• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.65-65
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• 2012

Copper zinc tin sulfide ($Cu_2ZnSnS_4$, CZTS) is a very promising material as a low cost absorber alternative to other chalcopyrite-type semiconductors based on Ga or In because of the abundant and economical elements. In addition, CZTS has a band-gap energy of 1.4~1.5eV and large absorption coefficient over ${\sim}10^4cm^{-1}$, which is similar to those of $Cu(In,Ga)Se_2$(CIGS) regarded as one of the most successful absorber materials for high efficient solar cell. Most previous works on the fabrication of CZTS thin films were based on the vacuum deposition such as thermal evaporation and RF magnetron sputtering. Although the vacuum deposition has been widely adopted, it is quite expensive and complicated. In this regard, the solution processes such as sol-gel method, nanocrystal dispersion and hybrid slurry method have been developed for easy and cost-effective fabrication of CZTS film. Among these methods, the hybrid slurry method is favorable to make high crystalline and dense absorber layer. However, this method has the demerit using the toxic and explosive hydrazine solvent, which has severe limitation for common use. With these considerations, it is highly desirable to develop a robust, easily scalable and relatively safe solution-based process for the fabrication of a high quality CZTS absorber layer. Here, we demonstrate the fabrication of a high quality CZTS absorber layer with a thickness of 1.5~2.0 ${\mu}m$ and micrometer-scaled grains using two different non-vacuum approaches. The first solution-processing approach includes air-stable non-toxic solvent-based inks in which the commercially available precursor nanoparticles are dispersed in ethanol. Our readily achievable air-stable precursor ink, without the involvement of complex particle synthesis, high toxic solvents, or organic additives, facilitates a convenient method to fabricate a high quality CZTS absorber layer with uniform surface composition and across the film depth when annealed at $530^{\circ}C$. The conversion efficiency and fill factor for the non-toxic ink based solar cells are 5.14% and 52.8%, respectively. The other method is based on the nanocrystal dispersions that are a key ingredient in the deposition of thermally annealed absorber layers. We report a facile synthetic method to produce phase-pure CZTS nanocrystals capped with less toxic and more easily removable ligands. The resulting CZTS nanoparticle dispersion enables us to fabricate uniform, crack-free absorber layer onto Mo-coated soda-lime glass at $500^{\circ}C$, which exhibits a robust and reproducible photovoltaic response. Our simple and less-toxic approach for the fabrication of CZTS layer, reported here, will be the first step in realizing the low-cost solution-processed CZTS solar cell with high efficiency.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.24-30
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• 2014

Retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) plays an important role in maintaining the visual function and the degeneration of the RPE causes several retinal degeneration disease. In order to fabricate the suitable carrier for RPE transplantation, the hybrid poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) film with hesperidin was prepared. Hesperidin has an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant characteristics. ARPE-19 was seeded on hesperidin/PLGA film and then, cell proliferation was determined by the MTT assay, and cell adhesion and cell morphology were confirmed by SEM. Also, RT-PCR was performed to confirm the expression of the specific genes, and AEC immunohistochemical staining was performed to determine the expression of RPE65. As a result, we confirmed that attachment, proliferation and phenotype maintenance of RPE cells were more excellent on hesperidin/PLGA film than PLGA film, thereby we were able to confirm the potential applications of hesperidin/PLGA film as tissue engineering carrier for regeneration of retina.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.357-363
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• 2012

Surface-modified poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) films and scaffolds were treated with plasma discharge in oxygen gas and subsequently subjected to $in$ $situ$ grafting of acrylic acid (AA) in order to increase the cell compatibility. The surface of AA-grafted PLLA was converted to hydroxyapatite (HA)-deposited PLLA in stimulated body fluid (SBF). After the samples were immersed in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS), fetal bovine serum (FBS), normal saline, or cell medium, the water contact angles were significantly reduced on the surface of HA-deposited PLLA. Chondrocyte and osteoblast showed a higher attachment and cell proliferation on HA-deposited surfaces and in particular, it was confirmed that chondrocyte was considerably influenced by HA. However, osteoblast showed better cell proliferation on the surfaces immersed in FBS, cell medium or HA-deposited surface. In addition, the cell proliferation in 3D scaffolds was much higher than that on film type, irrespective of chondrocyte and osteoblast. Therefore, such surface-modified PLLAs are expected to be useful as organic-inorganic hybrid scaffolds in the regeneration of cartilage and bone.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.289-295
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• 2011

Biomaterials for retinal tissue engineering must demonstrate several critical features for potential utility, including mechanical integrity, biocompatibility, and slow biodegradation. Silk film biomaterials were designed and characterized to meet these functional requirements. We prepared natural/synthetic hybrid silk/PLGA films using 0, 10, 20, 40, and 80 wt% of silk by a solvent evaporation method. MIT assay was used to confirm the number of cells attached on film at 1, 2, and 3 days, respectively. The morphology of cellular adhesion on films was also confirmed by scanning electron microscope (SEM). RT-PCR was conducted to confrrm mRNA expression of retinal pigment epithelitun (RPE) using RPE65 as a RPEs marker and the expression of cytokeratin were determined by immunofluorescence staining. We confirmed that the silk/PLGA film of 20~40 wt% silk was superior for the adhesion and proliferation of RPEs.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.847-855
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• 2014

We developed a highly refractive index planarization layer showing a very smooth surface for organic light-emitting diode (OLED) light extraction, and we successfully prepared a highly efficient white OLED device with an embossed nano-structure and highly refractive index planarization layers. White OLEDs act as an internal out-coupling layer. We used a spin-coating method and two types of $TiO_2$ solutions for a planarization of the embossed nano-structure on a glass substrate. The first $TiO_2$ solution was $TiO_2$ sol, which consists of $TiO_2$ colloidal particles in an acidic aqueous solution and several organic additives. The second solution was an organic and inorganic hybrid solution of $TiO_2$. The surface roughness ($R_a$) and refractive index of the $TiO_2$ planarization films on a flat glass were 0.4 nm and 2.0 at 550 nm, respectively. The J-V characteristics of the OLED including the embossed nano-structure and the $TiO_2$ planarization film were almost the same as those of an OLED with a flat glass, and the luminous efficacy of the aforementioned OLED was enhanced by 34% compared to that of an OLED with a flat glass.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.589-595
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• 2013

Solution processed conjugated molecules enable to manufacture various electronic devices by unconventional and cost effective patterning methods as screen or gravure printing. Spin-coating is the most popularly used method to form conjugated polymeric film for various electronic devices. The coating method has certain disadvantages such as a large amount of unwanted wastes, difficulty forming a film with a large area, and impossible to apply roll-to-roll manufacturing. We present here a promising alternative coating method, bar-coating for conjugated polymer film and OLED with the bar coated light emitting layer. In this papers, we show atomic force microscope images of spin- and bar-coated Poly[(9,9-di-n-octylfluorenyl-2,7-diyl)-alt-(benzo[2,1,3]thiadiazol-4,8-diyl)] (F8BT) films on substrate. The bar-coated film showed a slight lower RMS roughness (1.058 [nm]) than spin-coated film (1.767 [nm]). It means the bar-coating is suitable method to form light emitting layers in OLEDs. By using bar-coating process, an OLED obtained with 4.7 [cd/A] in maximum current efficiency.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.60-66
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• 2010

Zinc has a number of characteristics that make it well suited for use as a coating to protecting iron and steel products from corrosion. Its excellent corrosion resistance in most environments accounts for its successful use as a protective coating on a variety of products and in many exposure conditions. The excellent field performance of zinc coatings results from their ability to form dense, adherent films that corrode at a rate that ranges from 1% to 10% of the corrosion rate of ferrous materials, depending on the environment. Recently, EU RoHS and EU ELV prohibited the use of materials that adversely affect the environment, such as Pb, Hg, Cd, and $Cr^{+6}$. In this study, environmentally-friendly, Cr-free solutions (epoxy solution, acrylic solution, and urethane solution S-700) and organic/inorganic solution with Si; LRO-317) were used to evaluate the corrosion resistance of zinc-coated steel subjected to a saltwater spray for 72 hours. The coating of urethane solution (S-700) was best among the three kinds of solution with heat treatment during five minutes at $190^{\circ}F$. Test specimens with S-700 and LRO-317 coating were heat treated in a drying oven at 170, 180, 190, 200, and $210^{\circ}C$ for five minutes. The results show that the optimum corrosion resistance was $190^{\circ}C$ in EGI and $170^{\circ}C$ in HDGI, respectively.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.112-116
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• 2005

We investigated the surface modification method for the preparation of organic-inorganic hybrid composite thin film. Gelatin obtained from the decomposition of collagen was allowed to adsorb in a polystyrene tissue culture dish for 2 h to from layers of gelatin. Supersaturated ionic solution of calcium and phosphorus was injected on the gelatin adsorbed layer to form calcium phosphate thin film. During the initial period of incubation, nucleates were formed. With increase of the incubation time, CaP (calcium phosphate) thin film grew on the surface of the culture dish. The gelatin/CaP thin film displayed the highly porous three-dimensional surface structure. Attenuated, total reflectance Fourier transform, infra-red spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR) was used to analyze the chemical properties of CaP film. The analysis demonstrated that the CaP film formed at initial period of treatment appeared to be amorphous. With increase of incubation time, the crystallinity of the film was slightly increased, but the presence of the peaks for the low crystalline CaP confirmed that the CaP thin film prepared in this study was poorly crystallized.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.335-341
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• 2009

Organic-inorganic hybrid sol-gel matrices were used as hosts for chloro (5, 10, 15, 20-tetraphenylporphyrinato) cobalt (III) (Co[TPP]Cl), a known ionophore for nitrite. The sol-gel precursor was prepared by the reaction of (3-isocyanopropyl) triethoxysilane with 1,4-butanediol. An appropriate amount of the anion-exchanger, tridodecylmethylammonium chloride (TDMAC) and the plasticizer, tributylphosphate (DBP) were used as membrane additives. On mixing with an acidic catalyst, the sol-state precursors slowly gelled, yielding a membrane in which the active components, Co[TPP]Cl and TDMAC, were encapsulated. The performances of the sol-gel membrane-based electrodes were compared to those of Co[TPP]Cl-based poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) membrane electrodes. Membranes with a molar ratio of Co[TPP]Cl: TDMAC (1 : 0.1) showed reasonable response slopes toward nitrite. The response slopes were typically 53 mV/decade between $10^{-5.4}$ and $10^{-1.0}\;M$. Selectivities toward nitrite over hydrophilic and small anions such as chloride were somewhat inferior to those observed with PVC-based membranes, but selectivities over lipophilic anions were quite similar. Reduced asymmetry potentials due to protein adsorption were found to occur with the sol-gel matrix relative to PVC-based films when the sensors were employed as a detector in flow-through configuration.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.29 no.10
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• pp.665-670
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• 2016

Prevailing dissemination of machine tools and cutting technology have caused drastic developments of high speed dry machining with work materials of high hardness, and demands on the high-hardness-materials with high efficiency have become increasingly important in terms of productivity, cost reduction, as well as environment-friendly issue. Addition of Si to TiAlN has been known to form nano-composite coating with higher hardness of over 30 GPa and oxidation temperature over $1,000^{\circ}C$. However, it is not easy to add Si to TiAlN by using conventional PVD technologies. Therefore, Ti-Al-Si-N have been prepared by hybrid process of PVD with multiple target sources or PVD combined with PECVD of Si source gas. In this study, a single composite target of Ti-Al-Si was prepared by powder metallurgy of MA (mechanical alloying) and SPS (spark plasma sintering). Properties of he resulting alloying targets were examined. They revealed a microstructure with micro-sized grain of about $1{\sim}5{\mu}m$, and all the elements were distributed homogeneously in the alloying target. Hardness of the Ti-Al-Si-N target was about 1,127 Hv. Thin films of Ti-Al-Si-N were prepared by unbalanced magnetron sputtering method by using the home-made Ti-Al-Si alloying target. Composition of the resulting thin film of Ti-Al-Si-N was almost the same with that of the target. The thin film of Ti-Al-Si-N showed a hardness of 35 GPa and friction coefficient of 0.66.