• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.330-335
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• 2020

Silicon surface nanostructures, which can be easily prepared by electrochemical etching, have attracted considerable attention because of its useful physical properties that facilitate application in diverse fields. In this work, electrochemical and electrochemical-scanning tunneling microscopic (EC-STM) techniques were employed to study the evolution of surface morphology during the electrochemical etching of Si(111)-H in a fluoride solution. The results exhibited that silicon oxide of the Si(111) surface was entirely stripped and then the surface became hydrogen terminated, atomically flat, and anisotropic in the fluoride solution during chemical etching. At the potential more negative than the flat band one, the surface had a tendency to be eroded very slowly, whereas the steps of the terrace were not only etched quickly but the triangular pits also deepened on anodic potentials. These results provided information on the conditions required for the preparation of porous nanostructures on the Si(111) surface, which may be applicable for sensor (or device) preparation (Nanotechnology and Functional Materials for Engineers, Elsevier 2017, pp. 67-91).

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.205-210
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• 2010

The A106 Gr B low carbon steel, which was used in the electric power plants and heavy chemical plants, was welded by multi-pass arc welding. The heat affected zone (HAZ) formed by welding was corroded in acid chloride solution, or in saturated $H_2S$ containing acid chloride solution, or in saturated $H_2S$ containing acid chloride solution under applied current. In this order of corrosion solution, the rate of corrosion increased, because $H_2S$ accelerated the iron dissolution, hydrogen evolution, and the formation of nonprotective FeS, whereas the applied current accelerated the electrochemical reaction. The scales formed in acid chloride solution consisted primarily of $Fe_3O_4$, while those formed in $H_2S$ containing acid chloride solution consisted primarily of $Fe_3O_4$ and FeS.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.57 no.5
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• pp.533-539
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• 2013

The electrochemical corrosion and passivation of Ni rotating disk electrod in borate buffer solution was studied with potentiodynamic and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The mechanisms of both the active dissolution and passivation of nickel and the hydrogen evolution in reduction reaction were hypothetically established while utilizing the Tafel slope, impedance data, the rotation speed of Ni-RDE and the pH dependence of corrosion potential and current. Based on the EIS data, an equivalent circuit was suggested. In addition, carefully measured were the electrochemical parameters for specific anodic dissolution regions. It can be concluded from the data collected that the $Ni(OH)_2$ oxide film, which is primarily formed by passivation, is converted to NiO by dehydration under the influence of an electrical field.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.30 no.12
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• pp.687-692
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• 2020

A zinc-air battery consists of a zinc anode, an air cathode, an electrolyte, and a separator. The active material of the positive electrode is oxygen contained in the ambient air. Therefore, zinc-air batteries have an open cell configuration. The external condition is one of the main factors for zinc-air batteries. One of the most important external conditions is temperature. To confirm the effect of temperature on the electrochemical properties of zinc-air batteries, we perform various analyses under different temperatures. Under 60 ℃ condition, the zinc-air cell shows an 84.98 % self-discharge rate. In addition, high corrosion rate and electrolyte evaporation rate are achieved at 60 ℃. Among the cells stored at various temperature conditions, the cell stored at 50 ℃ delivers the highest discharge capacity; it also shows the highest self-discharge rate (65.33 %). On the other hand, the cell stored at 30 ℃ shows only 2.28 % self-discharge rate.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.377-389
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• 2022

The current global energy supply depends heavily on fossil fuels. This makes technology such as direct water splitting from harvesting solar energy in photoelectrochemical (PEC) systems potentially attractive due to its a promising route for environmentally benign hydrogen production. In this study, undoped and nickel-doped molybdenum oxide photoanodes (called photoanodes S₁ and S₂ respectively) were synthesized through electrodeposition by applying -1.377 V vs Ag/AgCl (3 M KCl) for 3 hours on an FTO-coated glass substrate immersed in molibdatecitrate aqueous solutions at pH 9. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were used for microstructural and compositional characterizations of the photoanodes. In addition, the optical and photoelectrochemical characterizations of these photoanodes were performed by UV-Visible spectroscopy, and linear scanning voltammetry (LSV) respectively. The results showed that all the photoanodes produced exhibit conductivity and catalytic properties that make them attractive for water splitting application in a photoelectrochemical cell. In this context, the photoanode S₂ exhibited better photocatalytic activity than the photoanode S₁. In addition, photoanode S₂ had the lowest optical band-gap energy value (2.58 eV), which would allow better utilization of the solar spectrum.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.15-20
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• 2023

Ionic liquids are considered as a promising, alternative solvent for the electrochemical synthesis of metals because of their high thermal and chemical stability, relatively high ionic conductivity, and wide electrochemical window. In particular, their wide electrochemical window enables the electrodeposition of metals without any side reaction of electrolytes such as hydrogen evolution. The electrodeposition of silver is conducted in 1-n-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([C4mim]Cl) ionic liquid system with a silver source of AgCl. This study is the first attempt to electrodeposit silver nanoparticles without using co-solvents other than [C4mim]Cl. Pulse electrolysis is employed for the synthesis of silver nanoparticles by varying applied potentials from -3.0 V to -4.5 V (vs. Pt-quasi reference electrode) and pulse duration from 0.1 s to 0.7 s. Accordingly, the silver nanoparticles whose size ranges from 15 nm to ~100 nm are obtained. The successful preparation of silver nanoparticles is demonstrated regardless of the kinds of substrate including aluminum, stainless steel, and carbon paper in the pulse electrolysis. Finally, the antimicrobial property of electrodeposited silver nanoparticles is confirmed by an antimicrobial test using Staphylococcus aureus.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.102-102
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• 2016

Water, which is most abundant in Earth surface and very closely related to all forms of living organisms, has a simple molecular structure but exhibits very unique physical and chemical properties. Even though tremendous effort has been paid to understand this nature's core substance, there amazingly still lefts much room for scientist to explore its novel behaviors. Especially, as the scale goes down to nano-regime, water shows extraordinary properties that are not observable in bulk state. One of such interesting features is the formation of nanoscale bubbles showing unusual long-term stability. Nanobubbles can be spontaneously formed in water on hydrophobic surface or by decompression of gas-saturated liquid. In addition, the nanobubbles can be generated during electrochemical reaction at normal hydrogen electrode (NHE), which possibly distorts the standard reduction potential at NHE as the surface nanobubble screens the reaction with electrolyte solution. However, the real-time evolution of these nanobubbles has been hardly studied owing to the lack of proper imaging tools in liquid phase at nanoscale. Here we demonstrate, for the first time, that the behaviors of nanobubbles can be visualized by in situ transmission electron microscope (TEM), utilizing graphene as liquid cell membrane. The results indicate that there is a critical radius that determines the long-term stability of nanobubbles. In addition, we find two different pathways of nanobubble growth: i) Ostwald ripening of large and small nanobubbles and ii) coalescence of similar-sized nanobubbles. We also observe that the nucleation and growth of nanoparticles and the self-assembly of biomolecules are catalyzed at the nanobubble interface. Our finding is expected to provide a deeper insight to understand unusual chemical, biological and environmental phenomena where nanoscale gas-state is involved.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.581-584
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• 2020

The effect of a chemical pretreatment on the surface carbon was investigated using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and electrochemical methods. Primitive carbon has a reducing power likely due to incompletely oxidized functional groups on the surface. We aim to control this reducing power by chemical treatment and apply for the spontaneous deposition of nanoparticles (NPs). Highly ordered pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) was initially treated with a reducing agent, NaBH4 or an oxidizing agent, KMnO₄, for 5 min. Subsequently, the pretreated carbon was immersed in a platinum (Pt) precursor. Unexpectedly, SEM images showed that the reducing agent increased spontaneous PtNPs deposition while the oxidizing agent decreased Pt loading more as compared to that of using bare carbon. However, the amount of Pt on the carbon obviously decreased by NaBH₄ treatment for 50 min. Secondly, spontaneous reduction on pretreated glassy carbon (GC) was investigated using the catalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). GC electrode treated with NaBH4 for a short and long time showed small (onset potential: -640 mV vs. MSE) and large overpotential for the HER, respectively. Although the mechanism is unclear, the electrochemistry results correspond to the optical data. As a proof-of-concept, these results demonstrate that chemical treatments can be used to design the shapes and amounts of deposited catalytic metal on carbon by controlling the surface state.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.57 no.2
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• pp.239-243
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• 2019

In this study, anthraquinone-2,7-disulfonic acid (2,7-AQDS) is used as negative active material and Tiron is used as positive active material for aqueous redox flow battery (RFB). In previous results that used the 2,7-AQDS and Tiron, sulfuric acid ($H_2SO_4$) was a supporting electrolyte. However, in this study, ammonium chloride ($NH_4Cl$) is suggested as the electrolyte for the first time. By changing the supporting electrolyte from $H_2SO_4$ to $NH_4Cl$, the cell voltage of RFB is improved from 0.76 V to 1.01 V. To investigate the effect of $NH_4Cl$ supporting electrolyte of the performance of RFB, the full-cell tests of RFB using 2,7-AQDS and Tiron that are dissolved in $NH_4Cl$ supporting electrolyte are carried out, while cut-off voltage range is a main parameter to determine their performance. When the cut-off voltage range is 0.2~1.6 V, the hydrogen evolution occurs during charging step. To address the side reaction effect, the cut-off voltage range is changed to 0.2~1.2 V. When the revised cut-off voltage range is used and the current density of $40mA/cm^2$ is applied, hydrogen evolution is not observed and the optimal RFB shows the charge efficiency of 99% and discharge capacity of 3.3 Ah/L at 10cycle.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.17-20
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• 2020

Developing effective and earth-abundant electrocatalyst for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is critical for the commercialization of a water splitting system. In particular, the overpotential of the OER is relatively higher than the HER, and thus, it is considered that one of the important methods to enhance the performance of the electrocatalyst is to reduce the overpotential of the OER. In this work, we present a simple synthetic route for triple perovskite Nd_1.5Ba_1.5CoFeMnO_x with high performance OER and HER activity. This triple perovskite structure which shows high crystallinity through combustion method shows superior bifunctional catalytic performance in alkaline media. We believe that the prepared triple provskite with high performance OER and HER activity can give further feasibility for the commercialization of a water splitting system.