• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.128-128
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• 2013

Fabrication of heterogeneous catalysts using Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) has recently been attracting attention of surface chemists and physicists. In this talk, I will present recent results about structures and chemical activities of various catalysts prepared by ALD, particularly focusing on Ni-based catalysts. Ni has been considered as potential catalysts for $CO_2$ reforming of methane (CRM); however, Ni often undergoes rapid decrease in catalytic activity with time, and therefore, application of Ni as catalysts for CRM has been regarded as difficult so far. Deactivation of Ni catalysts during CRM reaction is from either coke formation on Ni surface or sintering of Ni particles during reaction. Two different strategies have been used for enhancing stability of Ni-based catalysts; $TiO_2$ nanoparticles were deposited on micrometer-size Ni particles by ALD, which turned out to reduce coke formation on Ni surfaces. Ni nanoparticles deposited by ALD on mesoporous silica showed high activity and long-term stability from CRM without coke deposition and sintering during CRM reaction. Ni-based catalysts have been also used for oxidation of toluene, which is one of the most notorious gases responsible for sick-building syndrome. It was shown that onset-temperature of Ni catalysts for toluene oxidation is as low as $120^{\circ}C$. At $250\circ}C$, total oxidation of toluene to $CO_2$ with a 100% conversion was found.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.443-447
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• 2003

Nano-sized $TiB_2$ was in situ synthesized in copper matrix through self-propagating high temperature synthesis (SHS) with high-energy ball milled Ti-B-Cu elemental mixtures as powder precursors. The size of $TiB_2$ particles in the product of SHS reaction decreases with time of preliminary mechanical treatment ranging from 1 in untreated mixture to 0.1 in mixtures milled for 3 min. Subsequent mechanical treatment of the product of SHS reaction allowed the $TiB_2$ particles to be reduced down to 30-50 nm. Microstructural change of $TiB_2$-Cu nanocomposite during spark plasma sintering (SPS) was also investigated. Under simultaneous action of pressure, temperature and electric current, titanium diboride nanoparticles distributed in copper matrix move, agglomerate and form a interpenetrating phase composite with a fine-grained skeleton.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.204.2-204.2
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• 2014

Among various metal oxides, ZrO2 is of particular interests and has received widespread attention thanks to its ideal mechanical and chemical stability. As a cheap metal, Ag nanoparticles are also widely used as catalysts in ethylene epoxidation and methanol oxidation. However, the nature of Ag-ZrO2 interfaces is still unknown. In this work, the growth, interfacial interaction and thermal stability of Ag nanoparticles on ZrO2(111) film surfaces were studied by low-energy electron diffraction (LEED), synchrotron radiation photoemission spectroscopy (SRPES), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The ZrO2(111) films were epitaxially grown on Pt(111). Three-dimensional (3D) growth model of Ag on the ZrO2(111) surface at 300 K was observed with a density of ${\sim}2.0{\times}1012particles/cm2$. The binding energy of Ag 3d shifts to low BE from very low to high Ag coverages by 0.5 eV. The Auger parameters shows the primary contribution to the Ag core level BE shift is final state effect, indicating a very weak interaction between Ag clusters and ZrO2(111) film. Thermal stability experiments demonstrate that Ag particles underwent serious sintering before they desorb from the zirconia film surface. In addition, large Ag particles have stronger ability of inhibiting sintering.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.405-410
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• 2013

During sintering of Ni-electrode multi-layer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs), the Ni electrode often becomes discontinuous because of its lower sintering temperature relative to that of $BaTiO_3$. In an attempt to retard the sintering of Ni, we introduced passivation of the Ni powder. To find the optimal passivation conditions, a thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was conducted in air. After passivation at $250^{\circ}C$ for 11 h in air, a nickel oxide shell with a thickness of 4-5 nm was formed on nickel nanoparticles of 180 nm size. As anticipated, densification of the compacts of the passivated Ni/NiO core-shell powder was retarded: the starting temperature of densification increased from ${\sim}400^{\circ}C$ to ${\sim}600^{\circ}C$ in a $97N_2-3H_2$ (vol %) atmosphere. Grain growth was also retarded during sintering at temperatures of 750 and $1000^{\circ}C$. When the sintering atmosphere was changed from wet $99.93N_2-0.07H_2$ to wet $99.98N_2-0.02H_2$, the average grain size decreased at the same sintering temperature. The conductivity of the passivated powder sample sintered at $1150^{\circ}C$ for 8 h in wet $99.93N_2-0.07H_2$ was measured to be $3.9{\times}10^4S/cm$, which is comparable with that, $4.6{\times}10^4S/cm$, of the Ni powder compact without passivation. These results demonstrate that passivation of Ni is a viable means of retarding sintering of a Ni electrode and hence improving its continuity in the fabrication of $BaTiO_3$-based multi-layer ceramic capacitors.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.533-538
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• 2011

A plastic-compatible low-temperature metal deposition and patterning process is essential for the fabrication of flexible electronics because they are usually built on a heat-sensitive flexible substrate, for example plastic, fabric, paper, or metal foil. There is considerable interest in solution-processible metal nanoparticle ink deposition and patterning by selective laser sintering. It provides flexible electronics fabrication without the use of conventional photolithography or vacuum deposition techniques. We summarize our recent progress on the selective laser sintering of metals and metal oxide nanoparticles on a polymer substrate to realize flexible electronics such as flexible displays and flexible solar cells. Future research directions are also discussed.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.31 no.12
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• pp.677-681
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• 2021

The Mn-Zn ferrite powders were prepared by high energy ball milling, then compacted and sintered at various temperatures to assess their sintering behavior and magnetic properties. The initial ferrite powders were spherical in shape with the size of approximately 70 ㎛. After 3 h of ball milling at 300 rpm, aggregated powders ~230 nm in size and composed of ~15 nm nanoparticles were formed. The milled powders had a density of ~70 % when compacted at 490 MPa for 3 min. In the samples subsequently sintered at 1,273 K ~ 1,673 K for 3 h, the MnZnFe₂O₄ phase was detected. The density of the sintered samples had a tendency to increase with increasing sintering temperature up to 1,473 K, which produced the highest density of 98 %. On the other hand, the sample sintered at 1,373 K had the highest micro-hardness of approximately 610 Hv, which is due to much finer grains.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2000.11b
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• pp.180-185
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• 2000

Nano crystalline or non-crystalline particles have been widely used in various industrial area, such as ceramics, catalysis, electronics, metallurgy and optic device. In all applications, synthesizing the particles as small as possible and controlling the crystalline phase according to its purpose are necessary for the enhancement of processing performance. In some cases, non-agglomerated particles may be necessary for solving the packing problems. This motivates our attempt of controlling size, morphology, phase of nano titania and silica particles. If one can enhance sintering rate of small aggregates independently of collision rate, one may expect that original aggregates can be changed into volume equivalent spheres and thereby the decrease of collision frequency due to the change leads to much smaller rate of growth of the particles. This is the basic idea of our control strategy.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.219-224
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• 2006

Silver paste with low sintered temperature has been developed in order to apply electronic parts, such as bus electrode, address electrode in PDP (Plasma Display Panel) with large screen area. In this study, nano-sized silver particles with 10-30 nm were synthesized from silver nitrate ($AgNO_3$) solution by chemical reduction method and silver paste with low sintered temperature was prepared by mixing silver nanoparticles, conventional silver powder with the particle size 1.6 um and Pb-free frit. Conductive thick film from silver paste was fabricated by screen printing on alumina substrate. After firing at $540^{\circ}C$, the cross section and surface morphology of the thick films were analyzed by FE-SEM. Also, the sheet resistivity of the fired thick films was measured using the four-point technique.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.08a
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• pp.217-217
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• 2011

Recently, demand for thermally stable metal nanoparticles suitable for chemical reactions at high temperatures has increased to the point to require a solution to nanoparticle coalescence. Thermal stability of metal nanoparticles can be achieved by adopting core-shell models and encapsulating supported metal nanoparticles with mesoporous oxides [1,2]. However, to understand the role of metal-support interactions on catalytic activity and for surface analysis of complex structures, we developed a novel catalyst design by coating an ultra-thin layer of titania on Pt supported silica ($SiO_2/Pt@TiO_2$). This structure provides higher metal dispersion (~52% Pt/silica), high thermal stability (~600$^{\circ}C$) and maximization of the interaction between Pt and titania. The high thermal stability of $SiO_2/Pt@TiO_2$ enabled the investigation of CO oxidation studies at high temperatures, including ignition behavior, which is otherwise not possible on bare Pt nanoparticles due to sintering [3]. It was found that this hybrid catalyst exhibited a lower activation energy for CO oxidation because of the metal-support interaction. The concept of an ultra-thin active metal oxide coating on supported nanoparticles opens-up new avenues for synthesis of various hybrid nanocatalysts with combinations of different metals and oxides to investigate important model reactions at high-temperatures and in industrial reactions.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.08a
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• pp.317.2-317.2
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• 2013

Ultrathin oxide encapsulated metal-oxide hybrid nanocatalysts have been fabricated by a soft chemical and facile route. First, SiO2 nanoparticles of 25~30 nm size have been synthesized by modified Stobber's method followed by amine functionalization. Metal nanoparticles (Ru, Rh, Pt) capped with polymer/citrate have been deposited on functionalized SiO2 and finally an ultrathin layer of TiO2 coated on surface which prevents sintering and provides high thermal stability while maximizing the metal-oxide interface for higher catalytic activity. TEM studies confirmed that 2.5 nm sized metal nanoparticles are well dispersed and distributed throughout the surface of 25 nm SiO2 nanoparticles with a 3-4 nm TiO2 ultrathin layer. The metal nanoparticles are still well exposed to outer surface, being enabled for surface characterization and catalytic activity. Even after calcination at $600^{\circ}C$, the structure and morphology of hybrid nanocatalysts remain intact confirm the high thermal stability. XPS spectra of hybrid nanocatalyst suggest the metallic states as well as their corresponding oxide states. The catalytic activity has been evaluated for high temperature CO oxidation reaction as well as photocatalytic H2 generation under solar simulation. The design of hybrid structure, high thermal stability, and better exposure of metal active sites are the key parameters for the high catalytic activity. The maximization of metal-TiO2 interface interaction has the great role in photocatalytic H2 production.