• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.1373-1380
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• 2019

Besides promising implications as fertile nuclear materials, thorium carbonitrides are of great interest owing to their peculiar physical and chemical properties, such as high density, high melting point, good thermal conductivity. This paper reports first-principles simulation results on the structural, electronic and magnetic properties of cubic thorium carbonitrides $ThC_xN_{(1-x)}$ (X = 0.03125, 0.0625, 0.09375, 0.125, 0.15625) employing formalism of density-functional-theory. For the simulation of physical properties, we incorporated full-potential linearized augmented plane-wave (FPLAPW) method while the exchange-correlation potential terms in Kohn-Sham Equation (KSE) are treated within Generalized-Gradient-Approximation (GGA) in conjunction with Perdew-Bruke-Ernzerhof (PBE) correction. The structural parameters were calculated by fitting total energy into the Murnaghan's equation of state. The lattice constants, bulk moduli, total energy, electronic band structure and spin magnetic moments of the compounds show dependence on the C/N concentration ratio. The electronic and magnetic properties have revealed non-magnetic but metallic character of the compounds. The main contribution to density of states at the Fermi level stems from the comparable spectral intensity of Th (6d+5f) and (C+N) 2p states. In comparison with spin magnetic moments of ThSb and ThBi calculated earlier with LDA+U approach, we observed an enhancement in the spin magnetic moments after carbon-doping into ThN monopnictide.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.96-110
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• 2024

Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are green energy conversion devices, for which commercial markets have been established, owing to their application in fuel cell vehicles (FCVs). Development of cathode electrocatalysts, replacing commercial Pt/C, plays a crucial role in factors such as cost reduction, high performance, and durability in FCVs. PtNi octahedral catalysts are promising for oxygen reduction reactions owing to their significantly higher mass activity (10-15 times) than that of Pt/C; however, their application in membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) is challenged by their low stability. To overcome this durability issue, various approaches, such as third-metal doping, composition control, halide treatment, formation of a Pt layer, annealing treatment, and size control, have been explored and have shown promising improvements in stability in rotating disk electrode (RDE) testing. In this review, we aimed to compare the features of each strategy in terms of enhancing stability by introducing a stability improvement factor for a direct and reasonable comparison. The limitations of each strategy for enhancing stability of PtNi octahedral are also described. This review can serve as a valuable guide for the development of strategies to enhance the durability of octahedral PtNi.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.415-421
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• 2015

$SrCo_{0.8}Fe_{0.1}Nb_{0.1}O_{3-{\delta}}$ oxide was synthesized by solid state reaction method. Dense ceramic membrane was prepared using as-prepared powder by pressing and sintering at $1250^{\circ}C$. XRD result of membrane showed single perovskite structure. The oxygen permeability were measured under 0.21 atm of oxygen partial pressure ($P_{O_2}$) and between 800 and $950^{\circ}C$. The oxygen permeation flux of $SrCo_{0.8}Fe_{0.1}Nb_{0.1}O_{3-{\delta}}$ membrane was increased with the increasing temperature. The maximum oxygen permeation flux was $1.839mL/min{\cdot}cm^2$ at $950^{\circ}C$. Long period permeability experiment was carried out to confirm the phase stability and $CO_2$-tolerance of membrane containing Nb in the condition of air with $CO_2$ (500 ppm) as feed stream at $900^{\circ}C$. The phase stability and $CO_2$-tolerance of $SrCo_{0.8}Fe_{0.1}Nb_{0.1}O_{3-{\delta}}$ were investigated by XRD and TG analysis. The result of $SrCo_{0.8}Fe_{0.1}Nb_{0.1}O_{3-{\delta}}$ which exposed carbon dioxide for 100 hours indicated 8wt% of $SrCO_3$. But it was known that the level of $SrCO_3$ production dose not have a significant effect on oxygen permeability.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.59-59
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• 2010

Graphene is a 2-D sheet of $sp^2$-bonded carbon arranged in a honeycomb lattice. This material has attracted major interest, and there are many ongoing efforts in developing graphene devices because of its high charge mobility and crystal quality. Therefore clear understanding of the substrate effect and mechanism of synthesis of graphene is important for potential applications and device fabrication of graphene. In a published paper in J. Phys. Chem. C (2008), the effect of substrate on the atomic/electronic structures of graphene is negligible for graphene made by mechanical cleavage. However, nobody shows the interaction between Ni substrate and graphene. Therefore, we have studied this interaction. In order to studying these effect between graphene and Ni substrate, We have observed graphene synthesized on Ni substrate and graphene transferred on $SiO_2$/Si substrate through Raman spectroscopy. Because Raman spectroscopy has historically been used to probe structural and electronic characteristics of graphite materials, providing useful information on the defects (D-band), in-plane vibration of sp2 carbon atoms (G-band), as well as the stacking orders (2D-band), we selected this as analysis tool. In our study, we could not observe the doping effect between graphene and Ni substrate or between graphene and $SiO_2$/Si substrate because the shift of G band in Raman spectrum was not occurred by charge transfer. We could noticed that the bonding force between graphene and Ni substrate is more strong than Van de Waals force which is the interaction between graphene and $SiO_2$/Si. Furthermore, the synthesized graphene on Ni substrate was in compressive strain. This phenomenon was observed by 2D band blue-shift in Raman spectrum. And, we consider that the graphene is incommensurate growth with Ni polycrystalline substrate.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.29-33
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• 2010

In this study, boron, carbon, nitrogen and fluorine co-doped $TiO_{2}$ photocatalysts using tetraethylammonium tetrafluoroborate (TEATFB) have been prepared by different heat treatment temperatures to decrease the band gap. To explore the visible light photocatalytic activity of the novel low‐zband gap $TiO_{2}$ photocatalyst, the removal of two dyes was investigated, namely, acridine orange and rhodamine B. XRD patterns demonstrate that the samples calcined at temperatures up to $800^{\circ}C$ clearly show anatase peaks. The XPS results show that all the doped samples contain N, C, B and F elements and the doped $TiO_{2}$ shows the shift in the band gap transition down to 2.98 eV as UV-DRS results. In these UV-Vis results, photocatalytic activity of the doped $TiO_{2}$ is 1.61 times better than undoped $TiO_{2}$. Specially, excellent photoactivity results were obtained in the case of samples treated at $700^{\circ}C$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.642-642
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• 2013

Graphene, two dimensional single layer of carbon atoms, has tremendous attention due to its superior property such as high electron mobility, high thermal conductivity and optical transparency. Especially, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) grown graphene has been used as a promising material for high quality and large-scale graphene film. Unfortunately, although CVD-grown graphene has strong advantages, application of the CVD-grown graphene is limited due to ineffective transfer process that delivers the graphene onto a desired substrate by using polymer support layer such as PMMA(polymethyl methacrylate). The transferred CVD-grown graphene has serious drawback due to remaining polymeric residues generated during transfer process, which induces the poor physical and electrical characteristics by a p-doping effect and impurity scattering. To solve such issue incurred during polymer transfer process of CVD-grown graphene, various approaches including thermal annealing, chemical cleaning, mechanical cleaning have been tried but were not successful in getting rid of polymeric residues. On the other hand, lithographical patterning of graphene is an essential step in any form of microelectronic processing and most of conventional lithographic techniques employ photoresist for the definition of graphene patterns on substrates. But, application of photoresist is undesirable because of the presence of residual polymers that contaminate the graphene surface consistent with the effects generated during transfer process. Therefore, in order to fully utilize the excellent properties of CVD-grown graphene, new approach of transfer and patterning techniques which can avoid polymeric residue problem needs to be developed. In this work, we carried out transfer and patterning process simultaneously with no polymeric residue by using a metal etch mask. The patterned thin gold layer was deposited on CVD-grown graphene instead of photoresists in order to make much cleaner and smoother surface and then transferred onto a desired substrate with PMMA, which does not directly contact with graphene surface. We compare the surface properties and patterning morphology of graphene by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy(AFM) and Raman spectroscopy. Comparison with the effect of residual polymer and metal on performance of graphene FET will be discussed.

• Composites Research
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.194-202
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• 2016

A graphene film, two-dimensional carbon sheet, is a promising material for future electronic devices and so on. In graphene applications, the effect of substrate on the atomic/electronic structures of graphene is significant, so we studied an interaction between graphene film and substrate. To study the effect, we investigated the graphene films grown on Ni substrate with two crystal face of (111) and (100) by Raman spectroscopy, comparing with graphene films transferred on $SiO_2/Si$ substrate. In our study, the doping effect caused by charge transfer from Ni or $SiO_2/Si$ substrate to graphene was not observed. The bonding force between graphene and Ni substrate is stronger than that between graphene and $SiO_2/Si$. The graphene films grown on Ni substrate showed compressive strain and the growth of graphene films is incommensurate with Ni (100) lattice. The position of 2D band of graphene synthesized on Ni (111) and (100) substrate was different, and this result will be studied in the near future.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.596-601
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• 2020

Silicon carbide is considered a potentially useful material for high-temperature electronic devices because of its large band gap energy and p-type or n-type conduction that can be controlled by impurity doping. Accordingly, the thermoelectric properties of -SiC powder prepared by refined diatomite were investigated for high value-added applications of natural diatomite. -SiC powder was synthesized by a carbothermal reduction of the SiO₂ in refined diatomite using carbon black. An acid-treatment process was then performed to eliminate the remaining impurities (Fe, Ca, etc.). n-Type semiconductors were fabricated by sintering the pressed powder at 2000℃ for 1~5h in an N2 atmosphere. The electrical conductivity increased with increasing sintering time, which might be due to an increase in carrier concentration and improvement in grain-to-grain connectivity. The carrier compensation effect caused by the remaining acceptor impurities (Al, etc.) in the obtained -SiC had a deleterious influence on the electrical conductivity. The absolute value of the Seebeck coefficient increased with increasing sintering time, which might be due to a decrease in the stacking fault density accompanied by grain or crystallite growth. On the other hand, the power factor, which reflects the thermoelectric conversion efficiency of the present work, was slightly lower than that of the porous SiC semiconductors fabricated by conventional high-purity -SiC powder, it can be stated that the thermoelectric properties could be improved further by precise control of an acid-treatment process.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.101-119
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• 2021

The demand for clean water is virtually present in all modern human societies even as our society has developed increasingly more advanced and sophisticated technologies to improve human life. However, as global climate change begins to show more dramatic effects in many regions in the world, the demand for a cheap, effective way to treat wastewater or to remove harmful bacteria, microbes, viruses, and other solvents detrimental to human health has continued to remain present and remains as important as ever. Well-established synthetic membranes composed of polyaniline (PANI), polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), and others have been extensively studied to gather information regarding the characteristics and performance of the membrane, but recent studies have shown that making these synthetic membranes conductive to electrical current by doping the membrane with another material or incorporating conductive materials onto the surface of the membrane, such as allotropes of carbon, have shown to increase the performance of these membranes by allowing the adjustability of pore size, improving antifouling and making the antibacterial property better. In this review, modern electrically conductive membranes are compared to conventional membranes and their performance improvements under electric fields are discussed, as well as their potential in water filtration and wastewater treatment applications.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.77-82
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• 2022

Recently, research on the development of low-cost/high-efficiency water electrolysis catalysts to replace noble metal catalysts is being actively conducted. Since overvoltage reduces the overall efficiency of the water splitting device, lowering the overvoltage of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is the most important task in order to generate hydrogen more efficiently. Currently, noble metal catalysts show excellent characteristics in OER performance, but they are experiencing great difficulties in commercialization due to their high price and efficiency limitations due to low reactivity. In this study, a water electrolysis catalyst Ni-MWCNT was prepared by successfully doping Ni into the MWCNTs structure through the pulsed laser ablation in liquid (PLAL) process. High resolution-transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were performed for the structure and chemical composition of the synthesized Ni-MWCNT. Catalytic oxygen evolution reaction evaluation was performed by linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) overvoltage characteristics, Tafel slope, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), cyclic voltammetry (CV) and Chronoamperometry (CA) was used for measurement.