• 한국진공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국진공학회 2016년도 제50회 동계 정기학술대회 초록집
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• pp.417-417
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• 2016

Global environmental deterioration has become more serious year by year and thus scientific interests in the renewable energy as environmental technology and replacement of fossil fuels have grown exponentially. Photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell consisting of semiconductor photoelectrodes that can harvest light and use this energy directly to split water, also known as photoelectrolysis or solar water splitting, is a promising renewable energy technology to produce hydrogen for uses in the future hydrogen economy. A major advantage of PEC systems is that they involve relatively simple processes steps as compared to many other H2 production systems. Until now, a number of materials including TiO2, WO3, Fe2O3, and BiVO4 were exploited as the photoelectrode. However, the PEC performance of these single absorber materials is limited due to their large charge recombinations in bulk, interface and surface, leading low charge separation/transport efficiencies. Recently, coupling of two materials, e.g., BiVO4/WO3, Fe2O3/WO3 and CuWO4/WO3, to form a type II heterojunction has been demonstrated to be a viable means to improve the PEC performance by enhancing the charge separation and transport efficiencies. In this study, we have prepared a triple-layer heterojunction BiVO4/WO3/SnO2 photoelectrode that shows a comparable PEC performance with previously reported best-performing nanostructured BiVO4/WO3 heterojunction photoelectrode via a facile solution method. Interestingly, we found that the incorporation of SnO2 nanoparticles layer in between WO3 and FTO largely promotes electron transport and thus minimizes interfacial recombination. The impact of the SnO2 interfacial layer was investigated in detail by TEM, hall measurement and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) techniques. In addition, our planar-structured triple-layer photoelectrode shows a relatively high transmittance due to its low thickness (~300 nm), which benefits to couple with a solar cell to form a tandem PEC device. The overall PEC performance, especially the photocurrent onset potential (Vonset), were further improved by a reactive-ion etching (RIE) surface etching and electrocatalyst (CoOx) deposition.

• 한국재료학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국재료학회 2011년도 춘계학술발표대회
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• pp.8.1-8.1
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• 2011

Nanocrystalline titanium dioxide ($TiO_2$) materials have been widely used as an electron collector in DSSC. This is required to have an extremely high porosity and surface area such that the dye can be sufficiently adsorbed and be electronically interconnected, resulting in the generation of a high photocurrent within cells. In particular, their geometrical structures and crystalline phase have been extensively investigated as important issues in improving its photovoltaic efficiency. In this study, we present a new strategy to fabricate a photoelectrode having a periodic structured $TiO_2$ film templated from 1D or 3D polystyrene (PS) microspheres array. Monodisperse PS spheres of various radiuses were used for colloidal array on FTO glasses and two types of photoelectrode structures with different $TiO_2$ materials were investigated respectively. One is the igloo-shaped electrode prepared by $TiO_2$ deposition by RF-sputtering onto 2D microsphere-templated substrates. At the interface between the film and substrate, there are voids formed by the decomposition of PS microspheres during the calcination step. These holes might be expected to play the predominant roles as scattering spherical voids to promote a light harvesting effect, a spacious structure for electrolytes with higher viscosity and effective paths for electron transfer. Additionally the nanocrystalline $TiO_2$ phase prepared by the RF-sputtering method was previously reported to improve the electron drift mobility within $TiO_2$ electrodes. This yields solar cells with a cell efficiency of 2.45% or more at AM 1.5 illumination, which is a very remarkable result, considering its $TiO_2$ electrode thickness (<2 ${\mu}m$). This study can be expanded to obtain higher cell efficiency by higher dye loading through the increase of surface area or multi-layered stacking. The other is the inverse opal photonic crystal electrode prepared by titania particles infusion within 3D colloidal arrays. To obtain the enlargement of ordered area and high quality of crystallinity, the synthesis of titania particles coated with a organic thin layer were applied instead of sol-gel process using the $TiO_2$ precursors. They were dispersed so well in most solvents without aggregates and infused successfully within colloidal array structures. This ordered mesoporous structure provides the large surface area leading to the enough adsorption of dye molecules and have an light harvesting effect due to the photonic band gap properties (back-and-forth reflection effects within structures). A major advantage of this colloidal array template method is that the pore size and its distribution within $TiO_2$ photoelectrodes are determined by those of latex beads, which can be controlled easily. These materials may have promising potentials for future applications of membrane, sensor and so on as well as solar cells.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• 제33권10호
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• pp.3473-3476
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• 2012

• 한국표면공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국표면공학회 2008년도 추계학술대회 초록집
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• pp.152-152
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• 2008

• 한국전기전자재료학회논문지
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• 제24권5호
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• pp.427-431
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• 2011

Hybrid $SiO_2-TiO_2$ photoelectrode with different type of layers was investigated in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC). Use of a thin layer of nanocrystalline $TiO_2$ would imply reduction in the amount of dye coverage, however, lower amount of dye in the thin films would imply fewer electron generation upon illumination. So, thus, it becomes necessary to include a $SiO_2-TiO_2$ layer for increase light harvesting effect such that the lower photon conversion due to thin layer could be compensated. In this paper reports the use of transparent high surface area $TiO_2$ layer and an additional $SiO_2-TiO_2$ layer, thus ensuring adequate light harvesting in these devices. The best solar conversion efficiency 6.6% under AM 1.5 was attained with a multi-layer structure using $TiO_2$ layer/$SiO_2-TiO_2$ layer/$TiO_2$ layer for the light harvesting and this had resulted to about 44% increase in photocurrent density of dye-sensitized solar cells.

• 한국분말재료학회지
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• 제22권5호
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• pp.326-330
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• 2015

In this study, we demonstrate the photoelectrochromic devices composed of $TiO_2$ and $WO_3$ nanostructures prepared by anodization method. The morphology and the crystal structure of anodized $TiO_2$ nanotubes and $WO_3$ nanoporous layers are investigated by SEM and XRD. To fabricate a transparent photoelectrode on FTO substrate, a $TiO_2$ nanotube membrane, which has been detached from Ti substrate, is transferred to FTO substrate and annealed at $450^{\circ}C$ for 1 hr. The photoelectrode of $TiO_2$ nanotube and the counter electrode of $WO_3$ nanoporous layer are assembled and the inner space is filled with a liquid electrolyte containing 0.5 M LiI and 5 mM $I_2$ as a redox mediator. The properties of the photoelectrochromic devices is investigated and Pt-$WO_3$ electrode system shows better electrochromic performance compared to $WO_3$ electrode.

• 한국전기전자재료학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국전기전자재료학회 2004년도 하계학술대회 논문집 Vol.5 No.2
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• pp.861-864
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• 2004

본 연구에서는 Ta이 도핑된 $TiO_2$와 $Au/TiO_2$ nanocomposite 박막을 co-sputtering법으로 제작하였다. Ta-doped $TiO_2$ 박막은 금흥석(rutile)에서 아나타제 상으로 변하는 구조를 유도하는 고용체를 형성했다. $Au/TiO_2$ nanocomposite film의 경우에는, 지름이 약 15 nm인 Au particles들이 $TiO_2$ matrix에 균질하게 분포되었다. Ta가 도핑된 $TiO_2$ 전극과 $Au/TiO_2$ 나노 콤포사이트 전극의 anodic photocurrents가 UV뿐만 아니라 가시광선 영역에서도 관찰되었다. Ta이 도핑된 $TiO_2$ 전극과 $Au/TiO_2$ 나노 콤포사이트 사이의 가시광선 영역에서 photoresponse는 계면 상태로 부터의 bandgap의 감소와 전자의 photoexcitation 때문이다.

• 한국전기전자재료학회논문지
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• 제28권3호
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• pp.180-184
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• 2015

Stainless steel (SS) mesh was used to fabricate photoelectrode for flexible dye-seisitzed solar cells (DSSCs) in order to evaluate them as replacements for more expensive transparent conductive oxide(TCO). We fabricated the DSSCs with new type of photoelectrode, which consisted of flexible SS mesh coated with 100 nm thickness titanium (Ti) protective layer deposited using electron-beam deposition system. SS mesh DSSCs with protective layer showed higher efficiency than those without a protective layer. The best cell property in the present study showed the open circuit voltage (Voc) of 0.608 V, short-circuit current density (Jsc) of $5.73mA\;cm^{-2}$, fill factor (FF) of 65.13%, and efficiency (${\eta}$) of 2.44%. Compared with SS mesh based on DSSCs (1.66%), solar conversion of SS mesh based on DSSCs with protective layer improved about 47%.

• 한국전기전자재료학회논문지
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• 제25권4호
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• pp.315-320
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• 2012

In general, a photoelectrode in DSSC(dye sensitized solar cell) are fabricated by using the $TiO_2$ (Titanium dioxide) to realize high efficiency and the efficiency of DSSC is affected by the size, the shape and the property of $TiO_2$. We synthesized the crystalline $TiO_2$ by sol-gel method. In spite of many merits, only weakness for the sol-gel method is taking many process times. To solve this problem, we reduced the fabricating processes. The reduced process is the making process that is $TiO_2$ sol to $TiO_2$ powder with including of two heat treatment and two mixing. We could simplify the process by preparing $TiO_2$ sol to $TiO_2$ paste directly. As a result, DSSC fabrication process is simplified and we have obtained the efficiency best result 3.88% with $V_{OC}$=0.71 V, $J_{SC}=8.70\;mA/cm^{-2}$, and FF=62.37%, respectively.

• 한국표면공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국표면공학회 2018년도 춘계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.50.2-50.2
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• 2018

The demand for steady and dependable power sources is very high in the field of sustainable energy because of the limited amount of fossil fuels reserves. Among several sustainable alternatives, solar energy may be the most efficient solution because it constitutes the largest renewable energy source. So far, the only practical way to store such large amounts of energy has been to use a chemical energy carrier likewise a fuel. In various solar energy to power conversion systems, the photoelectrochemical (PEC) splitting of water into hydrogen and oxygen by the direct use of solar energy is an ideal process. It is a renewable method of hydrogen production integrated with solar energy absorption and water electrolysis using a single photoelectrode. Previous studies on photoelectrode films for PEC water splitting cells have been mainly focused on synthesizing oxide semiconductors with wide band gaps, such as TiO2(3.2eV), WO3(2.8eV), and Fe2O3(2.3eV). Unfortunately, these pristine oxide photoanodes without any catalysts have relatively low photocurrent densities because of the inherent limitation of insufficient visible light absorption due to the wide bandgap. Specifically, there is a tradeoff between high photocurrent and photoelectrochemical corrosion behavior, which is representative of figures of meritf or PEC materials.