• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.95-108
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• 2020

Silver nanoparticles were loaded onto g-C₃N₄ (CN) with a nanoroll-type morphology (Ag/CN) synthesized using a co-polymerization method for highly selective conversion of toxic nitrobenzene to industrially-valuable aminobenzene. Scanning electron microscopy and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) images of Ag/CN revealed the generation of the nanoroll-type morphology of CN. Additionally, HRTEM analysis provided direct evidence of the generation of a Schottky barrier between Ag and CN in the Ag/CN nanohybrid. Photoluminescence analysis and photocurrent measurements suggested that the introduction of Ag into CN could minimize charge recombination rates, enhancing the mobility of electrons and holes to the surface of the photocatalyst. Compared to pristine CN, Ag/CN displayed much higher ability in the photocatalytic reduction of nitrobenzene to aminobenzene, underscoring the importance of Ag deposition on CN. The enhanced photocatalytic performance and photocurrent generation were primarily ascribed to the Schottky junction formed at the Ag/CN interface, greater visible-light absorption efficiency, and improved charge separation associated with the nanoroll morphology of CN. Ag would act as an electron sink/trapping center, enhancing the charge separation, and also serve as a good co-catalyst. Overall, the synergistic effects of these features of Ag/CN improved the photocatalytic conversion of nitrobenzene to aminobenzene.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.1-20
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• 2021

In-depth knowledge of electrode processes is crucial for determining the electrochemical performance of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). In particular, the conduction mechanisms of charged species in the electrodes, such as lithium ions (Li+) and electrons, are directly correlated with the performance of the battery because the overall reaction is dependent on the charge transport behavior in the electrodes. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the different electrochemical processes occurring in electrodes in order to elucidate the charge conduction phenomenon. Thus, it is essential to conduct fundamental studies on electrochemical processes to resolve the technical challenges and issues arising during the ionic and electronic conduction. Furthermore, it is also necessary to understand the transport of charged species as well as the predominant factors affecting their transport in electrodes. Based on such in-depth studies, potential approaches can be introduced to enhance the mobility of charged entities, thereby achieving superior battery performances. A clear understanding of the conduction mechanism inside electrodes can help overcome challenges associated with the rapid movement of charged species and provide a practical guideline for the development of advanced materials suitable for high-performance LIBs.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.08a
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• pp.132.2-132.2
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• 2013

Electrons in graphene make ballistic transport with very high mobility (${\sim}2{\times}105 $cm2V-1s-1), which holds promises for applications in fast electronic devices. However, such expectations have been hampered by the semi-metallicity or zero bandgap of graphene, which makes it impossible to completely turn off graphene transistor devices. Here, we report the observations of local bandgap modulations in Moir$\acute{e}$ patterned graphene on metal substrates using scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy. The Moir$\acute{e}$ patterned graphene was made by combinations of self-assembly processes, and they showed additional electronic states that could be interpreted as sub-band states. Our experimental observations could be explained with orbital transitions of carbon atoms from sp2 to sp3, as supported by our density functional theory calculation results. Our findings will add new poweful components for device applications.

• The Korean Journal of Ceramics
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.131-136
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• 1996

The electrical conductivity of polycrystalline TiO2 samples was measured over the temperature range 1000°-1400℃ and from 0.21 to 10-16 atm of oxygen. Based on the excellent fit observed between the theoretically derived relatin σ3=(Aσ+B)Po2-1/2+D'σ2 and the experimental conductivity data, the nonstoichimetric defect structure of TiO2 was rationalized in terms of a defect model involving quasi-free electrons and both singly and doubly ionized oxygen vacancies. The standard enthalpy of formation for the following defect reactions in TiO2. (a) OO={{{{ { 1} over {2 } }}O2(g)+VO+e'; Δ{{{{ { H}`_{o } ^{a } }}=5.15(eV) (b) OO={{{{ { 1} over {2 } }}O2(g)+VO+2e'; Δ{{{{ { H}`_{0 } ^{ a} }}=6.30(eV) (c) VO=VO+e'; Δ{{{{ { H}`_{0 } ^{a } }}=1.15(eV) were determined from the temperature dependence of A and B obtained from the above relation and from the experimental expression between the electron mobility and temperature. The electrical conductivity of TiO2 in air below approximately 950℃ appears, on the basis of this investigation, to be impurity controlled due to the presence of aluminum rather than intrinsic conduction.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.293.2-293.2
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• 2016

The In this paper, we have fabricated the solution processed In-Ga-ZnO thin film transistors (IGZO TFTs) by varying indium and gallium ratio. The indium ratio of IGZO TFTs was changed from 1 to 5 at fixed gallium and zinc oxide atomic percent of 1:1 and gallium ratio was varied from 1 to 5 at fixed indium and zinc oxide atomic percent of 1:1. When the indium ratio was increased at fixed gallium and zinc oxide ratio of 1:1, threshold voltage was negatively shifted from 1.03 to -6.18 V and also mobility was increased from 0.018 to $0.076cm2/V{\cdot}sec$. It means that the number of carriers in IGZO TFTs were increased due to great formation of the oxygen vacancies which generate electrons. In contrast, when the gallium ratio was increased in IGZO TFTs with indium and zinc oxide ration of 1:1, the on/off current ratio was increased from $1.88{\times}104$ to $2.22{\times}105$. It is because gallium have stronger chemical bonds with oxygen than that with the zinc and indium ions that lead to the decreased in electron concentration.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.161-161
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• 2013

Two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) has been investigated at the heterointerface between two insulating dielectric perovskite oxides, $LaAlO_3$ (LAO)/$SrTiO_3$ (STO). Properties of the 2DEG have attracted an enormous interest in condensed matter physics due to multifunctional properties such as the coexistence of ferromagnetism and superconductivity, as well as the high electron mobility. Here, we have grown $Ta_2O_5$ thin films using pulsed laser deposition on $SrTiO_3$ substrate to investigate the electric properties of the $Ta_2O_5$/STO heterointerface. Our research reveal that the non-polar $Ta_2O_5$/$TiO_2$ heterointerface favors the formation of 2DEG similar to that at the LAO/STO heterointerface. The metallic behavior was found in this heterointerface with the current about $10{\sim}100{\mu}A$ at 5 V by using conventional I-V measurements, when the $Ta_20_5$ film thickness reaches over critical thickness, $d_c{\simeq}2uc$. The finding that electrons was localized at $Ta_2O_5$/STO heterointerface have attracted to be strong and new candidate for nanoscale oxide device applications.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.288-289
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• 2011

Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) is a typical highly Transparent Conductive Oxide (TCO) currently used as a transparent electrode material. Most widely used deposition method is the sputtering process for ITO film deposition because it has a high deposition rate, allows accurate control of the film thickness and easy deposition process and high electrical/optical properties. However, to apply high quality ITO thin film in a flexible microelectronic device using a plastic substrate, conventional DC magnetron sputtering (DMS) processed ITO thin film is not suitable because it needs a high temperature thermal annealing process to obtain high optical transmittance and low resistivity, while the generally plastic substrates has low glass transition temperatures. In the room temperature sputtering process, the electrical property degradation of ITO thin film is caused by negative oxygen ions effect. This high energy negative oxygen ions(about over 100eV) can be critical physical bombardment damages against the formation of the ITO thin film, and this damage does not recover in the room temperature process that does not offer thermal annealing. Hence new ITO deposition process that can provide the high electrical/optical properties of the ITO film at room temperature is needed. To solve these limitations we develop the Magnetic Field Shielded Sputtering (MFSS) system. The MFSS is based on DMS and it has the plasma limiter, which compose the permanent magnet array (Fig.1). During the ITO thin film deposition in the MFSS process, the electrons in the plasma are trapped by the magnetic field at the plasma limiters. The plasma limiter, which has a negative potential in the MFSS process, prevents to the damage by negative oxygen ions bombardment, and increases the heat(-) up effect by the Ar ions in the bulk plasma. Fig. 2. shows the electrical properties of the MFSS ITO thin film and DMS ITO thin film at room temperature. With the increase of the sputtering pressure, the resistivity of DMS ITO increases. On the other hand, the resistivity of the MFSS ITO slightly increases and becomes lower than that of the DMS ITO at all sputtering pressures. The lowest resistivity of the DMS ITO is $1.0{\times}10-3{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ and that of the MFSS ITO is $4.5{\times}10-4{\Omega}{\cdot}cm$. This resistivity difference is caused by the carrier mobility. The carrier mobility of the MFSS ITO is 40 $cm^2/V{\cdot}s$, which is significantly higher than that of the DMS ITO (10 $cm^2/V{\cdot}s$). The low resistivity and high carrier mobility of the MFSS ITO are due to the magnetic field shielded effect. In addition, although not shown in this paper, the roughness of the MFSS ITO thin film is lower than that of the DMS ITO thin film, and TEM, XRD and XPS analysis of the MFSS ITO show the nano-crystalline structure. As a result, the MFSS process can effectively prevent to the high energy negative oxygen ions bombardment and supply activation energies by accelerating Ar ions in the plasma; therefore, high quality ITO can be deposited at room temperature.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.38 no.11
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• pp.973-979
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• 2001

Tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) thin films were deposited using r.f. magnetron reactive sputtering and the electrical properties, such as the resistivity, carrier concentration and mobility, were investigated as a function of the sample position under a given magnetron sputtering condition. The nonhomogeneity of the electrical properties with the sample position was observed under a given magnetron sputtering condition. The resistivity of ITO thin film on the substrate which corresponded to the center of the target had a minimum value, 2∼4$\times$10$\^$-4/$\Omega$$.$cm, and it increased symmetrically when the substrate deviated from the center. The density measurement result also showed that ITO thin film deposited at the center has a maximum density of 7.0g/cm$^3$, which was a relative density of about 97%, and the density decreased symmetrically as the substrate deviated from the center. The nonhomogeneity of electrical properties with the deposition position could be explained with the incidence angle of the source beam alpha, which is related with an atomic self-shadowing effect. It was confirmed experimentally that the density in film affect both the carrier mobility and the conductivity. In the case where the density of ITO thin film is 7.0g/cm$^3$, the magnitude of the mean free path was identical with that of the grain size(the diameter of column). However, in the other cases, the mean free path was smaller than the grain size. These results showed that the scattering of the free electrons at the grain boundary is the major factor for the electrical conduction in ITO thin films having a high density, and there exists other scattering sources such as vacancies, holes, or pores in ITO thin films having a low density.ing a low density.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.149-154
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• 2017

Transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) were fabricated using solution-based ITO (Sn-doped $In_2O_3$) nanoinks with nanorods at an annealing temperature of $200^{\circ}C$. In order to optimize their transparent conducting performance, ITO nanoinks were composed of ITO nanoparticles alone and the weight ratios of the nanorods to nanoparticles in the ITO nanoinks were adjusted to 0.1, 0.2, and 0.5. As a result, compared to the other TCOs, the ITO TCOs formed by the ITO nanoinks with weight ratio of 0.1 were found to exhibit outstanding transparent conducting performance in terms of sheet resistance (${\sim}102.3{\Omega}/square$) and optical transmittance (~80.2 %) at 550 nm; these excellent properties are due to the enhanced Hall mobility induced by the interconnection of the composite nanorods with the (440) planes of the short lattice distance in the TCOs, in which the presence of the nanorods can serve as a conducting pathway for electrons. Therefore, this resulting material can be proposed as a potential candidate for solution-based TCOs for use in optoelectronic devices requiring large-scale and low-cost processes.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.22 no.10
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• pp.504-507
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• 2012

Synthesis of RGO (reduced graphene oxide)-CdS composite material was performed through CBD (chemical bath deposition) method in which graphene oxide served as the support and Cadmium Sulfate Hydrate as the starting material. Graphene-based semiconductor photocatalysts have attracted extensive attention due to their usefulness for environmental and energy applications. The band gap (2.4 eV) of CdS corresponds well with the spectrum of sunlight because the crystalline phase, size, morphology, specic surface area and defects, etc., of CdS can affect its photocatalytic activity. The specific surface structure (morphology) of the photocatalyst can be effective for the suppression of recombination between photogenerated electrons and holes. Graphene (GN) has unique properties such as a high value of Young's modulus, large theoretical specific surface area, excellent thermal conductivity, high mobility of charge carriers, and good optical transmittance. These excellent properties make GN an ideal building block in nanocomposites. It can act as an excellent electron-acceptor/transport material. Therefore, the morphology, structural characterization and crystal structure were observed using various analytical tools, such as X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy. From this analysis, it is shown that CdS particles were well dispersed uniformly in the RGO sheet. Furthermore, the photocatalytic property of the resulting RGO-CdS composite is also discussed in relation to environmental applications such as the photocatalytic degradation of pollutants. It was found that the prepared RGO-CdS nanocomposites exhibited enhanced photocatalytic activity as compared with that of CdS nanoparticles. Therefore, better efficiency of photodegradation was found for water purification applications using RGO-CdS composite.