• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.3-3
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• 2009

In order to investigate the possibility of using mixed rare earth $(Nd_{1/3}Eu_{1/3}Gd_{1/3})Ba_2Cu_3O_{7-x}$ (NEG123) as the superconducting layer of the HTS coated conductor, the NEG123 thin film was deposited epitaxialy on LAO(100) single crystal and IBAD_YSZ metal templates by pulsed laser deposition. Systematic studies were carried out to investigate the influences of deposition parameters of PLD on the micro structure, texture and superconducting properties of NEG-123 coated conductor. Deposition at oxygen partial pressure of 600 mTorr was needed to routinely obtain high quality NEG123 films with $J_c$'s (77K) over 2 MA/$cm^2$ and Tc's over 90K (${\Delta}T{\sim}2\;K$). We verified from magnetization study that the NEG123 has an improved in-field Jc as the field increases at temperatures between 10 K and 77 K compared with Gd123. The $J_c$ (77K, self field) and the value of onset $T_c$ of NEG123 thin film on LAO substrate was $4.0MA/cm^2$ and 92K, respectively. This is the first report, to the best of our knowledge, of coated conductors with NEG123 film as the superconducting layer which have Ic and Jc over 40 A/cm-width and 1.6 MA/$cm^2$ at 77K, self field. This study shows the possibility of using NEG123 film as the superconducting layer of the HTS coated conductor which can be used in high magnetic field power electric devices.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2018.06a
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• pp.62-62
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• 2018

Pt is still considered as one of the most active electrocatalysts for ORR in alkaline fuel cells. However, the high cost and scarcity of Pt hamper the widespread commercialization of fuel cells. As a strong candidate for the replacement of Pt catalyst, silver (Ag) has been extensively studied due to its high activity, abundance, and low cost. Ag is more stable than Pt in the pH range of 8~14 as the equilibrium potential of Ag/Ag+ being ${\approx}200mV$ higher than that of Pt/PtO. However, Ag is the overall catalytic activity of Ag for oxygen reduction reaction(ORR) is still not comparable to Pt catalyst since the surface Ag atoms are approximately 10 times less active than Pt atoms. Therefore, further enhancement in the ORR activity of Ag catalysts is necessary to be competitive with current cutting-edge Pt-based catalysts. We demonstrate the architectural design of Ag catalysts, synthesized using plasma discharge in liquid phase, for enhanced ORR kinetics in alkaline media. An attractive feature of this work is that the plasma status controlled via electric-field could form the Ag nanowires or dendrites without any chemical agents. The plasma reactor was made of a Teflon vessel with an inner diameter of 80 mm and a height of 80 mm, where a pair of tungsten(W) electrodes with a diameter of 2 mm was placed horizontally. The stock solutions were made by dissolving the 5-mM AgNO3 in DI water. For the synthesis of Agnanowires, the electricfield of 3.6kVcm-1 in a 200-ml AgNO3 aqueous solution was applied across the electrodes using a bipolar pulsed power supply(Kurita, Seisakusyo Co. Ltd). The repetition rate and pulse width were fixed at 30kHz and 2.0 us, respectively. The plasma discharge was carried out for a fixed reaction time of 60 min. In case of Ag nanodendrites, the electric field of 32kVcm-1 in a 200-ml AgNO3 aqueous solution was applied and other conditions were identical to the plasma discharge in water in terms of electrode configuration, repetition rate and discharge time. Using SEM and STEM, morphology of Ag nanowires and dendrites were investigated. With 3.6 kV/cm, Ag nanowire was obtained, while Ag dendrite was constructed with 32 kV/cm. The average diameter and legth of Ag nanowireses were 50 nm and 3.5 um, and thoes values of Ag dendrites were 40 nm and 3.0 um. As a results of XPS analysis, the surface defects in the Ag nanowires facilitated O2 incorporation into the surface region via the interaction between the oxygen and the electron cloud of the adjacent Ag atoms. The catalytic activity of Ag for oxygen reduction reaction(ORR) showed that the catalytic ORR activity of Ag nanowires are much better than Ag nanodendrites, and electron transfer number of Ag nanowires is similar to that of Pt (${\approx}4$).