• Macromolecular Research
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.133-145
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• 2003

We have developed novel lanthanide-cored supramolecular systems with highly efficient light-harvesting dendritic arrays for integrated planar waveguide-typed amplifiers. Er$^{3+}$ ions were encapsulated by the supramolecular ligands, such as porphyrins and macrobicyclics. The supramolecular ligands have been designed and synthesized to provide enough coordination sites for the formation of stable Er(III)-chelated complexes. For getting a higher optical amplification gain, also, the energy levels of the supramolecular ligands were tailored to maintain the effective energy transfer process from supramolecular ligands to erbium(III) ions. Furthermore, to maximize the light-harvesting effect, new aryl ether-functionalized dendrons as photon antennas have been incorporated into lanthanide-cored supramolecular systems. In this paper, molecular design, synthesis and luminescent properties of novel lanthanide-cored integrated supramolecular systems with highly efficient light-harvesting dendritic arrays will be discussed.d.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2015.08a
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• pp.77.2-77.2
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• 2015

Recently, metamaterials attracted much attention because of the potential applications for superlens, cloaking and high precision sensors. We developed several dielectric metamaterials for enhancing antireflection or light trapping capability in solar energy harvesting devices. Colloidal lithography and electrochemical anodization process were employed to fabricate self-assembed nano- and microscale dielectric metamaterials in a simple and cost-effective manner. We improved broadband light absorption in c-Si, a-Si, and organic semiconductor layer by employing polystyrene (PS) islands integrated Si conical-frustum arrays, resonant PS nanosphere arrays, and diffusive alumina nanowire arrays, respectively. We also demonstrated thin metal coated alumina nanowire array which is utilized as an efficient light-to-heat conversion layer of solar steam generating devices. The scalable design and adaptable fabrication route to our light management nanostructures will be promising in applications of solar energy harvesting system. On the other hands, broadband invisible cloaks, which continuously work while elastically deforming, are developed using smart metamaterials made of photonic and elastic crystals. A self-adjustable, nearly lossless, and broadband (10-12GHz) smart meatamaterials have great potentials for applications in antenna system and military stealth technology.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.19-31
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• 2005

During the last decade, the exploration of nanoscale device and circuitry based on molecules has gained increasing interest. In parallel with this, considerable effort is being devoted to the development of molecular photonic/electronic materials based on various porphyrin arrays. This involves light as an input/output signal and excitation energy migration as a mechanism for signal transmission. Absorption of a photon at the light collector end of the porphyrin array yields the excited state, which migrates among the intervening pigments until reaching the emitter, whereupon another photon is emitted. As a consequence, it is relevant to understand the excitation energy transfer (EET) processes occurring in various forms of porphyrin arrays for the applications as artificial light harvesting arrays and molecular photonic/electronic wires. Since the excitonic (dipole) and electronic (conjugation) couplings between the adjacent porphyrin moieties in porphyrin arrays govern the EET processes, we have characterized the EET rates of various forms of multiporphyrin arrays (linear, cyclic, and box) based on various time-resolved spectroscopic measurements. We believe that our observations provide a platform for further development of molecular photonic/electronic materials based on porphyrin arrays.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.1165-1168
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• 2014

We prepared dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) with enhanced energy conversion efficiency using open-ended $TiO_2$ nanotube arrays with a $TiO_2$ scattering layer. As compared to closed-ended $TiO_2$ nanotube arrays, the energy conversion efficiency of the open-ended $TiO_2$ nanotube arrays was increased from 5.63% to 5.92%, which is an enhancement of 5.15%. With the $TiO_2$ scattering layer, the energy conversion efficiency was increased from 5.92% to 6.53%, which is an enhancement of 10.30%. After treating the open-ended $TiO_2$ nanotube arrays with $TiCl_4$, the energy conversion efficiency was increased from 6.53% to 6.89%, a 5.51% enhancement, which is attributed to improved light harvesting and increased dye adsorption.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.49-56
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• 2013

Excellent electron transport properties with enhanced light scattering ability for light harvesting have made well-ordered one dimensional $TiO_2$ nanotube(TNT) arrays an alternative candidate over $TiO_2$ nanoparticles in the area of solar energy conversion applications. The principal drawback of TNT arrays being activated only by UV light has been addressed by coupling the TNT with secondary materials which are visible light-triggered. As well as extending the absorption region of sunlight, the introduction of these foreign components is also found to influence the charge separation and electron lifetime of TNT. In this study, a novel method to fabricate the TNT-based composite photoelectrodes employing visible responsive $CuInS_2$ (CIS) nanoparticles is presented. The developed method is a square wave pulse-assisted electrochemical deposition approach to wrap the inner and outer walls of a TNT array with CIS nanoparticles. Instead of coating as a dense compact layer of CIS by a conventional non-pulsed-electrochemical deposition method, the nanoparticles pack relatively loosely to form a rough surface which increases the surface area of the composite and results in a higher degree of light scattering within the tubular channels and hence a greater chance of absorption. The excellence coverage of CIS on the tubular $TiO_2$ allows the construction of an effective heterojunction that exhibits enhanced photoelectrochemical performance.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.463-463
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• 2014

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have generated a strong interest in the development of solid-state devices owing to their low cost and simple preparation procedures. Effort has been devoted to the study of electrolytes that allow light-to-electrical power conversion for DSSC applications. Several attempts have been made to substitute the liquid electrolyte in the original solar cells by using (2,2',7,7'-tetrakis (N,N-di-p-methoxyphenylamine)-9-9'-spirobi-fluorene (spiro-OMeTAD) that act as hole conductor [1]. Although efficiencies above 3% have been reached by several groups, here the major challenging is limited photoelectrode thickness ($2{\mu}m$), which is very low due to electron diffusion length (Ln) for spiro-OMeTAD ($4.4{\mu}m$) [2]. In principle, the $TiO_2$ layer can be thicker than had been thought previously. This has important implications for the design of high-efficiency solid-state DSSCs. In the present study, we have fabricated 3-D Transparent Conducting Oxide (TCO) by growing tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) nanowire (NWs) arrays via a vapor transport method [3] and mesoporous $TiO_2$ nanoparticle (NP)-based photoelectrodes were prepared using doctor blade method. Finally optimized light-harvesting solid-state DSSCs is made using 3-D TCO where electron life time is controlled the recombination rate through fast charge collection and also ITO NWs length can be controlled in the range of over $2{\mu}m$ and has been characterized using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). Structural analyses by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and X-Ray diffraction (XRD) results reveal that the ITO NWs formed single crystal oriented [100] direction. Also to compare the charge collection properties of conventional NPs based solid-state DSSCs with ITO NWs based solid-state DSSCs, we have studied intensity modulated photovoltage spectroscopy (IMVS), intensity modulated photocurrent spectroscopy (IMPS) and transient open circuit voltages. As a result, above $4{\mu}m$ thick ITO NWs based photoelectrodes with Z907 dye shown the best performing device, exhibiting a short-circuit current density of 7.21 mA cm-2 under simulated solar emission of 100 mW cm-2 associated with an overall power conversion efficiency of 2.80 %. Finally, we achieved the efficiency of 7.5% by applying a CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite sensitizer.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.466.2-466.2
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• 2014

The Quantum dot (QD) solar cells have been under active research due to their high light harvesting efficiencies and low fabrication cost. In spite of these advantages, there have been some problems on the charge collection due to the limitation of the diffusion length. The modification of advanced nanostructure is capable of solving the charge collection problem by increasing diffusion length of electron. One dimensional nanomaterials such as nanorods, nanowires, and nanotubes may enhance charge collection efficiency in QD solar cells. In this study, we synthesized $TiO_2$ anatase nanorod arrays with length of 200 nm by two-step sol-gel method. The morphology and crystal structure for the nanorod were characterized by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The anatase nanorods are single-crystalline and possess preferred orientation along with (001) direction. The photovoltaic properties for the heterojunction structure QD solar cells based on the anatase nanorod were also characterized. Compared with conventional $TiO_2$ nanoparticle based QD solar cells, these nanostructure solar cells exhibited better charge collection properties due to long life time measured by transient open circuit studies. Our findings demonstrate that the single crystalline anatase nanorod arrays are promising charge transport semiconductors for heterojunction QD solar cells.

• Rapid Communication in Photoscience
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.16-19
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• 2014

Anodic self-organized titania nanotube (TNT) arrays have a great potential as efficient electron-transport materials for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC). Herewith we report the photovoltaic and kinetic investigations for a series of heteroleptic ruthenium complexes (RD16-RD18) sensitized on TNT films for DSSC applications. We found that the RD16 device had an enhanced short-circuit current density ($J_{SC}/mAcm^{-2}=15.0$) and an efficiency of power conversion (${\eta}=7.2%$) greater than that of a N719 device (${\eta}=7.1%$) due to the increasing light-harvesting and the broadened spectral features with thiophene-based ligands. However, the device made of RD17 (adding one more hexyl chain) showed smaller $J_{SC}(14.1mAcm^{-2})$ and poorer ${\eta}(6.8%)$ compare to those of RD16 due to smaller amount of dye-loading and less efficient electron injection for the RD17 device than for the RD16 device. For the RD18 dye (adding one more thiophene unit and one more hexyl chain), we found that the device showed even lower $J_{SC}(13.2mAcm^{-2}) $ that led to a poorest device performance (${\eta}=6.2%$) for the RD18 device. These results are against to those obtained from the same dyes sensitized on $TiO_2$ nanoparticle films and they can be rationalized according to the electron transport kinetics measured using the methods of charge extraction and transient photovoltage decays.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.8.1-8.1
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• 2011

Nanocrystalline titanium dioxide ($TiO_2$) materials have been widely used as an electron collector in DSSC. This is required to have an extremely high porosity and surface area such that the dye can be sufficiently adsorbed and be electronically interconnected, resulting in the generation of a high photocurrent within cells. In particular, their geometrical structures and crystalline phase have been extensively investigated as important issues in improving its photovoltaic efficiency. In this study, we present a new strategy to fabricate a photoelectrode having a periodic structured $TiO_2$ film templated from 1D or 3D polystyrene (PS) microspheres array. Monodisperse PS spheres of various radiuses were used for colloidal array on FTO glasses and two types of photoelectrode structures with different $TiO_2$ materials were investigated respectively. One is the igloo-shaped electrode prepared by $TiO_2$ deposition by RF-sputtering onto 2D microsphere-templated substrates. At the interface between the film and substrate, there are voids formed by the decomposition of PS microspheres during the calcination step. These holes might be expected to play the predominant roles as scattering spherical voids to promote a light harvesting effect, a spacious structure for electrolytes with higher viscosity and effective paths for electron transfer. Additionally the nanocrystalline $TiO_2$ phase prepared by the RF-sputtering method was previously reported to improve the electron drift mobility within $TiO_2$ electrodes. This yields solar cells with a cell efficiency of 2.45% or more at AM 1.5 illumination, which is a very remarkable result, considering its $TiO_2$ electrode thickness (<2 ${\mu}m$). This study can be expanded to obtain higher cell efficiency by higher dye loading through the increase of surface area or multi-layered stacking. The other is the inverse opal photonic crystal electrode prepared by titania particles infusion within 3D colloidal arrays. To obtain the enlargement of ordered area and high quality of crystallinity, the synthesis of titania particles coated with a organic thin layer were applied instead of sol-gel process using the $TiO_2$ precursors. They were dispersed so well in most solvents without aggregates and infused successfully within colloidal array structures. This ordered mesoporous structure provides the large surface area leading to the enough adsorption of dye molecules and have an light harvesting effect due to the photonic band gap properties (back-and-forth reflection effects within structures). A major advantage of this colloidal array template method is that the pore size and its distribution within $TiO_2$ photoelectrodes are determined by those of latex beads, which can be controlled easily. These materials may have promising potentials for future applications of membrane, sensor and so on as well as solar cells.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.115-116
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• 2012

The demand for flexible electronic systems such as wearable computers, E-paper, and flexible displays has increased due to their advantages of excellent portability, conformal contact with curved surfaces, light weight, and human friendly interfaces over present rigid electronic systems. This seminar introduces three recent progresses that can extend the application of high performance flexible inorganic electronics. The first part of this seminar will introduce a RRAM with a one transistor-one memristor (1T-1M) arrays on flexible substrates. Flexible memory is an essential part of electronics for data processing, storage, and radio frequency (RF) communication and thus a key element to realize such flexible electronic systems. Although several emerging memory technologies, including resistive switching memory, have been proposed, the cell-to-cell interference issue has to be overcome for flexible and high performance nonvolatile memory applications. The cell-to-cell interference between neighbouring memory cells occurs due to leakage current paths through adjacent low resistance state cells and induces not only unnecessary power consumption but also a misreading problem, a fatal obstacle in memory operation. To fabricate a fully functional flexible memory and prevent these unwanted effects, we integrated high performance flexible single crystal silicon transistors with an amorphous titanium oxide (a-TiO2) based memristor to control the logic state of memory. The $8{\times}8$ NOR type 1T-1M RRAM demonstrated the first random access memory operation on flexible substrates by controlling each memory unit cell independently. The second part of the seminar will discuss the flexible GaN LED on LCP substrates for implantable biosensor. Inorganic III-V light emitting diodes (LEDs) have superior characteristics, such as long-term stability, high efficiency, and strong brightness compared to conventional incandescent lamps and OLED. However, due to the brittle property of bulk inorganic semiconductor materials, III-V LED limits its applications in the field of high performance flexible electronics. This seminar introduces the first flexible and implantable GaN LED on plastic substrates that is transferred from bulk GaN on Si substrates. The superb properties of the flexible GaN thin film in terms of its wide band gap and high efficiency enable the dramatic extension of not only consumer electronic applications but also the biosensing scale. The flexible white LEDs are demonstrated for the feasibility of using a white light source for future flexible BLU devices. Finally a water-resist and a biocompatible PTFE-coated flexible LED biosensor can detect PSA at a detection limit of 1 ng/mL. These results show that the nitride-based flexible LED can be used as the future flexible display technology and a type of implantable LED biosensor for a therapy tool. The final part of this seminar will introduce a highly efficient and printable BaTiO3 thin film nanogenerator on plastic substrates. Energy harvesting technologies converting external biomechanical energy sources (such as heart beat, blood flow, muscle stretching and animal movements) into electrical energy is recently a highly demanding issue in the materials science community. Herein, we describe procedure suitable for generating and printing a lead-free microstructured BaTiO3 thin film nanogenerator on plastic substrates to overcome limitations appeared in conventional flexible ferroelectric devices. Flexible BaTiO3 thin film nanogenerator was fabricated and the piezoelectric properties and mechanically stability of ferroelectric devices were characterized. From the results, we demonstrate the highly efficient and stable performance of BaTiO3 thin film nanogenerator.