• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.99-105
• /
• 2012

We fabricated the textured silicon (Si) surface on Si substrates by the electrochemical etching using gold (Au) nanoparticle catalysts. The antireflective property of the fabricated Si nanostructures was improved. The Au nanoparticles of ~20-150 nm were formed by the rapid thermal annealing using thermally evaporated Au films on Si. In the chemical etching, the aqueous solution containing $H_2O_2$ and HF was used. In order to investigate the effect of electrochemical etching on the etching depth and reflectance characteristics, the sample was immersed in the aqueous etching solution for 1 min with and without applied cathodic voltages of -1 V and -2 V. As a result, the solar weighted reflectance, i.e., the averaged reflectance with considering solar spectrum (air mass 1.5), could be efficiently reduced for the electrochemically etched Si by applying the cathodic voltage of -2 V, which is expected to be useful for Si solar cell applications.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
• /
• v.21 no.6
• /
• pp.425-428
• /
• 2012

This paper presents the fabrication and characterization of graphene based hydrogen sensors. Graphene was synthesized by annealing process of Ni/3C-SiC thin films. Graphene was transferred onto oxidized Si substrates for fabrication of chemiresistive type hydrogen sensors. Au electrode on the graphene shows ohmic contact and the resistance is changed with hydrogen concentration. Nanoparticle catalysts of Pd and Pt were decorated. Response factor and response (recovery) time of hydrogen sensors based on the graphene are improved with catalysts. The response factors of pure graphene, Pt and Pd doped graphenes are 0.28, 0.6 and 1.26, respectively, at 50 ppm hydrogen concentration.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2013.02a
• /
• pp.133-133
• /
• 2013

For both oxygen reduction (ORR) and hydrogen oxidation reactions (HOR) of proton electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), alloying Pt with another transition metal usually results in a higher activity relative to pure Pt, mainly due to electronic modification of Pt and bifunctional behaviour of alloy surface for ORR and HOR, respectively. However, activity and stability are closely related to the preparation of alloy nanoparticles. Preparation conditions of alloy nanoparticles have strong influence on surface composition, oxidation state, nanoparticle size, shape, and contamination, which result from a large difference in redox priority of metal precursors, intrinsic properties of metals, increasedreactivity of nanocrystallites, and interactions with constituents for the synthesis such as solvent, stabilizer, and reducing agent, etc. Carbon-supported Pt-Ni alloy nanoparticles were prepared by the borohydride reduction method in anhydrous solvent. Pt-Ru alloy nanoparticles supported on carbon black were also prepared by the similar synthetic method to that of Pt-Ni. Since electrocatalytic reactions are strongly dependent on the surface structure of metal catalysts, the atom-leveled design of the surface structure plays a significant role in a high catalytic activity and the utilization of electrocatalysts. Therefore, surface-modified electrocatalysts have attracted much attention due to their unique structure and new electronic and electrocatalytic properties. The carbon-supported Au and Pd nanoparticles were adapted as the substrate and the successive reduction process was used for depositing Pt and PtM (M=Ru, Pd, and Rh) bimetallic elements on the surface of Au and Pd nanoparticles. Distinct features of the overlayers for electrocatalytic activities including methanol oxidation, formic acid oxidation, and oxygen reduction were investigated.