• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 2010.05a
• /
• pp.3.1-3.1
• /
• 2010

Water splitting reaction using photocatalysts is of great interest in the utilization of solar energy [1]. In the present work, visible light-responsive $TiO_2$ thin films (Vis-$TiO_2$) were prepared by a radio frequency magnetron sputtering (RF-MS) deposition method and applied for the separate evolution of $H_2$ and $O_2$ from water as well as the photofuel cell. Special attentions will be focused on the effect of HF treatment of Vis-$TiO_2$ thin films on their photocatalytic activities. Vis-$TiO_2$ thin films were prepared by an RF-MS method using a calcined $TiO_2$ plate and Ar as the sputtering gas. The Vis-$TiO_2$ thin films were then deposited on the Ti foil substrate with the substrate temperature at 873 K (Vis-$TiO_2$/Ti). Vis-$TiO_2$/Ti thin films were immersed in a 0.045 vol% HF solution at room temperature. The effect of HF treatments on the activity of Vis-$TiO_2$/Ti thin films for the photocatalytic water splitting reaction have been investigated. Vis-$TiO_2$/Ti thin films treated with HF solution (HF-Vis-$TiO_2$/Ti) exhibited remarkable enhancement in the photocatalytic activity for $H_2$ evolution from a methanol aqueous solution as well as in the photoelectrochemical performance under visible light irradiation as compared with the untreated Vis-$TiO_2$/Ti thin films. Moreover, Pt-loaded HF-Vis-$TiO_2$/Ti thin films act as efficient and stable photocatalysts for the separate evolution of $H_2$ and $O_2$ from water under visible light irradiation in the presence of chemical bias. Thus, HF treatment was found to be an effective way to improve the photocatalytic activity of Vis-$TiO_2$/Ti thin films. Furthermore, unique separate type photofuel cell was fabricated using a Vis-$TiO_2$ thin film as an electrode, which can generate electrical power under solar light irradiation by using various kinds of biomass derivatives as fuel. It was found that the introduction of an iodine ($I^-/{I_3}^-$) redox solution at the cathode side enables the development of a highly efficient photofuel cell which can utilize a cost-efficient carbon electrode as an alternative to the Pt cathode.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.145-150
• /
• 2007

The $SiO_2$ and $TiO_2$ thin films for the multilayer interference filter application were manufactured by electron beam process. In case of electron beam process with ion source, the anode current was controlled by gas volume ratio of $O_2$ and Ar. Substrate temperature of electron beam deposition without ion source was increased from 100 to $250^{\circ}C$ with $50^{\circ}C$ increment. The surface roughness values of $SiO_2$ thin films was most low value at $200^{\circ}C$ substrate temperature and 0.2 A anode current respectively. And the surface roughness values of $TiO_2$ thin films was most low value at room temperature and 0.2 A anode current repectively. The refractive index of $SiO_2$ and $TiO_2$ thin films to be deposited with ion source was usually lower than that of thin films without ion source.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 2011.10a
• /
• pp.16.2-16.2
• /
• 2011

Graphene has attracted significant attention due to its unique characteristics and promising nanoelectronic device applications. For practical device applications, it is essential to synthesize high-quality and large-area graphene films. Graphene has been synthesized by eloborated mechanical exfoliation of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite, chemical reduction of exfoliated grahene oxide, thermal decomposition of silicon carbide, and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) on metal substrates such as Ni, Cu, Ru etc. The CVD has advantages over some of other methods in terms of mass production on large-areas substrates and it can be easily separated from the metal substrate and transferred to other desired substrates. Especially, plasma-enhanced CVD (PECVD) can be very efficient to synthesize high-quality graphene. Little information is available on the synthesis of graphene by PECVD even though PECVD has been demonstrated to be successful in synthesizing various carbon nanostructures such as carbon nanotubes and nanosheets. In this study, we synthesized graphene on $Ni/SiO_2/Si$ and Cu plate substrates with CH4 diluted in $Ar/H_2$ (10%) by using an inductively-coupled PECVD (ICPCVD). High-quality graphene was synthesized at as low as $700^{\circ}C$ with 600 W of plasma power while graphene layer was not formed without plasma. The growth rate of graphene was so fast that graphene films fully covered on substrate surface just for few seconds $CH_4$ gas supply. The transferred graphene films on glass substrates has a transmittance at 550 nm is higher 94%, indicating 1~3 monolayers of graphene were formed. FETs based on the grapheme films transferred to $Si/SiO_2$ substrates revealed a p-type. We will further discuss the synthesis of graphene and doped graphene by ICPVCD and their characteristics.

• Progress in Superconductivity
• /
• v.9 no.1
• /
• pp.96-101
• /
• 2007

[ $YBa_2Cu_3O_{7-{\delta}}$ ] films have been prepared on $LaAlO_3$ (100) single-crystal substrates by a metalorganic deposition using dichloroacetate precursors (DCA-MOD). Calcination conditions were varied in order to optimize the microstructure and the superconducting properties of YBCO film. Coated films were calcined at various temperatures ranging from $400{\sim}700^{\circ}C$ in flowing humid oxygen atmosphere. Ramping rate to calcination tempertures was $2.22^{\circ}C/min$. Conversion heat treatment was performed at $800^{\circ}C$ for 2 h in flowing Ar gas containing 1000 ppm oxygen with a humidity of 9.45%. Observations of surface and cross sectional SEM microstructure showed that the particle size in the calcined film increased in the range of 100-200 nm with heating rate and the calcination temperature. SEM EDS analysis showed that 13 a/o of chlorine was contained in the calcined film. It was also observed that the porosity increased with the heating rate and temperature. Porous microstructure was developed when YBCO films were prepared using porous calcined film. Dense microstructure and high $J_c$ over $1\;MA/cm^2$ was obtained when calcination was carried out at the temperature of $500^{\circ}C$ with a heating rate of $2.22^{\circ}C/min$.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.24 no.12
• /
• pp.694-699
• /
• 2014

We report the chemical vapor deposition growth characteristics of graphene on various catalytic metal substrates such as Ni, Fe, Ag, Au, and Pt. 50-nm-thick metal films were deposited on $SiO_2/Si$ substrates using dc magnetron sputtering. Graphene was synthesized on the metal/$SiO_2$/Si substrates with $CH_4$ gas (1 SCCM) diluted in mixed gases of 10% $H_2$ and 90 % Ar (99 SCCM) using inductively-coupled plasma chemical vapor deposition (ICP-CVD). The highest quality of graphene film was achieved on Ni and Fe substrates at $900^{\circ}C$ and 500 W of ICP power. Ni substrate seemed to be the best catalytic material among the tested materials for graphene growth because it required the lowest growth temperature ($600^{\circ}C$) as well as showing a low ICP power of 200W. Graphene films were successfully grown on Ag, Au, and Pt substrates as well. Graphene was formed on Pt substrate within 2 sec, while graphene film was achieved on Ni substrate over a period of 5 min of growth. These results can be understood as showing the direct CVD growth of graphene with a highly efficient catalytic reaction on the Pt surface.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.110-115
• /
• 2007

A plasma enhanced atomic layer deposition(PEALD) system has been constructed adopting an inductively coupled plasma(ICP) source with an ALD system, and its plasma generation was carried out. Cobalt thin films were deposited on a p-type Si(100) wafer at $230^{\circ}C$. $Co_{2}(CO)_{6}$ was used as a cobalt precursor, $NH_{3}$ as a reactant, and Ar as a carrier and purge gas. The properties of the thin films were investigated using field emission scanning electron microscopy(FESEM) and auger electron spectroscopy(AES). Large amounts of impurities were found in both the ALD film and the PEALD film, however, the amount of impurities in the PEALD film was reduced to about 50 % compared to that in the ALD film. It was found that $NH_{3}$ plasma, very effectively, induces the reaction with carbon in a cobalt precursor.

• Progress in Superconductivity
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.186-192
• /
• 2007

High $J_c\;YBa_2Cu_3O_{7-x}$ superconducting films have been fabricated $LaAlO_3(100)$ substrate by MOD method using dichloroacetic acid(DCA) as chelating solvent for preparing precursor solution. Heating rate was varied in order to optimize the calcination heat treatment condition in DCA-MOD method. Coated films were calcined at lower temperature up to $500^{\circ}C$ in flowing humid oxygen atmosphere. The heating rate was calcined from $13.3^{\circ}C/min\;to\;0.28^{\circ}C/min$. Conversion heat treatment was performed $800^{\circ}C$ for 2 h in flowing Ar gas containing 1000 ppm oxygen with a humidity of 9.45%. Surface and cross sectional SEM microstructures showed that particle sizes were increased with heating rate at a calcination step. The amount of pores was increased with heating rate in the calcined films. Dense microstructure and sharp texture were developed in an YBCO films after conversion heat treatment. A high critical current density (Jc) of $1.26MA/cm^2$ (@77 K and self-field) was obtained for the YBCO film which was prepared with a heating rate of $0.28^{\circ}C/min$.

• International Journal of Korean Welding Society
• /
• v.2 no.2
• /
• pp.26-31
• /
• 2002

Considering the fuel consumption of car, a light structure of aluminum alloys is desired fer car body nowadays. However, fusion welding of aluminum alloys has some problems of reduction of joint efficiency, porosity formation and hot cracking. In the present work, investigation to improve the joint performance of laser welded joint has been carried out by addition of Cu, Ni, and Zr to A6NO 1 alloy welds. Aluminum alloy plate of 2.Omm in thickness with filler metal bar was welded by twin beam Nd: YAG laser facility (total power: 5kW). The filler metals were prepared by changing the chemical compositions for adding the elements into the weld metal. Thirteen filler metal bars were prepared and pre-placed into the base metal before welding. Ar gas shielding with a flow rate of 10 1/min was used. The defocusing distance is kept at 0 mm. At travel speeds off 3 to 9 and at laser power of 5kW (front beam 2kW rear beam 3kW), full penetration welds were obtained, whereas at travel speeds of 12 to 18 m/min and same power, partial penetration was observed. The joint efficiency of laser-welded joint was improved by the addition of Cu, Ni, and Zr due to the solid solution hardening, grain refining and precipitation hardening. The type of hardening has been further considered by metallurgical examination.

• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
• /
• v.38 no.3
• /
• pp.106-111
• /
• 2005

Ternary Ti-B-C coatings were synthesized on WC-Co and Si wafers substrates by a PECVD technique using a gaseous mixture of $TiCl_4,\;BCl_3,\;CH_4,\;Ar,\;and\; H_2$. The effects of deposition variables such as substrate temperature, gas ratio, $R_x=[BCl_3/(CH_4+BCl_3)]$ on the microstructure and mechanical properties of Ti-B-C coatings were investigated. From our instrumental analyses, the synthesized Ti-B-C coatings was confirmed to be composites consisting of nanocrystallites TiC, quasi-amorphous TiB2, and amorphous carbon at low boron content, on the contrary, nanocrystallites $TiB_2$, quasi-amorphous TiC, and amorphous carbon at relatively high boron content. The microhardness of the Ti-B-C coatings increased from $\~23 GPa$ of TiC to $\~38 GPa$ of $Ti_{0.33}B_{0.55}C_{0.11}$ coatings with increasing the boron content. The $Ti_{0.33}B_{0.55}C_{0.11}$ coatings showed lower average friction coefficient of 0.45, in addition, it showed relatively better wear behavior compared to other binary coatings of $TiB_2$ and TiC. The microstruture and microhardness value of Ti-B-C coatings were largely depend on the deposition temperature.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2014.02a
• /
• pp.362-362
• /
• 2014

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) can be regarded as a special variation of the chemical vapor deposition method for reducing film thickness. ALD is based on sequential self-limiting reactions from the gas phase to produce thin films and over-layers in the nanometer scale with perfect conformality and process controllability. These characteristics make ALD an important film deposition technique for nanoelectronics. Tantalum pentoxide ($Ta_2O_5$) has a number of applications in optics and electronics due to its superior properties, such as thermal and chemical stability, high refractive index (>2.0), low absorption in near-UV to IR regions, and high-k. In particular, the dielectric constant of amorphous $Ta_2O_5$ is typically close to 25. Accordingly, $Ta_2O_5$ has been extensively studied in various electronics such as metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (FET), organic FET, dynamic random access memories (RAM), resistance RAM, etc. In this experiment, the variations of chemical and interfacial state during the growth of $Ta_2O_5$ films on the Si substrate by ALD was investigated using in-situ synchrotron radiation photoemission spectroscopy. A newly synthesized liquid precursor $Ta(N^tBu)(dmamp)_2$ Me was used as the metal precursor, with Ar as a purging gas and $H_2O$ as the oxidant source. The core-level spectra of Si 2p, Ta 4f, and O 1s revealed that Ta suboxide and Si dioxide were formed at the initial stages of $Ta_2O_5$ growth. However, the Ta suboxide states almost disappeared as the ALD cycles progressed. Consequently, the $Ta^{5+}$ state, which corresponds with the stoichiometric $Ta_2O_5$, only appeared after 4.0 cycles. Additionally, tantalum silicide was not detected at the interfacial states between $Ta_2O_5$ and Si. The measured valence band offset value between $Ta_2O_5$ and the Si substrate was 3.08 eV after 2.5 cycles.