• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.10 no.4
• /
• pp.264-269
• /
• 2000

TiO$_2$thin films were prepared on the glass by a conventional spin coating method with $TiO_2$ sol(30wt%, anatase). The thickness of the thin films were controlled by the number of coating cycles: one cycle is composed of spin coating, drying, and heating process. The reaction rate of the film was obtained by the photodecomposition of gaseous benzene under 0.44 and 2.0mW/$\textrm{cm}^2$ UV light on the film surface. For an incident UV light intensity of 0.44mW/$\textrm{cm}^2$, the reaction rate was increased with the thickness of the film, caused by extent of surface area, but there was no change over the thickness of about 4$\mu\textrm{m}$. The porous $TiO_2$ thin film has comparatively vast effective surface area, which under relatively high-intensity UV illumination causes the reaction rate to be controlled by the film thickness.

• Journal of Powder Materials
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.125-135
• /
• 2008

[ $TiO_2$ ] nanotubes for photocatalytic application have been synthesized by hydrothermal method. $TiO_2$ nanotubes are formed by washing process after reaction in alkalic solution. Nanotubes with different morphology have been fabricated by changing NaOH concentration, temperature and time. $TiO_2$ nanoparticles were treated inside NaOH aqueous solution in a Teflon vessel at $110^{\circ}C$ for 20 h, after which they were washed with HCl aqueous solution and deionized water. Nanotube with the most perfect morphology was formed from 0.1 N HCl washing treatment. $TiO_2$ nanotube was also obtained when the precursor was washed with other washing solutions such as $NH_4OH$, NaCl, $K_2SO_4$, and $Na_2SO_3$. Therefore, it was suggested that $Na^+$ ion combined inside the precursor compound slowly comes out from the structure, leaving nanosheet morphology of $TiO_2$ compounds, which in turn become the nanotube in the presence of hydroxyl ion. To stabilize the sheet morphology, the different type of washing treatment solution might be considered such as amine class compounds.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
• /
• v.40 no.4
• /
• pp.190-196
• /
• 2007

Dye sensitized solar cells(DSSC) are the most promising future energy resource due to their high energy efficiency, low production cost, and simple manufacturing process. But one problem in DSSC is short life time compared to silicon solar cells. This problem occurred from photocatalytic degradation of dye material by nanometer sized $TiO_2$ particles. To prevent dye degradation as well as to increase its life time, the transparent coating film is needed for UV blocking. In this study, we synthesized nanometer sized $TiO_2$ particles in sols by increasing its internal pressure up to 200 bar in autoclave at $120^{\circ}C$ for 10 hrs. The synthesized $TiO_2$ sols were all formed with brookite phase and their particle size was several nm to 30 nm. Synthesized $TiO_2$ sols were coated on the backside of fluorine doped tin oxide(FTO) glass by ink jet printing method. With increasing coating thickness by repeated ink jet coating, the absorbance of UV region (under 400 nm) also increases reasonably. Decomposition test of titania powders dispersed in 0.1 mM amaranth solution covered with $TiO_2$ coating glass shows more stable dye properties under UV irradiation, compared to that with as-received FTO glass.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.31 no.10
• /
• pp.552-561
• /
• 2021

For the purpose of manufacturing a high efficiency TiO₂ photocatalyst, B-doped TiO₂ photocatalysts are synthesized using a plasma electrolytic oxidation method in 0.5 M H₂SO₄ electrolyte with different concentrations of H₃BO₃ as additive. For the B doped TiO₂ layer fabricated from sulfuric electrolyte having a higher concentration of H₃BO₃ additive, the main XRD peaks of (101) and (200) anatase phase shift gradually toward the lower angle direction, indicating volume expansion of the TiO₂ anatase lattice by incorporation of boron, when compared with TiO₂ layers formed in sulfuric acid with lower concentration of additive. Moreover, XPS results indicate that the center of the binding energy peak of B1s increases from 191.45 eV to 191.98 eV, which suggests that most of boron atoms are doped interstitially in the TiO₂ layer rather than substitutionally. The B doped TiO₂ catalyst fabricated in sulfuric electrolyte with 1.0 M H₃BO₃ exhibits enhanced photocurrent response, and high efficiency and rate constant for dye degradation, which is ascribed to the synergistic effect of the new impurity energy band induced by introducing boron to the interstitial site and the improvement of charge transfer reaction.

• Journal of Powder Materials
• /
• v.29 no.6
• /
• pp.492-498
• /
• 2022

N-doped Na₂Ti₆O₁₃@TiO₂ (denoted as N-NTO@TiO₂) composites are successfully synthesized using a simple two-step process: 1) ball-milling of TiO₂ with Na₂CO₃ followed by heat treatment at 900℃; 2) mixing of the prepared Na₂Ti₆O₁₃ with titanium isopropoxide and calcining with urea at 500℃. The prepared composites are characterized using XRD, SEM, TEM, FTIR, and BET. The N-NTO@TiO₂ composites exhibit well-defined crystalline and anatase TiO₂ with exposed {101} facets on the external surface. Moreover, dopant N atoms are uniformly distributed over a relatively large area in the lattice of the composites. Under visible light irradiation, ~51% of the aqueous methylene blue is photodegraded by N-NTO@TiO₂ composites, which is higher than the values shown by other samples because of the coupling effects of the hybridization of NTO and TiO₂, N-doping, and presence of anatase TiO₂ with exposed {101} facets.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.1-7
• /
• 2017

Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) can be deposited on various substrates using chemical vapor deposition process, which results in the formation of PDMS thin films with thickness below 5 nm. PDMS layers can be evenly deposited on surfaces of nanoparticles composed of various chemical compositions such as $SiO_2$, $TiO_2$, ZnO, C, Ni, and NiO, and the PDMS-coated surface becomes completely hydrophobic. These hydrophobic layers are highly resistant towards degradation under acidic and basic environments and UV-exposures. Nanoparticles coated with PDMS can be used in various environmental applications: hydrophobic silica nanoparticles can selectively interact with oil from oil/water mixture, suppressing fast diffusion of spill-oil on water and allowing more facile physical separation of spill-oil from the water. Upon heat-treatments of PDMS-coated $TiO_2$ under vacuum conditions, $TiO_2$ surface becomes completely hydrophilic, accompanying formation oxygen vacancies responsible for visible-light absorption. The post-annealed $PDMS-TiO_2$ shows enhanced photocatalytic activity with respect to the bare $TiO_2$ for decomposition of organic dyes in water under visible light illumination. We show that the simple PDMS-coating process presented here can be useful in a variety of field of environmental science and technology.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.17 no.7
• /
• pp.420-424
• /
• 2016

In this study, we developed photocatalytic technology to address the emerging serious problem of air pollution through indoor air cleaning. A single layer of $WO_3$ was prepared by using the dry process of general RF magnetron sputtering. At a base vacuum of $1.8{\times}10^{-6}$[Torr], the optical and electrical properties of the resulting thin films were examined for use as a transparent electrode as well as a photocatalyst. The single layer of $WO_3$ prepared at an RF power of 100 [W], a pressure of 7 [mTorr] and Ar and $O_2$ gas flow rates of 70 and 2 sccm, respectively, showed uniform and good optical transmittance of over 80% in the visible wavelength range from 380 [nm] to 780 [nm]. The optical catalyst characteristics of the $WO_3$ thin film were examined by investigating the optical absorbance and concentration variance in methylene blue, where the $WO_3$ thin film was immersed in the methylene blue. The catalytic characteristics improved with time. The concentration of methylene blue decreased to 80% after 5 hours, which confirms that the $WO_3$ thin film shows the characteristics of an optical catalyst. Using the reflector of a CCFL (cold cathode fluorescent lamp) and the lens of an LED (lighting emitting diode), it is possible to enhance the air cleaning effect of next-generation light sources.

• Clean Technology
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.105-112
• /
• 2013

In this study, polyaniline (PANI)-based $TiO_2$ (PANI-$TiO_2$) composites calcined at different temperatures were prepared and their applications for control of trichloroethylene (TCE) and tetrachloroethylene (TTCE) at indoor air levels were investigated. For these target compounds, the photocatalytic control efficiencies of PANI-$TiO_2$ composites did not exhibit any trend with varying calcination temperatures (CTs). Rather, the average control efficiencies of PANI-$TiO_2$ composites over 3-h photocatalytic process increased from 61 to 72% and from 21 to 39% for TCE and TTCE, respectively, as the CT increased from 350 to $450^{\circ}C$. However, for both the target compounds, the average control efficiencies of PANI-$TiO_2$ composites decreased gradually as the CT increased further to 550 and $650^{\circ}C$. These results were ascribed to contents of anatase crystal phase and specific surface area of different particle sizes in the PANI-$TiO_2$ composites, which were demonstrated by the X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy images, respectively. At the lowest input concentration (IC, 0.1 ppm), average control efficiencies of TCE and TTCE were 72 and 39%, respectively, whereas at the highest IC (1.0 ppm) they were 52 and 18%, respectively. As stream flow rate increased from 0.1 to 1.0 L $min^{-1}$, the average control efficiencies of TCE and TTCE decreased from ca. 100 to 47% and ca. 100 to 18%, respectively. In addition, the average control efficiencies of TCE and TTCE decreased from ca. 100 to 23% and ca. 100 to 8%, respectively as the relative humidity increased from 20 to 95%. Overall, these findings indicated that as-prepared PANI-$TiO_2$ composites could be used efficiently for control of chlorinated compounds at indoor air levels;if operational conditions were optimized.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
• /
• v.25 no.5
• /
• pp.447-454
• /
• 2014

Organic solar cells (OSCs) have intensively studied in recent years due to their advantages such as cost effectiveness and possibility of applications in flexible devices. In spite of the high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 10 %, the OSCs still have a draw back of their low environmental stability due to the oxidization of aluminum cathode and etching of transparent conducting oxide as electrode. To solve these problems, the inverted structured OSCs (I-OSCs) having greatest potential for achieving an improvement of device performances are suggested. Therefore, there are a lot of studies to develope of interface layer based on organic/inorganic materials for the electron transport layer (ETL) and passivation layer, significant advancements in I-OSCs have driven the development of interface functional materials including electron transport layer. Recent efforts to employing 2D/3D zinc oxide (ZnO) based ETL into I-OSCs have produced OSCs with a power conversion efficiency level that matches the efficiency of ~9 %. In this review, the technical issues and recent progress of ZnO based ETL in I-OSCs to enhancement of device efficiency and stability in terms of materials, process and characterization have summarized.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.51 no.2
• /
• pp.257-262
• /
• 2013

As the regulation of total phosphorus (T-P) concentration in biologically treated sewage effluent is reduced to 0.2~2 mg/L, flocculation process is recommended to remove T-P. In this study, the performance of Ti-salt coagulant was investigated in terms of dosage and pH in removing phosphorus and the collected sludge after Ti-salt flocculation was calcined to produce titania for effective sludge recycling. The flocculation performance was carried out using two methods: sedimentation and air floatation. Both methods were feasible to apply for Ti-salt flocculation. Ti-salt flocculation was effective in reducing phosphorus concentration in sewage effluent, which showed similar performance of alum ($Al_2(SO_4)_3$). The calcined sludge was recycled to titania which is the widely used metal oxide. Titania produed from Ti-salt sludge indicated similar characteristics of commercially-available P-25 in regard to photocatalytic activity and surface area. Therefore, this can be easily adopted to titania application by replacing P-25.