• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.424-432
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• 2019

Planar BiVO₄ and 3 wt% Mo-doped BiVO₄ (abbreviated as Mo:BiVO₄) film were prepared by the facile spin-coating method on fluorine doped SnO₂(FTO) substrate in the same precursor solution including the Mo precursor in Mo:BiVO₄ film. After annealing at a high temperature of 450℃ for 30 min to improve crystallinity, the films exhibited the monoclinic crystalline phase and nanoporous architecture. Both films showed no remarkably discrepancy in crystalline or morphological properties. To investigate the effect of surface passivation exploring the Al₂O₃ layer, the ultra-thin Al₂O₃ layer with a thickness of approximately 2 nm was deposited on BiVO₄ film using the atomic layer deposition (ALD) method. No distinct morphological modification was observed for all prepared BiVO₄ and Mo:BiVO₄ films. Only slightly reduced nanopores were observed. Although both samples showed some reduction of light absorption in the visible wavelength after coating of Al₂O₃ layer, the Al₂O₃ coated BiVO₄ (Al₂O₃/BiVO₄) film exhibited enhanced photoelectrochemical performance in 0.5 M Na₂SO₄ solution (pH 6.5), having higher photocurrent density (0.91 mA/㎠ at 1.23 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE), briefly abbreviated as V_RHE) than BiVO₄ film (0.12 mA/㎠ at 1.23 V_RHE). Moreover, Al₂O₃ coating on the Mo:BiVO₄ film exhibited more enhanced photocurrent density (1.5 mA/㎠ at 1.23 V_RHE) than the Mo:BiVO₄ film (0.86 mA/㎠ at 1.23 V_RHE). To examine the reasons, capacitance measurement and Mott-Schottky analysis were conducted, revealing that the significant degradation of capacitance value was observed in both BiVO₄ film and Al₂O₃/Mo:BiVO₄ film, probably due to degraded capacitance by surface passivation. Furthermore, the flat-band potential (V_FB) was negatively shifted to about 200 mV while the electronic conductivities were enhanced by Al₂O₃ coating in both samples, contributing to the advancement of PEC performance by ultra-thin Al₂O₃ layer.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.25-38
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• 2020

Photoelectrochemical water splitting has been considered as the most promising technology for generating hydrogen energy. Transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) compounds have currently attracted tremendous attention due to their outstanding ability towards the catalytic water-splitting hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Herein, we report the synthesis method of various transition metal dichalcogenide including MoS₂, MoSe₂, WS₂, and WSe₂ nanosheets as excellent catalysts for solar-driven photoelectrochemical (PEC) hydrogen evolution. Photocathodes were fabricated by growing the nanosheets directly onto Si nanowire (NW) arrays, with a thickness of 20 nm. The metal ion layers were formed by soaking the metal chloride ethanol solution and subsequent sulfurization or selenization produced the transition metal chalcogenide. They all exhibit excellent PEC performance in 0.5 M H₂SO₄; the photocurrent reaches to 20 mA cm^-2 (at 0 V vs. RHE) and the onset potential is 0.2 V under AM1.5 condition. The quantum efficiency of hydrogen generation is avg. 90%. The stability of MoS₂ and MoSe₂ is 90% for 3h, which is higher than that (80%) of WS₂ and WSe₂. Detailed structure analysis using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy for before/after HER reveals that the Si-WS₂ and Si-WSe₂ experience more oxidation of Si NWs than Si-MoS₂ and Si-MoSe₂. This can be explained by the less protection of Si NW surface by their flake shape morphology. The high catalytic activity of TMDs should be the main cause of this enhanced PEC performance, promising efficient water-splitting Si-based PEC cells.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.388-388
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• 2016

Chemical mist deposition (CMD) of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) was investigated with cavitation frequency f, solvent, flow rate of nitrogen, substrate temperature $T_s$, and substrate dc bias $V_s$ as variables for efficient PEDOT:PSS/crystalline (c-)Si heterojunction solar cells (Fig. 1). The high-speed camera and differential mobility analysis characterizations revealed that average size and flux of PEDOT:PSS mist depend on f, solvent, and $V_s$. The size distribution of mist particles including EG/DI water cosolvent is also shown at three different $V_s$ of 0, 1.5, and 5 kV for a f of 3 MHz (Fig. 2). The size distribution of EG/DI water mist without PEDOT:PSS is also shown at the bottom. A peak maximum shifted from 300-350 to 20-30 nm with a narrow band width of ~150 nm for PEDOT:PSS solution, whose maximum number density increased significantly up to 8000/cc with increasing $V_s$. On the other hand, for EG/water cosolvent mist alone, the peak maximum was observed at a 72.3 nm with a number density of ~700/cc and a band width of ~160 nm and it decreased markedly with increasing $V_s$. These findings were not observed for PEDOT:PSS/EG/DI water mist. In addition, the Mie scattering image of PEDOT:PSS mist under white bias light was not observed at $V_s$ above 5 kV, because the average size of mist became smaller. These results imply that most of solvent is solvated in PEDOT:PSS molecule and/or solvent is vaporized. Thus, higher f and $V_s$ generate preferentially fine mist particle with a narrower band width. Film deposition occurred when $V_s$ was impressed on positive to a c-Si substrate at a Ts of $30-40^{\circ}C$, whereas no deposition of films occurred on negative, implying that negatively charged mist mainly provide the film deposition. The uniform deposition of PEDOT:PSS films occurred on textured c-Si(100) substrate by adjusting $T_s$ and $V_s$. The adhesion of CMD PEDOT:PSS to c-Si enhanced by $V_s$ conspicuously compared to that of spin-coated film. The CMD PEDOT:PSS/c-Si solar cell devices on textured c-Si(100) exhibited a ${\eta}$ of 11.0% with the better uniformity of the solar cell parameters. Furthermore, ${\eta}$ increased to 12.5% with a $J_{sc}$ of $35.6mA/cm^2$, a $V_{oc}$ of 0.53 V, and a FF of 0.67 with an antireflection (AR) coating layer of 20-nm-thick CMD molybdenum oxide $MoO_x$ (n= 2.1) using negatively charged mist of 0.1 wt% 12 Molybdo (VI) phosphoric acid n-Hydrate) $H_3(PMo_{12}O_40){\cdot}nH_2O$ in methanol. CMD. These findings suggest that the CMD with negatively charged mist has a great potential for the uniform deposition of organic and inorganic on textured c-Si substrate by adjusting $T_s$ and $V_s$.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.505-512
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• 2014

A new donor-accepter-donor-accepter-donor (D-A-D-A-D) type 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole-thiophene-based acceptor unit 2,5-di(4-(5-bromo-4-octylthiophen-2-yl)-2,1,3-benzothiadiazol-7-yl)thiophene ($DTBTTBr_2$) was synthesized. Copolymerized with fluorene and indeno[1,2-b]fluorene electron-rich moieties, two alternating narrow band gap (NBG) copolymers PF-DTBTT and PIF-DTBTT were prepared. And two copolymers exhibit broad and strong absorption in the range of 300-700 nm with optical band gap of about 1.75 eV. The highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energy levels vary between -5.43 and -5.52 eV and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy levels range from -3.64 to -3.77 eV. Potential applications of the copolymers as electron donor material and $PC_{71}BM$ ([6,6]-phenyl-$C_{71}$ butyric acid methyl ester) as electron acceptors were investigated for photovoltaic solar cells (PSCs). Photovoltaic performances based on the blend of PF-DTBTT/$PC_{71}BM$ (w:w; 1:2) and PIF-DTBTT/$PC_{71}BM$ (w:w; 1:2) with devices configuration as ITO/PEDOT: PSS/blend/Ca/Al, show an incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE) of 2.34% and 2.56% with the open circuit voltage ($V_{oc}$) of 0.87 V and 0.90 V, short circuit current density ($J_{sc}$) of $6.02mA/cm^2$ and $6.12mA/cm^2$ under an AM1.5 simulator ($100mA/cm^2$). The photocurrent responses exhibit the onset wavelength extending up to 720 nm. These results indicate that the resulted narrow band gap copolymers are viable electron donor materials for polymer solar cells.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.114-120
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• 2010

Conventional surface texturing in crystalline silicon solar cell have been use wet texturing by Alkali or Acid solution. But conventional wet texturing has the serious issue of wafer breakage by large consumption of wafer in wet solution and can not obtain the reflectance below 10% in multi crystalline silicon. Therefore it is focusing on RIE texturing, one method of dry etching. We developed large scale plasma RIE (Reactive Ion Etching) equipment which can accommodate 144 wafers (125 mm) in tray in order to provide surface texturing on the silicon wafer surface. Reflectance was controllable from 3% to 20% in crystalline silicon depending on the texture shape and height. We have achieved excellent reflectance below 4% on the weighted average (300~1,100 nm) in multi crystalline silicon using plasma texturing with gas mixture ratio such as $SF_6$, $Cl_2$, and $O_2$. The texture shape and height on the silicon wafer surface have an effect on gas chemistry, etching time, RF frequency, and so on. Excellent conversion efficiency of 16.1% is obtained in multi crystalline silicon by RIE process. In order to know the influence of RF frequency with 2 MHz and 13.56 MHz, texturing shape and conversion efficiency are compared and discussed mutually using RIE technology.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.273-278
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• 2009

A series of poly[2-(2,6-dimethylpyran-4-ylidene)malononitrile-alt-1,4-bis(dodecyloxy)-2,5-divinylbenzene] (PM-PPV), poly[2-{2,6-Bis-[2-(5-bromothiophen-2-yl)-vinyl]-pyran-4-ylidene}-malononitrile-alt-1,4-bis(dodecyloxy)-2,5-divinylbenzene] (PMT-PPV) and poly[2-[2,6-Bis-(2-{4-[(4-bromophenyl)-phenylamino]-phenyl}-vinyl)-pyran-4-ylidene]-malononitrile-alt-1,4-bis(dodecyloxy)-2,5-divinylbenzene] (PMTPA-PPV) were synthesized by the Heck coupling reaction. The band gap of PM-PPV, PMT-PPV and PMTPA-PPV were 2.18 eV, 1.90 eV and 2.07 eV, respectively. The LUMO energy levels of PM-PPV, PMT-PPV and PMTPA-PPV were 3.65 eV, 3.54 eV and 3.62 eV, respectively and the HOMO energy levels of those were 5.83 eV, 5.61 eV and 5.52 eV, respectively. The photovoltaic devices based on the polymers was fabricated. The efficiency of the solar cells based on PM-PPV, PMT-PPV and PMTPA-PPV were 0.028%, 0.031% and 0.11%, respectively and the open circuit voltage (Voc) was 0.59 V~0.69 V under AM 1.5 G and 1 sun condition ($100mA/cm^2$).

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.275-279
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• 2015

Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) : poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT : PSS) has attracted a great deal of attention as a transparent conductive material for organic solar cells or organic light-emitting diodes due to its high electrical conductivity, optical transparency, and excellent mechanical flexibility. It is well known that a solvent doping for PEDOT : PSS thin-films significantly increases the conductivity of films. In this paper, the effect of various kinds of solvent doping and post-treatment on the electrical and structural properties of PEDOT : PSS thin-films is investigated. The solvent doping greatly increases the conductivity of PEDOT : PSS thin-films up to 884 S/cm. A further enhancement of the conductivity of PEDOT : PSS thin-films is achieved by the solvent post-treatment which raises the conductivity up to 1131 S/cm. The enhancement is mainly caused by the depletion of insulating PSS and forming conducting PEDOT-rich granular networks. Strong optical absorption peaks at the wavelength of 225 nm of PEDOT : PSS thin-films indicate the depletion of insulating PSS by post-treatment. We believe that the solvent post-treatment is a promising method to achieve highly conductive transparent PEDOT : PSS thin-films for applications in efficient, low-cost and flexible organic devices.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.50-57
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• 2017

Zinc oxide is, one of metal oxide semiconductor, harmless to human and environment-friendly. It has excellent chemical and thermal stability properties. Wurtzite-zinc oxide is a large band gap energy of 3.37 eV and high exciton binding energy of 60 meV. It can be applied to various fields, such as solar cells, degradation of the dye waste, the gas sensor. The photocatalytic activity of zinc oxide is varied according to the particle shape and change of crystallinity. Therefore, It is very important to specify the additives and the experimental variables. In this study, the zinc oxide were synthesized by using a microwave assisted hydrothermal synthesis. The precursor was used as the zinc nitrate, the pH value was controlled as 11 by NaOH. Surfactants are the ethanolamine, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, sodium dodecyl sulfate, sorbitan monooleate was added by changing the concentration. The composite particles had the shape of a star-like, curcular cone, seed shape, flake-sphere. Physical and chemical properties of the obtained zinc oxide was characterized using x-ray diffractometer, field emission scanning electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis and optical properties was characterized using UV-visible spectroscopy, photoluminescence and raman spectroscopy.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.230-237
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• 1981

For the investigation of efficient use of fertilizer nitrogen NPK simple trials were carried out using newly bred Tongil line(japonica indica hybrid selection) and the leading local varieties with sulfur coated area in fields for two years. The yield of Tongil line was higher than that of leading local varieties by 16% in the cool year and 23% is warm year with high solar radiation from NPK simple trials including SCU and 2-split application which were carried in 130 fields at 32 locations. Warm year increased yield by 9% in Tongil but only 3% in the local than the cool year did. Optimum nitrogen level was higher in Tongil by 3.8㎏ in the cool year and 5.5㎏ in warm year than for the local. Yearly variation of optimum nitrogen in the carne variety was greater than varietal variation in the same Year. Two-split application resulted in 1 to 2% of inconsistent yield variation. Sulfur coated urea increased yield by average 2 to 4% even at 20% reduced rate of nitrogen. It was remarkably effective in same $(27{\sim}39%)$, virgin (20%) and unmatured (10%) soils.

• Journal of Information Display
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.145-152
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• 2011

Since the discovery of fullerenes as a class of nanostructure compounds, many potential applications have been suggested for their unusual structures and properties. The isolated pentagon rule (IPR) states that all pentagonal carbon rings are isolated in the most stable fullerene. Fullerenes $C_n$ are a class of spherical carbon allotrope group with unique properties. Electron transfer between fullerenes and other molecules is thought to involve the transfer of electrons between the molecules surrounding the fullerene cage. One class of electron transfer molecules is the methanofullerene derivatives ([6,6]-phenyl $C_{61}$-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM), 4-(2-ethylhexyloxy)-[6,6]-phenyl $C_{61}$-butyric acid methyl ester (p-EHO-PCBM), and 4-(2-ethylhexyloxy)-[6,6]-phenyl $C_{61}$-butyric acid (p-EHO-PCBA), 10-12). It has been determined that $C_{60}$ does not obey IPR. Supramolecular complexes 1-9 and 10-12 are shown to possess a previously unreported host.guest interaction for electron transfer processes. The unsaturated, cis-geometry, thiocrown ethers, (1-9) (described as [X-UT-Y], where X and Y indicate the numbers of carbon and sulfur atoms, respectively), are a group of crown ethers that display interesting physiochemical properties in the light of their conformational restriction compared with a corresponding saturated system, as well as the sizes of their cavities. Topological indices have been successfully used to construct mathematical methods that relate structural data to various chemical and physical properties. To establish a good relationship between the structures of 1-9 with 10-12, a new index is introduced, ${\mu}_{cs}$. This index is the ratio of the sum of the number of carbon atoms ($n_c$) and the number of sulfur atoms ($n_s$) to the product of these two numbers for 1-9. In this study, the relationships between this index and oxidation potential ($^{ox}E_1$) of 1-9, as well as the first to third free energies of electron transfer (${\Delta}G_{et(n)}$, for n = 1-3, which is given by the Rehm-Weller equation) between 1-9 and PCBM, p-EHO-PCBM, and p-EHO-PCBA (10-12) as [X-UT-Y]@R(where R is the adduct PCBM, p-EHO-PCBM, and p-EHO-PCBA group) (13-15) supramolecular complexes are presented and investigated.