• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2005.07c
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• pp.2007-2009
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• 2005

염료감응형 태양전지에 대한 연구 분야에서 다공질 산화물 전극이나 염료 및 전해질 연구에 비해, 상대전극에 대한 연구는 상대적으로 미비한 상태이다. 또한 일반적으로 사용되고 있는 고가의 백금 상대전극을 대체하면서도 촉매 특성이 우수한 새로운 상대전극에 대한 연구의 필요성이 요구된다. 본 연구에서는 우수한 신소재로서 높은 전기전도도 및 전자방출 특성 그리고 높은 표면적을 지니고 있어 전자기기 분야의 다방면에 이용되고 있으며, 최근 대량생산 기술의 개발에 따라 가격이 급격히 하락하고 있는 다중벽 탄소나노튜브(MWCNT)을 이용하여 상대전극을 제조하였다. 이 탄소나노튜브 상대전극을 이용하여 단위 셀을 만들고, 유사 태양광 하에서의 전지의 광전 특성을 측정하였다. 이를 바탕으로 탄소나노튜브 상대전극이 염료감응형 태양전지의 특성 및 수명 안정화에 미치는 영향을 백금 상대전극의 광전 특성과 비교하여 탄소나노튜브의 상대전극으로써의 가능성을 제시하였다.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2007.07a
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• pp.1293-1294
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• 2007

태양전지는 대표적인 결정질 실리콘 태양전지를 비롯해 다양한 종류가 있지만 모두 입사광의 광량이나 광도에 출력이 의존한다는 점은 공통적이다. 이는 입사광의 에너지를 받아 염료 분자의 여기를 통해 전자를 생산하는 염료감응형 태양전지의 매커니즘에도 적용되는 것이다. 즉, 입사광의 광도나 광량의 값이 클수록 염료감응형 태양전지는 더 높은 출력전력을 생산한다는 의미이다. 본 연구에서는 투명성 때문에 입사광의 투과도가 높은 염료감응형 태양전지의 특성에 착안해 상대전극에 금속박막을 sputtering함으로써 입사광의 반사율을 증가시켜 입사된 광의 에너지를 더 효과적으로 활용할 수 있는 방법을 시도했다. 금속박막의 재료로 니켈, 백금, 은을 대상으로 실험한 결과, 금속박막을 sputtering 하지 않은 경우에 비해 전체적으로 염료감응형 태양전지의 효율이나 전력면에서 개선된 결과를 얻었고 그 중 백금 반사막을 입힌 셀로부터 최대 24.4%의 투과도 감소를 비롯, 11.5%의 출력전력의 증가와 0.4%의 효율 상승을 이끌어냈다.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.21 no.11
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• pp.186-194
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• 2004

In this research, microfabrication technique using localized electrochemical deposition (LECD) with ultra short pulses is presented. Electric field is localized near the tool tip end region by applying a few hundreds of nano second pulses. Pt-Ir tip is used as a counter electrode and copper is deposited on the copper substrate in 0.5 M CuSO$_4$ and 0.5 M H$_2$SO$_4$ electrolyte. The effectiveness of this technique is verified by comparison with LECD using DC voltage. The deposition characteristics such as size, shape, surface, and structural density according to applied voltage and pulse duration are investigated. The proper condition is selected from the results of the experiments. Micro columns less than 10 $\mu$m in diameter are fabricated using this technique. The real 3D micro structures such as micro pattern and micro spring can be fabricated by this method. It is suggested that presented method can be used as an easy and inexpensive method for fabrication of microstructure with complex shape.

• Progress in Superconductivity
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.76-80
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• 2001

We have fabricated YBa$_2$Cu$_3$$O_{7-x}$ (YBCO) ramp-edge Josephson junctions by modifying ramp edges of the base electrodes without depositing any artificial barrier layer. YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O/7-x//SrTiO$_3$ (YBCO/STO) films were deposited on SrTiO$_3$(100) by on-axis KrF laser deposition. After patterning the bottom YBCO/STO layer, the ramp edge was cleaned by ion-beam and then reacted with deionized water under various conditions prior to the deposition of counter-electrode layers. The top YBCO/STO layer was deposited and patterned by photolithography and ion milling. We measured current-voltage (I-V) characteristics, magnetic field modulation of the critical current at 77 K. Some showed resistively shunted junction (RSJ)-type I-V characteristics, while others exhibited flux-flow behaviors, depending on the dipping time of the ramp edge in deionized water. Junctions fabricated using optimized conditions showed fairly uniform distribution of junction parameters such as I$_{c}$R$_{n}$ values, which were about 0.16 mV at 77 K with 1$\sigma$~ 24%. We made a dc SQUID with the same deionized water treated junctions, and it showed the sinusoidal modulation under applied magnetic field at 77 K. 77 K.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.441-441
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• 2009

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have been widely investigated as a next-generation solar cell because of their simple fabrication process and low coats. The cells use a porous nanocrystalline TiO2 matrix coated with a sensitizer dye that acts as the light-harvesting element. The photo-exited dye injects electrons into the $TiO_2$ particles, and the oxide dye reacts with I- in the electrolyte in regenerative cycle that is completed by the reduction of $I_3^-$ at a platinum-coated counter electrode. Since $TiO_2$ porous film plays a key role in the enhancement of photoelectric conversion efficiency of DSSC, many scientists focus their researches on it. Especially, a high light-to-electricity conversion efficiency results from particle size and crystallographic phase, film porosity, surface structure, charge and surface area to volume ratio of porous $TiO_2$ electrodes, on which the dye can be sufficiently adsorbed. Effective treatment of the photoanode is important to improve DSSC performance. In this paper, to obtain properties of surface and dispersion as nitric acid treated $TiO_2$ photoelectrode was investigate. The photovoltaic characteristics of DSSCs based the electrode fabricated by nitric acid pre-treatment $TiO_2$ materials gave better performances on both of short circuit current density and open circuit voltage. We compare dispersion of $TiO_2$ nanoparticles before and after nitric acid treatment and measured Ti oxidized state from XPS. Low charge transfer resistance was obtained in nitric acid treated sample than that of untreated sample. The dye-sensitized solar cell based on the nitric acid treatment had open-circuit voltage of 0.71 V, a short-circuit current of 15.2 mAcm-2 and an energy conversion efficiency of 6.6 % under light intensity of $100\;mWcm^{-2}$. About 14 % increases in efficiency obtained when the $TiO_2$ electrode was treated by nitric acid.

• Journal of the East Asian Society of Dietary Life
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.731-738
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• 2011

Cholesterol is the precursor of various steroid hormones, bile acid, and vitamin D with functions related to regulation of membrane permeability and fluidity. However, the presence of excess blood cholesterol may lead to arteriosclerosis and hypertension. Moreover, dietary cholesterol may affect blood cholesterol levels. Generally, cholesterol determination is performed by spectrophotometric or chromatographic methods, but these methods are very time consuming and costly, and require complicated pretreatment. Thus, the development of a rapid and simple analysis method for measuring cholesterol concentration in food is needed. Multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) was functionalized to MWCNT-$NH_2$ via MWCNT-COOH to have high sensitivity to $H_2O_2$. The fabricated MWCNT-$NH_2$ was attached to a glassy carbon electrode (GCE), after which Prussian blue (PB) was coated onto MWCNT-$NH_2$/GCE. MWCNT-$NH_2$/PB/GCE was used as a working electrode. An Ag/AgCl electrode and Pt wire were used as a reference electrode and counter electrode, respectively. The sensitivity of the modified working electrode was determined based on the amount of current according to the concentration of $H_2O_2$. The response increased with an increase of $H_2O_2$ concentration in the range of 0.5~500 ${\mu}M$ ($r^2$=0.96) with a detection limit of 0.1 ${\mu}M$. Cholesterol oxidase was immobilized to aminopropyl glass beads, CNBr-activated sepharose, Na-alginate, and toyopearl beads. The immobilized enzyme reactors with aminopropyl glass beads and CNBr-activated sepharose showed linearity in the range of 1~100 ${\mu}M$ cholesterol. Na-alginate and toyopearl beads showed linearity in the range of 5~50 and 1~50 ${\mu}M$ cholesterol, respectively. The detection limit of all immobilized enzyme reactors was 1 ${\mu}M$. These enzyme reactors showed high sensitivity; especially, the enzyme reactors with CNBr-activated sepharose and Na-alginate indicated high coupling efficiency and sensitivity. Therefore, both of the enzyme reactors are more suitable for a cholesterol biosensor system.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 2006

Lithium titanium oxide $(Li_4Ti_5O_{12})$ with spinel-framework structures as anode material for lithium-ion battery was prepared by sol-gel and high energy ball milling (HEBH) method. According to the X-ray diffraction (XRD), Particle Size Analyses(PSA) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis, uniformly distributed $Li_4Ti_5O_{12}$ particles with grain sizes of 100 nm were observed. Half cells, consisting of $Li_4Ti_5O_{12}$ as working electrode and lithium foil as both counter and reference electrodes showed the high performance of high rate discharge capacity and 173 mAh/g at 0.2C in the range of $1.0\sim2.5 V$. Furthermore, the crystalline structure of $Li_4Ti_5O_{12}$ didn't transform during the lithium intercalation and deintercalation process.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.356-360
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• 2007

Recently, dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) composed of nanoporous $TiO_2$, light-sensitive dyes, electrolytes, and counter electrode have been received much attention. Nanostructured particles with higher surface area for the higher adsorption of Ru (II) dye are required to increase the quantity of light absorption. Also, it has been reported that the key factor to achieve high energy conversion efficiency in the photoelectrode of DSSC is the heat treatment of $TiO_2$ paste with acid addition. In this work, we investigated the influence of acid treatment of $TiO_2$ solar cell on the photovoltaic performance of DSSC. The working electrodes fabricated in this work were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS), field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM), and atomic force microscope (AFM). In addition, the influence of nanostructured photoelectrode fabricated with the acid-treated paste on the energy conversion efficiency was investigated on the basis of photocurrent-potential curves. It was found that the influence of acid-treated paste on the photovoltaic efficiency was significant.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.211-216
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• 2010

Boron trifluoride lithium methacrylate ($BF_3$LiMA)-based gel polymer electrolytes (GPEs) were synthesized with various $BF_3$LiMA concentration to elucidate the effect on ionic conductivity and electrochemical stability by a AC impedance and linear sweep voltammetry (LSV). As a result, the highest ionic conductivity reached $5.3{\times}10^{-4}Scm^{-1}$ at $25^{\circ}C$ was obtained for 4 wt% of $BF_3$LiMA. Furthermore, high electrochemical stability up to 4.3 V of the $BF_3$LiMA-based GPE was observed in LSV measurement since the counter anion was immobilized in this self-doped system. On the other hand, it was assumed that there was a rapid decomposition of electrolytes on a lithium metal electrode which results in a high solid electrolyte interface (SEI) resistance. However, a high stability toward graphite or lithium cobalt oxide (LCO) electrode thereby a low SEI resistance was observed from the AC impedance measurement as a function of storage time at $25^{\circ}C$. Consequently, the high ionic conductivity, good electrochemical stability and the good interfacial compatibility with graphite and LCO were achieved in $BF_3$LiMA-based GPE.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.08a
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• pp.99-99
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• 2013

In this talk, I will present two research works in progress, which are: i) mapping of piezoelectric polarization and associated charge density distribution in the heteroepitaxial InGaN/GaN multi-quantum well (MQW) structure of a light emitting diode (LED) by using inline electron holography and ii) in-situ observation of the polarization switching process of an ferroelectric Pb(Zr1-x,Tix)O3 (PZT) thin film capacitor under an applied electric field in transmission electron microscope (TEM). In the first part, I will show that strain as well as total charge density distributions can be mapped quantitatively across all the functional layers constituting a LED, including n-type GaN, InGaN/GaN MQWs, and p-type GaN with sub-nm spatial resolution (~0.8 nm) by using inline electron holography. The experimentally obtained strain maps were verified by comparison with finite element method simulations and confirmed that not only InGaN QWs (2.5 nm in thickness) but also GaN QBs (10 nm in thickness) in the MQW structure are strained complementary to accommodate the lattice misfit strain. Because of this complementary strain of GaN QBs, the strain gradient and also (piezoelectric) polarization gradient across the MQW changes more steeply than expected, resulting in more polarization charge density at the MQW interfaces than the typically expected value from the spontaneous polarization mismatch alone. By quantitative and comparative analysis of the total charge density map with the polarization charge map, we can clarify what extent of the polarization charges are compensated by the electrons supplied from the n-doped GaN QBs. Comparison with the simulated energy band diagrams with various screening parameters show that only 60% of the net polarization charges are compensated by the electrons from the GaN QBs, which results in the internal field of ~2.0 MV cm-1 across each pair of GaN/InGaN of the MQW structure. In the second part of my talk, I will present in-situ observations of the polarization switching process of a planar Ni/PZT/SrRuO3 capacitor using TEM. We observed the preferential, but asymmetric, nucleation and forward growth of switched c-domains at the PZT/electrode interfaces arising from the built-in electric field beneath each interface. The subsequent sideways growth was inhibited by the depolarization field due to the imperfect charge compensation at the counter electrode and preexisting a-domain walls, leading to asymmetric switching. It was found that the preexisting a-domains split into fine a- and c-domains constituting a $90^{\circ}$ stripe domain pattern during the $180^{\circ}$ polarization switching process, revealing that these domains also actively participated in the out-of-plane polarization switching. The real-time observations uncovered the origin of the switching asymmetry and further clarified the importance of charged domain walls and the interfaces with electrodes in the ferroelectric switching processes.