하면서 새로 들어오는 학연생(대학원생)들의 Eh-pH 도표에 대한 이해도를 알아보면 이 도표를 이해하고 이용할 줄 아는 학생이 거의 없다는 점을 안타깝게 여겨왔다. 최근에는 단순한 금속 도금이 아니라 나노 분말 합성, 반도체 물질 합성 등 여러 가지 공정기술과 응용기술이 수용액에서의 산화-환원 반응을 이용하고 있기 때문에 Eh-pH 도표의 중요성은 더해가고 있음을 느끼고 있었다. 그러던 중, 일본의 표면 처리 학술지인 표면기술(表面技術) (2013년, 64권 2호)에 'Eh-pH 도표의 표면기술에의 응용'이라는 제하의 소특집이 발간되었다. 이 소특집은 6편의 논문으로 되어 있었다. 저자는 이 소특집을 읽는 순간 이 논문들을 번역하여 표면공학회지에 소개를 하면 도금이나 전기화학을 공부하는 학생들에게 큰 도움이 될 것이라는 생각을 하였다. 본 기술해설 논문은 저자가 이 소특집에 게재된 논문을 번역하고 일부 내용은 저자의 의견으로 가감하여 표면공학회 학생 회원 및 기업의 연구원들에게 소개하기 위하여 저역을 한 것이다. 이 논문은 매 호 한편씩 소개할 예정이며, 원문을 읽고 싶다면 표면기술(表面技術)을 참조하길 바란다.