• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.129-133
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• 2020

It is very important to optimize the reflectance of incident light in solar modules for improving output power and reducing loss of cell-to-module (CTM). It is assumed that a higher reflectance backsheet may improve optical efficiency. However how much output power is related to optical properties by reflectance property of backsheets have not been revealed clearly yet. A total of 3 types of industrial backsheets with 3 type of industrial encapsulants (EVA or POE) were analyzed as fabricated mini modules used shingled cells. According to the type of backsheets, the difference between the highest and lowest average reflectance in the range of 400 nm to 1200 nm was found to be 13.08% by UV-visible spectroscopy. Also, when using the same encapsulant, the maximum gap value of the output power increase was measured by about 3.755 mW% (166.02 mW). The correlation between reflectance and output power was experimentally found by measuring the output property of the fabricated shingled mini modules.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Geothermal and Hydrothermal Energy
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2023

Many government in the world have conducted building energy performance certification program to reduce building energy consumption. In this study, a reference building and its HVAC system was modeled, and the energy load and consumption were estimated by the ECO2 program. The software is a simple building energy simulation program based on monthly calculated method. The building energy efficiency rating the the reference building was 1+ under baseline condition. The simulation results showed that the insulation performance slightly affected building energy load and consumption, but light density had a significant effect on them. The application of geothermal heat pumps gave improvement of building energy efficiency rating but it could not make it possible to get zero energy building(ZEB) certification. The ZEB 5 certification could be achieved by using photovoltaics, however getting better grade was difficult. The simulation results showed that the ZEB 4 certification, one grade higher than ZEB 5, could be attained by using more than one renewable energy source such as geothermal and solar energy in this study.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.1-9
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• 2023

Recently, as Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), communication, and signal surveillance missions of spacecraft have become more advanced, research has been actively conducted on the deployable large mesh antenna system with excellent storage efficiency compared to the deployment area, and light weight. Deployable Mesh antennae are characterized by an increase in the number of Openings Per Inch (OPI), which is a measure of mesh weaving density as the mission frequency band increases, and this OPI change directly affects the thermal optical properties of the mesh antenna, so research on this is required. In this paper, to verify the thermal relationship between the optical properties of the mesh and antenna reflector, thermal sensitivity analysis between the mesh and the antenna reflector is performed by in-orbit thermal analysis with various optical characteristics of the mesh based on existing overseas research cases. In addition, the temperature gradient effect of the mesh reflector is analyzed.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.137-146
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• 2023

Nanosized TiO₂ has been widely investigated in photoelectrochemical or photocatalytic applications due to their intrinsic properties such as suitable band position, high photocorrosion resistance, and surface area. In this study, to achieve the high efficiency in photoelectrochemical and photocatalytic performance, TiO₂ nanotubular structures were formed by anodization at various temperatures and times. The morphological and crystal structure of the anodized TiO₂ nanotubes (NTs) were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The photoelectrochemical (PEC) properties and incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE) of the TiO₂ NTs were studied with different lengths and morphologies. From the detailed investigations, the optimum thickness of TiO₂ nanotubes was 3 ㎛. Moreover, we found that the optimum photocatalytic pollutant removal efficiency of TiO₂ nanotubes for photodegradation of Rhodamine B (RhB) under simulated solar light was 5.34 ㎛ of tube length.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.50.2-51
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• 2021

Stars form exclusively in cold and dense molecular clouds. To fully understand star formation processes, it is hence a key to investigate how molecular clouds form out of the surrounding diffuse atomic gas. With an aim of shedding light in the process of the atomic-to-molecular transition in the interstellar medium, we analyze Arecibo HI emission and absorption spectral pairs along with TRAO/PMO 12CO(1-0) emission spectra toward 58 lines of sight probing in and around molecular clouds in the solar neighborhood, i.e., Perseus, Taurus, and California. 12CO(1-0) is detected from 19 out of 58 lines of sight, and we report the physical properties of HI (e.g., central velocity, spin temperature, and column density) in the vicinity of CO. Our preliminary results show that the velocity difference between the cold HI (Cold Neutral Medium or CNM) and CO (median ~ 0.7 km/s) is on average more than a factor of two smaller than the velocity difference between the warm HI (Warm Neutral Medium or WNM) and CO (median ~ 1.7 km/s). In addition, we find that the CNM tends to become colder (median spin temperature ~ 43 K) and abundant (median CNM fraction ~ 0.55) as it gets closer to CO. These results hints at the evolution of the CNM in the vicinity of CO, implying a close association between the CNM and molecular gas. Finally, in order to examine the role of HI in the formation of molecular gas, we compare the observed CNM properties to the theoretical model by Bialy & Sternberg (2016), where the HI column density for the HI-to-H2 transition point is predicted as a function of density, metallicity, and UV radiation field. Our comparison shows that while the model reproduces the observations reasonably well on average, the observed CNM components with high column densities are much denser than the model prediction. Several sources of this discrepancy, e.g., missing physical and chemical ingredients in the model such as the multi-phase ISM, non-equilibrium chemistry, and turbulence, will be discussed.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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).

• 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.