• Membrane Journal
• /
• v.33 no.6
• /
• pp.315-324
• /
• 2023

Ion-exchange membrane (IEM), is a key component that determines the performance of the electro-membrane processes. In this review, the latest research trends in improving the performance of IEMs used in various electro-membrane processes through modification using carbon-based and metal-based nanomaterials are investigated. The nanomaterials can be introduced into IEMs through various methods. In particular, carbon-based nanomaterials can strengthen their interaction with polymer chains by introducing additional functional groups through chemical modification. Through this, not only can the ion conductivity of IEM be improved, but also the permselectivity can be improved through the sieving effect through the layered structure. Meanwhile, metal-based nanomaterials can improve permselectivity through sieving properties using the difference in hydration radius between target ions and excluded ions within a membrane by using the property of having a layered or porous structure. In addition, depending on the characteristics of the binder used, ion conductivity can be improved through interaction between nanomaterials and binders. From this review, it can be seen that the properties of IEMs can be effectively controlled using carbon-based and metal-based nanomaterials and that research on this is important to greatly improve the performance of the electro-membrane process.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
• /
• v.40 no.11
• /
• pp.1004-1009
• /
• 2012

Carbon nanotube are nanostructure with extraordinary field emission properties like high current density, low driving voltage and long time stability, because of their high electrical conductivity, high aspect ratio for geometrical field enhancement and superior thermal stability. But, there is some problem to mate metal and carbon nanotube, we have resolved this problem by using interfacial graphene. This approach takes advantage of superior electric and thermal conductivity between metal and carbon nanotube and shows superior performance compared to the existing field emitters. This result shows that such a carbon nanotube emitter in a stage where it can be used for Field Emission Electric Propulsion (FEEP).

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.29 no.5
• /
• pp.311-316
• /
• 2019

Transparent conducting electrodes are essential components in various optoelectrical devices. Although indium tin oxide thin films have been widely used for transparent conducting electrodes, silver nanowire network is a promising alternative to indium tin oxide thin films owing to its lower processing cost and greater suitability for flexible device application. In order to widen the application of silver nanowire network, the electrical conductance has to be improved while maintaining high optical transparency. In this study, we report the enhancement of the electrical conductance of silver nanowire network transparent electrodes by copper electrodeposition on the silver nanowire networks. The electrodeposited copper lowered the sheet resistance of the silver nanowire networks from $21.9{\Omega}{\square}$ to $12.6{\Omega}{\square}$. We perform detailed X-ray diffraction analysis revealing the effect of the amount of electrodeposited copper-shell on the sheet resistance of the core-shell(silver/copper) nanowire network transparent electrodes. From the relationship between the cross-sectional area of the copper-shell and the sheet resistance of the transparent electrodes, we deduce the electrical resistivity of electrodeposited copper to be approximately 4.5 times that of copper bulk.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2012.08a
• /
• pp.376-376
• /
• 2012

Semiconductor nanowires (NWs) are future building block for nano-scale devices. Especially, Ge NWs are fascinated material due to the high electrical conductivity with high carrier mobility. It is strong candidate material for post-CMOS technology. However, thermal stability of Ge NWs are poor than conventional semiconductor material such as Si. Especially, when it reduced size as small as nano-scale it will be melted around CMOS process temperature due to the melting point depression. Recently, Graphene have been intensively interested since it has high carrier mobility with single atomic thickness. In addition, it is chemically very stable due to the $sp^2$ hybridization. Graphene films shows good protecting layer for oxidation resistance and corrosion resistance of metal surface using its chemical properties. Recently, we successfully demonstrated CVD growth of monolayer graphene using Ge catalyst. Using our growth method, we synthesized Ge/graphene core/shell (Ge@G) NW and conducted it for highly thermal stability required devices. We confirm the existence of graphene shell and morphology of NWs using SEM, TEM and Raman spectra. SEM and TEM images clearly show very thin graphene shell. We annealed NWs in vacuum at high temperature. Our results indicated that surface melting phenomena of Ge NWs due to the high surface energy from curvature of NWs start around $550^{\circ}C$ which is $270^{\circ}C$ lower than bulk melting point. When we increases annealing temperature, tip of Ge NWs start to make sphere shape in order to reduce its surface energy. On the contrary, Ge@G NWs prevent surface melting of Ge NWs and no Ge spheres generated. Furthermore, we fabricated filed emission devices using pure Ge NWs and Ge@G NWs. Compare with pure Ge NWs, graphene protected Ge NWs show enhancement of reliability. This growth approach serves a thermal stability enhancement of semiconductor NWs.

• Current Applied Physics
• /
• v.18 no.12
• /
• pp.1540-1545
• /
• 2018

SiGe alloy is widely used thermoelectric materials for high temperature thermoelectric generator applications. However, its high thermoelectric performance has been thus far realized only in alloys synthesized employing mechanical alloying techniques, which are time-consuming and employ several materials processing steps. In the current study, for the first time, we report an enhanced thermoelectric figure-of-merit (ZT) ~ 1.1 at $900^{\circ}C$ in ntype $Si_{80}Ge_{20}$ nano-alloys, synthesized using a facile and up-scalable methodology consisting of rapid solidification at high optimized cooling rate ${\sim}3.4{\times}10^7K/s$, employing melt spinning followed by spark plasma sintering of the resulting nano-crystalline melt-spun ribbons. This enhancement in ZT > 20% over its bulk counterpart, owes its origin to the nano-crystalline microstructure formed at high cooling rates, which results in crystallite size ~7 nm leading to high density of grain boundaries, which scatter heat-carrying phonons. This abundant scattering resulted in a very low thermal conductivity ${\sim}2.1Wm^{-1}K^{-1}$, which corresponds to ~50% reduction over its bulk counterpart and is amongst the lowest reported thus far in n-type SiGe alloys. The synthesized samples were characterized using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy, based on which the enhancement in their thermoelectric performance has been discussed.

• Electronic Materials Letters
• /
• v.14 no.6
• /
• pp.689-699
• /
• 2018

Nanostructured Ni doped $Bi_2S_3$ ($Bi_{2-x}Ni_xS_3$, $0{\leq}x{\leq}0.07$) is explored as a candidate for telluride free thermoelectric material, through a combination process of mechanical alloying with subsequent consolidation by cold pressing followed with a sintering process. The cold pressing method was found to impact the thermoelectric properties in two ways: (1) introduction of the dopant atom in the interstitial sites of the crystal lattice which results in an increase in carrier concentration, and (2) introduction of a porous structure which reduces the thermal conductivity. The electrical resistivity of $Bi_2S_3$ was decreased by adding Ni atoms, which shows a minimum value of $2.35{\times}10^{-3}{\Omega}m$ at $300^{\circ}C$ for $Bi_{1.99}Ni_{0.01}S_3$ sample. The presence of porous structures gives a significant effect on reduction of thermal conductivity, by a reduction of ~ 59.6% compared to a high density $Bi_2S_3$. The thermal conductivity of $Bi_{2-x}Ni_xS_3$ ranges from 0.31 to 0.52 W/m K in the temperature range of $27^{\circ}C$ (RT) to $300^{\circ}C$ with the lowest ${\kappa}$ values of $Bi_2S_3$ compared to the previous works. A maximum ZT value of 0.13 at $300^{\circ}C$ was achieved for $Bi_{1.99}Ni_{0.01}S_3$ sample, which is about 2.6 times higher than (0.05) of $Bi_2S_3$ sample. This work show an optimization pathway to improve thermoelectric performance of $Bi_2S_3$ through Ni doping and introduction of porosity.

• Membrane Journal
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.96-103
• /
• 2009

A series of organic-inorganic composite membranes from poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) graft copolymer electrolyte and heteropolyacid (HPA) were prepared for proton conducting membranes. First, poly(vinyl chloride)-g-poly(styrene sulfonic acid) (PVC-g-PSSA) was synthesized by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) using direct initiation of the secondary chlorines of PVC. HPA nanoparticles were then incorporated into the PVC-g-PSSA graft copolymer though the hydrogen bonding interactions, as confirmed by FT-IR spectroscopy. The proton conductivity of the composite membranes increased from 0.049 to 0.068 S/cm at room temperature with HPA contents up to 0.3 weight traction of HPA, presumably due to both the intrinsic conductivity of HPA particles and the enhanced acidity of the sulfonic acid of the graft copolymer. The water uptake decreased from 130 to 84% with the increase of HPA contents up to 0.45 of HPA weight traction, resulting from the decrease in number of water absorption sites due to hydrogen bonding interaction between the HPA particles and the polymer matrix. Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) demonstrated the enhancement of thermal stabilities of the composite membranes with increasing concentration of HPA.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.17 no.9
• /
• pp.1-11
• /
• 2016

The effect of the migration of nanoparticles near the wall of a channel on the convective heat transfer in a laminar flow of $SiO_2$ nanoparticle suspensions (nanofluids) under constant wall heat flux boundary conditions was numerically and experimentally investigated in this study. The dynamic thermal conductivity of the aqueous $SiO_2$ nanofluids was measured using T-type thermocouples attached to the outer surface of a stainless steel circular tube (with a length of 1 m and diameter of 1.75 mm). The nanofluids used in this study were synthesized by dispersing $SiO_2$ spherical nanoparticles with a diameter of 24 nm in de-ionized water (DIW). The enhancement of the thermal conductivity of the nanofluids (e.g., an increase of up to 7.9 %) was demonstrated by comparing the temperature profiles in the flow of the nanofluids with that in the flow of the basefluids (i.e., DIW). However, this trend was not demonstrated in the computational analysis, because the numerical models were based on continuum assumptions and flow features involving nanoparticles in a stable colloidal solution. Thus, to explore the non-continuum effects, such as the modification of the morphology caused by nanoparticle-wall interactions on the heat exchanging surfaces (e.g., the isolated and dispersed precipitation of the nanoparticles), additional experiments were performed using DIW right after the measurements using the nanofluids.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.3 no.6
• /
• pp.614-623
• /
• 1993

Electrical characteristics of LiF-$Li_{2}O-B_{2}O_{3}-P_{2}O_5$ glasses with fixed $Li_2O$ content have been investigated by using AC impedance spectroscopy. Part of the total lithium ions present in these glasses contributes to conduction, and the changes in electrical conductivity with composition was inconsistent with the weak electrolyte model. The power law could not be used to determine the hopping ion concentration in these glasses. Both mobile carrier density and mobility have been modified as Li were added in the form of LiF. The formation of $(B-O-P)^-,di^-$, and metaborate group gave additional available sites for Li+ diffusion causing the enhancement of conductivity. The observed maximum conductivity was $2.43 \times 10^{-4}$S/cm at $150^{\circ}C$ at the composition containing 8mol% LiF. The decomposion potential amounted to 5.94V. The Li/glass electrolyte/$TiS_2$ solid-state cell showed open circuit voltage of 3.14V and energy density of 22 Wh/Kg at $150^{\circ}C$.

• Advances in nano research
• /
• v.14 no.6
• /
• pp.557-573
• /
• 2023

The rapid growth of zinc-oxide (ZnO) nanostructures (NSs) on woven carbon fiber (WCF) is reported in this study employing a microwave-aided chemical bath deposition process. The effects of different process parameters such as molar concentration, microwave duration and microwave power on morphologies and growth rate of the ZnO on WCF were studied. Furthermore, an attempt has been taken to study influence of different type of growth solutions on ZnO morphologies and growth rates. The surface functionalization of WCF fabrics is achieved by successful growth of crystalline ZnO on fiber surface in a very short duration through one-step microwave synthesis. The morphological, structural and compositional studies of ZnO-modified WCF are evaluated using field-emission scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy respectively. Good amount of zinc and oxygen has been seen in the surface of WCF. The presence of the wurtzite phase of ZnO having crystallite size 30-40 nm calculated using the Debye Scherrer method enhances the surface characteristics of WCF fabrics. The UV-VIS spectroscopy is used to investigate optical properties of ZnO-modified WCF samples by absorbance, transmittance and reflectance spectra. The variation of different parameters such as dielectric constants, optical conductivity, refractive index and extinction coefficient are examined that revealed the enhancement of optical characteristics of carbon fiber for wide applications in optoelectronic devices, carbon fiber composites and photonics.