• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.83-89
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• 2012

Due to the potential importance and usefulness, usage of highly ordered nanoporous anodized aluminum oxide can be broadened in industry, when highly ordered anodized aluminum oxide can be placed on a substrate with controlled thickness. Here we report a facile route to highly ordered nanoporous alumina with the thickness of hundreds-of-nanometer on a silicon wafer substrate. Hexagonally or tetragonally ordered nanoporous alumina could be prepared by way of thermal imprinting, dry etching, and anodization. Adoption of reusable polymer soft molds enabled the control of the thickness of the highly ordered porous alumina. It also increased reproducibility of imprinting process and reduced the expense for mold production and pattern generation. As nanoporous alumina templates are mechanically and thermally stable, we expect that the simple and costeffective fabrication through our method would be highly applicable in electronics industry.

• Proceedings of the Polymer Society of Korea Conference
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• 2006.10a
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• pp.76-77
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• 2006

Conducting polymers have been attracting considerable attention from both scientific and industrial perspectives by virtue of the beneficial electrical and optical properties originating from their unique ${\pi}-conjugated$ system. Many efforts have been devoted toward fabricating conducting polymer nanomaterials. Of the various synthetic methodologies, soft template method has emerged as a very promising tool in fabricating conducting polymer nanomaterials. For last a few years, our research group has intensively studied the fabrication and application of conducting polymer nanomaterials. In this talk, the recent achievement in the synthetic methodology based on the use of soft templates will be discussed.

• Polymer Science and Technology
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.3-8
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• 2015

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.25 no.8
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• pp.639-645
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• 2012

Embossed $TiO_2$ thin films with high surface areas are achieved using soft-templates composed of monolayer polystyrene beads. The form of links between the beads in the templates is controlled by varying the $O_2$ plasma etching time on the templates, resulting in various templates with close-linked, nano-linked, and isolated beads. Room-temperature deposition of $TiO_2$ on the plasma-treated templates and calcination at $550^{\circ}C$ result in embossed films with tailored links between anatase $TiO_2$ hollow hemispheres. Although all the embossed films have similar surface areas, the sensitivity of films with nano-linked $TiO_2$ hollow hemispheres to 500 ppm CO and ethanol gases are much higher than that of films with close-linked and isolated hollow hemispheres, and the detection limits of them are as low as 0.6 ppm for CO and 0.1 ppm for ethanol. The strong correlation of sensitivity with the form of links between hollow hemispheres reveals the critical role of potential barriers formed at the links. The facile, large-scale, and on-chip fabrication of embossed $TiO_2$ films with nano-linked hollow hemispheres on Si substrate and the high sensitivity without the aid of additives give us a sustainable competitive advantage over various methods for the fabrication of highly sensitive $TiO_2$-based sensors.

• Carbon letters
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• v.18
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• pp.11-17
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• 2016

Monolithic carbon foams with hierarchical porosity were prepared from polyurethane templates and resol precursors. Mesoporosity was achieved through the use of soft templating with surfactant Pluronic F127, and macroporosity from the polyurethane foams was retained. Conditions to obtain high porosity materials were optimized. The best materials have high specific surface areas (380 and 582 m² g^-1, respectively) and high electrical conductivity, which make them good candidates for supports in sensors. These materials showed an almost linear dependence between the potential and the pH of aqueous solutions.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.16.1-16.1
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• 2011

$TiO_2$ is a promising material for gas sensors. To achieve high sensitivities, the material should exhibit a large surface-to-volume ratio and possess the high accessibility of the gas molecules to the surface. Accordingly, a wide variety of porous $TiO_2$ nanomaterials synthesized by wet-chemical methods have been reported for gas sensor applications. Nonetheless, achieving the large-area uniformity and comparability with well-established semiconductor production processes of the methods is still challenging. An alternative method is soft-templating which utilizes nanostructured inorganic or organic materials as sacrificial templates for the preparation of porous materials. Fabrication of macroporous $TiO_2$ films and hollow $TiO_2$ tubes by soft-templating and their gas sensing applications have been reported recently. In these porous materials composed of assemblies of individual micro/nanostructures, the form of links or necks between individual micro/nanostructures is a critical factor to determine gas sensing properties of the material. However, a systematic study to clarify the role of links between individual micro/nanostructures in gas sensing properties of a porous metal oxide matrix is thoroughly lacking. In this work, we have demonstrated a fabrication method to prepare highly-ordered, embossed $TiO_2$ films composed of anatase $TiO_2$ hollow hemispheres via soft-templating using polystyrene beads. The form of links between hollow hemispheres could be controlled by $O_2$ plasma etching on the bead templates. This approach reveals the strong correlation of gas sensitivity with the form of the links. Our experimental results highlight that not only the surface-to-volume ratio of an ensemble material composed of individual micro/nanostructures but also the links between individual micro/nanostructures play a critical role in evaluating the sensing properties of the material. In addition to this general finding, the facileness, large-scale productivity, and compatability with semiconductor production process of the proposed fabrication method promise applications of the embossed $TiO_2$ films to high-quality sensors.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.1336-1338
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• 2010

Three cobalt-iron Prussian Blue Analogues (PBAs) nanotubes contained with different alkali metal cations of K, Rb or Cs, respectively, were prepared by using cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB)/ethanol-water micelles as soft templates. The products were characterized by energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron micrograph (SEM), which confirmed the composition of the substances and their unique nanotube structures. Furthermore, the formation mechanism of the PBAs nanotubes was discussed and provided useful insight for further synthesis of nanotubes of other Prussian blue analogues.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.123-126
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• 2004

We have demonstrated the fabrication of patterned 3D photonic crystals by holographic lithography in conjunction with soft lithography. Holographic lithography created 3D ordered macroporous structures and soft lithography made tailored defects. Because the hard baked photoresist pattern possessed high resistance against the uncured photoresist solution and the refractive index did not change appreciably by hard baking, a crosslinked photoresist was used as a relief pattern for the holographic fabrication of patterned 3D photonic crystals. More complicated defect geometries might be easily obtained with more complicated patterns on PDMS stamps. Moreover, the present results might be used as templates for 3D PCs of highindex defects that can be exploited as optical waveguides and optical circuits.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.178-183
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• 2016

Semiconductor gas sensors based on metal oxide are widely used in a number of applications, from health and safety to energy efficiency and emission control. Nanomaterials including nanowires, nanorods, and nanoparticles have dominated the research focus in this field owing to their large number of surface sites that facilitate surface reactions. Recently, metal oxide hollow structures using soft templates have been developed owing to their high sensing properties with large-area uniformity. Here, we provide a brief overview of metal oxide hollow structures and their gas-sensing properties from the aspects of template size, morphology, and additives. In addition, a gas-sensing mechanism and perspectives are presented.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.267-292
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• 2008

Block copolymers that two or more polymer chains are covalently linked have drawn much attention due to self-assembly into nanometer-sized morphology such as lamellae, cylinders, spheres, and gyroids. In this article, we first summarize the phase behavior of block copolymers in bulk and thin films and some applications for new functional nanomaterials. Then, future perspectives on block copolymers are described.