• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.32 no.11
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• pp.4109-4112
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• 2011

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.2037-2042
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• 2013

A TCO-less palladium (Pd) catalytic layer on the glass substrate was assessed as the counter electrode (CE) in a dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) to confirm the stability of Pd with the $I^-/I_3{^-}$electrolyte on the DSSC performance. A 90nm-thick Pd film was deposited by a thermal evaporator. Finally, DSSC devices of $0.45cm^2$ with glass/FTO/blocking layer/$TiO_2$/dye/electrolyte(10 mM LiI + 1 mM $I_2$ + 0.1 M $LiClO_4$ in acetonitrile solution)/Pd/glass structure was prepared. We investigated the microstructure and photovoltaic property at 1 and 12 hours after the sample preparation. The optical microscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), cyclic voltammetry measurement (C-V), and current voltage (I-V) were employed to measure the microstructure and photovoltaic property evolution. Microstructure analysis showed that the corrosion by reaction between the Pd layer and the electrolyte occurred as time went by, which led the decrease of the catalytic activity and the efficiency. I-V result revealed that the energy conversion efficiency after 1 and 12 hours was 0.34% and 0.15%, respectively. Our results implied that we might employ the other non-$I^-/I_3{^-}$electrolyte or the other catalytic metal layers to guarantee the long term stability of the DSSC devices.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.08a
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• pp.161-161
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• 2011

Titanium (IV) dioxide (TiO2) is one of the most attractive d-block transition metal functional oxides. Many applications of TiO2 such as dye-sensitized solar cells and photocatalyst have been widely investigated. To utilize solar energy efficiently, TiO2 should be well-aligned with a high surface area and promote the charge separation as well as electron transport. Herein, the TiO2 nanotubes were successfully fabricated by a template-directed method. The electrospun PEO(Polyethylene oxide, Molecular weight, 400k)fibers were used as a soft template for coating with titanium dioxide using an atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique. The deposition was conducted onto a template at 50$^{\circ}C$ by using titaniumisopropoxide [Ti(OCH(CH3)2)4; TTIP] as precursors of TiO2. While the as-deposited TiO2 layers onto PEO fibers were completely amorphous with atomic layer deposition, the TiO2 layers after calcination at 500$^{\circ}C$ for 1 h were properly converted into polycrystalline nanostructured hallow TiO2 nanotube. The TiO2 nanotube with high surface area can be easily handled and reclaimed for use in future applications related to solar cell fabrications.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.202-207
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• 2024

This study examines a manufacturing process for the photoelectrode material of dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) intending to increase efficiency through the surface plasmon resonance phenomenon of nanoparticles with a composite structure made of Ag and TiO₂. This invention involves the use of Ag and TiO₂ nanoparticles in the solar cell. These nanoparticles cause surface plasmon resonance, which amplifies and scatters incident solar energy, enhancing the dye's rate of light absorption. It also makes it possible to absorb energy in wavelength ranges that were previously difficult to do, which increases efficiency. Centrifugal separation and heat synthesis are used to create the composite metal structures, and certain combinations are used to decide the particle morphologies. To increase the efficiency of organic solar cells and DSSC, the Ag/TiO₂ composite structure is therefore quite likely to be used.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.440-440
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• 2009

Semiconductor nanowires offer exciting possibilities as components of solar cells and have already found applications as active elements in organic, dye-sensitized, quantum-dot sensitized, liquid-junction, and inorganic solid-state devices. Among many semiconductors, silicon is by far the dominant material used for worldwide photovoltaic energy conversion and solar cell manufacture. For silicon wire to be used for solar device, well aligned wire arrays need to be fabricated vertically or horizontally. Macroscopic silicon wire arrays suitable for photovoltaic applications have been commonly grown by the vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) process using metal catalysts such as Au, Ni, Pt, Cu. In the case, the impurity issues inside wire originated from metal catalyst are inevitable, leading to lowering the efficiency of solar cell. To escape from the problem, the wires of purity of wafer are the best for high efficiency of photovoltaic device. The fabrication of wire arrays by the electrochemical etching of silicon wafer with photolithography can solve the contamination of metal catalyst. In this presentation, we introduce silicon wire arrays by electrochemical etching method and then fabrication methods of radial p-n junction wire array solar cell and the various merits compared with conventional silicon solar cells.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.463-463
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• 2014

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have generated a strong interest in the development of solid-state devices owing to their low cost and simple preparation procedures. Effort has been devoted to the study of electrolytes that allow light-to-electrical power conversion for DSSC applications. Several attempts have been made to substitute the liquid electrolyte in the original solar cells by using (2,2',7,7'-tetrakis (N,N-di-p-methoxyphenylamine)-9-9'-spirobi-fluorene (spiro-OMeTAD) that act as hole conductor [1]. Although efficiencies above 3% have been reached by several groups, here the major challenging is limited photoelectrode thickness ($2{\mu}m$), which is very low due to electron diffusion length (Ln) for spiro-OMeTAD ($4.4{\mu}m$) [2]. In principle, the $TiO_2$ layer can be thicker than had been thought previously. This has important implications for the design of high-efficiency solid-state DSSCs. In the present study, we have fabricated 3-D Transparent Conducting Oxide (TCO) by growing tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) nanowire (NWs) arrays via a vapor transport method [3] and mesoporous $TiO_2$ nanoparticle (NP)-based photoelectrodes were prepared using doctor blade method. Finally optimized light-harvesting solid-state DSSCs is made using 3-D TCO where electron life time is controlled the recombination rate through fast charge collection and also ITO NWs length can be controlled in the range of over $2{\mu}m$ and has been characterized using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). Structural analyses by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and X-Ray diffraction (XRD) results reveal that the ITO NWs formed single crystal oriented [100] direction. Also to compare the charge collection properties of conventional NPs based solid-state DSSCs with ITO NWs based solid-state DSSCs, we have studied intensity modulated photovoltage spectroscopy (IMVS), intensity modulated photocurrent spectroscopy (IMPS) and transient open circuit voltages. As a result, above $4{\mu}m$ thick ITO NWs based photoelectrodes with Z907 dye shown the best performing device, exhibiting a short-circuit current density of 7.21 mA cm-2 under simulated solar emission of 100 mW cm-2 associated with an overall power conversion efficiency of 2.80 %. Finally, we achieved the efficiency of 7.5% by applying a CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite sensitizer.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.264-268
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• 2018

Vertically-aligned $TiO_2$ nanotube electrodes have attracted considerable attention for applications in solar cells, catalysts, and sensors, because of their ideal structure for electron transport and electrolyte diffusion. Here, we prepare vertically-aligned $TiO_2$ nanotube electrodes using a two-step anodization process. The prepared $TiO_2$ nanotube electrodes exhibit uniform pore structures with an inner diameter of ~80-90 nm and wall thickness of ~20-25 nm. In addition, they exhibit an anatase crystal phase after a high-temperature annealing. The annealed $TiO_2$ nanotube electrodes are applied in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) as photoanodes. The fabricated DSSC exhibits conversion efficiencies of 3.46 and 2.15% with liquid- and gel-type electrolytes, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.282-285
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• 2012

It is well known that Zinc Oxide (ZnO) is an attractive material for its various applications. ZnO has been mostly used as a transparent conducting oxide in liquid crystal displays, solar cells due to its advantages of low cost, high productivity, and excellent electrical conductivity. Notably, flexible-dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) based on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates require low temperature sintering processing conditions. Therefore, low temperature processing conditions have been strongly required for transparent conducting film applications. In this paper, we prepared low temperature-sintered ZnO ceramics employing Li as a sintering aid.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.30 no.9
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• pp.2077-2082
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• 2009

The conformational and electronic properties of 2-cyano-3-(thiophen-2-yl)acrylic acid (TCA) in analogues used as sensitizers in dye-sensitized solar cells was examined using density functional theory (DFT) and natural bond orbital analysis methods. A relaxed potential energy surface scan was performed on NKX-2677 by rotating the C-C bond between the thiophene and cyanoacrylic acid which yielded activation energy barriers of about 13 kcal/mol for both E and Z configurations. The most stable conformation of all the analogues was E-180 except for NKX-2587 which has an electrostatic repulsion between the oxygen of the coumarin and the nitrogen of the cyanoacrylic acid. The increase in the electron delocalization between the thiophene and cyanoacrylic acid influences the stability for most of the analogues. But for NKX-2600, even though there was a greater deviation from the planarity of TCA, the stability was mainly due to the presence of a weak hydrogen bond between the hydrogen of the methyl group of the amine located in the donor moiety and the nitrogen of the cyanoacrylic acid. The vertical excitation energies of the analogues containing TCA were calculated by time-dependent DFT method. There were slight differences in its vertical excitation energies but the oscillator strengths vary significantly especially in the case of NKX-2600.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.308-308
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• 2013

본 연구에 염료감응형 태양전지(Dye Sensitized Solar Cells; DSSCs)의 광전변환효율을 높이기 위해 작업전극에 새로운 구조의 광투과층 및 산란층을 도입하였다. DSSCs 작업전극의 빛을 투과시키는 투과층에 크기가 10 nm 이하의 nanoparticle $TiO_2$를 적용하고, 투과된 빛이 산란되어 많은 전자가 여기 될 수 있도록 기존의 큰 입자 사이즈였던 산란층을 이용하는 대신 $TiO_2$ nanorod 및 nanotube 형태의 구조를 도입하여 기존의 작업전극과 비교하였다. 산란층에서 방향성을 가지는 rutile 상의 $TiO_2$는 저온에서 안정적인 anatase 상의 $TiO_2$보다 화학적으로 안정하며, 높은 산란율을 가지고, 광에 의해 여기된 전자를 직접적으로 집전전극에 전달해 줌으로서 소자의 효율을 증가시킨다고 보고되고 있다. Rutile 상의 $TiO_2$ 층 제작 시 수열합성법을 이용하면 nanorod 모양의 $TiO_2$층을 형성할 수 있고, 이와 같은 방법으로 성장시킨 산란층에 전기영동법의 식각 효과를 사용하면 nanotube 모양의 $TiO_2$층을 성장시킬 수 있어 산란효과의 극대화 및 전극의 표면적을 넓히는 장점이 있다. 각각의 방법을 이용하여 만든 구조 위에 입자 크기 10 nm의 $TiO_2$를 Dr blade 방법으로 도포하여 double layer (산란층+흡수층)로 구성된 작업 전극을 이용한 DSSCs를 제작한 후 I-V curve와 EIS (Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy)를 측정하여 효율 및 전기화학적 특성을 분석하였다.