• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
• /
• v.27 no.5
• /
• pp.502-507
• /
• 2016

This study was conducted to develop novel antimicrobial nano-composites, with the aim of fully utilizing antimicrobial properties of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), nickel (Ni) and zinc oxide (ZnO). Ni coated-MWCNTs (Ni-CNT) were prepared and evaluated for their potential application as an antimicrobial material for inactivating bacteria. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), and X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) were used to characterize the Ni coating and morphology of Ni-CNT. Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Escherichia coil (E. coil) were employed as the target bacterium on antimicrobial activities. Comparing with the nitric acid treated MWCNTs and Ni-CNT which have been previously reported to possess antimicrobial activity towards S. aureus and E. coil, Ni-CNT/ZnO exhibited a stronger antimicrobial ability. The nickel coating was confirmed to play an important role in the bactericidal action of Ni-CNTs/ZnO composites. Also, the addition of ZnO to the developed nanocomposite is suggested to improve the antimicrobial property.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.121-127
• /
• 2015

Nanotubular $TiO_2$ prepared by electrochemical anodization has been significantly used for various applications due to high aspect ratio structures showing a high chemical stability. Morphological properties of nanotubular titanium oxide are easily tailored by adjusting types and compositions of electrolyte, pH value, applied voltage, temperature and anodization time. Since their catalytic properties can be enhanced by doping foreign elements into $TiO_2$, metal as well as non-metal elements are doped into $TiO_2$ nanotubes using different methods. For example, single anodization, thermal annealing, precipitation, and electrochemical deposition have been applied to simplify the doping process. In this review, anodization of Ti to produce $TiO_2$ and doping methods will be discussed in detail.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
• /
• v.20 no.1
• /
• pp.70-76
• /
• 2011

High-quality double-walled carbon nanotubes (DWCNTs) were synthesized by catalytic decomposition method at $800^{\circ}C$ using Tetrahydrofuran. The as-synthesized DWCNTs typically have catalytic impurities and amorphous carbon, which were removed by two-step purification process, consisting of thermal oxidation and H2O2, HNO3, HCl treatment. The DWCNT suspension was prepared by dispersing the purified DWCNTs in an aqueous sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate solution with horn-type sonication. This was then sprayed on ITO glass to fabricate CNT field emitters. The quality of purified DWCNTs was estimated with X-ray diffraction and Thermal Gravity Analysis. The field emission properties were improved by increasing the process time of HCl treatment.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2013.02a
• /
• pp.314-314
• /
• 2013

Recently, flexibility is one of the hottest issues in the field of electronic devices. For flexible displays or solar cells, a development of transparent conductive electrodes (TCEs) with flexibility, bendability and foldability is an essential element. Hundreds of nanometers indium-tin-oxide (ITO) films have been widely used and commercialized as a transparent electrode, but their brittleness make them difficulty to apply flexible electronics. Many researchers have been studying for flexible TCEs such as a few layers of graphene sheets, carbon nanotube networks, conductive polymer films and combinations among them. Although gained flexibility, their transmittance and resistivity have not reached those of commercialized ITO films. Metal grids electrode cannot act as TCEs only, but they can be used to lower the resistance of TCEs with few losses of transmittance. However, the possibility of device shortage will be rise at the devices with metal grids because a surface flatness of TCEs may be deteriorated when metal grids are introduced using conventional methods. In our research, we have developed hybrid TCEs, which combined tens of nanometers ITO film and metal grids which are embedded in flexible substrate. They show $13{\Omega}$/${\Box}f$ sheet resistance with 94% of transmittance. Moreover, the sheet resistance was maintained up to 1 mm of bending radius. Also, we have verified that flexible organic light emitting diodes and organic solar cells with the TCEs showed similar performances compared to commercial ITO (on glass substrate) devices.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
• /
• v.16 no.5
• /
• pp.257-264
• /
• 2017

Film of new Ti-15Zr-5Nb alloy formed during galvanic anodizing in orthophosphoric acid solution was characterized by optical microscope, scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), and Raman micro-spectroscopy. Its anticorrosive properties were determined by electrochemical techniques. The film had a layer with nanotube-like porosity with diameters in 500-1000 nm range. The nano layer contained significant amounts of P and O as well as alloying element. Additionally, Raman micro-spectroscopy identified oxygen as oxygen ion in $TiO_2$ anatase and phosphorous as $P_2O_7{^{4-}}$ ion in phosphotitanate compound. All potentiodynamic polarization curves in artificial Carter-Brugirard saliva with pH values (pH= 3.96, 7.84, and 9.11) depending on the addition of 0.05M NaF revealed nobler behavior of anodized alloy and higher polarization resistance indicating the film is thicker and more compact nanolayer. Lower corrosion rates of the anodized alloy reduced toxicity due to less released ions into saliva. Bigger curvature radii in Nyquist plot and higher phase angle in Bode plot for the anodized alloy ascertain a thicker, more protective, insulating nanolayer existing on the anodized alloy. Additionally, ESI results indicate anodized film consists of an inner, compact, barrier, layer and an outer, less protective, porous layer.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.1-11
• /
• 2014

Flexible transparent conductive electrodes (TCEs) have recently attracted a great deal of attention owing to rapid advances in flexible electronic devices, such as flexible displays, flexible photovoltanics, and e-papers. As the performance and reliability of flexible electronics are critically affected by the quality of TCE films, it is imperative to develop TCE films with low resistivity and high transparency as well as high flexibility. Indium tin oxide (ITO) has been the most dominant transparent conducting material due to its high optical transparency and electrical conductivity. However, ITO is susceptible to cracking and delamination when it is bent or deformed. Therefore, various types of flexible TCEs, such as carbon nanotube, conducting polymers, graphene, metal mesh, Ag nanowires (NWs), and metal mesh have been extensively investigated. Among several options to replace ITO film, Ag NWs and metal mesh have been suggested as the promising candidate for flexible TCEs. In this paper, we focused on Ag NWs and metal mesh, and summarized the current development status of Ag NWs and metal mesh. The several critical issues such as high contact resistance and haze are discussed, and newly developed technologies to resolve these issues are also presented. In particular, the flexibility and durability of Ag NWs and metal mesh was compared with ITO electrode.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
• /
• v.15 no.4
• /
• pp.101-106
• /
• 2008

The $SnO_2$ thin films doped with Pd and CNT as $NO_2$ gas sensor were prepared by spin coating and then the $NO_2$ gas response of these films were evaluated under $1ppm{\sim}5ppm\;NO_2$ concentration and operating temperature of $200^{\circ}C$. It was found that the sensor resistance was increased with $NO_2$ exposure and $NO_2$ concentration. The 3wt% Pd doped sample showed a sensitivity of 26.5 which was 10 times higher than that of pure $SnO_2$. And also the sensitivity of CNT doped sample increased with CNT content and it had 72 when 0.225 wt% of CNT was added under 5ppm $NO_2$ concentration.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2014.02a
• /
• pp.490.1-490.1
• /
• 2014

The ZnO nanowire (NW)-based nanogenerators (NGs) can have rectifying current and potential generated by the coupled piezoelectric and semiconducting properties of ZnO by variety of external stimulation such as pushing, bending and stretching. So, ZnO NGs needed to enhance durability for stable properties of NGs. The durability of the metal electrodes used in the typical ZnO nanogenerators(NGs) is unstable for both electrical and mechanical stability. Indium tin oxide (ITO) is used as transparent flexible electrode but because of high cost and limited supply of indium, the fragility and lack of flexibility of ITO layers, alternatives are being sought. It is expected that carbon nanotube and Ag nanowire conductive coatings could be a prospective replacement. In this work, we demonstrated transparent flexible ZnO NGs by using CNT/Ag nanowire hybrid electrode, in which electrical and mechanical stability of top electrode has been improved. We grew vertical type ZnO NW by hydrothermal method and ZnO NW was coated with hybrid silicone coating solution as capping layer to enhance adhesion and durability of ZNW. We coated the CNT/Ag nanowire hybrid electrode by using bar coating system on a capping layer. Power generation of the ZnO NG is measured by using a picoammeter, a oscilloscope and confirmed surface condition with FE-SEM. As a results, the NGs using the CNT/Ag NW hybrid electrode show 75% transparency at wavelength 550 nm and small change of the resistance of the electrode after bending test. It will be discussed the effect of the improved flexibility of top electrode on power generation enhancement of ZnO NGs.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2014.02a
• /
• pp.241.2-241.2
• /
• 2014

We present highly transparent liquid crystal displays (LCDs) using hybrid films based on carbon nanomaterials, metal grid, and indium-tin-oxide (ITO) grid. Carbon based nanomaterials are used as transparent electrodes because of high transmittance. Despite of their high transmittance they have relatively high sheet resistance. To solve this problem, we applied grid and made hybrid conductive films based on carbon nanomaterials. Conventional photolithography processes were used to make a grid pattern of metal and ITO. To fabricate transparent conductive films, carbon nanotube (CNT) ink was spin coated on the grid pattern. The transparency of the conductive film was controlled by shape and size of the grid pattern and the thickness of CNT films. The optical transmittance of CNT-based hybrid films is 92.2% and sheet resistance is also reduced to $168{\Omega}/square$. These substrates were used for the fabrication of typical twisted nematic (TN) LCD cells. From the characteristics of LCD devices such as transmittance, operating voltage, voltage holding ratio our devices were comparable to those of pristine ITO substrates. The result shows that the hybrid conductive films based on carbon nanomaterials could be alternative of ITO for the highly transparent LCDs.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
• /
• v.25 no.2
• /
• pp.201-212
• /
• 2011

Nanotechnology is the applied science which develops new materials and systems sized within 1 to 100 nanometer, and improves their physical, chemical, and biological characteristics by manipulating on an atomic and molecular scale. This nanotechnology has been applied to wide spectrum of industries resulting in production of various nanoparticles. It is expected that more nanoparticles will be generated and enter to natural water bodies, imposing great threat to potable water resources. However their toxicity and treatment options have not been throughly investigated, despite the significant growth of nanotechnology-based industries. The objective of this study is to provide fundamental information for the management of nanoparticles in water supply systems through extensive literature survey. More specifically, two types of nanoparticles are selected to be a potential problem for drinking water treatment. They are carbon nanoparticles such as carbon nanotube and fullerene, and metal nanoparticles including silver, gold, silica and titanium oxide. In this study, basic characteristics and toxicity of these nanoparticles were first investigated systematically. Their monitoring techniques and treatment efficiencies in conventional water treatment plants were also studied to examine our capability to mitigate the risk associated with nanoparticles. This study suggests that the technologies monitoring nanopartilces need to be greatly improved in water supply systems, and more advanced water treatment processes should be adopted for better control of these nanoparticles.