• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.104-108
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• 2000

It is very important to know the real roughness of electrode surface in electrochemistry. But it is impossible to know absolute roughness of electrode surface for various reasons. In this work, we compared the roughnesses of polycrystalline gold electrode often used in electrochemistry calculated from the images of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and cyclic voltammetry with those of Au (111) and HOPG. The roughness of polycrystalline gold calculated from STM image was $1.1(\pm0.1)$, that from adsorption-desorption of oxygen was $2.4(\pm0.7)$ and that from adsorption of N-docosyl-N'-methyl viologen was $1.6(\pm0.1)$.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.61 no.1
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• pp.12-15
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• 2017

We presented a mapping the work function of the vanadium pentoxide ($V_2O_5$) nanonet structures by scanning Kelvin probe microscopy (SKPM). In this measurement, the $V_2O_5$ nanonet was self-assembled via dropping the solution of $V_2O_5$ nanowires (NWs) onto the $SiO_2$ substrate and drying the solvent, resulting in the networks of $V_2O_5$ NWs. We found that the SKPM signal as a surface potential of $V_2O_5$ nanonet is attributed to the contact potential difference (CPD) between the work functions of the metal tip and the $V_2O_5$ nanonet. We generated the histograms of the CPD signals obtained from the SKPM mapping of the $V_2O_5$ nanonet as well as the highly ordered pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) which is used as a reference for the calibration of the SKPM tip. By using the histogram peaks of the CPD signals, we successfully estimated the work function of ~5.1 eV for the $V_2O_5$ nanonet structures. This work provides a possibility of a nanometer-scale imaging of the work function of the various nanostructures and helps to understand the electrical characteristics of the future electronic devices.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.581-584
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• 2020

The effect of a chemical pretreatment on the surface carbon was investigated using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and electrochemical methods. Primitive carbon has a reducing power likely due to incompletely oxidized functional groups on the surface. We aim to control this reducing power by chemical treatment and apply for the spontaneous deposition of nanoparticles (NPs). Highly ordered pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) was initially treated with a reducing agent, NaBH4 or an oxidizing agent, KMnO₄, for 5 min. Subsequently, the pretreated carbon was immersed in a platinum (Pt) precursor. Unexpectedly, SEM images showed that the reducing agent increased spontaneous PtNPs deposition while the oxidizing agent decreased Pt loading more as compared to that of using bare carbon. However, the amount of Pt on the carbon obviously decreased by NaBH₄ treatment for 50 min. Secondly, spontaneous reduction on pretreated glassy carbon (GC) was investigated using the catalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). GC electrode treated with NaBH4 for a short and long time showed small (onset potential: -640 mV vs. MSE) and large overpotential for the HER, respectively. Although the mechanism is unclear, the electrochemistry results correspond to the optical data. As a proof-of-concept, these results demonstrate that chemical treatments can be used to design the shapes and amounts of deposited catalytic metal on carbon by controlling the surface state.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.55-63
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• 2003

A 150 kV gas cluster ion accelerator was constructed and the cluster sizes of $CO_2$ and $N_2O$ gases were measured using time-of-flight mast spectrometry. Through isolated cluster ion impact on a HOPG, hillock with 1 nm height and a few tenth m in diameter were found to be formed by an atomic force microscope. When monomer ion beams were irradiated on the hillocks existed on a ITO surface, they became sharper and the surface became rougher. But they changed into round-shaped ones by cluster ion irradiation and the surface became smooth after the irradiation of $5\times10^{-14}\textrm{cm}^2$ at 25 kV. As the cluster ion dose was varied, the change of surface morphology and roughness of Si was examined. At the lower dose, the density of hillocks and surface roughness were increased, called surface embossment process. And then after the critical dose at which the area of the formed hillocks equals to the unirradiated area, the sputtering from the hillocks was predominantly evolved, and dislocated atoms were diffused and filled among the valleys, called surface sputtering and smoothing process. At the higher ion dose, the surface consisting of loosely bounded atoms was effectively sputtered into the depth and etching phenomenon was happened, called surface etching process.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.7 no.6
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• pp.1313-1318
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• 2006

The mechanism fur the surface film formation was studied by in situ Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) observation of a highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) basal plane surface during cyclic voltammetry at a slow scan-rate of 0.5 mV $s^{-1}$ in 1 moi $dm^{-3}$ (M) $LiPF_6$ dissolved in a mixture of ethylene carbonate (EC) and diethyl carbonate (DEC). Decomposition of the electrolyte solution began at a potential around 2.15 V vs. $Li^+$/Li on step edges. In the potential range 0.95-0.8 V vs. $Li^+$/Li, flat areas (hill-like structures) and large swelling appeared on the surface. It is considered that these two features were formed by the intercalation of solvated lithium ions and their decomposition beneath the surface, respectively. At potentials more negative than 0.80 V vs. $Li^+$/Li, particle-like precipitates appeared on the basal plane surface. After the first cycle, the thickness of the precipitate layer was 30 nm. The precipitates were considered to be decomposition of the lithium salt ($LiPF_6$) and solvent molecules (EC and DEC), and to have an important role in suppressing further solvent decomposition on the basal plane.