• 한국재료학회지
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• 제30권9호
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• pp.441-446
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• 2020

Synthesizing nanostructured thin films of oxide semiconductors is a promising approach to fabricate highly efficient photoelectrodes for hydrogen production via photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. In this work, we investigate the feasibility as an efficient photoanode for PEC water oxidation of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructured thin films synthesized via a simple method combined with sputtering Zn metallic films on a fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) coated glass substrate and subsequent thermal oxidation of the sputtered Zn metallic films in dry air. Characterization of the structural, optical, and PEC properties of the ZnO nanostructured thin film synthesized at varying Zn sputtering powers reveals that we can obtain an optimum ZnO nanostructured thin film as PEC photoanode at a sputtering power of 40 W. The photocurrent density and optimal photocurrent conversion efficiency for the optimum ZnO nanostructured thin film photoanode are found to be 0.1 mA/㎠ and 0.51 %, respectively, at a potential of 0.72 V vs. RHE. Our results illustrate that the ZnO nanostructured thin film has promising potential as an efficient photoanode for PEC water splitting.

• 전기화학회지
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• 제10권4호
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• pp.257-261
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• 2007

The electronic properties of quantum dots can be tuned by changing the size of particles without any change in their chemical composition. CdSe quantum dots, the sizes of which were controlled by changing the concentrations of Cd and Se precursors, were adsorbed on $TiO_2$ photoelectrodes and used as sensitizers for photovoltaic cells. For applications of CdSe quantum dot as sensitizers, $CdSe/TiO_2$ films on conducting glass were employed in a sandwich-type cell that incorporated a platinum-coated conductive glass and an electrolyte consisting of an $I^-/I_3^-$ redox. The fill factor (FF) and efficiency for energy conversion ($\c{c}$) of the photovoltaic cell was 62 % and 0.32 %, respectively.

• 한국전기전자재료학회논문지
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• 제31권1호
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• pp.34-39
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• 2018

In this study, e-beam equipment was used to form silver nanoparticles on thin films of $TiO_2$ to increase the efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells and improve the annealing process. $TiO_2$ thin films with nanoparticle photoelectrodes were fabricated in individual units for use in dye-sensitized solar cells. The characteristics of dye-sensitized solar cells were compared to those of the prepared $TiO_2$ photoelectrode with and without nanoparticles. The dye-sensitized solar cells with silver nanoparticles showed a significant increase in the electric current density compared with the pure $TiO_2$ dye-sensitized solar cell and improved the solar conversion efficiency to 27.89%. The increased density of electric current increased the extent of light absorption of the dye owing to the plasmon resonance of the nanoparticles at the local surfaces. This phenomenon led to increased light scattering, which in turn increased the current density of the dye-sensitized solar cells and improved the solar conversion efficiency.

• 한국재료학회지
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• 제30권5호
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• pp.239-245
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• 2020

Synthesizing one-dimensional nanostructures of oxide semiconductors is a promising approach to fabricate highefficiency photoelectrodes for hydrogen production from photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. In this work, vertically aligned zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorod arrays are successfully synthesized on fluorine-doped-tin-oxide (FTO) coated glass substrate via seed-mediated hydrothermal synthesis method with the use of a ZnO nanoparticle seed layer, which is formed by thermally oxidizing a sputtered Zn metal thin film. The structural, optical and PEC properties of the ZnO nanorod arrays synthesized at varying levels of Zn sputtering power are examined to reveal that the optimum ZnO nanorod array can be obtained at a sputtering power of 20 W. The photocurrent density and the optimal photocurrent conversion efficiency obtained for the optimum ZnO nanorod array photoanode are 0.13 mA/㎠ and 0.49 %, respectively, at a potential of 0.85 V vs. RHE. These results provide a promising avenue to fabricating earth-abundant ZnO-based photoanodes for PEC water oxidation using facile hydrothermal synthesis.

• 한국진공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국진공학회 2009년도 제38회 동계학술대회 초록집
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• pp.319-319
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• 2010

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) based on plastic substrates have attracted much attention mainly due to extensive applications such as ubiquitous powers, as well as the practical reasons such as light weight, flexibility and roll-to-roll process. However, conventional high temperature fabrication technology for glass based DSSCs, cannot be applied to flexible devices because polymer substrates cannot withstand the heat more than $150^{\circ}C$. Therefore, low temperature fabrication process, without using a polymer binder or thermal sintering, was required to fabricate necked $TiO_2$. In this presentation, we proposed polymer-inorganic composite photoelectrode, which can be fabricated at low temperature. The concept of composite electrode takes an advantage of utilizing elastic properties of polymers, such as good impact strength. As an elastic material, poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) is selected because of its optical transparency and good adhesive properties. In this work, a polymer-inorganic composite electrode was constructed on FTO/glass substrate under low temperature sintering condition, from the mixture of PMMA and $TiO_2$ colloidal solution. The effect of PMMA composition on the photovoltaic property was investigated. Then, the enhanced mechanical stability of this composite electrode on ITO/PEN substrate was also demonstrated from bending test.

• 한국표면공학회지
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• 제52권5호
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• pp.258-264
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• 2019

Assembling heterostructures by combining dissimilar oxide semiconductors is a promising approach to enhance charge separation and transfer in photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. In this work, the CuO nanorods array/$Cu_2O$ thin film bilayered heterostructure was successfully fabricated by a facile method that involved a direct electrodeposition of the $Cu_2O$ thin film onto the vertically oriented CuO nanorods array to serve as the photoelectrode for the PEC water oxidation. The resulting copper-oxide-based heterostructure photoelectrode exhibited an enhanced PEC performance compared to common copper-oxide-based photoelectrodes, indicating good charge separation and transfer efficiency due to the band structure realignment at the interface. The photocurrent density and the optimal photocurrent conversion efficiency obtained on the CuO nanorods/$Cu_2O$ thin film heterostructure were $0.59mA/cm^2$ and 1.10% at 1.06 V vs. RHE, respectively. These results provide a promising route to fabricating earth-abundant copper-oxide-based photoelectrode for visible-light-driven hydrogen generation using a facile, low-cost, and scalable approach of combining electrodeposition and hydrothermal synthesis.

• 공업화학전망
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• 제24권1호
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• pp.14-24
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• 2021

최근 전 세계적으로 이산화탄소를 포함한 대기 오염원의 배출을 줄이고 화석연료를 대체할 수 있는 차세대 청정에너지원으로 '수소'를 주목하고 있다. 하지만 현재까지 사회에 유통되는 대부분의 수소는 화석연료 개질을 기반으로 생산되기 때문에 2차 환경오염의 위험을 가지고 있다. 이에 이산화탄소 배출이 없이 태양에너지로부터 물을 분해해 수소를 생산하는 광전기화학 수소 생산 기술이 주목받고 있다. 단 광전기화학 물분해 수소생산을 실현하기 위해서는 수소를 충분히 생산시킬 수 있는 충분한 전류밀도, 과전압을 최소화하는 높은 개시전위, 및 그 생산비용을 최소화 할 수 있는 저렴한 공정 등을 동시에 만족시킬 수 있는 광전극 소재 개발이 필요하다. 최근 광소자용 소재로 각광을 받는 유기금속 할라이드 페로브스카이트 소재가 상기의 조건들을 상당히 만족할 것으로 기대되고 있어 광전기화학 물분해 셀로 적용되는 연구들이 수행되고 있다. 본 기고문에서는 유기금속 할라이드 페로브스카이트 소재기반 광전기화학 물분해 관련 최신 연구동향과 전망을 다루고자 한다.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• 제49권3호
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• pp.381-386
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• 2011

염료감응형 태양전지의 광전극용 바인더로 화학적으로 기능기 작용을 가진 식물성 오일인 maleinized acrylated epoxidized soybean oil(MAESO)를 이용하였다. 제조된 광촉매의 특성을 고찰하기 위해 FE-SEM, EDS, XRD, XPS, 그리고 질소 흡착법(BET) 분석을 수행하였다. 식물성 오일 바인더를 이용하여 제조된 $TiO_{2}$ 입자는 P-25 광촉매와 비교하여 볼 때 비표면적과 특정한 크기를 갖는 세공의 수가 증가하였는데 이는 광촉매에 기능기가 증가하였기 때문이다. 기능기가 첨가된 $TiO_{2}$ 입자 표면에서 OH 관능기는 9.9에서 16.62%로 증가하였다.

• 한국수소및신에너지학회논문집
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• 제28권4호
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• pp.419-425
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• 2017

In this study, an efficient dye-sensitive solar cells (DSSC) was developed after post-treatment of ZnO on $TiO_2$ photoelectrode. The $TiO_2$ electrode with ZnO post treatment was prepared with Titanium isoporopoxide in Zinc Nitrate Hexahydrate aqueous solution by incineration for 30 min at $450^{\circ}C$. The ZnO-post treated $TiO_2$ electrode showed strong dispersion force between particles in relation to the control $TiO_2$, referring high specific surface area and dye-adsorption rate. Proper addition of ZnO enhanced electron mobility and reduced internal resistance and electron recombination. Light conversion efficiency of DSSCs containing the ZnO-posttreated $TiO_2$ electrode increased 35.4% when compared to the DSSCs using $TiO_2$ electrode. It is similar to the DSSCs with $TiCl_4$ post treatment $TiO_2$ electrode. Increasing of light conversion efficiency was due to high specific surface area and dispersion force, and low dye-adsorption rate and electron recombination. Taken together, ZnO may be used as posttreatment of photoelectrode and replaced $TiCl_4$ that has high toxicity and causticity.

• 한국진공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국진공학회 2016년도 제50회 동계 정기학술대회 초록집
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• pp.417-417
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• 2016

Global environmental deterioration has become more serious year by year and thus scientific interests in the renewable energy as environmental technology and replacement of fossil fuels have grown exponentially. Photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell consisting of semiconductor photoelectrodes that can harvest light and use this energy directly to split water, also known as photoelectrolysis or solar water splitting, is a promising renewable energy technology to produce hydrogen for uses in the future hydrogen economy. A major advantage of PEC systems is that they involve relatively simple processes steps as compared to many other H2 production systems. Until now, a number of materials including TiO2, WO3, Fe2O3, and BiVO4 were exploited as the photoelectrode. However, the PEC performance of these single absorber materials is limited due to their large charge recombinations in bulk, interface and surface, leading low charge separation/transport efficiencies. Recently, coupling of two materials, e.g., BiVO4/WO3, Fe2O3/WO3 and CuWO4/WO3, to form a type II heterojunction has been demonstrated to be a viable means to improve the PEC performance by enhancing the charge separation and transport efficiencies. In this study, we have prepared a triple-layer heterojunction BiVO4/WO3/SnO2 photoelectrode that shows a comparable PEC performance with previously reported best-performing nanostructured BiVO4/WO3 heterojunction photoelectrode via a facile solution method. Interestingly, we found that the incorporation of SnO2 nanoparticles layer in between WO3 and FTO largely promotes electron transport and thus minimizes interfacial recombination. The impact of the SnO2 interfacial layer was investigated in detail by TEM, hall measurement and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) techniques. In addition, our planar-structured triple-layer photoelectrode shows a relatively high transmittance due to its low thickness (~300 nm), which benefits to couple with a solar cell to form a tandem PEC device. The overall PEC performance, especially the photocurrent onset potential (Vonset), were further improved by a reactive-ion etching (RIE) surface etching and electrocatalyst (CoOx) deposition.