• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
• /
• v.51 no.6
• /
• pp.365-371
• /
• 2018

1D core-shell nanostructures have attracted great attention due to their enhanced physical and chemical properties. Specifically, oriented single-crystalline $TiO_2$ nanorods or nanowires on a transparent conductive substrate would be more desirable as the building core backbone. However, a facile approach to produce such structure-based hybrids is highly demanded. In this study, a three-step hydrothermal method was developed to grow NiMn-layered double hydroxide-decorated $TiO_2$/carbon core-shell nanorod arrays on transparent conductive fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrates. XRD, SEM, TEM, XPS and Raman were used to analyze the obtained samples. The in-situ fabricated hybrid nanostructured materials are expected to be applicable for photoelectrode working in water splitting.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2013.02a
• /
• pp.635-635
• /
• 2013

We report three-dimensional polycrystalline anatase TiO2 structures (3D a-TiO2) for environmental and bio-medical applications. The 3D a-TiO2 was synthesized without thermal treatment by the growth of rod-like polycrystals on Degussa P25 (P25) via low temperature (< $85^{\circ}C$) modified alkali hydrothermal processing. X-ray diffraction and high-resolution transmission electron microscopic results showed that the rod-like polycrystals of 3D a-TiO2 possessed the highly anatase nanostructures. The photocatalytic activity of 3D a-TiO2 was found to be 2.2 times higher than that of P25. The recyclability of the 3D a-TiO2 was found to be high: the decolorization rate was 94.8% of the initial value after fifteen cycles. In addition, 3D a-TiO2 exhibited excellent antibacterial activities for the sterilization of gram-negative Escherichia coli (E. coli) and gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). Even at the 10th recycled use, more than 98.4% of E. coli and S. aureus can be killed. These results indicated that 3D a-TiO2 might have utility in several promising applications such as photocatalytic water/air purification and bactericidal agents.

• 한국정보디스플레이학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2008.10a
• /
• pp.993-994
• /
• 2008

Electrochromic (EC) devices are capable of reversibly changing their optical properties upon charge injection and extraction induced by the external voltage. The characteristics of the EC device, such as low power consumption, high coloration efficiency, and memory effects under open circuit status, make them suitable for use in a variety of applications including smart windows and electronic papers. Coloration due to reduction or oxidation of redox chromophores can be used for EC devices (e-paper), but the switching time is slow (second level). Recently, with increasing demand for the low cost, lightweight flat panel display with paper-like readability (electronic paper), an EC display technology based on dye-modified $TiO_2$ nanoparticle electrode was developed. A well known organic dye molecule, viologen, was adsorbed on the surface of a mesoporous $TiO_2$ nanoparticle film to form the EC electrode. On the other hand, ZnO is a wide bandgap II-VI semiconductor which has been applied in many fields such as UV lasers, field effect transistors and transparent conductors. The bandgap of the bulk ZnO is about 3.37 eV, which is close to that of the $TiO_2$ (3.4 eV). As a traditional transparent conductor, ZnO has excellent electron transport properties, even in ZnO nanoparticle films. In the past few years, one-dimension (1D) nanostructures of ZnO have attracted extensive research interest. In particular, 1D ZnO nanowires renders much better electron transportation capability by providing a direct conduction path for electron transport and greatly reducing the number of grain boundaries. These unique advantages make ZnO nanowires a promising matrix electrode for EC dye molecule loading. ZnO nanowires grow vertically from the substrate and form a dense array (Fig. 1). The ZnO nanowires show regular hexagonal cross section and the average diameter of the ZnO nanowires is about 100 nm. The cross-section image of the ZnO nanowires array (Fig. 1) indicates that the length of the ZnO nanowires is about $6\;{\mu}m$. From one on/off cycle of the ZnO EC cell (Fig. 2). We can see that, the switching time of a ZnO nanowire electrode EC cell with an active area of $1\;{\times}\;1\;cm^2$ is 170 ms and 142 ms for coloration and bleaching, respectively. The coloration and bleaching time is faster compared to the $TiO_2$ mesoporous EC devices with both coloration and bleaching time of about 250 ms for a device with an active area of $2.5\;cm^2$. With further optimization, it is possible that the response time can reach ten(s) of millisecond, i.e. capable of displaying video. Fig. 3 shows a prototype with two different transmittance states. It can be seen that good contrast was obtained. The retention was at least a few hours for these prototypes. Being an oxide, ZnO is oxidation resistant, i.e. it is more durable for field emission cathode. ZnO nanotetropods were also applied to realize the first prototype triode field emission device, making use of scattered surface-conduction electrons for field emission (Fig. 4). The device has a high efficiency (field emitted electron to total electron ratio) of about 60%. With this high efficiency, we were able to fabricate some prototype displays (Fig. 5 showing some alphanumerical symbols). ZnO tetrapods have four legs, which guarantees that there is one leg always pointing upward, even using screen printing method to fabricate the cathode.

• Clean Technology
• /
• v.20 no.3
• /
• pp.306-313
• /
• 2014

Nanoporous $TiO_2$ films are commonly used as working electrodes in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). So far, there have been attempts to synthesize films with various $TiO_2$ nanostructures to increase the power-conversion efficiency. In this work, vertically aligned rutile $TiO_2$ nanorods were grown on fluorinated tin oxide (FTO) glass by hydrothermal synthesis, followed by deposition of an anatase $TiO_2$ film. This new method of anatase $TiO_2$ growth avoided the use of a seed layer that is usually required in hydrothermal synthesis of $TiO_2$ electrodes. The dense anatase $TiO_2$ layer was designed to behave as the electron-generating layer, while the less dense rutile nanorods acted as electron-transfer pathwaysto the FTO glass. In order to facilitate the electron transfer, the rutile phase nanorods were treated with a $TiCl_4$ solution so that the nanorods were coated with the anatase $TiO_2$ film after heat treatment. Compared to the electrode consisting of only rutile $TiO_2$, the power-conversion efficiency of the rutile-anatase hybrid $TiO_2$ electrode was found to be much higher. The total thickness of the rutile-anatase hybrid $TiO_2$ structures were around $4.5-5.0{\mu}m$, and the highest power efficiency of the cell assembled with the structured $TiO_2$ electrode was around 3.94%.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.85-89
• /
• 2009

Nano-crystalline hydroxyapatite (HAp) films were formed at the Ti surface by a single-step microarc oxidation (MAO), and HAp-zirconia composite (HZC) films were obtained by subsequent chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of zirconia onto the HAp. Through the CVD process, zero- and one-dimensional zirconia nanostructures having tetragonal crystallinity (t-ZrO2) were uniformly distributed and well incorporated into the HAp crystal matrix to form nanoscale composites. In particular, (t-$ZrO_2$) was synthesized at a very low temperature. The HZC films did not show secondary phases such as tricalcium phosphate (TCP) and tetracalcium phosphate (TTCP) at relatively high temperatures. The most likely mechanism for the formation of the t-$ZrO_2$ and the pure HAp at the low processing temperature was proposed to be the diffusion of $Ca^{2+}$ ions. The HZC films showed increasing micro-Vickers hardness values with increases in the t-$ZrO_2$ content. The morphological features and phase compositions of the HZC films showed strong dependence on the time and temperature of the CVD process. Furthermore, they showed enhanced cell proliferation compared to the $TiO_2$ and HAp films most likely due to the surface structure change.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2013.02a
• /
• pp.669-669
• /
• 2013

Hierarchical N doped TiO2 nanostructured catalyst with micro, meso and macro porosity have been synthesized by a facile self-formation route using ammonia and titanium isopropoxide precursor. The samples were calcined in different calcination temperature ranging from $300^{\circ}C$ to $800^{\circ}C$ at slow heating rate ($5^{\circ}C$/min) and designated as NHPT-300 to NHPT-800. $TiO_2$ nanostructured catalyst have been characterized by physico-chemical and spectroscopy methods to explore the structural, electronic and optical properties. UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectra confirmed the red shift and band gap narrowing due to the doping of N species in TiO2 nanoporous catalyst. Hierarchical macro porosity with fibrous channel patterning was observed (confirmed from FESEM) and well preserved even after calcination at $800^{\circ}C$, indicating the thermal stability. BET results showed that micro and mesoporosity was lost after $500^{\circ}C$ calcination. The photocatalytic activity has been evaluated for methanol oxidation to formaldehyde in visible light. The enhanced photocatalytic activity is attributed to combined synergetic effect of N doping for visible light absorption, micro and mesoporosity for increase of effective surface area and light harvestation, and hierarchical macroporous fibrous structure for multiple reflection and effective charge transfer.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.699-704
• /
• 2018

One-dimensional nanostructures have attracted increasing attention because of their unique electronic, optical, optoelectrical, and electrochemical properties on account of their large surface-to-volume ratio and quantum confinement effect. Vertically grown nanowires have a large surface-to-volume ratio. The vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) process has attracted considerable attention for its self-alignment capability during the growth of nanostructures. In this study, vertically aligned silicon oxide nano-pillars were grown on Si\$SiO_2$(300 nm)\Pt substrates using two-zone thermal chemical vapor deposition system via the VLS process. The morphology and crystallographic properties of the grown silicon oxide nano-pillars were investigated by field emission scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The diameter and length of the grown silicon oxide nano-pillars were found to be dependent on the catalyst films. The body of the silicon oxide nano-pillars exhibited an amorphous phase, which is consisted with Si and O. The head of the silicon oxide nano-pillars was a crystalline phase, which is consisted with Si, O, Pt, and Ti. The vertical alignment of the silicon oxide nano-pillars was attributed to the preferred crystalline orientation of the catalyst Pt/Ti alloy. The vertically aligned silicon oxide nano-pillars are expected to be applied as a functional nano-material.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Visualization
• /
• v.20 no.3
• /
• pp.42-48
• /
• 2022

The shortage of available freshwater is a major global issue worldwide and an increasing demand for clean water requires efficient water purification strategies. Here we describe a method to drastically increase the efficiency of a microreactor for photocatalytic water purification. To find out how the shape of the catalyst affects water purification, nanostructured catalysts of different structures, such as dense film, nanorod, and nanohelix, are prepared and their water purification characteristics are analyzed. Compared to the flat catalyst, the nanostructured catalyst showed a distinct ability in its pollutant degradation, but the detailed structural variation does not significantly affect the water purification. To further increase efficiency, we apply a micromixer to nanorod-based microreactor, which allows even enhanced mass transfer. This enables the solution of the water purification problem and greatly contributes to the industries where the efficiency of photocatalytic activity has attracted extensive interest.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
• /
• v.7 no.5
• /
• pp.123-128
• /
• 2017

Nanostructured materials have received attention due to their unique electronic, optical, optoelectrical, and magnetic properties as a results of their large surface-to-volume ratio and quantum confinement effects. Thermal chemical vapor deposition process has attracted much attention due to the synthesis capability of various structured nanomaterials during the growth of nanostructures. In this study, silicon oxide nanowires were grown on Si\$SiO_2$(300 nm)\Pt(5~40 nm) substrates by two-zone thermal chemical vapor deposition with the source material $TiO_2$ powder via vapor-liquid-solid process. The morphology and crystallographic properties of the grown silicon oxide nanowires were characterized by field-emission scanning electron microscope and transmission electron microscope. As results of analysis, the morphology, diameter and length, of the grown silicon oxide nanowires are depend on the thickness of the catalyst films. The grown silicon oxide nanowires exhibit amorphous phase.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 2011.10a
• /
• pp.1.1-1.1
• /
• 2011

Electrospinning has known to be very effective tool for production of versatile one-dimensional (1D) nanostructured materials such as nanofibers, nanorod, and nanotubes and for easily assembly to two-, three-dimensional(2D, 3D) nanostructures such as thin film, membrane, and nonwoven web, etc. We have studied on the electrospinning technology for novel energy storage and conversion materials such as advanced separator, dye sensitized solar cell, supercapacitor, etc. High heat-resistive nanofibrous membrane as a new separator for future lithium ion polymer battery was prepared by electrospinning of PVdF based composite solution. The novel nanofibrous composite nonwovens have tensile strength of above 50 MPa and modulus of above 1.3 GPa. The internal structure of the electrospun composite nanofiber with a diameter of few hundreds nanometer were composed of core-shell nanostructure. And also electrospun $TiO_2$ nanorod/nanosphere based dye-sensitized solar cells with high efficiency are successfully prepared. Some battery performance will be introduced.