• Resources Recycling
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.45-53
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• 2011

We devised a procedure for the recovery of silicon and tempered glass from waste photovoltaic (PV) modules using optimized conditions. The tempered glass was recovered without any damage using organic solvents. The surface material is removed by applying an acid solution on the surface of the PV cell. Through our proposed method, we offer a much more efficient approach for recycling solar cells with a surfactant than the conventional method. This process, we obtained pure silicon with a yield of 90% by chemical treatment with the surfactant at room temperature for 18 min. The silicon yield was characterized using an inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometer.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2014.10a
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• pp.585-588
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• 2014

This paper presents a self-powered sensor node circuit using photovoltaic and vibration energy harvesting. The harvested energy from a solar cell and a vibration device(PZT) is stored in a storage capacitor. The stored energy is managed by a PMU(Power Management Unit). In order to supply a stable voltage to the sensor node, an LDO(Low Drop Out Regulator) is used. The LDO drives a temperature sensor and a SAR ADC(Successive Approximate Register Analog-to-Digital Converter), and 10-bit digital output data corresponding to current temperature is obtained. The proposed circuit is designed in a 0.35um CMOS process, and the designed chip size including PADs is $1.1mm{\times}0.95mm$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.213-213
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• 2012

It has been known that quantum confinement effect of CdSe nanocrystal was observed by increasing the number of deposition cycle using successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) method. Here, we report on thermally-induced quantum confinement effect of CdSe at the given cycle number using spin-coating technology. A cation precursor solution containing $0.3\;M\;Cd(NO_3)_2{\cdot}4H_2O$ is spun onto a $TiO_2$ nanoparticulate film, which is followed by spinning an anion precursor solution containing $0.3\;M\;Na_2\;SeSO_3$ to complete one cycle. The cycle is repeated up to 10 cycles, where the spin-coated $TiO_2$ film at each cycle is heated at temperature ranging from $100^{\circ}C$ to $250^{\circ}C$. The CdSe-sensitized $TiO_2$ nanostructured film is contacted with polysulfide redox electrolyte to construct photoelectrochemical solar cell. Photovoltaic performance is significantly dependent on the heat-treatment temperature. Incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE) increases with increasing temperature, where the onset of the absorption increases from 600 nm for the $100^{\circ}C$- to 700 nm for the $150^{\circ}C$- and to 800 nm for the $200^{\circ}C$- and the $250^{\circ}C$-heat treatment. This is an indicative of quantum size effect. According to Tauc plot, the band gap energy decreases from 2.09 eV to 1.93 eV and to 1.76 eV as the temperature increases from $100^{\circ}C$ to $150^{\circ}C$ and to $200^{\circ}C$ (also $250^{\circ}C$), respectively. In addition, the size of CdSe increases gradually from 4.4 nm to 12.8 nm as the temperature increases from $100^{\circ}C$ to $250^{\circ}C$. From the differential thermogravimetric analysis, the increased size in CdSe by increasing the temperature at the same deposition condition is found to be attributed to the increase in energy for crystallization with $dH=240cal/^{\circ}C$. Due to the thermally induced quantum confinement effect, the conversion efficiency is substantially improved from 0.48% to 1.8% with increasing the heat-treatment temperature from $100^{\circ}C$ to $200^{\circ}C$.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.28-35
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• 2013

The recycling of the Si/SiC mixture sludge obtained from solar cell industry is very significant, environmentally and economically. The sintering characteristics of Si/SiC mixture sludge was studied for the purpose of recycling. In this study, to understand sintering behavior, SiC content in the Si/SiC mixture was controlled using an air separator. Various Si/SiC mixtures having different SiC contents were sintered using carbon black, clay and aluminum hydroxide as sintering aids. Physical properties of Si/SiC mixture and sintered bodies have been characterized using SEM, XRD, particle size analyzer and apparent density measurement. SEM and particle size analysis result confirmed that the fine particles less than 1 ${\mu}m$ decreased or removed more effectively through the air separator in the case of 95% SiC sample compared than the case of 75% SiC sample or original SiC sample. Further, with addition of the Aluminum Hydroxide, ${\beta}$-cristobalite phase gradually decreased while mullite phase gradually increased. The addition of the carbon black improved the sintering characteristics.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.441-441
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• 2009

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have been widely investigated as a next-generation solar cell because of their simple fabrication process and low coats. The cells use a porous nanocrystalline TiO2 matrix coated with a sensitizer dye that acts as the light-harvesting element. The photo-exited dye injects electrons into the $TiO_2$ particles, and the oxide dye reacts with I- in the electrolyte in regenerative cycle that is completed by the reduction of $I_3^-$ at a platinum-coated counter electrode. Since $TiO_2$ porous film plays a key role in the enhancement of photoelectric conversion efficiency of DSSC, many scientists focus their researches on it. Especially, a high light-to-electricity conversion efficiency results from particle size and crystallographic phase, film porosity, surface structure, charge and surface area to volume ratio of porous $TiO_2$ electrodes, on which the dye can be sufficiently adsorbed. Effective treatment of the photoanode is important to improve DSSC performance. In this paper, to obtain properties of surface and dispersion as nitric acid treated $TiO_2$ photoelectrode was investigate. The photovoltaic characteristics of DSSCs based the electrode fabricated by nitric acid pre-treatment $TiO_2$ materials gave better performances on both of short circuit current density and open circuit voltage. We compare dispersion of $TiO_2$ nanoparticles before and after nitric acid treatment and measured Ti oxidized state from XPS. Low charge transfer resistance was obtained in nitric acid treated sample than that of untreated sample. The dye-sensitized solar cell based on the nitric acid treatment had open-circuit voltage of 0.71 V, a short-circuit current of 15.2 mAcm-2 and an energy conversion efficiency of 6.6 % under light intensity of $100\;mWcm^{-2}$. About 14 % increases in efficiency obtained when the $TiO_2$ electrode was treated by nitric acid.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.4013-4018
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• 2014

A 0.45 $cm^2$ DSSC device with a glass/FTO/blocking layer/$TiO_2$/N719(dye)/electrolyte/50 nm-Pt/50 nm-Au/FTO/glass was prepared to examine the stability of the Au/Pt bilayered counter electrode (CE) with electrolyte and the energy conversion efficiency (ECE) of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). For comparison, a 100 nm-thick Pt only CE DSSC was also prepared using the same method. The photovoltaic properties, such as the short circuit current density ($J_{sc}$), open circuit voltage ($V_{oc}$), fill factor (FF), and ECE, were checked using a solar simulator and potentiostat with time after assembling the DSSC. The microstructure of the Au/Pt bilayer was examined by optical microscopy after 0~25 minutes. The ECE of the Pt only CE-employed DSSC was 4.60 %, which did not show time dependence. On the other hand, for the Au/Pt CE DSSC, the ECEs after 0, 5 and 15 minutes were 5.28 %, 3.64 % and 2.09 %, respectively. The corrosion areas of the Au/Pt CE determined by optical microscopy after 0, 5, and 25 minutes were 0, 21.92 and 34.06 %. These results confirmed that the ECE and catalytic activity of Au/Pt CE decreased drastically with time. Therefore, a Au/Pt CE-employed DSSC may be superior to the Pt only CE-employed one immediately after integration of the device, but it would degrade drastically with time.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.65-65
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• 2012

Copper zinc tin sulfide ($Cu_2ZnSnS_4$, CZTS) is a very promising material as a low cost absorber alternative to other chalcopyrite-type semiconductors based on Ga or In because of the abundant and economical elements. In addition, CZTS has a band-gap energy of 1.4~1.5eV and large absorption coefficient over ${\sim}10^4cm^{-1}$, which is similar to those of $Cu(In,Ga)Se_2$(CIGS) regarded as one of the most successful absorber materials for high efficient solar cell. Most previous works on the fabrication of CZTS thin films were based on the vacuum deposition such as thermal evaporation and RF magnetron sputtering. Although the vacuum deposition has been widely adopted, it is quite expensive and complicated. In this regard, the solution processes such as sol-gel method, nanocrystal dispersion and hybrid slurry method have been developed for easy and cost-effective fabrication of CZTS film. Among these methods, the hybrid slurry method is favorable to make high crystalline and dense absorber layer. However, this method has the demerit using the toxic and explosive hydrazine solvent, which has severe limitation for common use. With these considerations, it is highly desirable to develop a robust, easily scalable and relatively safe solution-based process for the fabrication of a high quality CZTS absorber layer. Here, we demonstrate the fabrication of a high quality CZTS absorber layer with a thickness of 1.5~2.0 ${\mu}m$ and micrometer-scaled grains using two different non-vacuum approaches. The first solution-processing approach includes air-stable non-toxic solvent-based inks in which the commercially available precursor nanoparticles are dispersed in ethanol. Our readily achievable air-stable precursor ink, without the involvement of complex particle synthesis, high toxic solvents, or organic additives, facilitates a convenient method to fabricate a high quality CZTS absorber layer with uniform surface composition and across the film depth when annealed at $530^{\circ}C$. The conversion efficiency and fill factor for the non-toxic ink based solar cells are 5.14% and 52.8%, respectively. The other method is based on the nanocrystal dispersions that are a key ingredient in the deposition of thermally annealed absorber layers. We report a facile synthetic method to produce phase-pure CZTS nanocrystals capped with less toxic and more easily removable ligands. The resulting CZTS nanoparticle dispersion enables us to fabricate uniform, crack-free absorber layer onto Mo-coated soda-lime glass at $500^{\circ}C$, which exhibits a robust and reproducible photovoltaic response. Our simple and less-toxic approach for the fabrication of CZTS layer, reported here, will be the first step in realizing the low-cost solution-processed CZTS solar cell with high efficiency.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.694-701
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• 2013

A new copolymer named T-TI24T (poly((5,5-(2-butyl-5,6-bisdecyloxy-4,7-di-thiophen-2-yl-isoindole-1,3-dione))- alt-(2,5-thiophene))) based on phthalimide derivative and thiophene is synthesized by the Stille-coupling reaction. The polymer shows relatively high number average molecular weight of 86500 g/mol with good solubility in common organic solvents such as chloroform, 1,2-dichlorobenzene, and toluene and is thermally stable up to $380^{\circ}C$. Besides, it possesses a relatively low highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energy level of -5.33 eV, promising the high open circuit voltage ($V_{oc}$) for photovoltaic applications. Active layer solution of polymer T-TI24T-as a donor and (6)-1-(3-(methoxycarbonyl)- {5}-1-phenyl[5,6]-fullerene (PCBM)-as an acceptor in different weight ratios is applied to fabricate the polymer solar cell devices. The ratio of polymer/PCBM affects the solar cell efficiency and the best performance exhibits in the device with polymer/PCBM = 1:3 (w/w), which shows a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 0.199% and a $V_{oc}$ of 0.99 V, respectively. Even though the device shows the very low PCE, the $V_{oc}$ is higher than that of well known bulk heterojunction type solar cell based on P3HT:PC61BM (c.a. 0.5 V).

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.75.1-75.1
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• 2010

Dye sensitized solar cells(DSSCs) have been extensively studied due to their various advantages such as low production cost, colorful design, and eco-friendly process. Long optical path length is one of the most effective method to improve light harvest efficiency for DSSCs. Multi-layered $TiO_2$ nano-structured film with scattering layer has been studied to generate scattering effect by many researchers. It was expected that the difference of refractive index between $TiO_2$ particles and glass frit would generate the light scattering effect and provide the long optical path length. Therefore, to enhance the scattering effect, the frits of $Bi_2O_3-B_2O_3$-ZnO glass system that has the different refractive index were added to $TiO_2$ pastes in this study. First of all, the absorbance and haze factor of $TiO_2$ electrode with dyes and the refractive index of glass frit and $TiO_2$ were measured, respectively. To study the effect of frits, the efficiencies of DSSCs added glass frit and without glass frit were compared. Our results showed slightly higher efficiency with the different absorbance and haze factor of $TiO_2$ and glass frit. It was considered that the light scattering effect would be improved with adding frits to $TiO_2$ paste. Our preliminary studies will be useful for increasing efficiency of DSSCs.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.28-30
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• 2009

이종접합태양전지에서 p a-Si:H/c-Si의 p a-Si:H의 증착 조건인 $H_2/SiH_4$ 비율, $B_2H_6$의 농도를 변화 시키며 실험하여 이 따라 계면 특성 변화를 연구하였다. pa-Si:H의 $H_2/SiH_4$ 비율이 상승할수록 carrier lifetime이 증가하다 다시 감소하는 경향을 나타내었다. 이는 $H_2/SiH_4$의 비율 중 효과적으로 웨이퍼표면을 효과적으로 passivation하는 지점이 있는 것으로 보인다. $B_2H_6$의 농도는 상승할수록 carrier lifetime이 줄어드는 경향을 보였다. $B_2H_6$에서 농도가 올라감에 웨이퍼 표면의 defect로 작용했을 것으로 생각된다. 이에서 몇몇의 조건으로 태양전지를 제작한 결과 $H_2/SiH_4$ 비율에 따라서는 carrier lifetime은 효율에 그 영향이 미미한 것으로 조사되었고, $B_2H_6$의 농도가 낮을수록 개방전압은 상승하는 결과를 얻어 도핑 농도가 효율에 직접적인 형향을 주는 것으로 나타났다.