• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.181-186
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• 2016

Recently, there are many efforts focused on development of more economical non-fluorinated membranes for use in PEMFCs (Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells). In this study, characteristics of sulfonated Poly(ether ether ketone) (sPEEK) were compared according to degrees of sulfonation (DS), relative humidity, cell temperatures at PEMFC operation condition. I-V polarization curve, hydrogen crossover, electrochemical surface area, membrane resistance and charge transfer resistance were measured. sPEEK membrane showed high performance at high DS, high temperature and high relative humidity, in particular, performance of sPEEK membrane decreased largely due to low ionic conductivity at low DS and low relative humidity.

• Electrical & Electronic Materials
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.30-37
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• 1996

Previously, crystallization of a-Si:H films on glass substrates were limited to anneal temperature below 600.deg. C, over 10 hours to avoid glass shrinkage. Our study indicates that the crystallization is strongly influenced by anneal temperature and weakly affected by anneal duration time. Because of the high temperature process and nonconducting substrate requirements for poly-Si TFTs, the employed substrates were limited to quartz, sapphire, and oxidized Si wafer. We report on poly-Si TFT's using high temperature anneal on a Si:H/Mo structures. The metal Mo substrate was stable enough to allow 1000.deg. C anneal. A novel TFT fabrication was achieved by using part of the Mo substrate as drain and source ohmic contact electrode. The as-grown a-Si:H TFT was compared to anneal treated poly-Si TFT'S. Defect induced trap states of TFT's were examined using the thermally stimulated current (TSC) method. In some case, the poly-Si grain boundaries were passivated by hydrogen. A-SI:H and poly-Si TFT characteristics were investigated using an inverted staggered type TFT. The poly -Si films were achieved by various anneal techniques; isothermal, RTA, and excimer laser anneal. The TFT on as grown a-Si:H exhibited a low field effect mobility, transconductance, and high gate threshold voltage. Some films were annealed at temperatures from 200 to >$1000^{\circ}C$ The TFT on poly-Si showed an improved $I_on$$I_off$ ratio of $10_6$, reduced gate threshold voltage, and increased field effect mobility by three orders. Inverter operation was examined to verify logic circuit application using the poly Si TFTs.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.53 no.5
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• pp.241-248
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• 2020

The change of the deposition behavior of diamond through a pretreatment process of the base metal prior to diamond deposition using HFCVD was investigated. To improve the specific surface area of the base material, sanding was performed using sandblasting first, and chemical etching treatment was performed to further improve the uniform specific surface area. Chemical etching was performed by immersing the base material in HCl solutions with various etching time. Thereafter, seeding was performed by immersing the sanded and etched base material in a diamond seeding solution. Diamond deposition according to all pretreatment conditions was performed under the same conditions. Methane was used as the carbon source and hydrogen was used as the reaction gas. The most optimal conditions were found by analyzing the improvement of the specific surface area and uniformity, and the optimal diamond seeding solution concentration and immersion time were also obtained for the diamond particle seeding method. As a result, the sandblasted base material was immersed in 20% HCl for 60 minutes at 100 ℃ and chemically etched, and then immersed in a diamond seeding solution of 5 g/L and seeded using ultrasonic waves for 30 minutes. It was possible to obtain optimized economical diamond film growth rates.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.388-393
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• 2020

In this study, a PbS quantum dots (QDs)-based H₂ gas sensor with a Pd electrode was proposed. QDs have a size of several nanometers, and they can exhibit a high surface area when forming a thin film. In particular, the NH₂ present in the ligand of PbS QDs and H₂ gas are combined to form NH₃⁺, subsequently the electrical characteristics of the QDs change. In addition to the resistance change owing to the reaction between Pd and H₂ gas, the resistance change owing to the reaction between the NH₂ of PbS QDs and H₂ gas increases the current signal at the sensor output, which can produce a high output signal for the same concentration of H₂ gas. Using the XRD and absorbance properties, the synthesis and particle size of the synthesized PbS QDs were analyzed. Using PbS QDs, the sensitivity was significantly improved by 44%. In addition, the proposed H₂ gas sensor has high selectivity because it has low reactivity with heterogeneous gases such as C₂H₂, CO₂, and CH₄.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.276-279
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• 2004

Plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) of silicon nitride (SiN) is a proven technique for obtaining layers that meet the needs of surface passivation and anti-reflection coating. In addition, the deposition process appears to provoke bulk passivation as well due to diffusion of atomic hydrogen. This bulk passivation is an important advantage of PECVD deposition when compared to the conventional CVD techniques. A further advantage of PECVD is that the process takes place at a relatively low temperature of 300t, keeping the total thermal budget of the cell processing to a minimum. In this work SiN deposition was performed using a horizontal PECVD reactor system consisting of a long horizontal quartz tube that was radiantly heated. Special and long rectangular graphite plates served as both the electrodes to establish the plasma and holders of the wafers. The electrode configuration was designed to provide a uniform plasma environment for each wafer and to ensure the film uniformity. These horizontally oriented graphite electrodes were stacked parallel to one another, side by side, with alternating plates serving as power and ground electrodes for the RF power supply. The plasma was formed in the space between each pair of plates. Also this paper deals with the fabrication of multicrystalline silicon solar cells with PECVD SiN layers combined with high-throughput screen printing and RTP firing. Using this sequence we were able to obtain solar cells with an efficiency of 14% for polished multi crystalline Si wafers of size 125 m square.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.496-513
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• 2022

In this study, we sought to verify the applicability of anion exchange membrane water electrolysis system using FAA-3-50, Neosepta-ASE, Sustainion grade T, and Fujifilm type 10, which are commercial anion exchange membranes. The morphology of the commercial membranes and the elements on the surface were analyzed using SEM/EDX to confirm the distribution of functional groups included in the commercial membranes. In addition, mechanical strength and decomposition temperature were measured using UTM and TGA to check whether the driving conditions of the water electrolyte were satisfied. The ion exchange capacity and ion conductivity were measured to understand the performance of anion exchange membranes, and the alkaline resistance of each commercial membrane was checked and durability test was performed because they were driven in an alkaline environment. Finally, a membrane-electrode assembly was manufactured and a water electrolysis single cell test was performed to confirm cell performance at 60℃, 70℃, and 80℃. The long-term cell test was measured 20 cycles at other temperatures to compare water electrolysis performance.

• 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 Physical Society
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• v.80
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• pp.817-851
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• 2022

Nonthermal biocompatible plasma (NBP) sources operating in atmospheric pressure environments and their characteristics can be used for plasma bioscience, medicine, and hygiene applications, especially for COVID-19 and citizen. This review surveyed the various NBP sources, including a plasma jet, micro-DBD (dielectric barrier discharge) and nanosecond discharged plasma. The electron temperatures and the plasma densities, which are produced using dielectric barrier discharged electrode systems, can be characterized as 0.7 ~ 1.8 eV and (3-5) × 10^14-15 cm^-3, respectively. Herein, we introduce a general schematic view of the plasma ultraviolet photolysis of water molecules for reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) generation inside biological cells or living tissues, which would be synergistically important with RONS diffusive propagation into cells or tissues. Of the RONS, the hydroxyl radical [OH] and hydrogen peroxide H₂O₂ species would mainly result in apoptotic cell death with other RONS in plasma bioscience and medicines. The diseased biological protein, cancer, and mutated cells could be treated by using a NBP or plasma activated water (PAW) resulting in their apoptosis for a new paradigm of plasma medicine.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.34 no.9
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• pp.409-421
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• 2024

Among the products of the electrocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide (CO₂RR), CO is currently the most valuable product for industrial applications. However, poor stability is a significant obstacle to CO₂RR. Therefore, we synthesized a series of bimetallic organic framework materials containing different ratios of tungsten to copper using a hydrothermal method and used them as precursors. The precursors were then subjected to pyrolysis at 800 ℃ under argon gas, and the M-N bimetallic sites were formed after 2 h. Loose porous structures favorable for electrocatalytic reactions were finally obtained. The material could operate at lower reduction potentials than existing catalysts and obtained higher Faraday efficiencies than comparable catalysts. Of these, the current density of WCu-C/N (W:Cu = 3:1) could be stabilized at 7.9 mA·cm^-2 and the FE of CO reached 94 % at a hydrogen electrode potential of -0.6 V (V vs. RHE). The novel materials made with a two-step process helped to improve the stability and selectivity of the electrocatalytic reduction of CO₂ to CO, which will help to promote the commercial application of this technology.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.132-140
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• 2007

The phase-shift method and correlation constants for studying a linear relationship between the behavior ($-{\varphi}\;vs.\;E$) of the phase shift ($0^{\circ}{\leq}-{\varphi}{\leq}90^{\circ}$) for the optimum intermediate frequency and that (${\theta}\;vs.\;E$) of the fractional surface coverage ($1{\geq}\theta{\geq}0$) have been proposed and verified to determine the Langmuir, Frumkin, and Temkin adsorption isotherms (${\theta}\;vs.\;E$) at noble metal/aqueous electrolyte interfaces. At an Ir/0.1 M KOH aqueous electrolyte interface, the Langmuir and Temkin adsorption isotherms (${\theta}\;vs.\;E$), equilibrium constants ($K=3.3{\times}10^{-4}\;mol^{-1}$ for the Langmuir and $K=3.3{\times}10^{-3}{\exp}(-4.6{\theta})\;mol^{-1}$ for the Temkin adsorption isotherm), interaction parameter (g = 4.6 for the Temkin adsorption isotherm), and standard free energies (${\Delta}G_{ads}^0=19.9kJ\;mol^{-1}\;for\;K=3.3{\times}10^{-4}\;mol^{-1}$ and $16.5<{\Delta}G_{\theta}^0<23.3\;kJ\;mol^{-1}\;for\;K=3.3{\times}10^{-3}{\exp}(-4.6{\theta})\;mol^{-1}\;and\;0.2<\theta<0.8$) of H for the cathodic $H_2$ evolution reaction are determined using the phase-shift method and correlation constants. The inhomogeneous and lateral interaction effects on the adsorption of H are negligible. At the intermediate values of ${\theta},\;i.e,\;0.2<{\theta}<0.8$, the Temkin adsorption isotherm (${\theta}\;vs.\;E$) correlating with the Langmuir or the Frumkin adsorption isotherm (${\theta}\;vs.\;E$), and vice versa, is readily determined using the correlation constants. The phase-shift method and correlation constants are accurate and reliable techniques to determine the adsorption isotherms (${\theta}\;vs.\;E$) and related electrode kinetic and thermodynamic parameters(K, g, ${\Delta}G_{ads}^0, {\Delta}G_{\theta}^0$).