• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.33 no.10
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• pp.377-384
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• 2023

Exploring earth-abundant, highly effective and stable electrocatalysts for electrochemical water splitting is urgent and essential to the development of hydrogen (H₂) energy technology. Iron-cobalt layered double hydroxide (FeCo-LDH) has been widely used as an electrocatalystfor OER due to its facile synthesis, tunable components, and low cost. However, LDH synthesized by the traditional hydrothermal method tends to easily agglomerate, resulting in an unstable structure that can change or dissolve in an alkaline solution. Therefore, studying the real active phase is highly significant in the design of electrochemical electrode materials. Here, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are used as template precursors to derive FeCo-LDH from different iron sources. Iron salts with different anions have a significant impact on the morphology and charge transfer properties of the resulting materials. FeCo-LDH synthesized from iron sulfate solution (FeCo-LDH-SO₄) exhibits a hybrid structure of nanosheets and nanowires, quite different from other electrocatalysts that were synthesized from iron chloride and iron nitrate solutions. The final FeCo-LDH-SO₄ had an overpotential of 247 mV with a low Tafel-slope of 60.6 mV dec^-1 at a current density of 10 mA cm^-2 and delivered a long-term stability of 40 h for the OER. This work provides an innovative and feasible strategy to construct efficient electrocatalysts.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.203-209
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• 2023

Cobalt sulfide nanocomposites were synthesized through a simple hydrothermal method as anode materials for sodium ion batteries (SIBs). In this work, a cobalt sulfide nanoparticle (CoS-NF) and a cobalt sulfide nanocomposite integrated with reduced graphene oxide (CoS@G-NC) were fabricated for electrochemical energy storage performance of battery. The as-prepared CoS@G-NC electrode exhibited reversible and stable cycle performance (62 % after 30 cycles at current density of 200 mA g^-1). The improved electrochemical property was attributed to the small grain growth and uniform distribution of cobalt sulfide during synthesis, which maximized the diffusion pathway for sodium ions and effectively suppressed the delamination and volume expansion of cobalt sulfide during the conversion reaction. The results provide promising anode materials for next-generation SIBs.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.67-95
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• 2024

Direct alcohol fuel cells (DAFCs) have gained much attention as promising energy conversion devices due to their ability to utilize alcohol as a fuel source. In this regard, Molybdenum-based electrocatalysts (Mo-ECs) have emerged as a substitution for expensive Pt and Ru-based co-catalyst electrode materials in DAFCs, owing to their unique electrochemical properties useful for alcohol oxidation. The catalytic activity of Mo-ECs displays an increase in alcohol oxidation current density by several folds to 1000-2000 mA mg_Pt^-1, compared to commercial Pt and PtRu catalysts of 10-100 mA mg_Pt^-1. In addition, the methanol oxidation peak and onset potential have been significantly reduced by 100-200 mV and 0.5-0.6 V, respectively. The performance of Mo-ECs in both acidic and alkaline media has shown the potential to significantly reduce the Pt loading. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the bifunctional mechanism involved in the oxidation of alcohols and factors affecting the electrocatalytic oxidation of alcohol, such as synthesis method, structural properties, and catalytic support materials. Furthermore, the challenges and prospects of Mo-ECs for DAFCs anode materials are discussed. This in-depth review serves as valuable insight toward enhancing the performance and efficiency of DAFC by employing Mo-ECs.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.431-431
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• 2016

Typical Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS)-based solar cells have a buffer layer between CIGS absorber layer and transparent ZnO front electrode, which plays an important role in improving the cell performance. Among various buffer materials, chemical bath deposition (CBD)-ZnS is being steadily studied to alternative to conventional CdS and the efficiency of CBD-ZnS/CIGS solar cell shows the comparable values with that of CdS/CIGS solar cell. The intriguing thing is that reversible changes occur after exposure to illumination due to the metastable defect states in completed ZnS/CIGS solar cell, which induces an improvement of solar cell performance. Thus, it implies that the understanding of metastable defects in CBD-ZnS/CIGS solar cell is important issue. In this study, we fabricate the ITO/i-ZnO/CBD-ZnS/CIGS/Mo/SLG solar cells by controlling the NH4OH mole concentration (from 2 M to 3.5 M) of CBD-ZnS buffer layer and observe their conversion efficiency with and without light soaking for 1 hr. From the results, NH4OH mole concentration and light exposure can significantly affect the CBD-ZnS/CIGS solar cell performance. In order to investigate that which layer can contain metastable defect states to influence on solar cell performance, impedance spectroscopy and capacitance profiling technique with exposure to illumination have been applied to CBD-ZnS/CIGS solar cell. These techniques give a very useful information on the density of states within the bandgap of CIGS, free carriers density, and light-induced metastable effects. Here, we present the rearranged charge distribution after exposure to illumination and suggest the origin of the metastable defect states in CBD-ZnS/CIGS solar cell.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.424-432
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• 2019

Planar BiVO₄ and 3 wt% Mo-doped BiVO₄ (abbreviated as Mo:BiVO₄) film were prepared by the facile spin-coating method on fluorine doped SnO₂(FTO) substrate in the same precursor solution including the Mo precursor in Mo:BiVO₄ film. After annealing at a high temperature of 450℃ for 30 min to improve crystallinity, the films exhibited the monoclinic crystalline phase and nanoporous architecture. Both films showed no remarkably discrepancy in crystalline or morphological properties. To investigate the effect of surface passivation exploring the Al₂O₃ layer, the ultra-thin Al₂O₃ layer with a thickness of approximately 2 nm was deposited on BiVO₄ film using the atomic layer deposition (ALD) method. No distinct morphological modification was observed for all prepared BiVO₄ and Mo:BiVO₄ films. Only slightly reduced nanopores were observed. Although both samples showed some reduction of light absorption in the visible wavelength after coating of Al₂O₃ layer, the Al₂O₃ coated BiVO₄ (Al₂O₃/BiVO₄) film exhibited enhanced photoelectrochemical performance in 0.5 M Na₂SO₄ solution (pH 6.5), having higher photocurrent density (0.91 mA/㎠ at 1.23 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE), briefly abbreviated as V_RHE) than BiVO₄ film (0.12 mA/㎠ at 1.23 V_RHE). Moreover, Al₂O₃ coating on the Mo:BiVO₄ film exhibited more enhanced photocurrent density (1.5 mA/㎠ at 1.23 V_RHE) than the Mo:BiVO₄ film (0.86 mA/㎠ at 1.23 V_RHE). To examine the reasons, capacitance measurement and Mott-Schottky analysis were conducted, revealing that the significant degradation of capacitance value was observed in both BiVO₄ film and Al₂O₃/Mo:BiVO₄ film, probably due to degraded capacitance by surface passivation. Furthermore, the flat-band potential (V_FB) was negatively shifted to about 200 mV while the electronic conductivities were enhanced by Al₂O₃ coating in both samples, contributing to the advancement of PEC performance by ultra-thin Al₂O₃ layer.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.14-22
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• 2018

In this study, scarp of PCB containing copper and precious metals was manufactured as an anode, and electrorefining experiments were conducted on change of $H_2SO_4$ concentration and current density. Through electrolytic refining experiments, the concentration of Cu and slime recovered from each electrode was analyzed, element behavior was confirmed, and current efficiency was also calculated. As the $H_2SO_4$ concentration was increased, the current efficiency and the purity of Cu decreased, but the precious metals in the anode slime were maximally concentrated with 2.0 M $H_2SO_4$. In addition, as the current density was increased, the current efficiency decreased and the purity of Cu showed a tendency to increase, and the precious metals in the anode slime were maximally concentrated with $300A/m^2$. As a result of the pilot scale experiments, the Au content was 8,705 mg/kg, the Ag content was 35,092 mg/kg in the anode slime. As compared with the initial content, Au was concentrated 16 times and Ag concentrated 14 times.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.172-179
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• 2020

The impact of effective parameters on the electrodeposition rate optimization of Au-Cu alloy at high thicknesses on the silver substrate was investigated in the present study. After ensuring the formation of gold alloy deposits with the desired and standard percentage of gold with the cartage of 18K and other standard karats that should be observed in the manufacturing of the gold and jewelry artifacts, comparing the rate of gold-copper deposition by direct and pulsed current was done. The rate of deposition with pulse current was significantly higher than direct current. In this process, the duty cycle parameter was effectively optimized by the "one factor at a time" method to achieve maximum deposition rate. Particular parameters in this work were direct and pulse current densities, bath temperature, concentration of gold and cyanide ions in electrolyte, pH, agitation and wetting agent additive. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and surface chemical analysis system (EDS) were used to study the effect of deposition on the cross-sections of the formed layers. The results revealed that the Au-Cu alloy layer formed with concentrations of 6gr·L^-1 Au, 55gr·L^-1 Cu, 24 gr·L^-1 KCN and 1 ml·L^-1 Lauryl dimethyl amine oxide (LDAO) in the 0.6 mA·cm^-2 average current density and 30% duty cycle, had 0.841 ㎛·min^-1 Which was the highest deposition rate. The use of electrodeposition of pure and alloy gold thick layers as a production method can reduce the use of gold metal in the production of hallow gold artifacts, create sophisticated and unique models, and diversify production by maintaining standard karats, hardness, thickness and mechanical strength. This will not only make the process economical, it will also provide significant added value to the gold artifacts. By pulsating of currents and increasing the duty cycle means reducing the pulse off-time, and if the pulse off-time becomes too short, the electric double layer would not have sufficient growth time, and its thickness decreases. These results show the effect of pulsed current on increasing the electrodeposition rate of Au-Cu alloy confirming the previous studies on the effect of pulsed current on increasing the deposition rate of Au-Cu alloy.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.542-547
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• 2015

Since the oil price has been significantly jumped for several years, a heavy oil of low quality has been mainly used in the diesel engine of the merchant ship. Thus, a combustion chamber of the engine has been often exposed to severely corrosive environment more and more because temperature of the exhaust gas of the combustion chamber has been getting higher and higher with increasing of using the heavy oil of low quality. As a result, wear and corrosion of the engine parts such as exhaust valve, piston crown and cylinder head surrounded with combustion chamber are more serious compared to the other parts of the engine. Therefore, an optimum repair welding for these engine parts is very important to prolong their lifetime in a economical point of view. In this study, Inconel 625 filler metal were welded with GTAW method in the cast steel which would be generally used with piston crown material. And the corrosion properties of weld metal, heat affected and base metal zones were investigated using electrochemical methods such as measurement of corrosion potential, anodic polarization curves, cyclic voltammogram and impedance etc. in 35% $H_2SO_4$ solution. The weld metal and base metal zones exhibited the highest and lowest values of hardness respectively. Furthermore, the corrosion current density of the weld metal zone revealed the lowest value, having the highest value of hardness. The corrosive products with red color and local corrosion like as a pitting corrosion were considerably observed at the base metal zone, while these morphologies were not wholly observed in the weld metal zone. In particular, the polarization characteristics such as impedance, polarization curve and cyclic voltammogran associated with corrosion resistance property were well in good agreement with each other. Consequently, it is suggested that the mechanical and corrosion characteristics of the piston crown can be predominantly improved by repair welding method using the Inconel 625 electrode.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.160-165
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• 2000

We have investigated the electrical and diffusion barrier properties of MgO produced on the surface of Cu (Mg) alloy. Also the diffusion barrier property of the interfacial MgO between Cu alloy and $SiO_2$ has been examined. The results show that the $150\;{\AA}$-MgO layer on the surface remains stable up to $700^{\circ}C$, preventing the interdiffusion of C Cu and Si in Si/MgO/Cu(Mg) structure. It also has the breakdown voltage of 4.5V and leakage current density of $10^{-7}A/\textrm{cm}^2/$. In addition, the combined structure of $Si_3N4(100{\AA})/MgO(100{\AA})$ increases the breakdown voltage up to lOV and reduces the leakage current density to $8{\tiems}10^{-7}A/\textrm{cm}^2$. Furthermore, the interfacial MgO formed by the chemical reac­t tion of Mg and $SiO_2$ reduces the diffusion of copper into $SiO_2$ substrate. Consequently, Cu(Mg) alloy can be applied as a g gate electrode in TFT /LCDs, reducing the process steps.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.61-68
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• 2007

Interfacial fracture energy(${\Gamma}$) between $Al_2O_3$ thin film deposited by Atomic Layer Deposition(ALD) and sputter deposited Cu electrode for embedded PCB applications is measured from a $90^{\circ}$ peel test. While the interfacial fracture energy of $Cu/Al_2O_3$ is very poor, Cr adhesion layer increases the interfacial fracture energy to $39.8{\pm}3.2g/mm\;for\;Ar^+$ RF plasma power density of $0.123W/cm^2$, which seems to come from the enhancement of the mechanical interlocking and Cr-O chemical bonding effects.