• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.340-346
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• 2021

The initial electrochemical performance of ceramic fuel cell with thin-film electrolyte fabricated by plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition method was evaluated in terms of peak power density ratio, open circuit voltage ratio, and activation/ohmic resistance ratios at 500℃. Hydrogen and air were used as anode fuel and cathode fuel, respectively. The peak power density ratio reduced as ~52% for 30 min, which continually decreased as time increased but degradation rate gradually decreased. The open circuit voltage ratio decreased with respect time; however, its behavior was evidently different from the reduction behavior of the peak power density. The activation resistance ratio increased as ~127% for 30 min, which was almost similar with the reduction behavior of the peak power density ratio.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.84.1-84.1
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• 2011

Typical solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) have limited applications because they operate at high temperature due to low ionic conductivity of electrolyte. Thin film solid oxide fuel cell with yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) electrolyte is developed to decrease operating temperature. Pt/YSZ/Pt thin film SOFC was fabricated on anodic aluminum oxide (AAO). The crystalline structure of YSZ electrolyte by sputter is heavily depends on the roughness of porous Pt layer, which results in pinholes. To deposit YSZ electrolyte without pinholes and electrical shortage, it is necessary to deposit smoother and denser layer between Pt anode layer and YSZ layer by sputter. Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) technique is used to deposit pre-YSZ layer, and it improved electrolyte quality. 300nm thick Bi-layered YSZ electrolyte was successfully deposited without electrical shortage.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.410-416
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• 2021

The initial electrochemical performance of ceramic fuel cell with thin-film electrolyte was evaluated in terms of peak power density ratio, open circuit voltage ratio, and activation/ohmic resistance ratios at 500℃. Hydrogen and air were used as anode fuel and cathode fuel, respectively. The peak power density ratio reduced as ~17% for 40 minutes, which rapidly decreased in the early stage of the performance evaluation but gradually decreased. The open circuit voltage ratio decreased with respect time; however, its time behavior was remarkably different with the reduction behavior of the peak power density ratio. The activation resistance ratio increased as ~15% for 40 minutes, which was almost similar with the time behavior of the peak power density ratio.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.84.2-84.2
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• 2011

In this research, two thin film deposition techniques, Atomic Layer Deposition and Sputtering are carried out for the fabrication of Yittria Stabilized Zirconia electrolyte for thin film Solid Oxide Fuel Cell. Zirconium to Yittrium ratio for both cases is about 1/8. Scanning Electron Microscope(SEM) image shows that the growth rate per hour for Atomic Layer Deposition is faster than for sputtering. X-ray Photo-electron Spectroscopy(XPS) shows that the peaks of both Zirconia and Yittria shift towards higher bending energy for the case of Atomic Layer deposition and thus are more strongly attached to the substrate. Later, Nyquist plot was used to compare the conductivity of Yittria Stabilized Electrolyte for both cases. The conductivity at $300^{\circ}C$ for Atomic Layer Deposited Yittria Stabilized Zirconia is found to be $5{\times}10^{-4}S/cm$ while that for sputtered Yittria Stabilized Zirconia is $2{\times}10^{-5}S/cm$ at the same temperature. The reason for better performance for Atomic Layered YSZ is believed to be the Nano-structured layer fabrication that aids in along the plane conduction as compared to the columnarly structured Sputtered YSZ.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.31-35
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• 2016

This paper demonstrates the successful application of yttria-stabilized zirconia thin films deposited by atomic layer deposition to the anode-side interlayer for cerium oxide electrolyte based solid oxide fuel cell. At the operating temperature over $500^{\circ}C$, the electrical conductivity of cerium oxide electrolyte is known to dramatically increase and, therefore, the open circuit voltage of the cell decreases leading to the decrease of the performance. Ultra-thin (60 nm) atomic layer deposited yttria-stabilized zirconia thin film in this study conformally coated the anode-side surface of the cerium oxide electrolyte and efficiently blocked the electrical conduction through the electrolyte. Accordingly, the open circuit voltage increased by up to 20%, and the maximum power density increased by 52% at $500^{\circ}C$

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.08a
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• pp.310.2-310.2
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• 2013

For enhancement of dye-sensitized solar cell performance, TiO2 blocking layer has been used to prevent recombination between electron and hole at the conducting oxide and electrolyte interface. In solid state dye-sensitized solar cells, it is necessary to fabricate pin-hole free TiO2 blocking layer. In this work, we deposited the TiO2 blocking layer on conducting oxide by atomic layer deposition and compared the efficiency. To compare the efficiency, we fabricate solid state dye-sensitized solar cell with using CuSCN as hole transport material. We see the efficiency improve with 40nm TiO2 blocking layer and the TiO2 blocking layer morphology was characterized by SEM. Also, we used this blocking layer in TiO2/Sb2S3/ CuSCN solar cell.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.478.2-478.2
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• 2014

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) provides self-limiting processes based on chemisorption-based reactions. Such unique features allow for superior step coverage, atomic-scale control in thickness, and surface-dependent reaction controls. Furthermore, the surface-limited deposition enables the artificial deposition of oxide and/or metallic materials onto the porous systems as long as the supply is guaranteed in terms of time in providing reactant species and removing the byproducts and redundant reactants. The unique feature of atomic layer deposition is applied to solid oxide fuel cells whose incorporates two porous cathode and anode compartments in addition to the ionic electrolyte. Specific materials are deposited to the surface sites of porous electrodes, with the aim to controlling the triple phase boundaries crucial for the optimized SOFC performances. The effect of ALD on the SOFC performance is characterized using current-voltage characteristics in addition to frequency-dependent impedance spectroscopy. The pros and cons of ALD-controlled SOFCs are discussed toward high-performance SOFC systems.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.344-348
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• 2009

The electrolyte effects of the electroplating solution in Cu films grown by ElectroPlating Deposition(EPD) were investigated. The electroplated Cu films were deposited on the Cu(20 nm)/Ti (20 nm)/p-type Si(100) substrate. Potentiostatic electrodeposition was carried out using three terminal methods: 1) an Ag/AgCl reference electrode, 2) a platinum plate as a counter electrode, and 3) a seed layer as a working electrode. In this study, we changed the concentration of a plating electrolyte that was composed of $CuSO_4$, $H_2SO_4$ and HCl. The resistivity was measured with a four-point probe and the material properties were investigated by using XRD(X-ray Diffraction), an AFM(Atomic Force Microscope), a FE-SEM(Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope) and an XPS(X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy). From the results, we concluded that the increase of the concentration of electrolytes led to the increase of the film density and the decrease of the electrical resistivity of the electroplated Cu film.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.50 no.2
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• pp.159-163
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• 2012

A TCO-less ruthenium (Ru) catalytic layer on glass substrate instead of conventional Ru/TCO/ glass substrate was assessed as counter electrode (CE) material in dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) by examining the effect of the Ru thickness on the DSSC performance. Ru films with different thicknesses (34, 46, 69, and 90 nm) were deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) on glass substrates to replace both existing catalyst and electrode layer. In order to make our comparison, we also prepared an Ru catalytic layer by a similar method on FTO/glass substrate. Finally, we prepared the $0.45cm^2$ DSSC device the properties of the DSSCs were examined by cyclic voltammetry (CV), impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and current-voltage (I-V) method. CV measurements revealed an increase in catalytic activity with increasing film thickness. The charge transfer resistance at the interface between the electrolyte and Rudecreased with increasing Ru thickness. I-V results showed that the energy conversion efficiency increased up to 1.96%. Our results imply that TCO-less Ru/glass might perform as both catalyst and electrode layer when it is used in counter electrodes in DSSCs.