• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.206-213
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• 2019

The development of simple methods for As detection has received great attention because As is a toxic chemical element causing environmental and health-related issues. In this work, the effect of nanostructures of Au electrodes on their electroanalytical performance during As detection was investigated. Different Au nanostructures with various surface morphologies such as nanoplate Au, nanospike Au, and dendritic Au structures were prepared, and their electrochemical behaviors toward square-wave anodic stripping voltammetric As detection were examined. The difference in intrinsic efficiency for As detection between nanostructured and flat Au electrodes was explained based on the crystallographic orientations of Au surfaces, as examined by the underpotential deposition of Pb. The most efficient As detection performance was obtained with nanoplate Au electrodes, and the effects of the pre-deposition time and interference on As detection of the nanoplate Au electrodes were also investigated.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.107-114
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• 2015

Electrochemical fabrication of nanostructured Au surfaces has received increased attention. In the present work, electrochemical modification of Au surfaces for fabricating nanostructured Au surfaces in the absence of externally added precursors is presented, which is different to the previous methods utilizing electrochemical deposition of externally added precursors. Application of anodic potential at Au surfaces in phosphate buffers containing $Br^-$ resulted in the anodic dissolution of Au, which produced Au precursors at the electrode surfaces. The resulting Au precursors were further reduced at the surface to produce nanostructured Au structures. The effects of applied potential and time on the morphology of Au nanostructures were systematically examined, from which a unique backbone type Au nanostructures was produced. The backbone type Au nanostructures exhibited high surface-enhanced Raman activity. The present work would give insights into the formation of electrochemical fabrication of nanostructured Au surfaces.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.11
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• pp.88-93
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• 2017

It is important to develop a simple method oftuning localized surface plasmon resonance(LSPR) properties, due to their numerous applications. In addition, the careful examination of the shape, size and combination of metal nanoparticles is useful for understanding the relation between the LSPR properties and metal nanostructures. This article describes the dependence of theLSPR properties on the arrays of metal nanoparticles obtained from a block copolymer(BCP) micellar thin film. Firstly, two different Au nanostructures, having a dot and ring shape, were fabricated using conventional block copolymer micelle lithography. Then, Ag was plated on the Au nanostructures through the silver mirror reaction technique to obtain Au/Ag bimetallic nanostructures. During the production of these metallic nanostructures, the processing factors, such as the pre-treatment by ethanol, silver mirror reaction time and removal or not of the BCP, were varied. Once the Au nanoparticles were synthesized, Ag was properly plated on the Au, providing two distinguishable characteristic plasmonic bands at around 525nm for Au and around 420nm for Ag, as confirmed bythe UV-vis measurements. However, when a small amount of Au seed nanoparticles, which accelerate the Ag plating speed,was formed by usinga block copolymer with a relatively highmolecular weight, all of the Au surfaces were fully covered by Ag during the silver mirror reaction, showing only the characteristic peak for Ag at around 420nm. The Ag plating technique on Au nanoparticles pre-synthesized from a block copolymer is useful to study the LSPR properties carefully.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.46 no.7
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• pp.464-470
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• 2008

Metallic nanostructures have great potential for bio-chemical sensor applications due to the excitation of localized surface plasmon and its sensitive response to environmental change. Unlike the commonly explored absorption-based sensing, the optical scattering provides single particle detection scheme. For the localized surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy, the metallic nanostructures with controlled shape and size have been usually fabricated on adhesion-layer pre-coated transparent glass substrates. In this study, we calculated the optical scattering properties of plasmonic Au nanodisc using a discrete dipole approximation method and analyzed the effect of adhesion layer on them. Our result also indicates that there is a trade-off between the surface plasmon damping and the capability of supporting nanostructures in determining the optimal thickness of adhesion layer. Marginal thickness of Ti adhesion layer for supporting Au nanostructures fabricated on a silica glass substrate was experimentally analyzed by an adhesion strength test using a nano-indentation technique.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.284-293
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• 2019

Herein, we report an electrode surface with a hierarchical assembly of wild-type M13 virus nanofibers (M13) to nucleate the AuPt alloy nanostructures by electrodeposition. M13 was pulled on the electrode surface to produce a virus film, and then a layer of sol-gel matrix (SSG) was wrapped over the surface to protect the film, thereby a bio-template was constructed. Blending of metal binding domains of M13 and amine groups of the SSG of the bio-template were effectively nucleate and directed the growth of nanostructures (NSs) such as Au, Pt and AuPt alloy onto the modified electrode surface by electrodeposition. An electrocatalytic activity of the modified electrode toward methanol oxidation in alkaline medium was investigated and found an enhanced mass activity ($534mA/mg_{Pt}$) relative to its controlled experiments. This bio-templated growth of NSs with precise composition could expedite the intention of new alloy materials with tuneable properties and will have efficacy in green energy, catalytic, and energy storage applications.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.393-393
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• 2012

Optically active nanostructures such as subwavelength moth-eye antireflective structures or surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) active structures have been demonstrated to provide the effective suppression of unwanted reflections as in subwavelength structure (SWS) or effective enhancement of selective signals as in SERS. While various nanopatterning techniques such as photolithography, electron-beam lithography, wafer level nanoimprinting lithography, and interference lithography can be employed to fabricate these nanostructures, roll-to-roll (R2R) nanoimprinting is gaining interests due to its low cost, continuous, and scalable process. R2R nanoimprinting requires a master to produce a stamp that can be wrapped around a quartz roller for repeated nanoimprinting process. Among many possibilities, two different types of mask can be employed to fabricate optically active nanostructures. One is self-assembled Au nanoparticles on Si substrate by depositing Au film with sputtering followed by annealing process. The other is monolayer silica particles dissolved in ethanol spread on the wafer by spin-coating method. The process is optimized by considering the density of Au and silica nano particles, depth and shape of the patterns. The depth of the pattern can be controlled with dry etch process using reactive ion etching (RIE) with the mixture of SF6 and CHF3. The resultant nanostructures are characterized for their reflectance using UV-Vis-NIR spectrophotometer (Agilent technology, Cary 5000) and for surface morphology using scanning electron microscope (SEM, JEOL JSM-7100F). Once optimized, these optically active nanostructures can be used to replicate with roll-to-roll process or soft lithography for various applications including displays, solar cells, and biosensors.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.87-88
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• 2012

Metal oxide nanostructures have been applied to various fields such as energy, catalysts and electronics. We have freely designed one and two-dimensional (1 and 2-D) metal (transition metals and lanthanides) oxide nanostructures, characterized them using various techniques including scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction crystallography, thermogravimetric analysis, FT-IR, UV-visible-NIR absorption, Raman, photoluminescence, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and temperature-programmed thermal desorption (reaction) mass spectrometry. In addition, Ag- and Au-doped metal oxides will be discussed in this talk.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.243-243
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• 2009

Bi2O3 doped ZnO nanostructures structure were successfully synthesized by a thermal evaporatiion process and their structural characteristics were investigated. It is demonstrated that the growth condition such as the areal density, pretreatment of the substrates and growth temperature have great influence on the morphology and the alignment of the nanorods arrays. The density of Bi2O3 doped ZnO nanostructures is controlled by the gold (Au) nanoparticle density deposited on the silicon substrates. Relatively homogenous size and shape were observed by introducing gold(Au) seed-layer as nucleation centers on the substrates prior to the VLS reaction. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.588-588
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• 2013

Nanoscale noble-metals have attracted enormous attention from researchers in various fields of study because of their unusual optical properties as well as novel chemical properties. They have possible uses in diverse applications such as devices, transistors, optoelectronics, information storages, and energy converters. It is well-known that nanoparticles of noble-metals such as silver and gold show strong absorption bands in the visible region due to their surface-plasmon oscillation modes of conductive electrons. Silver nanocubes stand out from various types of Silver nanostructures (e.g., spheres, rods, bars, belts, and wires) due to their superior performance in a range of applications involvinglocalized surface plasmon resonance, surface-enhanced Raman scattering, and biosensing. In addition, extensive efforts have been devoted to the investigation of Gold-based nanocomposites to achieve high catalytic performances and utilization efficiencies. Furthermore, as the catalytic reactivity of Silver nanostructures depends highly on their morphology, hollow Gold nanoparticles having void interiors may offer additional catalytic advantages due to their increased surface areas. Especially, hollow nanospheres possess structurally tunable features such as shell thickness, interior cavity size, and chemical composition, leading to relatively high surface areas, low densities, and reduced costs compared with their solid counterparts. Thus, hollow-structured noblemetal nanoparticles can be applied to nanometer-sized chemical reactors, efficient catalysts, energy-storage media, and small containers to encapsulate multi-functional active materials. Silver nanocubes dispersed in water have been transformed into Ag@Au nanoboxes, which show highly enhanced catalytic properties, by adding $HAuCl_4$. By using this concept, $SiO_2$-coated Ag@Au nanoboxes have been synthesized via galvanic replacement of $SiO_2$-coated Ag nanocubes. They have lower catalytic ability but more stability than Ag@Au nanoboxes do. Thus, they could be recycled. $SiO_2$-coated Ag@Au nanoboxes have been found to catalyze the degradation of 4-nitrophenol efficiently in the presence of $NaBH_4$. By changing the amount of the added noble metal salt to control the molar ratio Au to Ag, we could tune the catalytic properties of the nanostructures in the reduction of the dyes. The catalytic ability of $SiO_2$-coated Ag@Au nanoboxes has been found to be much more efficient than $SiO_2$-coated Ag nanocubes. Catalytic performances were affected noteworthily by the metals, sizes, and shapes of noble-metal nanostructures.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.25-34
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• 2017

Concurrent electrocatalysis and sensing of hydrazine, sulfite ions, and nitrite ions in a mixture were studied using electrodes modified by electrodeposited Au nanostructures (NSs). The ${\beta}$-cyclodextrin-mixed silicate sol-gel composite was drop-casted on the electrode surface and nucleation guided by ${\beta}$-cyclodextrin occurred, followed by the electrodeposition of Au NSs. The additive, ${\beta}$-cyclodextrin, played an evident role as a structure-directing agent; thus, small raspberry-like Au NSs were obtained. The modified electrodes were characterized by surface characterization techniques and electrochemical methods. The Au NSs-modified electrodes effciently electrocatalyzed the oxidation of toxic molecules such as hydrazine and sulfite and nitrite ions even in the absence of any other electron transfer mediator or enzyme immobilization. Well-resolved oxidation peaks along with decreased overpotentials were noticed during the electrooxidation process. The fabricated Au nanostructured electrode clearly distinguished the electrooxidation peaks of each of the three analytes from their mixture.