• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.632-637
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• 2015

Mesoporous $TiO_2$ granules were prepared by spray pyrolysis using nano-sized titania particles which were synthesized by a hydrothermal method, and they were evaluated as the photoanode of dye-sensitized solar cells. To enhance the cell efficiency, nanoparticles within granules were chemically interconnected by adding titanium ethoxide (TEOT) to colloidal spray solution. The resulting titania particles had anatase phase without forming rutile. $TiO_2$ granules obtained showed about 400 nm in size, the specific surface area of $74-77m^2/g$, and average pore size of 13-17 nm. The chemical modification of $TiO_2$ granules by adding TEOT initially to the colloidal spray solution was proved to be an effective way in terms of increasing both the light scattering within photoanode and the lifetimes of photo-excited electrons. Consequently, the light-harvesting efficiency of TEOT-modified granules (${\eta}=6.72%$) was enhanced about 14% higher than primitive nanoparticles.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.189-196
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• 2014

Water dispersible ZnS based nanocrystals: ZnS (blue), ZnS:Cu (green) and ZnS:Mn (yellow-orange) were synthesized by capping the surface of the nanocrystals with a mercaptopropionic acid (MPA) molecule. The MPA capped ZnS based nanocrystal powders were characterized by using XRD, HR-TEM, EDXS, FT-IR, and FT-Raman spectroscopy. The optical properties of the colloidal nanocrystals were also measured by UV/Vis and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopies in aqueous solvents. The PL spectra showed broad emission peaks at 440 nm (ZnS), 510 nm (ZnS:Cu) and 600 nm (ZnS:Mn), with relative PL efficiencies in the range of 4.38% to 7.20% compared to a reference organic dye. The measured average particle sizes from the HR-TEM images were in the range of 4.5 to 5.0 nm. White light emission was obtained by mixing these three nanocrystals at a molar ratio of 20 (ZnS):1 (ZnS:Cu):2 (ZnS:Mn) in water. The measured color coordinate of the white light was (0.31, 0.34) in the CIE chromaticity diagram, and the color temperature was 5527 K.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.953-958
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• 2007

Anchoring quantum dots (QDs) onto thermodynamically stable, large band gap oxide semiconductors is a very important strategy to enhance their quantum yields for solar energy conversion in both visible and near-IR regions. We describe a general procedure for anchoring a few chalcogenide QDs onto the titanium oxide layer. To anchor the colloidal QDs onto a mesoporous TiO2 layer, linker molecules containing both carboxylate and thiol functional groups were initially attached to TiO2 layers and subsequently used to capture dispersed QDs with the thiol group. Employing the procedure, we exploited cadmium selenide (CdSe) and cadmium telluride (CdTe) quantum dots (QDs) as inorganic sensitizers for a large band gap TiO2 layer of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Their attachment was confirmed by naked eyes, absorption spectra, and photovoltaic effects. A few QD-TiO2 systems thus obtained have been characterized for photoelectrochemical solar energy conversion.

• Particle and aerosol research
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.51-57
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• 2013

A graphene(GR)-$TiO_2$ composite was synthesized from colloidal mixture of graphene oxide(GO) nanosheets and $TiO_2$ nanoparticles by an aerosol assisted self-assembly. The morphology, specific surface area and pore size of asprepared GR-$TiO_2$ composite were characterized by FE-SEM, BET, and BJH respectively. The shape of GR-$TiO_2$ composite was spherical. The average particle size was 0.5-1 ${\mu}m$ in diameter and the pore diameter ranged 20-50 nm. Photovoltaic characteristics of a mixture of the GR-$TiO_2$ and $TiO_2$ nanoparticles were measured by a solar simulator under simulated solar light. The highest photoelectric conversion efficiency of the mixture photoanode was 5.1%, which was higher than that of $TiO_2$ photoanode.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.319-319
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• 2010

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) based on plastic substrates have attracted much attention mainly due to extensive applications such as ubiquitous powers, as well as the practical reasons such as light weight, flexibility and roll-to-roll process. However, conventional high temperature fabrication technology for glass based DSSCs, cannot be applied to flexible devices because polymer substrates cannot withstand the heat more than $150^{\circ}C$. Therefore, low temperature fabrication process, without using a polymer binder or thermal sintering, was required to fabricate necked $TiO_2$. In this presentation, we proposed polymer-inorganic composite photoelectrode, which can be fabricated at low temperature. The concept of composite electrode takes an advantage of utilizing elastic properties of polymers, such as good impact strength. As an elastic material, poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) is selected because of its optical transparency and good adhesive properties. In this work, a polymer-inorganic composite electrode was constructed on FTO/glass substrate under low temperature sintering condition, from the mixture of PMMA and $TiO_2$ colloidal solution. The effect of PMMA composition on the photovoltaic property was investigated. Then, the enhanced mechanical stability of this composite electrode on ITO/PEN substrate was also demonstrated from bending test.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Dyers and Finishers Conference
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• 2010.03a
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• pp.40-40
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• 2010

Studies on attractive color changing property of dye chromophore and fluorophore have been greatly enjoyed in the related industrial and research fields such as optoelectronics, chemosensor, biosensor and so on. The optical property based on D-$\Pi$-A intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) system of chromophore molecules can be utilized as suitable sensing probes for checking media polarity and determining colorimetric chemosensing effect, especially heavy metal detection. These finding are obtained by absorption and emission properties. In this work, donor-acceptor D-$\Pi$-A type fluorescent dyes were designed and synthesized with the corresponding donor and acceptor groups. The selected donor moieties might be provided prominent amorphous properties which are very useful in designing and synthesizing functional polymers and in fabricating devices. Another reasons to choose are commercial availabilities in high purity and low price. Donor-bridge-acceptor (D-A) type dyes can produce impressive optical-physical properties, yielding them potentially suitable for applications in the synthesis of small functional organic molecules. Small organic functional molecules have unique advantages, such as better solubility, amorphous character, and represent an area of research which needs to be explored and developed. Currently, their applications in metalorganic compounds is rapidly expanding and becoming widespread in self-assembly processes, photoluminescence applications, chiral organocatalysts, and ingrafts with nanomaterials. Colloidal nanoparticles have received great attentions in recent years. The photophysical properties of nanoparticles, particularly in terms of brightness, photostability, emission color purity and broad adsorption range, are very attractive functions in many applications. To our knowledge background, colloidal nanoparticles have been enjoyed their applications in bio-probe research fields. This research interest can be raised by the advantages of the materials such as high photoluminescence quantum yields, sharp emission band, long-term photostability and broad excitation spectra. In recent, the uses of nanoparticles being embedded in a polymer matrix and binded on polymer surface have been explored and their properties such as photo-activation and strong photoluminescence have been proposed. The prepared chromophores and nanoparticles were investigated with absorption and emission properties, solvatochromic behaviors, pH induced color switching effects, chemosensing effects and HOMO/LUMO energy potentials with computer simulation. In addition, synthesized fluorophore dyes and particles were applied onto PE/Aramid fiber fluorescing colorations. And the related details were then discussed.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.51-56
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• 2023

Composite membranes consisting of TiO₂ nanoparticles (NPs) and porous polymers have been widely utilized in photocatalytic water treatment because the composite membranes can allow an easy recovery of NPs after the photocatalytic reaction as well as the reduction of fouling in the membrane. However, the photocatalytic efficiency of the immobilized TiO₂ NPs in the composite membranes has been discussed to a limited degree. In this study, we prepared polyethersulfone (PES)/TiO₂ composite membranes to study the photocatalytic decomposition of organic dyes under light illumination. The decomposition kinetics of dye molecules by the PES/TiO₂ composite membranes and colloidal TiO₂ NPs have been compared to discuss the photocatalytic efficiency of NPs before and after their immobilization on the polymer membrane.