• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.410-415
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• 1999

The adhesion strength of sputtered copper films to Inconel substrates has been studied using the scratch test. The effects of substrate treatments before deposition such as chemical or ion bombardment etching were investigated by means of a mean critical load derived from a Weibull-like statistical analysis. It was found that the mean critical load was very weak unless the amorphous layer produced by mechanical polishing on the substrate surface was eliminated. Chemical etching in a nitric-hydrochloric acid bath was shown to have practically no effect on the enhancement of the adhesion. In contrast, the addition in this bath of nickel and copper sulphates allowed removal of the amorphous layer and an increase in the values of the mean critical load. However, it was observed that excessive chemical etching could cancel out the mean critical load enhancement. The results obtained in the case of ion bombardment etching pretreatments could be far higher than those obtained with chemical etching. Moreover, for a sufficiently long period of ion bombardment etching, the adhesion strength was so high that it was impossible to observe evidence of an adhesion failure.

• KEPCO Journal on Electric Power and Energy
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.175-180
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• 2015

A facile soft chemical synthesis route is used to grow nano-buds of copper hydroxide [$Cu(OH)_2$] thin films on stainless steel substrate[SS]. Besides different chemical methods for synthesis of $Cu(OH)_2$ nanostructure, the chemical bath deposition (CBD) is attractive for its simplicity and environment friendly condition. The structural, morphological, and electro-chemical properties of $Cu(OH)_2$ thin films are studied by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), cyclic voltammetry (CV) and galvanostatic charge-discharge (GCD) measurement techniques. The results showed that, facile chemical synthesis route allows to form the polycrystalline, granular nano-buds of $Cu(OH)_2$ thin films. The electrochemical properties of $Cu(OH)_2$ thin films are studied in an aqueous 1 M KOH electrolyte using cyclic voltammetry. The sample exhibited supercapacitive behavior with $340Fg^{-1}$ specific capacitance. Moreover, electrochemical capacitive measurements of $Cu(OH)_2/SS$ electrode exhibit a high specific energy and power density about ${\sim}83Wh\;kg^{-1}$ and ${\sim}3.1kW\;kg^{-1}$, respectively, at $1mA\;cm^{-2}$ current density. The superior electrochemical properties of copper hydroxide ($Cu(OH)_2/SS$) electrode with nano-buds like structure mutually improves pseudocapacitive performance. This work evokes scalable chemical synthesis with the enhanced supercapacitive performance of $Cu(OH)_2/SS$ electrode in energy storage devices.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.2214-2218
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• 2007

The effects of bath temperature on electrochemical behavior, alloy composition, crystallographic structure, morphology and the magnetic properties of electrodeposited Co-Pt-W(P) films were investigated. Electrochemical studies show that alloy electrodeposition has been shifted to more positive potentials and the critical time for nucleation decreased as electrolyte temperature increased. As the temperature increased from 40 oC to 80 oC, tungsten content in the deposit increased, while phosphorus content decreased. The films deposited at T = 40 oC exhibited soft magnetic properties. However, electrodeposited at T = 70 oC, the films exhibited hard magnetic properties. It is also demonstrated that higher temperature more than 70 oC could weaken hard magnetic properties. XRD results indicated that the deposits obtained at 50 oC-70 oC showed enhancement of [00.1] P.O. (preferred orientation) with the bath temperature, which resulted in the stronger perpendicular magnetic anisotropy.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.456-456
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• 2008

In the past few years, the deposition and characterization of cadmium sulfide semiconducting thin films has received a considerable amount of interest due to their potential application in the area of electronic and opto-electronic devices fabrications. Polycrystalline CdS thin films posses good optical transmittance, wide band-gap and electrical properties makes it as one of the ideal material for their application to solar cell fabrication. Cadmium sulfate thin films were deposited by the chemical bath deposition method using tartaric acid and triethanolamine as a complexing agent. Deposition parameters such as pH, temperature, deposition time and concentration of the reactant species were optimized so as to obtain reflecting, good adherent uniform thin films on the glass substrate. Reaction mechanism of the thin film formation is also reported. The crystallographic structure and the crystallite size were studied by the X-ray diffraction pattern. The optical band-gap of deposited film is identified by measuring the transmittance in the visible region. Temperature dependence of resistivity confirmed the semiconducting behavior of the film. Scanning electron micrographs (SEM) showed the presence of grain particles of size 50 nm.

• 한국전기화학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.37-37
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• 2003

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.105-110
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• 2013

ZnS thin films were prepared on glass substrate by using chemical bath deposition method. The influence of ammonia ($NH_4OH$) and $Na_2EDTA$ ($Na_2C_{10}H_{16}N_2O_8$) as complexing agents on structural and optical properties of ZnS thin films were investigated. Zinc acetate dihydrate ($Zn(CH_3COO)_2{\cdot}2H_2O$) and thiourea ($H_2NCSNH_2$) were used as a starting materials and distilled water was used as a solvent. All ZnS thin films, regardless of a kind of complexing agents, had the hexagonal structure (${\alpha}$-ZnS) and had a preferred <101> orientation. ZnS thin films, with 4 M ammonia and with 4 M ammonia and 0.1 M $Na_2EDTA$, had the highest <101> peak intensity. In addition, their average particle size are 280 nm and 220 nm, respectively. The average optical transmittances of all films were higher than 60% in the visible range. The optical direct band gap values of films were about 3.6~3.8 eV.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.138-138
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• 2009

Recently, thin-film solar cells of Cu(In,Ga)$Se_2$(CIGS) have reached a high level of performance, which has resulted in a 19.9%-efficient device. These conventional devices were typically fabricated using chemical bath deposited CdS buffer layer between the CIGS absorber layer and ZnO window layer. However, the short wavelength response of CIGS solar cell is limited by narrow CdS band gap of about 2.42 eV. Taking into consideration the environmental aspect, the toxic Cd element should be replaced by a different material. It is why during last decades many efforts have been provided to achieve high efficiency Cd-free CIGS solar cells. In order to alternate CdS buffer layer, ZnS buffer layer is grown by using chemical bath deposition(CBD) technique. The thickness and chemical composition of ZnS buffer layer can be conveniently by varying the CBD processing parameters. The processing parameters were optimized to match band gap of ZnS films to the solar spectrum and exclude the creation of morphology defects. Optimized ZnS buffer layer showed higher optical transmittance than conventional thick-CdS buffer layer at the short wavelength below ~520 nm. Then, chemically deposited ZnS buffer layer was applied to CIGS solar cell as a alternative for the standard CdS/CIGS device configuration. This CIGS solar cells were characterized by current-voltage and quantum efficiency measurement.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.48 no.8
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• pp.563-569
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• 1999

Boron doped CdS films were prepared by chemical bath deposition using boric acid$(H_3BO_3)$ as donor dopant source, and their electrical, optical properties were investigated as a function of doping concentration. In addition, effects of boron doping of CdS films on characteristics of CdS/CdTe solar cells were investigated. Boron doping highly decreased the resistivity and slightly increased optical band gap of CdS films. The lowest value of resistivity was $2 \Omega-cm \;at\; H_3BO_3/Cd(Ac)_2$ molar ratio of 0.1. For the molar ratio more than 0.1, however, the resistivity increased because of decreasing carrier concentration and mobility and showed similar value for undoped films. The photovoltaic characteristics of CdS/CdTe solar cells with boron doped CdS film improved due to the decrease of the conduction band-Fermi level energy gap of CdS films and the series resistance of solar cell.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.118.2-118.2
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• 2011

In order to increase the energy conversion efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), we employed a counter electrode that was platinum coated using a doctor blade technique on synthesized ZnO nanostructures on fluorinedoped tin oxide (FTO). The ZnO nanostructures possessing high electrochemical activity and large surface area of the counter electrode were grown by a chemical bath deposition (CBD) method at various times, 2, 4, and 8 h. The efficiency of DSSC with the Pt-ZnO counter electrode was improved 7.01% (grown for 2 h), 7.63% (grown for 4 h), and 6.13% (grown for 8 h), respectively. Compared with a standard DSSC without ZnO nanostructures, whose efficiency was 6.27%, the energy conversion efficiency increased approximately 22% for the DSSC with the Pt-ZnO (grown for 4 h) electrode. It indicates that the Pt coated on the ZnO nanostructure improves the electrocatalytic activity of the counter electrode.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.472.1-472.1
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• 2014

현재 Cu(In,Ga)Se2나 Cu2ZnSn(S,Se)4 (CZTSSe)계 박막태양전지의 버퍼층으로 가장 많이 사용되는 물질은 CdS이다. 하지만 Cd의 독성 문제로 인해 사용에 제약이 있고, CdS의 작은 밴드갭(~2.4 eV)으로 인해 단 파장 영역에서 광활성층의 빛 흡수를 저해하는 문제 때문에 새로운 대체 물질을 찾으려는 연구가 많이 이루어지고 있다. 이러한 관점에서, ZnS계 물질은 독성 원소인 Cd을 사용하지 않고, 3.6 eV 정도의 큰 밴드갭을 가지기 때문에, CdS 버퍼층을 대체하기 위한 물질로 관심을 받고 있다. ZnS계 버퍼층을 증착하는 위해 chemical bath deposition (CBD), molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), thermal evaporation, spray pyrolysis, sputtering, elecrtrodepostion 등의 다양한 공정이 사용될 수 있다. 본 연구에서는 상기의 다양한 공정 가운데, 공정 단가가 낮고, 대면적 공정에 용이한 CBD 공정을 이용하여 ZnS계 버퍼층을 증착하는 연구를 수행하였다. 용액의 조성, 농도, 공정 온도, 시간 등을 비롯한 다양한 공정 변수가 ZnS계 박막의 morphology, 조성, 결정성, 광학적 특성 등 다양한 특성에 미치는 영향이 체계적으로 연구되었다. 또한, 상기 ZnS계 버퍼층을 CZTSSe 박막태양전지에 적용하여 CdS를 성공적으로 대체할 수 있음을 확인하였다. 본 연구를 통하여 ZnS계 버퍼층이 향후 친환경적인 박막태양전지 제조에 활용될 수 있는 가능성을 확인할 수 있었다.