• Carbon letters
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.192-197
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• 2014

A hierarchical pore structured novolac-type phenol based-activated carbon with micropores and mesopores was fabricated. Physical activation using a sacrificial silicon dioxide ($SiO_2$) template and chemical activation using potassium hydroxide (KOH) were employed to prepare these materials. The morphology of the well-developed pore structure was characterized using field-emission scanning electron microscopy. The novolac-type phenol-based activated carbon retained hierarchical pores (micropores and mesopores); it exhibited high Brunauer-Emmett-Teller specific surface areas and hierarchical pore size distributions. The hierarchical pore novolac-type phenol-based activated carbon was used as an electrode in electric double-layer capacitors, and the specific capacitance and the retained capacitance ratio were measured. The specific capacitances and the retained capacitance ratio were enhanced, depending on the $SiO_2$ concentration in the material. This result is attributed to the hierarchical pore structure of the novolac-type phenol-based activated carbon.

• Composites Research
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.132-137
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• 2016

Based on mussel-inspired polydopamine (PDA), a novel technique to fabricate carbon nanowire (CNW) arrays is presented for a possible use of porous carbon electrode in electrochemical energy storage applications. PDA can give more porosity and nitrogen-doping effect to carbon electrodes, since it has high graphitic carbon yield characteristic and rich amine functionalities. Using such outstanding properties, the applicability of PDA for electrochemical energy storage devices was investigated. To achieve this, the decoration of the CNW arrays on carbon fiber surface was performed to increase the surface area for storage of electrical charge and the chemical active sites. Here, zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowire (NW) arrays were hydrothermally grown on the carbon fiber surface and then, PDA was coated on ZnO NWs. Finally, high temperature annealing was performed to carbonize PDA coating layers. For higher energy density, manganese oxide ($MnO_x$) nanoparticles (NPs), were deposited on the carbonized PDA NW arrays. The enlarged surface area induced by carbon nanowire arrays led to a 4.7-fold enhancement in areal capacitance compared to that of bare carbon fibers. The capacitance of nanowire-decorated electrodes reached up to $105.7mF/cm^2$, which is 59 times higher than that of pristine carbon fibers.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.294-299
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• 2000

For practical application as a humidity sensor SnO$_2$thick films devices were fabricated on the refresh type electrode by screen printing method and their material and humidity sensing properties were investigated. As a function of Sb$_{2}$/O$_{3}$ addition rate grain size was increased while porosity and initial resistance were rapidly decreased. And the area of resistance variation according to relative humidity was decreased with increasing heat treatment temperature. SnO$_2$thick film device heat treated at 95$0^{\circ}C$ and contained 0.05mole% Sb$_{2}$/O$_{3}$ had a best humidity sensing properties. From this result it is conformed that humidity sensing properties of SnO$_2$thick film devices could be approved by very small amount of Sb$_{2}$/O$_{3}$ addition.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.18-25
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• 1998

G $d_{0.2}$C $e_{0.8}$ $O_{1.9}$(CGO) for electrolyte and L $a_{0.5}$S $r_{0.5}$Mn $O_3$(LSM50) for cathode in Solid Oxide Fuel Cells(SOFC) were synthesized by citrate process. Specimens were prepared with sintering temperatures at 110$0^{\circ}C$, 120$0^{\circ}C$ and 130$0^{\circ}C$, which were fabricated by slurry coating with citric acid contents. Interfacial resistance was measured between cathode and electrolyte using AC-impedance analyzer. With various citric acid content, the degree of agglomeration for the initial particles changed. Also sintering temperature changed the particle size and the degree of densification of cathode. Factors affecting the interfacial resistance were adherent degree of the electrolyte and cathode, distribution of TPB(three phase boundaries, TPB i.e., electrolyte/electrode/gas phase area) and porosity of cathode. By increasing the sintering temperature, particle size and densification of the cathode were increased. And then, TPB area which occurs catalytic reaction was reduced and so interfacial resistance was increased.sed.sed.d.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.418-427
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• 2019

Activated carbon was synthesized from bamboo charcoal by KOH activation at various temperatures for electrochemical double layer capacitor applications. The micro-structural and surface properties of all the samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and N2 adsorption/desorption isotherm method. The electrochemical properties of the activated bamboo charcoal were examined by cyclic voltammetry in the potential window of -1.0 to 0.2 V in 6 M KOH electrolyte at different scan rates. An electrode made from the sample activated with 7.5 M KOH and heat treated at $750^{\circ}C$ for 3 h gave a maximum capacitance of 553 F/g at 1 mV/s and 450 F/g at 10mV/s.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.134-134
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• 2010

Fuel cell is a device that directly converts chemical energy in the form of a fuel into electrical energy by way of an electrochemical reaction. In the anode for a high temperature fuel cell, nickel or nickel alloy has been used in consideration of the cost, oxidation catalystic ability of hydrogen which is used as fuel, electron conductivity, and high temperature stability in reducing atmosphere. Most MCFC stacks currently operate at an average temperature of $650^{\circ}C$. There is some gains with decreased temperature in MCFC to diminish the electrolyte loss from evaporation and the material corrosion, which could improve the MCFC life. However, operating temperature has a strong related on a number of electrode reaction rates and ohmic losses. Baker et al. reported the effect of temperature (575 to $650^{\circ}C$). The rates of cell voltage loss were 1.4mV/$^{\circ}C$ for a reduction in temperature from 650 to $600^{\circ}C$, and 2.16mV/$^{\circ}C$ for a decrease from 600 to $575^{\circ}C$. The two major contributors responsible for the change in cell voltage with reducing operation temperature are the ohmic polarization and electrode polarization. It appears that in the temperature range of 550 to $650^{\circ}C$, about 1/3 of the total change in cell voltage with decreasing temperature is due to an increase in ohmic polarization, and the electrode polarization at the anode and cathode. In addition, the oxidation reaction of hydrogen on an ordinary nickel alloy anode in MCFC is generally considered to take place in the three phase zone, but anyway the area contributing to this reaction is limited. Therefore, in order to maintain a high performance of the fuel cell, it is necessary to keep this reaction responsible area as wide as possible, that is, it is needed to keep the porosity and specific surface area of the anode at a high level. In this study effective anodes are prepared for low temperature MCFC capable of enhancing the cell performance by using zirconium hydride at least in part of anode material.

• 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.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.58 no.3
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• pp.466-473
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• 2020

Fabric current collector can be a promising electrode material for Capacitive Deionization (CDI) system that can achieve energy-efficient desalination of water. The one of the most attractive feature of the fabric current collector is its high tensile strength, which can be an alternative to the low mechanical strength of the graphite foil electrode. Another advantage is that the textile properties can easily make shapes by simple cutting, and the porosity and inter-fiber space which can assist facile flow of the aqueous medium. The fibers used in this study were made of woven structures using a spinning yarn using conductive LM fiber and carbon fiber, with tensile strength of 319 MPa, about 60 times stronger than graphite foil. The results were analyzed by measuring the salt removal efficiency by changing the viscosity of electrode slurry, adsorption voltage, flow rate of the aqueous medium, and concentration of the aqueous medium. Under the conditions of NaCl 200 mg/L, 20ml/min and adsorption voltage 1.5 V, salt removal efficiency of 43.9% in unit cells and 59.8% in modules stacked with 100 cells were shown, respectively. In unit cells, salt removal efficiency increases as the adsorption voltage increase to 1.3, 1.4 and 1.5 V. However, increasing to 1.6 and 1.7 V reduced salt removal efficiency. However, the 100-cell-stacked module showed a moderate increase in salt removal efficiency even at voltages above 1.5 V. The salt removal rate decreased when the flow rate of the feed was increased, and the salt removal rate decreased when the concentration of the feed was increased. This work shows that fabric current collector can be an alternative of a graphite foil.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.8.1-8.1
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• 2011

Nanocrystalline titanium dioxide ($TiO_2$) materials have been widely used as an electron collector in DSSC. This is required to have an extremely high porosity and surface area such that the dye can be sufficiently adsorbed and be electronically interconnected, resulting in the generation of a high photocurrent within cells. In particular, their geometrical structures and crystalline phase have been extensively investigated as important issues in improving its photovoltaic efficiency. In this study, we present a new strategy to fabricate a photoelectrode having a periodic structured $TiO_2$ film templated from 1D or 3D polystyrene (PS) microspheres array. Monodisperse PS spheres of various radiuses were used for colloidal array on FTO glasses and two types of photoelectrode structures with different $TiO_2$ materials were investigated respectively. One is the igloo-shaped electrode prepared by $TiO_2$ deposition by RF-sputtering onto 2D microsphere-templated substrates. At the interface between the film and substrate, there are voids formed by the decomposition of PS microspheres during the calcination step. These holes might be expected to play the predominant roles as scattering spherical voids to promote a light harvesting effect, a spacious structure for electrolytes with higher viscosity and effective paths for electron transfer. Additionally the nanocrystalline $TiO_2$ phase prepared by the RF-sputtering method was previously reported to improve the electron drift mobility within $TiO_2$ electrodes. This yields solar cells with a cell efficiency of 2.45% or more at AM 1.5 illumination, which is a very remarkable result, considering its $TiO_2$ electrode thickness (<2 ${\mu}m$). This study can be expanded to obtain higher cell efficiency by higher dye loading through the increase of surface area or multi-layered stacking. The other is the inverse opal photonic crystal electrode prepared by titania particles infusion within 3D colloidal arrays. To obtain the enlargement of ordered area and high quality of crystallinity, the synthesis of titania particles coated with a organic thin layer were applied instead of sol-gel process using the $TiO_2$ precursors. They were dispersed so well in most solvents without aggregates and infused successfully within colloidal array structures. This ordered mesoporous structure provides the large surface area leading to the enough adsorption of dye molecules and have an light harvesting effect due to the photonic band gap properties (back-and-forth reflection effects within structures). A major advantage of this colloidal array template method is that the pore size and its distribution within $TiO_2$ photoelectrodes are determined by those of latex beads, which can be controlled easily. These materials may have promising potentials for future applications of membrane, sensor and so on as well as solar cells.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.203-210
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• 2007

As a part of basic studies on monitoring of landslides and slope stability using SP measurements, micro-electric potentials of rock samples were measured accompanied with the rock failure by a uniaxial loading test were measured. The measurement system consists of a 8 channel A/D converter with 24 bit resolution, uniaxial loading tester, strain gages and 4 sets of electrode attached to a rock sample. Rock samples of granite, limestone, and sandstone were tested. Also, mortar samples were tested in order to monitor electric-potentials of a uniform sample. Micro-electric potentials were detected in all saturated samples and the strength of them increased as the loading force increased. Sandstone samples showed the largest strength of micro-electric potential and it followed limestone and granite samples, which indicates a positive relationship with porosity of rocks. The mechanism generating these micro-electric potential can be explained in terms of electro-kinetics. In case of dry samples, micro-electric potential could be observed only in sandstone samples, where piezoelectric effect played main role due to high contents of quartz in sandstone samples. We found that biggest micro-electric potentials were observed at the electrodes near the crack surface of rock samples. This is very encouraging result that SP monitoring can be applied to predicting landsliding or to estimate collapsing position combining with monitoring of acoustic emissions.