• 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.

• Advances in Energy Research
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.275-284
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• 2016

In the present work, ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) have been dispersed alone in the same solvent of the active layer for improving performance parameters of the organic solar cells. Different concentrations of the ZnO NPs have been blended inside active layer of the solar cell based on poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT), which forms the hole-transport network, and [6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM), which forms the electron-transport network. In the present investigations, the ZnO NPs may represent an efficient tool for improving light harvesting through light scattering inside active layer, electron mobility, and electron acceptance strength which tend to improve photocurrent and performance parameters of the investigated solar cell. The fill factor (FF) of the ZnO-doped solar cell increases nearly 14% compared to the non-doped solar cell when the doping is 50%. The present investigations show that ZnO NPs improve power conversion efficiency of the solar cell from 1.23% to 1.64% with increment around 25% that takes place after incorporation of 40% as a volume ratio of the ZnO NPs inside P3HT:PCBM active layer.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.25-39
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• 2019

Luminescent solar concentrator (LSC), consisting of luminophore included glass or substrate with edge-mounted photovoltaic cell, is semi-transparent, energy harvesting devices. The luminophore absorbs incident solar light and re-emit photons, while the waveguide plate allows re-emitted photons to reach edge or bottom mounted photovoltaic cells with reduced losses. If the area of LSC is much larger than that of photovoltaic cell, this system can effectively concentrate solar light. In order to improve the performance of LSC, new materials and optical structures have been suggested by many research groups. For decreasing re-abosprion losses, it is essential to minimize the overlap between absorption and photoluminescence solar spectrum of luminophoroe. Moreover, the combination of selective top reflector and reflective optical cavity structure significantly boosts the waveguide efficiency in the LSC. As a result of many efforts, commercially available LSCs have been demonstrated and verified in the outdoor. Also, it is expected to generate electricity in buildings by replacing conventional glass to LSCs.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.317-319
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• 2007

Recently, there were many researches for efficiency improvement of DSC. Among of these works, research of surface treatment is still a prerequisite for electron diffusion, light-harvesting and surface state of $DSC^{4)}$. Using of the surface treatment, it can be raise up porosity of $TiO_{2}$ nano-crystalline structure on $photo-electrode^{5)}$. There are chemical, physical, electrical and optical methods which raise up its porosity. In this paper, we have designed and manufactured MOPA-type ultrasonic circuit (100W, frequency and duty variable). Manufactured ultrasonic circuit to use to force cavity density and power into $TiO_{2}$ paste. Then, we have optimized forcing time, frequency and duty of ultrasonic irradiation for surface treatment of photo-electrode of DSC. In I-V characteristic test of DSC, ultrasonic and thermal treated DSC shows 19% improved its efficiency against established DSC.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.49-55
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• 2022

With rapid growth in light-harvesting efficiency from 3.8 to 25.8%, organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have attracted great attention as promising photovoltaic devices. However, despite of their outstanding performance, the commercialization of PSCs has been suffered from severe stability issues, especially for UV and humidity: (i) UV irradiation towards PSCs is able to lead UV-induced decomposition of perovskite films or catalytic reactions of charge-transporting layers, and (ii) exposure to surrounding humidity causes irreversible hydration of perovskite layers by the penetration of water molecules, resulting considerable decrease in their power-conversion efficiency (PCE). This review investigates current status of strategies to enhance UV and humidity stability of PSCs in terms of UV-management and moisture protection, respectively. Furthermore, the multifunctional approach to increase long-term stability as well as performance is discussed as advanced research directions for the commercialization of PSCs.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.441-441
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• 2009

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have been widely investigated as a next-generation solar cell because of their simple fabrication process and low coats. The cells use a porous nanocrystalline TiO2 matrix coated with a sensitizer dye that acts as the light-harvesting element. The photo-exited dye injects electrons into the $TiO_2$ particles, and the oxide dye reacts with I- in the electrolyte in regenerative cycle that is completed by the reduction of $I_3^-$ at a platinum-coated counter electrode. Since $TiO_2$ porous film plays a key role in the enhancement of photoelectric conversion efficiency of DSSC, many scientists focus their researches on it. Especially, a high light-to-electricity conversion efficiency results from particle size and crystallographic phase, film porosity, surface structure, charge and surface area to volume ratio of porous $TiO_2$ electrodes, on which the dye can be sufficiently adsorbed. Effective treatment of the photoanode is important to improve DSSC performance. In this paper, to obtain properties of surface and dispersion as nitric acid treated $TiO_2$ photoelectrode was investigate. The photovoltaic characteristics of DSSCs based the electrode fabricated by nitric acid pre-treatment $TiO_2$ materials gave better performances on both of short circuit current density and open circuit voltage. We compare dispersion of $TiO_2$ nanoparticles before and after nitric acid treatment and measured Ti oxidized state from XPS. Low charge transfer resistance was obtained in nitric acid treated sample than that of untreated sample. The dye-sensitized solar cell based on the nitric acid treatment had open-circuit voltage of 0.71 V, a short-circuit current of 15.2 mAcm-2 and an energy conversion efficiency of 6.6 % under light intensity of $100\;mWcm^{-2}$. About 14 % increases in efficiency obtained when the $TiO_2$ electrode was treated by nitric acid.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.416-416
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• 2016

Organic-inorganic metal halide perovskite solar cells have received attention because it has a number of advantages with excellent light harvesting, high carrier mobility, and facile solution processability and also recorded recently power conversion efficiency (PCEs) of over 20%. The major issue on perovskite solar cells have been reached the limit of small area laboratory scale devices produced using fabrication techniques such as spin coating and physical vapor deposition which are incompatible with low-cost and large area fabrication of perovskite solar cells using printing and coating techniques. To solution these problems, we have investigated the feasibility of achieving fully printable perovskite solar cells by the blade-coating technique. The blade-coating fabrication has been widely used to fabricate organic solar cells (OSCs) and is proven to be a simple, environment-friendly, and low-cost method for the solution-processed photovoltaic. Moreover, the film morphology control in the blade-coating method is much easier than the spray coating and roll-to-roll printing; high-quality photoactive layers with controllable thickness can be performed by using a precisely polished blade with low surface roughness and coating gap control between blade and coating substrate[1]. In order to fabricate perovskite devices with good efficiency, one of the main factors in printed electronic processing is the fabrication of thin films with controlled morphology, high surface coverage and minimum pinholes for high performance, printed thin film perovskite solar cells. Charge dissociation efficiency, charge transport and diffusion length of charge species are dependent on the crystallinity of the film [2]. We fabricated the printed perovskite solar cells with large area and flexible by the bar-coating. The morphology of printed film could be closely related with the condition of the bar-coating technique such as coating speed, concentration and amount of solution, drying condition, and suitable film thickness was also studied by using the optical analysis with SEM. Electrical performance of printed devices is gives hysteresis and efficiency distribution.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.408.2-409
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• 2016

Theoretically, the dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are high efficiency solar cells. However DSSCs have low power conversion efficiency (PCE) than silicon based solar cells. In this study, we use the phosphor materials, such as $Y_2O_3:Eu$ (Red), $Zn_2SiO_4:Mn$ (Green), $BaMgAl_{14}O_{23}:Eu$ (Blue), to enhance the PCE of DSSCs. Three phosphors were prepared and used as an effective scattering layer on the transparent $TiO_2$ with doctor blade method. We confirmed that the three scattering layers improve the PCE and Jsc due to the light harvesting enhancement via increased the scattering and absorbance in visible range. Under the sun illumination AM 1.5 conditions, the PCE of the mesoporous $TiO_2$ based DSSCs is 5.18 %. The PCE of the DSSCs with Y2O3:Eu, $Zn_2SiO_4:Mn$ and $BaMgAl_{14}O_{23}:Eu$ as scattering layer were enhanced to 5.66 %, 5.72% and 5.82%, respectably. In order to compare the optical properties change, DSSCs were measured by EQE, reflectance and PCE. At the same time, FE-SEM and XRD were used to confirm the structural changes of each layer.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.125-132
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• 2011

This paper describes current status and future prospects of the mass production of microalgae biomass. Microalgae have attracted considerable attention since they not only effectively fix $CO_2$ gas during their metabolic process but also have the great potential to be utilized for producing valuable substances as a kind of efficient light-harvesting cell factories. In this review, we outline various types of photobioreactors employed for mass production of biomass by culturing microalgae in a well controlled way and give an overview about the present state of affairs, both domestic and international, in the field of the microalgal culturing technologies.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.631-646
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• 2016

Although the deployment of wireless sensors for structural sensing and monitoring is becoming popular, supplying power to these sensors remains as a daunting task. To address this issue, there have been large volume of ongoing energy harvesting studies that aimed to find a way to scavenge energy from surrounding ambient energy sources such as vibration, light and heat. In this study, a magnetic resonance based wireless power transfer (MR-WPT) system is proposed so that sensors inside a concrete structure can be wirelessly powered by an external power source. MR-WPT system offers need-based active power transfer using an external power source, and allows wireless power transfer through 300-mm thick reinforced concrete with 21.34% and 17.29% transfer efficiency at distances of 450 mm and 500 mm, respectively. Because enough power to operate a typical wireless sensor can be instantaneously transferred using the proposed MR-WPT system, no additional energy storage devices such as rechargeable batteries or supercapacitors are required inside the wireless sensor, extending the expected life-span of the sensor.