• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.67-72
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• 2008

We have studied the effect of heat treatment of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) as a counter electrode on the electro-chemical properties of dye-snsitized solar cells. MWNTs on the p-type Si substrate were synthesized by thermal chemical vapor deposition (CVD) using Fe catalysts. We prepared the two types of MWNTs samples with the different diameters. The rapid thermal annealing (RTA) treatment for the MWNTs was carried out at the growth temperature ($900^{\circ}C$) for 1 minute with $N_2$ gas atmosphere. The structural, electrical and electrochemical properties of MWNTs were investigated by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), Raman spectroscopy, 2-point probe station and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The I(D)/I(G) ratio of heat-treated MWNTs in Raman spectra was considerably decreased. It was also found that the heat-treated MWNTs showed better redox reaction of iodide at the interface between MWNTs surface and electrolyte than that of as-grown MWNTs. The redox resistance value of heat-treated electrodes was measured to be much lower than that of as-grown electrode at the interface. As a result, the counter electrode using the heat-treated MWNTs showed better electrochemical properties.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.729-734
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• 2002

In this study, the polyaniline films of emeraldine base(EB) and lucoemeraldine base(LEB) form chemically doping with poly(sodium-4 styrenesulfonate, PSS) were prepared by casting the mixed solution of chloroform and m-cresol on ITO(indium tin oxide) electrode. By analyzing UV-vis spectra of the mixed solutions, the effects of the secondary doping by m-cresol were obtained. And the conductivity of polyaniline film was increased with increasing m-cresol content. The results suggest that the improvement of conductivity obtained by secondary doping results primarily from interaction of polyaniline and m-cresol. As the results of analyzing cyclic voltammograms, it was known that the redox peak currents of polyaniline electrode prepared from LEB were larger and more reversible than those of polyaniline electrodes prepared from EB. The charge transfer resistances($R_{ct}$) of polyaniline electrodes were reduced with increasing m-cresol content, and LEB/PSS electrodes were smaller than EB/PSS electrodes. This result agrees to the analysis of the redox peak current of cyclic voltammograms. The solution resistance and the capacity of electrical double layer almost unchanged in all prepared polyaniline electrodes. It was confirmed that solution resistance was independent of frequency factor in AC impedance spectra. Also the polyaniline film doping with PSS was revealed pseudo n-type characteristics of conducting polymer.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.52 no.5
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• pp.558-563
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• 2014

To study the effects of fabrication methods on the performance and durability of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), membrane-electrode assemblies (MEAs) were fabricated using a Dr blade method, a spray method, screen print method and screen print + spray method. The performance of single cells assembled with the prepared MEAs were initially measured and compared. Electrode accelerated stress testing (AST) involving a potentiostatic step-wave with 10 s at 0.6 V followed by 30 s at 0.9 V was applied to test durability of MEAs. Before and after 6,000cycles of the AST, I-V curves, impedance spectra, cyclic voltammograms, linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) were measured. Under the operating conditions, the Dr Blde MEA exhibited the highest initial performance. After electrode accelerated stress testing, screen print + spray MEA showed lowest degradation rate.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.25 no.12
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• pp.961-968
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• 2012

In this study, we have investigated the effects of Mn and Co co-doping on defects, J-E curves and grain boundary characteristics of ZnO-$Bi_2O_3$ (ZB) varistor. Admittance spectra and dielectric functions show two bulk defects of $Zn_i^{{\cdot}{\cdot}}$ (0.17~0.18 eV) and $V_o^{\cdot}$ (0.30~0.33 eV). From J-E characteristics the nonlinear coefficient (${\alpha}$) and resistivity (${\rho}_{gb}$) of pre-breakdown region decreased as 30 to 24 and 5.1 to 0.08 $G{\Omega}cm$ with sintering temperature, respectively. The double Schottky barrier of grain boundaries in ZB(MCo) ($ZnO-Bi_2O_3-Mn_3O_4-Co_3O_4$) could be electrochemically single type. However, its thermal stability was slightly disturbed by ambient oxygen because the apparent activation energy of grain boundaries was changed from 0.64 eV at lower temperature to 1.06 eV at higher temperature. It was revealed that a co-doping of Mn and Co in ZB reduced the heterogeneity of the barrier in grain boundaries and stabilized the barrier against an ambient temperature (${\alpha}$-factor= 0.136).

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.45-53
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• 2018

A new 80Ti-15Ta-5Zr wt% alloy surface was protected by anodic oxidation in phosphoric acid solution. The protective oxide layer (TiO2, ZrO2 and Ta suboxides and thickness of 15.5 nm) incorporated $PO{_4}^{3-}$ ions from the solution, according to high resolution XPS spectra. The AFM analysis determined a high roughness with SEM detected pores (20 - 50 nm). The electrochemical studies of bare and anodically oxidized Ti-15Ta-5Zr alloy in Carter-Brugirard saliva of different pH values and saliva with 0.05M NaF, pointed to a nobler surface for the protected alloy, with a thicker electrodeposited oxide layer acting as a barrier against aggressive ions. The oxidized alloy significantly decreased corrosion current densities and total quantity of ions released into the oral environment in comparison with the bare one, at higher polarisation resistance and protective capacity of the electrodeposited layer. The impedance data revealed a bi-layered oxidation film formed by: a dense, compact, barrier layer in contact with the metallic substrate, decreasing the potential gradient across the metal/oxide layer/solution interface, reducing the anodic dissolution and a more permissive, porous layer in contact with the electrolyte. The open circuit potential for protected alloy shifted to nobler values, with thickening of the oxidation film signifying long-term protection.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.695-700
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• 2014

Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC) can generate hydrogen and oxygen from water by electrolysis. But the electrode and polymer electrolyte membrane degrade rapidly during PEM water electrolysis because of high operation voltage over 1.7V. In order to reduce the rate of anode electrode degradation, unsupported $IrO_2$ catalyst was used generally. In this study, Pt/C catalyst for PEMFC was used as a water electrolysis catalyst, and then the degradation of catalyst and membrane were analysed. After water electrolysis reaction in the voltage range from 1.8V to 2.0V, I-V curves, impedance spectra, cyclic voltammograms and linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) were measured at PEMFC operation condition. The degradation rate of electrode and membrane increased as the voltage of water electrolysis increased. The hydrogen yield was 88 % during water electrolysis for 1 min at 2.0V, the performance at 0.6V decreased to 49% due to degradation of membrane and electrode assembly.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2015.08a
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• pp.142.2-142.2
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• 2015

Plasma etch endpoint detection (EPD) of SiO2 and PR layer is demonstrated by plasma impedance monitoring in this work. Plasma etching process is the core process for making fine pattern devices in semiconductor fabrication, and the etching endpoint detection is one of the essential FDC (Fault Detection and Classification) for yield management and mass production. In general, Optical emission spectrocopy (OES) has been used to detect endpoint because OES can be a simple, non-invasive and real-time plasma monitoring tool. In OES, the trend of a few sensitive wavelengths is traced. However, in case of small-open area etch endpoint detection (ex. contact etch), it is at the boundary of the detection limit because of weak signal intensities of reaction reactants and products. Furthemore, the various materials covering the wafer such as photoresist (PR), dielectric materials, and metals make the analysis of OES signals complicated. In this study, full spectra of optical emission signals were collected and the data were analyzed by a data-mining approach, modified K-means cluster analysis. The K-means cluster analysis is modified suitably to analyze a thousand of wavelength variables from OES. This technique can improve the sensitivity of EPD for small area oxide layer etching processes: about 1.0 % oxide area. This technique is expected to be applied to various plasma monitoring applications including fault detections as well as EPD.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.45 no.9
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• pp.8-13
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• 2008

Noise in homogeneous extrinsic semiconductor samples is calculated due to distributed diffusion noise sources. As the length of the device shrinks at a fixed bias voltage, the ac-wise short-circuit noise current shows excess noise as well as thermal noise spectra. This excess noise behaves like a full shot noise when the channel length becomes very small compared with the extrinsic Debye length. For the first time, the analytic formula of the excess noise in extrinsic semiconductors from velocity-fluctuation noise sources is given for finite frequencies. This formula shows the interplay between transit time, dielectric relaxation time, and velocity relaxation time in determining the terminal noise current as well as the carrier density fluctuation. As frequency increases, the power spectral density of the excess noise rolls off. This formula sheds light on noise in nanoscale MOSFETs where quasi-ballistic transport plays an important role in carrier transport and noise.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.396-402
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• 2015

The organic binder-free paste for dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) has been investigated using peroxo titanium complex. The crystal structure of $TiO_2$ nanoparticles, morphology of $TiO_2$ film and electrical properties are analyzed by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Electrochemical Impedance Spectra (EIS), and solar simulator. The synthesized $TiO_2$ nanopowders by the peroxo titanium complex at 150, 300, $400^{\circ}C$, and $450^{\circ}C$ have anatase phase and average crystal sizes are calculated to be 4.2, 13.7, 16.9, and 20.9 nm, respectively. The DSSC prepared by the peroxo titanium complex binder have higher $V_{oc}$ and lower $J_{sc}$ values than that of the organic binder. It can be attributed to improvement of sintering properties of $TCO/TiO_2$ and $TiO_2/TiO_2$ interface and to formation of agglomerate by the nanoparticles. As a result, we have investigated the organic binder-free paste and 3.178% conversion efficiency of the DSSC at $450^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.29 no.8
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• pp.510-515
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• 2016

Single-chamber solid oxide fuel cells (SC-SOFCs) consist of only one gas chamber, in which both the anode and the cathode are exposed to the same fuel-oxidant mixture. Thus, this configuration shows good thermal and mechanical resistance and allows rapid start-up and -down. In this study, the unit cell consisting of $La_{0.8}Sr_{0.2}MnO_3$ (cathode) / $Zr_{0.84}Y_{0.16}O_{2-x}$ (electrolyte) / $Ni-Zr_{0.84}Y_{0.16}O_{2-x}$ (anode) was fabricated and its electrochemical property was investigated as a function of temperature and the volume ratio of fuel and oxidant for SC-SOFCs. Impedance spectra were also investigated in order to figure out the electrical characteristics of the cell. As a result, the cell performance was governed by the polarization resistances of the electrodes. The cell exhibited an acceptable cell-performance of $86mW/cm^2$ at $800^{\circ}C$ and stable performance for 3 hs under 0.7 V.