• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.388-396
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• 2023

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting is a vital source of clean and sustainable hydrogen energy. Moreover, the large-scale H₂ production is currently necessary, while long-term stability and high PEC activity still remain important issues. In this study, a GaN-based photoelectrode was modified by an additional NH₃ treatment (900℃ for 10 min) and its PEC behavior was monitored. The bare GaN exhibited a highly crystalline wurtzite structure with the (002) plane and the optical bandgap was approximately 3.2 eV. In comparison, the NH₃-treated GaN film exhibited slightly reduced crystallinity and a small improvement in light absorption, resulting from the lattice stress or cracks induced by the excessive N supply. The minor surface nanotexturing created more surface area, providing electroactive reacting sites. From the surface XPS analysis, the formation of an N-Ga-O phase on the surface region of the GaN film was confirmed, which suppressed the charge recombination process and the positive shift of E_FB. Therefore, these effects boosted the PEC activity of the NH₃-treated GaN film, with J values of approximately 0.35 and 0.78 mA·cm^-2 at 0.0 and 1.23 V_RHE, respectively, and an onset potential (V_on) of -0.24 V_RHE. In addition, there was an approximate 50% improvement in the J value within the highly applied potential region with a positive shift of V_on. This result could be explained by the increased nanotexturing on the surface structure, the newly formed defect/trap states correlated to the positive V_on shift, and the formation of a GaO_xN_1-x phase, which partially blocked the charge recombination reaction.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.55-62
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• 2024

Fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) has been used as a representative transparent conductive oxide (TCO) in various optoelectronic applications, including light emitting diodes, solar cells, photo-detectors, and electrochromic devices. The FTO plays an important role in providing electron transfer between active layers and external circuits while maintaining high transmittance in the devices. Herein, we report the effects of substrate rotation speed on the electrical and optical properties of FTO films during ultrasonic spray pyrolysis deposition (USPD). The substrate rotation speeds were adjusted to 2, 6, 10, and 14 rpm. As the substrate rotation speed increased from 2 to 14 rpm, the FTO films exhibited different film morphologies, including crystallite size, surface roughness, crystal texture, and film thickness. This FTO film engineering can be attributed to the variable nucleation and growth behaviors of FTO crystallites according to substrate rotation speeds during USPD. Among the FTO films with different substrate rotation speeds, the FTO film fabricated at 6 rpm showed the best optimized TCO characteristics when considering both electrical (sheet resistance of 13.73 Ω/□) and optical (average transmittance of 86.76 % at 400~700 nm) properties with a figure of merit (0.018 Ω^-1).

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.253-260
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• 2024

In this study, ITO thin films were fabricated on a glass substrate at different thicknesses without introducing oxygen using RF sputtering system. The structural, electrical, and optical properties were evaluated at various thicknesses ranging from 50 to 300 mm. As the thickness of deposited ITO thin film become thicker from 50 to 100 mm, carrier concentration, mobility, and band gap energy also increased while the resistivity and transmittance decreased in the visible light region. When the film thickness increased from 100 to 300 mm, the carrier concentration, mobility, and band gap energy decreased while the resistivity and transmittance increased. The optimum electrical properties were obtained for the ITO film 100 nm. After optimizing the thickness, the ITO thin films were post-annealed at different temperatures ranging from 100 to 300℃. As the annealing temperature increased, the ITO crystal phase became clearer and the grain size also increased. In particular, the ITO thin film annealed at 300℃ indicated high carrier concentration (4.32 × 10²¹ cm^-3), mobility (9.01 cm²/V·s) and low resistivity (6.22 × 10^-4 Ω·cm). This means that the optimal post-annealing temperature is 300℃ and this ITO thin film is suitable for use in solar cells and display application.

• Clean Technology
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.112-118
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• 2018

Thermo-responsive polymers that exhibit phase transition in response to temperature change can be used as materials for smart windows because they can control solar light transmission depending on the outside temperature. The development of thermo-responsive polymers for smart windows that can be used over a wide temperature range is desirable. To obtain high performance smart windows materials, three-dimensional thermo-responsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAm) gels were prepared by free radical polymerization from monomer N-isopropylacrylamide, N, N'-methylenebis acrylamide (MBAm) as a crosslinking agent, ammonium persulfate (APS) as a strong oxidizing agent/tetramethylene diamine as a catalyst, and a mixture of two solvents (water/glycerol). This study examined the effect of glycerol content on the lower critical solution temperature (LCST), freezing temperature and the solar light transmittance of crosslinked PNIPAm gel films. The LCST and freezing temperature of PNIPAm gel films were found to be significantly decreased from 34.3 and $6.3^{\circ}C$ to 28.2 and $-6.5^{\circ}C$ with increasing glycerol content from 0 wt% to 10 wt%, respectively. It was found that the transparent PNIPAm gel films at $25^{\circ}C$ (temperature < LCST) were converted to translucent gels at higher temperature ($45^{\circ}C$) (temperature > LCST). These results suggested that the crosslinked PNIPAm gel materials prepared in this study could have high potential for application in smart glass materials.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.141-147
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• 2001

To compare to the optical and physical properties of covering materials for plastic greenhouse, EVA(ethylene vinyl acetate, 0.08 mm), polyorefine antifog (0.1 mm), fluoric (0.06 mm), diffused (0.15 mm), polyorefine antidrop (0.15 mm) and PET (polyethylene terephthalate, 0.5 mm) films were used. The small greenhouse (5.4$\times$18.5$\times$2.9 m, W$\times$L$\times$H) investigated during 3 years form 1997 to 1999. After covering materials were used for greenhouse covering during 30 months, UV (300-400 nm) transmittances of diffused film and PET were appeared from 25 to 26%, while those of fluoric film and the other films were 76% and from 63 to 67%. For PAR (photosynthetically active radiation, 400-700 nm), the transmittances of fluoric, antidrop, PET, antifog, EVA, and diffused film were 86.5%, 80.5%, 76.3%, 75.5%, 74.1% and 61.9% respectively. The losses of PAR transmittance of EVA and the antidrop film during period between 7 days and 30 months were higher value 12% and lower value 6% than any other film. Under the canopy of tomato plants, light intensities of the diffused film and the antifog film were 2.5 times and 1.4 times higher than those of PET. Tensile resistances of fluoric film at the break point were the higher than those of antifog film and diffused film. While impact resistance of the antidrop film was the highest value, but the fluoric film was the lowest. Air temperature inside the greenhouse for the day showed to be changed the similar light transmittance of the films. But the increasing order of air temperature for the night was PET, fluoric, antidrop, diffused, antifog and EVA film. Especially, air temperature in the PET was 4$^{\circ}C$ higher than that in the EVA. Solar radiations of the fluoric film, the antidrop film, PET and antifog film in the greenhouse were 32%, 15%, 11% and 4% higher than those of PET. However, those of the diffused film was 7% less than PET.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.226-233
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• 2023

High solar radiation in summer season causes excessive respiration of crops and reduces photosynthesis. In addition, the rainy season, which mainly occurs in summer, causes a low light condition inside the greenhouse. A low light condition can reduce crop growth and yield. This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of shade and supplemental lighting on the growth and yield of cucumber during summer season. Cucumber grafted seedlings were transplanted in two plastic greenhouses on August 30, 2022. To reduce the light intensity inside the greenhouse, a 50% shading screen was installed in one greenhouse. Supplemental lighting was conducted from September 7, 2022 to October 20, 2022. HPS (high-pressure sodium lamp), W LED (white LED, red:green:blue = 5:3:2), and RB LED (combined red and blue LED, red:blue = 7:3) were used for supplemental lighting sources, and non-treated (nonsupplemental lighting) was as the control. The supplemental lighting was conducted before sunrise and after sunset for 2 hours with a photosynthetic photon flux density of 150 ± 20 µmol·m^-2·s^-1. The plant height, leaf length, leaf width, and SPAD value tended to increase in the shading group. RB LED increased stem diameter regardless of shading treatment. Fresh and dry weights of fruits were not significantly different in shading and supplemental lighting. Average fresh weight of fruits was not significantly different among supplemental lighting as the harvest date passed. In conclusion, in this study 50% shade treatment significantly improved the growth of cucumber during the summer season. In addition, the growth and fruit characteristics are better than the control without supplemental lighting. This study can be used as basic research data for applying supplemental lighting technology to cucumber cultivation.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.27 no.7
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• pp.380-394
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• 2015

This article reviews the papers published in the Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering during 2014. It is intended to understand the status of current research in the areas of heating, cooling, ventilation, sanitation, and indoor environments of buildings and plant facilities. Conclusions are as follows. (1) The research works on the thermal and fluid engineering have been reviewed as groups of heat and mass transfer, cooling and heating, and air-conditioning, the flow inside building rooms, and smoke control on fire. Research issues dealing with duct and pipe were reduced, but flows inside building rooms, and smoke controls were newly added in thermal and fluid engineering research area. (2) Research works on heat transfer area have been reviewed in the categories of heat transfer characteristics, pool boiling and condensing heat transfer and industrial heat exchangers. Researches on heat transfer characteristics included the results for thermal contact resistance measurement of metal interface, a fan coil with an oval-type heat exchanger, fouling characteristics of plate heat exchangers, effect of rib pitch in a two wall divergent channel, semi-empirical analysis in vertical mesoscale tubes, an integrated drying machine, microscale surface wrinkles, brazed plate heat exchangers, numerical analysis in printed circuit heat exchanger. In the area of pool boiling and condensing, non-uniform air flow, PCM applied thermal storage wall system, a new wavy cylindrical shape capsule, and HFC32/HFC152a mixtures on enhanced tubes, were actively studied. In the area of industrial heat exchangers, researches on solar water storage tank, effective design on the inserting part of refrigerator door gasket, impact of different boundary conditions in generating g-function, various construction of SCW type ground heat exchanger and a heat pump for closed cooling water heat recovery were performed. (3) In the field of refrigeration, various studies were carried out in the categories of refrigeration cycle, alternative refrigeration and modelling and controls including energy recoveries from industrial boilers and vehicles, improvement of dehumidification systems, novel defrost systems, fault diagnosis and optimum controls for heat pump systems. It is particularly notable that a substantial number of studies were dedicated for the development of air-conditioning and power recovery systems for electric vehicles in this year. (4) In building mechanical system research fields, seventeen studies were reported for achieving effective design of the mechanical systems, and also for maximizing the energy efficiency of buildings. The topics of the studies included energy performance, HVAC system, ventilation, and renewable energies, piping in the buildings. Proposed designs, performance performance tests using numerical methods and experiments provide useful information and key data which can improve the energy efficiency of the buildings. (5) The field of architectural environment was mostly focused on indoor environment and building energy. The main researches of indoor environment were related to the evaluation of work noise in tunnel construction and the simulation and development of a light-shelf system. The subjects of building energy were worked on the energy saving of office building applied with window blind and phase change material(PCM), a method of existing building energy simulation using energy audit data, the estimation of thermal consumption unit of apartment building and its case studies, dynamic window performance, a writing method of energy consumption report and energy estimation of apartment building using district heating system. The remained studies were related to the improvement of architectural engineering education system for plant engineering industry, estimating cooling and heating degree days for variable base temperature, a prediction method of underground temperature, the comfort control algorithm of car air conditioner, the smoke control performance evaluation of high-rise building, evaluation of thermal energy systems of bio safety laboratory and a development of measuring device of solar heat gain coefficient of fenestration system.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.46-55
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• 2021

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effect on chlorophyll fluorescence, stem sap flux relative rate (SFRR) and leaf temperature of cucumber when irrigation is controlled using a soil moisture tensiometer. Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) 'Chungchun' was irrigated of 10-10-20 kPa and 20-10-10 kPa by soil starting point of irrigation at each growth stage. At the 66 days after treatment (DAT) of 736 to 854 W·m-2 and above 32℃, chlorophyll fluorescence variables (Fo, Fm, Fv/Fm) values showed significantly different between treatments. The Fo and Fv/Fm value in the daytime (10:30 am to 6:00 pm) at 66 DAT was higher in 20-10-10 kPa treatment than in 10-10-20 kPa treatment. The Fv/Fm value decreased when the leaf temperature was increased. There was no difference in leaf growth (length, width and area) at 28 and 66 DAT, but the chlorophyll content (SPAD value) was significantly higher in 20-10-10kPa treatment. SFRR and leaf temperature increased with light intensity and temperature increased. In both treatments, the SFRR started to increase sharply between 8 am and 9 am when the solar radiation is 170 W·m-2 or higher. The soil temperature of the treatments decreased after irrigation, that showed 31.0℃ at 10-10-20kPa and 28.5℃ at 20-10-10kPa on July 5 (820W·m-2 at 1 pm). However, there was no difference in SFRR, leaf temperature, temperature difference (leaf temperature - air temperature) and VPD between treatments. SFRR was significantly positive correlate with the leaf temperature (p < 0.01, r = 0.770). The SFRR and leaf temperature showed positive significant correlation with solar radiation, temperature, soil temperature, soil moisture content and VPD. There was a negative significant correlation with relative humidity and temperature difference.

• 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 Korea Society of Industrial Information Systems
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.81-92
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• 2013

The satellite includes many release mechanisms such as solar array deployment, antenna deployment, cover to protect contamination in scientific equipment, pyro value of the propulsion subsytem, and bypass device in Li-Ion cell module. A drive the initiators is a critical to the successful mission because the initiators of release mechanism driving by the pyrotechnic circuit is operated in single short. The pyrotechnic circuit has to provide switching network for safety. A typical switching network has defect consisting of high current rating fire switch to handle switching transient current during fire the initiator. The pyrotechnic circuit is required some form of power conditioning to reduce the peak power demanded from the bus if the initiators are to be fired from the main bus. This paper design a pyrotechnic circuit synchronized to the fire-command to activate the fire switch to overcome use high current rating fire switch to handle switching transient current during fire the initiator. The pyrotechnic circuit provides a current limited widow pulse for fire current synchronized to the fire-command to insure that fire switch will only carry the current but never switch it. The current limited widow pulse for fire current can be possible to use low current rating and light mass switch in switching network. The current limit function in the pyrotechnic circuit reduces supply voltage to initiator and provides the effect of power conditioning function to reduce peak bus power. The pyrotechnic circuit to apply satellite development on geostationary orbit is verified the function by test in development model.