• Applied Microscopy
• /
• v.36 no.spc1
• /
• pp.19-24
• /
• 2006

The alumina-aluminum solid-liquid interfaces were directly observed at atomic scale by heating the alumina single crystal in high-voltage electron microscope (HVEM) owing to the electron beam damage processes, Atomic ordering in the first several layers of the liquid was clearly resolved adjacent to the alumina surface and its relevance to the single crystal growth was examined with the real-time observations.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.19-23
• /
• 2019

The PMMA (polymethyl methacrylate)/clay nanocomposites were synthesized by in situ radical polymerizations with different clay contents (3 and 7 wt%) using microwave heating. The nanostructure, optical, and thermal properties of the synthesized PMMA/clay nanocomposites were measured by XRD, TEM, AFM, UV-vis, and TGA. It was found that the intercalated- or exfoliated structure of PMMA/clay nanocomposites was strongly dependent on the content of clay. Thus, the imposition of microwave-assisted polymerization facilitated a delamination process of layered silicates to achieve exfoliation state of interlayer distance. The PMMA/3 wt% C10A nanocomposite with well-dispersed and exfoliated clay nano-layers showed the good optical transparency similar to pure PMMA in this study. The thermal decomposition rates of the PMMA/clay nanocomposites become to be lower compared to that of the pure PMMA, indicating the intercalated- or exfoliated inorganic silicate has high thermal stability. A possible reason is that the thermally segmental motion of PMMA polymer into inorganic silicate interlayer spacing has increased the thermal stability of the PMMA/clay nanocomposites.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
• /
• v.10 no.1
• /
• pp.22-26
• /
• 2001

Microstructures of AlN thin films on Si substrates grown by plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy were analyzed with various growth temperatures and substrate orientations. Reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) patterns were checked for the in-situ monitoring of the growth condition. X-ray diffraction(XRD), double crystal X-ray diffraction (DCXD), and transmission electron microscopy/diffraction (TEM/TED) techniques were employed to characterize the microstructure of the films after growth. On Si(100) sub-strates, AlN thin films were grown mostly along the hexagonal c-axis orientation at temperature higher than $850^{\circ}C$. On the other hand the AlN films on Si(111) were epitaxially grown with directional coherencies in AlN(0001)/Si(111), AlN(1100)/Si(110), and AlN(1120)/Si(112). The microstructure of AlN thin films on Si(111) substrates, with a full width at half maximum of almost 3000 arcsec at 2$\theta$=$36.2^{\circ}$, showed that the single crystal films were grown, even if they includ a lot of crystal defects such as dislocations and stacking faults.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.1-7
• /
• 2014

We developed a method of growing thin Si film at $600^{\circ}C$ by hot wire CVD using a very thin large-grained poly-Si seed layer for thin-film Si solar cells. The seed layer was prepared by crystallizing an amorphous Si film by vapor-induced crystallization using $AlCl_3$ vapor. The average grain size of the p-type epitaxial Si layer was about $20{\mu}m$ and crystallographic defects in the epitaxial layer were mainly low-angle grain boundaries and coincident-site lattice boundaries, which are special boundaries with less electrical activity. Moreover, with a decreasing in-situ boron doping time, the mis-orientation angle between grain boundaries and in-grain defects in epitaxial Si decreased. Due to fewer defects, the epitaxial Si film was high quality evidenced from Raman and TEM analysis. The highest mobility of $360cm^2/V{\cdot}s$ was achieved by decreasing the in-situ boron doping time. The performance of our preliminary thin-film solar cells with a single-side HIT structure and $CoSi_2$ back contact was poor. However, the result showed that the epitaxial Si film has considerable potential for improved performance with a reduced boron doping concentration.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.50 no.4
• /
• pp.678-683
• /
• 2012

Ceria is one of the most important catalytic materials which can be used in three-way catalysts, waste water treatment, petroleum refining, etc. So far, many methods have been studied to produce ceria nanoparticles. In this study, ceria nanoparticles were prepared via solvothermal synthesis using supercritical methanol in short reaction time using a batch reactor. The size of synthesized ceria nanoparticles in supercritical methanol is 6 nm without capping agent, which is smaller than that made in supercritical water at the same conditions of $400^{\circ}C$ and 30 MPa. Size difference results from density and critical point difference between water and methanol and slow reaction rate at the surface of ceria particles in supercritical methanol which reduces crystal growth rate. Several organic compounds were added to modify the surface of ceria nanoparticles, and in-situ surface modification was confirmed by FT-IR and TGA analysis. Surface modified ceria nanoparticles have excellent dispersibility in organic solvent. Size and shape of surface modified ceria particles can be controlled by adjusting molar ratio of modifier to precursor and selection of modifier.