• 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 (${\approx}4$).

• Resources Recycling
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• v.15 no.6 s.74
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• pp.33-40
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• 2006

Leaching behavior of copper using electro-generated chlorine was investigated in hydrochloric acid solutions. When leached copper concentration was lower than 3.6g/L, the utilization efficiency of the electro-generated chlorine was close to 100% at $10mA/cm^2,\;25^{\circ}C$, 400 rpm in 1M HCl solutions. The concentration ot the leached copper over 3.6g/L caused the electrode potential to drop quietly, leading to a change or leaching mechanism. The leaching rate oi copper began to decrease at the concentration of copper 5.2g/L. This is probably due to the formation of a layer of CuCl on Cu metal in 1M HCl solutions. The leaching rate, however, was not retarded in a solution ot high chloride concentration. The high solubility of CuCl in the solution may prevent the formation of CuCl on Cu metal.

• Solar Energy
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.3-11
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• 1997

Because grain boundaries in polycrystalline silicon act as potential barriers and recombination centers for the photo-generated charge carriers, these defects degrade conversion effiency of solar cell. To reduce these effects of grain boundaries, we investigated various influencing factors such as thermal treatment, various grid pattern, selective wet etching for grain boundaries, buried contact metallization along grain boundaries, grid on metallic thin film. Pretreatment above $900^{\circ}C$ in $N_2$ atmosphere, gettering by $POCl_3$ and Al treatment for back surface field contributed to obtain a high quality poly-Si. To prevent carrier losses at the grain boundaries, we carried out surface treatment using Schimmel etchant. This etchant delineated grain boundaries of $10{\mu}m$ depth as well as surface texturing effect. A metal AI diffusion into grain boundaries on rear side reduced back surface recombination effects at grain boundaries. A combination of fine grid with finger spacing of 0.4mm and buried electrode along grain boundaries improved short circuit current density of solar cell. A ultra-thin Chromium layer of 20nm with transmittance of 80% reduced series resistance. This paper focused on the grain boundary effect for terrestrial applications of solar cells with low cost, large area, and high efficiency.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.17-24
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• 2021

Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) can be fabricated through solution process economically with variable bandgap that is controlled by composition of precursor solution. Tandem cells in which PSCs combined with silicon solar cells have potential to reach high power conversion efficiency over 30%, however, lack of long-term stability of PSCs is an obstacle to commercialization. Degradation of PSCs is mainly attributed to the mass transport of halide and metal electrode materials. In order to ensure the long-term stability, the mass transport should be inhibited. In this study, we confirmed degradation behaviors due to the mass transport in PSCs and designed buffer layers with LiF and/or SnO₂ to improve the long-term stability by suppressing the mass transport. Under high-temperature storage test at 85℃, PSCs without the buffer layers were degraded by forming PbI₂, AgI, and the delta phase of the perovskite material, while PSCs with the buffer layers showed improved stability with keeping the original phase of the perovskite. When the LiF buffer and encapsulation were applied to PSCs, superior long-term stability on 85℃-85% RH dump heat test was achieved; efficiency drop was not observed after 200 h. It was also confirmed that 90.6% of the initial efficiency was maintained after 200 hours of maximum power tracking test under AM 1.5G-1SUN illumination. Here, we have demonstrated that the buffer layer is essential to achieve long-term stability of PSCs.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2002.09a
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• pp.139-162
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• 2002

Since weak zones or geological lineaments are likely to be eroded, weak zones may develop beneath rivers, and a careful evaluation of ground condition is important to construct structures passing through a river. Dc resistivity surveys, however, have seldomly applied to the investigation of water-covered area, possibly because of difficulties in data aquisition and interpretation. The data aquisition having high quality may be the most important factor, and is more difficult than that in land survey, due to the water layer overlying the underground structure to be imaged. Through the numerical modeling and the analysis of case histories, we studied the method of resistivity survey at the water-covered area, starting from the characteristics of measured data, via data acquisition method, to the interpretation method. We unfolded our discussion according to the installed locations of electrodes, ie., floating them on the water surface, and installing at the water bottom, since the methods of data acquisition and interpretation vary depending on the electrode location. Through this study, we could confirm that the dc resistivity method can provide the fairly reasonable subsurface images. It was also shown that installing electrodes at the water bottom can give the subsurface image with much higher resolution than floating them on the water surface. Since the data acquired at the water-covered area have much lower sensitivity to the underground structure than those at the land, and can be contaminated by the higher noise, such as streaming potential, it would be very important to select the acquisition method and electrode array being able to provide the higher signal-to-noise ratio data as well as the high resolving power. The method installing electrodes at the water bottom is suitable to the detailed survey because of much higher resolving power, whereas the method floating them, especially streamer dc resistivity survey, is to the reconnaissance survey owing of very high speed of field work.

• Journal of Yeungnam Medical Science
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.179-189
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• 1993

It has recently become possible to record electrical activity originating from abnormally conducting myocardium from the body surface with high - gain amplification and averaging technique. These signals, which result from delayed ventricular activation(late potentials), have been recorded in patients with documented ventricular tachyarrythmia. Several electrode lead system for detecting ventricular late potential were introduced. Pyramidal electrode lead system(PLS) is useful. Also interpretation of SAECG in the young could be of value in detecting those at risk for episodic ventricular tachycardia, but suffer from a lack of data in normal young people. Selection of subjects : For this study, normal healthy young adult volunteers (age: mean 24 years) were recruited from the medical students at Yeungnam University Hospital, Internal Medicine. Twenty fourths male and seventeenths female subjects were selected. All subjects had normal resting ECGs as judged from both the standard 12 channel lead and echocardiography, and none had a history of cardiovascular disease. All subjects were considered to be in good general physical condition. Signal-averaged electrocardiography : In order to obtain low noise recordings with a small number of averaging cycles, all subject ware asked to relax completely in the supine position. Silver/silver chloride electrodes were attached after the skin was cleaned with alcohol, to constitute classic flank lead system(FLS) and pyramidal lead system(PLS). Signals were recorded and processed using a commercially available microprocessor-augmented ECG cart(Marquette Electronics, USA) suitable for portable bedside recording. There was no difference between normal values, determined by FLS and PLS at high pass filtering of 25 Hz and 80 Hz, but significant, difference was found in HFLAD and RMS-40 of 40 Hz(p<0.05). These results will provide a basis for interpretations of SAECG, determined by FLS and PLS in healthy young adults with normal QRS duration.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.447-454
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• 2014

Organic solar cells (OSCs) have intensively studied in recent years due to their advantages such as cost effectiveness and possibility of applications in flexible devices. In spite of the high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 10 %, the OSCs still have a draw back of their low environmental stability due to the oxidization of aluminum cathode and etching of transparent conducting oxide as electrode. To solve these problems, the inverted structured OSCs (I-OSCs) having greatest potential for achieving an improvement of device performances are suggested. Therefore, there are a lot of studies to develope of interface layer based on organic/inorganic materials for the electron transport layer (ETL) and passivation layer, significant advancements in I-OSCs have driven the development of interface functional materials including electron transport layer. Recent efforts to employing 2D/3D zinc oxide (ZnO) based ETL into I-OSCs have produced OSCs with a power conversion efficiency level that matches the efficiency of ~9 %. In this review, the technical issues and recent progress of ZnO based ETL in I-OSCs to enhancement of device efficiency and stability in terms of materials, process and characterization have summarized.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.116-120
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• 2015

$La_2NiO_{4+{\delta}}$ based oxides, a mixed electronic-ionic conductors (MIECs) with $K_2NiF_4$ type structure, have been considerably investigated in recent decades as electrode materials for advanced solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) due to their high electrical conductivity, and oxidation reduction reaction (ORR). In this study, structure properties of $La(Ca)_2Ni(Cu)O_{4+{\delta}}$ were studied as a potential cathode for intermediate temperature SOFCs (IT-SOFCs).

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.37 no.8
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• pp.877-885
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• 2013

A seawater pipe of the engine room in the ships is being surrounded with severely corrosive environments caused by fast flowing of the seawater, containing aggressive chloride ion and high conductivity etc.. Therefore, the leakage of the seawater from its pipe have been often occurred due to its local corrosion by aggressive chloride ions. Subsequently, its leakage area is usually welded by AC shielded metal arc welding with various electrodes. In this study, when the sea water pipe is welded with several types of electrodes such as E4301, E4311, E4313 and E4316, a difference of the corrosion resistance on the welding metal zones was investigated using an electrochemical method, observing microstructure, measuring polarization behaviors and hardness. The weld metal zone welded with E4313 electrode exhibited the lowest value of hardness compared to other weld metal zones. In addition, its zone indicated also the best corrosion resistance than those of other weld metal zones. Furthermore, all of the weld metal zones revealed a relatively better corrosion resistance than those of the base metal zones. and also showed higher hardness than the base metal zones.