• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
• /
• v.27 no.4
• /
• pp.207-214
• /
• 1994

In consideration of global environmental protection and fuel saving, aluminum alloy sheets for auto body panels such as hood, fender etc., are expected one of the most promising materials for weight saving of cars. The chemical conversion coating is required to prevent the filiform corrosion occurring on painted aluminum. However the conventional process for the composited material mixed with aluminum and steel is complexs; aluminum part is chromated and assembled to the body, and then the steel body undergoes Zn phosphating. In order to overcome the low productivity due to the complex process and the environmental problem with a conventional process, a simultaneous zinc phosphating process for alsuminum and steel in an assembled condition is demanded. Newly developed phosphate solution has been investigated to characterize the phosphating behavior under various conditions. The optimum conditions of the phosphating solution for the application of the paint treatment derived as follows : about 0.3 for the ratio of Zn to $PO_4$, , 200~500 ppm for the concentration of fluoride ion, and 2.5~4.0 for pH. The concentration of dissolved aluminum ion must be kept below 2--ppm and suitable accelerator is found to be a mixture of 1g/$\ell$ $NO_2\;^-$, and 6g/$\ell$ $NO_3\;^-$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2012.02a
• /
• pp.218-218
• /
• 2012

Nanocrystalline $SnO_2$ colloids are synthesized by hydrolysis of $SnCl_4{\cdot}5H_2O$ in aqueous ammonia solution. The synthesized $SnO_2$ nanoparticles with ca. 15 nm in diameter are coated on a fluorinedoped thin oxide (FTO) conductive substrate and heated at $550^{\circ}C$. The annealed $SnO_2$ film is treated with aqueous $TiCl_4$ solution, which is sensitzied with MK-2 dye (2-cyano-3-[5'''-(9-ethyl- 9H-carbazol-3-yl)-3',3'',3''',4-tetra-n-hexyl-[2,2',5',2'',5'',2''']-quater thiophen-5-yl]). Compared to bare $SnO_2$ film, the conversion efficiency is significantly improved from 0.22% to 3.13% after surface treatment of $SnO_2$ with $TiCl_4$, which is mainly due to the large increases in both photocurrent density from 1.33 to $9.46mA/cm^2$ and voltage from 315 to 634 mV. It is noted that little change in the amount of the adsorbed dye is detected from 1.21 for the bare $SnO_2$ to $1.28{\mu}mol/cm^2$ for the $TiCl_{4-}$ treated $SnO_2$. This indicates that the photocurrent density increased by more than 6 times is not closely related to the dye loading concentration. From the photocurrent and voltage transient spectroscopic studies, electron life time increases by about 13 order of magnitude, whereas electron diffusion coefficient decreases by about 3.6 times after $TiCl_4$ treatment. Slow electron diffusion rate offers sufficient time for regeneration kinetics. As a result, charge collection efficiency of about 40% before $TiCl_4$ treatment is improved to 95% after $TiCl_4$ treatment. The large increase in voltage is due to the significant increase in electron life time, associated with upward shift of fermi energy.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
• /
• v.24 no.1
• /
• pp.31-37
• /
• 2013

Lowering surface reflectance of Si wafers by texturization is one of the most important processes for improving the efficiency of Si solar cells. This paper presents the results on the effect of texturing using acidic solution mixtures containing the catalytic agents to moderate etching rates on the surface morphology of mc-Si wafer as well as on the performance parameters of solar cell. It was found that the treatment of contaminated crystalline silicon wafer with $HNO_3-H_2O_2-H_2O$ solution before the texturing helps the removal of organic contaminants due to its oxidizing properties and thereby allows the formation of nucleation centers for texturing. This treatment combined with the use of a catalytic agent such as phosphoric acid improved the effects of the texturing effects. This reduced the reflectance of the surface, thereby increased the short circuit current and the conversion efficiency of the solar cell. Employing this technique, we were able to fabricate mc-Si solar cell of 16.4% conversion efficiency with anti-reflective (AR) coating of silicon nitride film using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) and Si wafers can be texturized in a short time.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
• /
• v.30 no.1
• /
• pp.49-56
• /
• 2013

Excellent electron transport properties with enhanced light scattering ability for light harvesting have made well-ordered one dimensional $TiO_2$ nanotube(TNT) arrays an alternative candidate over $TiO_2$ nanoparticles in the area of solar energy conversion applications. The principal drawback of TNT arrays being activated only by UV light has been addressed by coupling the TNT with secondary materials which are visible light-triggered. As well as extending the absorption region of sunlight, the introduction of these foreign components is also found to influence the charge separation and electron lifetime of TNT. In this study, a novel method to fabricate the TNT-based composite photoelectrodes employing visible responsive $CuInS_2$ (CIS) nanoparticles is presented. The developed method is a square wave pulse-assisted electrochemical deposition approach to wrap the inner and outer walls of a TNT array with CIS nanoparticles. Instead of coating as a dense compact layer of CIS by a conventional non-pulsed-electrochemical deposition method, the nanoparticles pack relatively loosely to form a rough surface which increases the surface area of the composite and results in a higher degree of light scattering within the tubular channels and hence a greater chance of absorption. The excellence coverage of CIS on the tubular $TiO_2$ allows the construction of an effective heterojunction that exhibits enhanced photoelectrochemical performance.

• Membrane Journal
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.193-200
• /
• 2011

An amphiphilic graft copolymer comprising a poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) backbone and poly (styrene sulfonic acid) (PSSA) side chains (PVC-g-PSSA) was synthesized via atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). Mesoporous titanium dioxide $(TiO_2)$ films with crystalline anatase phase were synthesized via a sol-gel process by templating PVC-g-PSSA graft copolymer. Titanium isopropoxide (TTIP), a $TiO_2$ precursor was selectively incorporated into the hydrophilic PSSA domains of the graft copolymer and grew to form mesoporous $TiO_2$ films, as confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. The performances of dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) were systematically investigated by varying spin coating times and the amounts of P25 nanoparticies. The energy conversion efficiency reached up to 2.7% at 100 mW/$cm^2$ upon using quasi-solid-state polymer electrolyte.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
• /
• v.21 no.1
• /
• pp.29-35
• /
• 2012

The Hydrogenated silicon nitride (SiNx:H) using plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition is widely used in photovoltaic industry as an antireflection coating and passivation layer. In the high temperature firing process, the $SiN_x:H$ film should not change the properties for its use as high quality surface layer in crystalline silicon solar cells. Initially PECVD-$SiN_x:H$ film trends were investigated by varying the deposition parameters (temperature, electrode gap, RF power, gas flow rate etc.) to optimize the process parameter conditions. Then by varying gas ratios ($NH_3/SiH_4$), the hydrogenated silicon nitride films were analyzed for its optical, electrical, chemical and surface passivation properties. The $SiN_x:H$ films of refractive indices 1.90~2.20 were obtained. The film deposited with the gas ratio of 3.6 (Refractive index=1.98) showed the best properties in after firing process condition. The single crystalline silicon solar cells fabricated according to optimized gas ratio (R=3.6) condition on large area substrate of size $156{\times}156mm$ (Pseudo square) was found to have the conversion efficiency as high as 17.2%. Optimized hydrogenated silicon nitride surface layer and high efficiency crystalline silicon solar cells fabrication sequence has also been explained in this study.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2010.06a
• /
• pp.90.1-90.1
• /
• 2010

Due to the rapidly diminishing energy sources and higher energy production cost, the interest in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) has been increasing dramatically in recent years. A typical DSSC is constructed of wide band gap semiconductor electrode such as $TiO_2$ or ZnO that are anchored by light-harvesting sensitizer dyes and surrounded by a liquid electrolyte with a iodide ion/triiodide ion redox couple. DSSCs based on one-dimensional nano-structures, such as ZnO nanorods, have been recently attracting increasing attention due to their excellent electrical conductivity, high optical transmittance, diverse and abundant configurations, direct band gap, absence of toxicity, large exiton binding energy, etc. However, solar-to-electrical conversion performances of DSSCs composed of ZnO n-type photo electrode compared with that of $TiO_2$ are not satisfactory. An important reason for the low photovoltaic performance is the dissolution of $Zn^{2+}$ by the adsorption of acidic dye followed by the formation of agglomerates with dye molecules which could block the I-diffusion pathway into the dye molecule on the ZnO surface. In this paper, we prepared the DSSC with the ZnO electrode using the chemical bath deposition (CBD) method under low temperature condition (< $100^{\circ}C$). It was demonstrated that the ZnO seed layers played an important role on the formation of the ZnO nanostructures using CBD. To achieve truly low-temperature growth of the ZnO nanostructures on the substrates, a two-step method was developed and optimized in the present work. Firstly, ZnO seed layer was prepared on the FTO substrate through the spin-coating method. Secondly, the deposited ZnO seed substrate was immersed into an aqueous solution of 0.25M zinc nitrate hexahydrate and 0.25M hexamethylenetetramine at $90^{\circ}C$ for hydrothermal reaction several times.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2004.11a
• /
• pp.280-284
• /
• 2004

Multicrystalline silicon wafers were textured in an alkaline bath, basically using sodium hydroxide and in acidic bath, using mainly hydrofluoric acid (HF), nitric acid $(HNO_3)$ and de-ionized water (DIW). Some wafers were also acid polished for the comparative study. Comparison of average reflectance of the samples treated with the new recipe of acidic solution showed average diffuse reflectance less than even 5 percent in the optimized condition. Solar cells were thus fabricated with the samples following the main steps such as phosphorus doping for emitter layer formation, silicon nitride deposition for anti-reflection coating by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) and front surface passivation, screen printing metallization, co-firing in rapid thermal processing (RTP) Furnace and laser edge isolation and confirmed >14 % conversion efficiency from the best textured samples. This isotropic texturing approach can be instrumental to achieve high efficiency in mass production using relatively low cost silicon wafers as starting material.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2014.02a
• /
• pp.471.2-471.2
• /
• 2014

We demonstrate here that an improvement in precursor film density (green density) leads to a great enhancement in the photovoltaic performance of CuInSe2 (CISe) thin film solar cells fabricated with Cu-In nanoparticle precursor films via chemical solution deposition. A cold-isostatic pressing (CIP) technique was applied to uniformly compress the precursor film over the entire surface (measuring 3~4 cm2) and was found to increase its relative density (particle packing density) by ca. 20%, which resulted in an appreciable improvement in the microstructural features of the sintered CISe film in terms of lower porosity, reduced grain boundaries, and a more uniform surface morphology. The low-bandgap (Eg=1.0 eV) CISe PV devices with the CIP-treated film exhibited greatly enhanced open-circuit voltage (VOC, from 0.265 V to 0.413 V) and fill factor (FF, from 0.34 to 0.55), as compared to the control devices. As a consequence, an almost 3-fold increase in the average power conversion efficiency, 3.0 to 8.2% (with the highest value of 9.02%), was realized without an anti-reflection coating. A diode analysis revealed that the enhanced VOC and FF were essentially attributed to the reduced reverse saturation current density (j0) and diode ideality factor (n). This is associated with the suppressed recombination, likely due to the reduction in recombination sites such as grain/air surfaces (pores), inter-granular interfaces, and defective CISe/CdS junctions in the CIP-treated device. From the temperature dependences of VOC, it was confirmed that the CIP-treated devices suffer less from interface recombination.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
• /
• 2017.05a
• /
• pp.104-104
• /
• 2017

유럽의 폐차 처리 지침, RoHs 및 국내 친환경 소재 부품의 개발이 날로 가속화 되면서 종래 사용해 오던 인산염 피막 등 중금속이 함유된 코팅 재료는 점차 친환경 코팅 용액으로 전환이 되었다. 최근 자동차 산업 등에서 종래 중금속인 $Cr^{+6}$을 함유하지 않는 다양한 코팅 용액이 상용화 되고 있다. 그 중 가장 효율적으로 적용되고 있는 용액이 아연 flake를 첨가하여 희생 양극효과를 가능하게 하여 내식용 코팅 용액으로 상용화 하고 있다. 이 용액에는 내식성을 확보하기 위하여 희생양극이 가능한 소재 인 아연 분말을 첨가하며, 이 분말의 분산성이 소재와 코팅 층의 밀착성, 내식성에 결정적인 영향을 미친다. 특히 산업 현장에서는 아연 분말의 효율적인 분산을 위하여 24시간 이상 교반해야하기 때문에 생산성을 감소시키는 결정적인 요인으로 작용을 한다. 아연 분말의 분산은 용액 내에 첨가하는 각종 첨가제의 종류와 첨가량에 따라 현저하게 분산성이 다르기 때문에 첨가 원소에 대한 연구가 매우 중요하다. 본 연구에서는 서로 다른 이종 합금을 첨가하여 각종 첨가제의 종류 및 첨가량이 분산에 미치는 영향을 조사하였고, 첨가량이 코팅 층의 밀착성 및 내식성에 미치는 영향에 대하여 연구하였다. 분산제 첨가량이 낮을 경우 용액은 두껍게 코팅이 되며 분산 거리가 짧아졌다. 이 경우 코팅 층의 박리가 쉽게 발생하며, 코팅 층이 불균일하였다. 1.7% 첨가량에서 최적분산효과를 얻을 수 있었으며, 1,000시간 이상의 내식성을 확보할 수 있었다. 분산성과 동시에 유동성 확보가 중요하며, 유동성 확보를 위하여 점증제의 첨가량에 대한 변화를 주었다. 최적의 첨가량은 1.5% 이상으로 이 경우 부식 발생시간을 억제할 수 있었다.