• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.28 no.7
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• pp.411-416
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• 2018

Tungsten oxide($WO_3$) films with uniform surface morphology are fabricated using a spin-coating method for applications of electrochromic(EC) devices. To improve the EC performances of the $WO_3$ films, we control the heating rate of the annealing process to 10, 5, and $1^{\circ}C/min$. Compared to the other samples, the $WO_3$ films fabricated at a heating rate of $5^{\circ}C/min$ shows superior EC performances for transmittance modulation(49.5 %), response speeds(8.3 s in a colored state and 11.2 s in a bleached state), and coloration efficiency($37.3cm^2/C$). This performance improvement is mainly related to formation of a uniform surface morphology with increased particle size without any cracks by an optimized annealing heating rate, which improves the electrical conductivity and electrochemical activity of the $WO_3$ films. Thus, the $WO_3$ films with a uniform surface morphology prepared by the optimized annealing heating rate can be used as a potential candidate for performance improvement of the EC devices.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.56-64
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• 2013

An Eectrolytic Corrosion(EC) test method was evaluated by the comparison with Copper Accelerated Acetic Salt Spray(CASS) and Neutral Salt Spray(SS) tests. Those methods were applied in order to evaluate corrosion resistance of Ni-Cr plated and Zn-plated Fe substrates. The correlations between results obtained by different test methods were investigated. Results showed that the electrochemical method such as the EC test method was superior to the conventional methods such as CASS and SS, in terms of the quantitative accuracy and the test-time span. Furthermore, the EC test method provided the useful means to estimate the initiation of corrosion of each layer by monitoring the rest potentials of the coated layers such as Ni, Cr, and Zn on Fe substrate. With regard to test time spans, the EC test provided the 78 times and 182 times faster results than the CASS test in cases of $Fe+5{\mu}m$ $Ni+0.5{\mu}m$ Cr and $Fe+20{\mu}m$ $Ni+0.5{\mu}m$ Cr respectively, while the EC test was 85 times faster results than the Salt Spray test in the case of $Fe+20g/m^2$ Zn. Therefore, the EC test can be the better method to evaluate the resistance to corrosion of coated layers than the conventional methods such as the SS test and the CASS.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.407.1-407.1
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• 2016

Electrochromism is defined as a phenomenon which involves persistently repeated change of optical properties between bleached state and colored state by simultaneous injection of electrons and ions, sufficient to induce an electrochemical redox process. Due to this feature, considerable progress has been made in the synthesis of electrochromic (EC) materials, improvements of EC properties in EC devices such as light shutter, smart window and variable reflectance mirrors etc. Among the variable EC materials, solid-state inorganics in particular, metal oxide semiconducting materials such as nickel oxide (NiO) have been investigated extensively. The NiO that is an anodic EC material is of special interest because of high color contrast ratio, large dynamic range and low material cost. The high performance EC devices should present the use of standard industrial production techniques to produce films with high coloration efficiency, rapid switching speed and robust reversibility. Generally, the color contrast and the optical switching speed increase drastically if high surface area is used. The structure of porous thin film provides a specific surface area and can facilitate a very short response time of the reaction between the surface and ions. The large variety of methods has been used to prepare the porous NiO thin films such as sol-gel process, chemical bath deposition and sputtering. Few studies have been reported on NiO thin films made by using sol-gel method. However, compared with dry process, wet processes that have the questions of the durability and the vestige of bleached state color limit the thin films practical use, especially when prepared by sol-gel method. In this study, we synthesis the porous NiO thin films on the fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) glass by using sputtering and anodizing method. Also we compared electrical and optical properties of NiO thin films prepared by sol gel. The porous structure is promised to be helpful to the properties enhancement of the EC devices.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.190-197
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• 2012

We employed the vinyl ethylene carbonate (VEC) as an electrolyte additive and investigated the effect of the electrolyte additive on the electrochemical performance in hybrid capacitor. The activated carbon was adopted as cathode material, and the $Li_4Ti_5O_{12}$ oxide was used as anode material. The electrolyte was prepared with the $LiPF_6$ salt in the mixed solvent of ethylene carbonate (EC), dimethyl carbonate (DMC), and ethyl methyl carbonate(EMC). We evaluated the electrochemical performance of the hybrid capacitor with increasing the amount of the VEC electrolyte additive, which is known as the remover of oxygen functional group and the stabilizer of the electrode by reducing the surface of electrode, and obtained the superior performance data especially at the addition of the VEC electrolyte additive of around 0.7 vol%. On the contrary, the addition of the VEC more than 0.7 vol% in the electrolyte leads to the degradation in electrochemical performance of hybrid capacitor, suggesting the increase of the side reaction from the excessive VEC additive. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) revealed that the addition of the VEC suppressed the formation of LiF component, which is known as the insulator, on the surface of electrode. The optimized addition of VEC exhibited the improved capacity retention around 82.7% whereas the bare capacitors without VEC additive showed the 43.2% of capacity retention after 2500 cycling test.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.111-116
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• 2002

Electrochemical scanning tunneling microscopy was employed to study the evolution of surface morphology during electrochemical preparation of Si(111)-H from Si(111) oxide. Anodic dark current of cyclic voltammogram in 0.2M $NH_4F$ solution (pH 4.7) decreased as the number of cycles increased and remained nearly constant after the second cycle. Then, the Si(111) oxide was entirely stripped, which was followed by H termination on the Si(111) surface. Hydrides at kink and step sites were etched more rapidly than on the terrace, which remained triangle pits with [112] oriented steps where existed stable monohydride. Then, triangle pits deepened. During chronomamperometry at 0.4V anodic dark current shoulder appeared and decreased slowly, indicated the stripping of Si(111) oxide and the formation of stable (112) oriented steps with monohydride. Additionally, the etching mechanism of Si(111)-H in 0.2M $NH_4F(pH 4.7)$ solution at +0.4V was discussed.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.320-326
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• 2018

In this study, Graphite/Silicon/Carbon (G/Si/C) composites were synthesized to improve the electrochemical properties of Graphite as an anode material of lithium ion battery. The prepared G/Si/C composites were analyzed by XRD, TGA and SEM. Also the electrochemical performances of G/Si/C composites as the anode were performed by constant current charge/discharge, rate performance, cyclic voltammetry and impedance tests in the electrolyte of $LiPF_6$ dissolved inorganic solvents (EC:DMC:EMC=1:1:1 vol%). Lithium ion battery using G/Si/C electrode showed better characteristics than graphite electrode. It was confirmed that as the silicon content increased, the capacity increased but the capacity retention ratio decreased. Also, it was shown that both the capacity and the rate performances were improved when using the Silicon (${\leq}25{\mu}m$). It is found that in the case of 10 wt% of Silicon (${\leq}25{\mu}m$), G/Si/C composites have the initial discharge capacity of 495 mAh/g, the capacity retention ratio of 89% and the retention rate capability of 80% in 2 C/0.1 C.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.459-464
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• 2016

In this study, the electrochemical characteristics of porous silicon/carbon composite anode were investigated to improve the cycle stability and rate performance in lithium ion batteries. In this study, the effect of TEOS and $NH_3$ concentration, mixing speed and temperature on particle size of nano silica was investigated using $St{\ddot{o}}ber$ method. Nano porous Si/C composites were prepared by the fabrication processes including the synthesis of nano $SiO_2$, magnesiothermic reduction of nano $SiO_2$ to obtain nano porous Si by HCl etching, and carbonization of phenolic resin. Also the electrochemical performances of nano porous Si/C composites as the anode were performed by constant current charge/discharge test, cyclic voltammetry and impedance tests in the electrolyte of $LiPF_6$ dissolved inorganic solvents (EC:DMC:EMC=1:1:1vol%). It is found that the coin cell using nano porous Si/C composite has the capacity of 2,006 mAh/g and the capacity retention ratio was 55.4% after 40 cycle.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.52 no.1
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• pp.52-57
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• 2014

The MCMB-$Li_4Ti_5O_{12}$ with core-shell structure was prepared by sol-gel process to improve low cycle capability of MCMB in this study. The electrochemical characteristics were investigated for hybrid capacitor using MCMB-$Li_4Ti_5O_{12}$ as the negative electrode and $LiMn_2O_4$, Active carbon fiber as the positive electrode. The electrochemical behaviors of hybrid capacitor using organic electrolytes ($LiPF_6$, EC/DMC/EMC) were characterized by charge/discharge, cyclic voltammetry, cycle and impedance tests. The hybrid capacitor using MCMB-$Li_4Ti_5O_{12}/LiMn_2O_4$ electrodes had better capacitance than MCMB hybrid systems and was able to deliver a specific energy with 67 Wh/kg at a specific power of 781 W/kg.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.107-114
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• 2017

Pseudo capacitors belong to one group of super capacitors which are consisted with non carbon based electrodes. As such, conducting polymers and metal oxide materials have been employed for pseudo capacitors. Conducting polymer based pseudo capacitors have received a great attention due to their interesting features such as flexibility, low cost and ease of synthesis. Much work has been done using liquid electrolytes for those pseudo capacitors but has undergone various drawbacks. It has now been realized the use of solid polymer electrolytes as an alternative. Among them gel polymer electrolytes (GPEs) are in a key place due to their high ambient temperature conductivities as well as suitable mechanical properties. In this study, composition of a polyacrylonitrile (PAN) based GPE was optimized and it was employed as the electrolyte in a pseudo capacitor having polypyrrole (PPy) electrodes. GPE was prepared using ethylene carbonate (EC), propylene carbonate (PC), sodium thiocyanate (NaSCN) and PAN as starting materials. The maximum room temperature conductivity of the GPE was $1.92{\times}10^{-3}Scm^{-1}$ for the composition 202.5 PAN : 500 EC : 500 PC : 35 NaSCN (by weight). Performance of the pseudo capacitor was investigated using Cyclic Voltammetry technique, Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) technique and Continuous Charge Discharge (GCD) test. The single electrode specific capacity (Cs) was found out to be 174.31 F/g using Cyclic Voltammetry technique at the scan rate of 10 mV/s and within the potential window -1.2 V to 1.2 V. The same value obtained using EIS was about 84 F/g. The discharge capacity ($C_d$) was 69.8 F/g. The capacity fade over 1000 cycles was rather a low value of 4%. The results proved the suitability of the pseudo capacitor for improving the performance further.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.57 no.1
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• pp.5-10
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• 2019

In this study, electrochemical characteristics of artificial graphite coated with petroleum pitch using solvent method as anode material of lithium ion battery were investigated. As the solvent, n-hexane, toluene, tetrahydrofuran and quinoline were used. The surface of the prepared anode material was analyzed by SEM and TEM. Also the electrochemical performances of the prepared anode materials were performed by constant current first charge/discharge, cycle, cyclic voltammetry and impedance tests in the electrolyte of $LiPF_6$ dissolved inorganic solvents (EC:DEC=1:1 vol%). The coating thickness of the prepared graphite was about 100-500 nm and the graphite coated with THF solvent had a smoother surface than that using other solvents. It was found that pitch-coated graphite (THF) show the low initial irreversible capacity (51 mAh/g), the high discharge capacity (360 mAh/g) and coulombic efficiency (99%).