• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.325-329
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• 2009

Titanium dioxide thin films were fabricated as hydrogen sensors and its sensing properties were tested. The titanium was deposited on a $SiO_2$/Si substrate by the DC magnetron sputtering method and was oxidized at an optimized temperature of $850^{\circ}C$ in air. The titanium film originally had smooth surface morphology, but the film agglomerated to nano-size grains when the temperature reached oxidation temperature where it formed titanium oxide with a rutile structure. The oxide thin film formed by grains of tens of nanometers size also showed many short cracks and voids between the grains. The response to 1% hydrogen gas was ${\sim}2{\times}10^6$ at the optimum sensing temperature of $200^{\circ}C$, and ${\sim}10^3$ at room temperature. This extremely high sensitivity of the thin film to hydrogen was due partly to the porous structure of the nano-sized sensing particles. Other sensor properties were also examined.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.75-82
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• 2017

High efficiency thin film solar cells require an absorber layer with high absorption and low defect, a transparent conductive oxide (TCO) film with high transmittance of over 80% and a high conductivity. Furthermore, light can be captured through the glass substrate and sent to the light absorbing layer to improve the efficiency. In this paper, morphology formation on the surface of glass substrate was investigated by using HF, mainly classified as random etching and periodic etching. We discussed about the etch mechanism, etch rate and hard mask materials, and periodic light trapping structure.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2002.07c
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• pp.1482-1484
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• 2002

Transparent conductive oxides (TCO) are necessary as front electrode for most thin film solar cell. In our paper, transparent conducting aluminum-doped Zinc oxide films (ZnO:Al) were prepared by rf magnetron sputtering on glass (Corning 1737) substrate as a variation of the deposition condition. After deposition, the smooth ZnO:Al films were etched in diluted HCI (0.5%) to examine the electrical and surface morphology properties as a variation of the time. The most important deposition condition of surface-textured ZnO films by chemical etching is the processing pressure and the substrate temperature. In low pressures (0.9mTorr) and high substrate temperatures $({\leq}300^{\circ}C)$, the surface morphology of films exhibits a more dense and compact film structure with effective light-trapping to apply the silicon thin film solar cells.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2002.05b
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• pp.62-65
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• 2002

Transparent conducting aluminum-doped Zinc oxide films (ZnO:Al) were prepared by rf magnetron sputtering on glass (Coming 1737) substrate as a variation of the deposition condition. After deposition, the smooth ZnO:Al films were etched in diluted HCl (0.5%) to examine the electrical and surface morphology properties as a variation of the time. The most important deposition condition of surface-textured ZnO films by chemical etching is the processing pressure and the substrate temperature. In low pressures (0.9mTorr) and high substrate temperatures $({\leq}300^{\circ}C)$, the surface morphology of films exhibits a more dense and compact film structure with effective light-trapping to apply the silicon thin film solar cells.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.83-88
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• 2006

Corrosion characterization of Fe-XAl-0.3Y(X=5, 10, 14 wt%) alloys in $0.1{\sim}1N$ sulphuric acid at room temperature was studied using potentiodynamic techniques. The morphology and components of corrosion products on surface of Fe-aluminide alloys were investigated using SEM/EDX, XRD. The potentiodynamic polarization curve of alloys exhibited typical active, passive, transpassive behaviour. Corrosion potential($E_{corr}$) and corrosion current density($I_{corr}$) values of Fe-XAl-0.3Y alloys followed linear rate law. $E_{corr}$ of 10Al alloy and 14Al alloy was ten times lower than 5Al alloy. Icorr of 14Al alloy was five times lower than 5Al alloy. The passive film on the surface of Fe-5Al-0.3Y alloy was formed iron oxide. Fe-10Al-0.3Y and Fe-14Al-0.3Y alloys passive films were aluminium oxide. especially, Fe-14Al-0.3Y alloy showed good corrosion resistance in $0.1{\sim}1N$ sulphuric acid. This is attributed to the forming of protective $Al_2O_3$ oxide on the surface of Fe-14Al-0.3Y alloy.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.08a
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• pp.211-211
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• 2011

Nanostructures, with a diversity of shapes, built on substrates have been developed within many research areas. Lithography is one powerful, but complex, technique to make structures at the nanometer scale, such as platinum nanowires for studying CO catalytic reactions [1], or aluminum nanodisks for studying the plasmon effect [2]. In this work, we approach a facile method to construct nanostructures using noble metals on a titania thin film by using self-assembled structures as a pattern. Here, a large-scale silica monolayer is transferred to the titania thin film substrates using a Langmuir-Blodgett trough, followed by the deposition of a thin transition metal layer. Owing to the hexagonal close-packed structure of the silica monolayer, we would obtain a metal nanostructure that includes separated metallic triangles (islands) after removing the patterning silica beads. This nanostructure can be employed to investigate the role of metal-oxide interfaces in CO catalytic reactions by changing the patterning silica particles with different sizes or by replacing the oxide support. The morphology and chemical composition of the structure can be characterized by scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. In addition, we modify these islands to a connected island structure by reducing the silica size of the patterning monolayer, which is utilized to generating hot electron flow based on the localized surface plasmon resonance effect of the metal nanostructures.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2013

A simple thermal oxidation of Cu thin films deposited on planar substrates established a growth of vertically aligned copper oxide (CuO) nanorods. DC sputter-deposited Cu thin films with various thicknesses were oxidized in environments of various oxygen partial pressures to control the kinetics of oxidation. This is a method to synthesize vertically aligned CuO nanorods in a relatively shorter time and at a lower cost than those of other methods such as the popular hydrothermal synthesis. Also, this is a method that does not require a catalyst to synthesize CuO nanorods. The grown CuO nanorods had diameters of ~100 nm and lengths of $1{\sim}25{\mu}m$. We examined the morphology of the synthesized CuO nanorods as a function of the thickness of the Cu films, the gas environment, the oxidation time, the oxidation temperature, the oxygen gas flow rate, etc. The parameters all influence the kinetics of the oxidation, and consequently, the volume expansion in the films. Patterned growth was also carried out to confirm the hypothesis of the CuO nanorod protrusion and growth mechanism. It was found that the compressive stress built up in the Cu film while oxygen molecules incorporated into the film drove CuO nanorods out of the film.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.372-372
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• 2007

Titanium oxide nanotube arrays were fabricated by the anodization of pure titanium thin film deposited at $500^{\circ}C$ on silicon substrates. The titania nanotubes were grown by anodization in nonaqueous-base electrolytes at different potentials between 5 V and 30 V. $TiO_2$ nanotube array with a small pore diameter of 40 nm and long titanium oxide layer of $4\;{\mu}m$ was obtained. The $TiO_2$ nanotube array was used as a porous electrode for quartz crystal microbalance (QCM). Nanoporous morphology of electrode will increase the sensitivity of microbalance.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.327-333
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• 2002

In order to obtain the oxidation layer for SiC MOS, the oxide layers by thermal oxidation process with dry and wet method were deposited and characterized. Deposition temperature for oxidation layer was $1100^{\circ}C$~130$0^{\circ}C$ by $O_2$ and Ar atmosphere. The oxide thickness, surface morphology, and interface characteristic of deposited oxide layers were measurement by ellipsometer, SEM, TEM, AFM, and SIMS. Thickness of oxidation layer was confirmed 50nm and 90nm to with deposition temperature at $1150^{\circ}C$ and $1200{\circ}C$ for dry 4 hours and wet 1 hour, respectively. For the high purity oxidation layer, the necessity of sacrificial oxidation which is etched for the removal of the defeats on the wafer after quickly thermal oxidation was confirmed.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.211-220
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• 2018

Incorporating nano-materials in thin-film composite (TFC) membranes has been considered to be an approach to achieve higher membrane performance in various water treatment processes. This study investigated the rejection efficiency of three target compounds, i.e., reserpine, norfloxacin and tetracycline hydrochloride, by TFC membranes with different graphene oxide proportions. Graphene oxide (GO) was incorporated into the polyamide active layer of a TFC membrane via an interfacial polymerization (IP) reaction. The TFC membranes were characterized with FTIR, FE-SEM, AFM; in addition, the water contact angle measurements as well as the permeation and separation performance were evaluated. The prepared GO-TFC membranes exhibited a much higher flux ($3.11{\pm}0.04L/m2{\cdot}h{\cdot}bar$) than the pristine TFC membranes ($2.12{\pm}0.05L/m2{\cdot}h{\cdot}bar$) without sacrificing their foulant rejection abilities. At the same time, the GO-modified membrane appeared to be less sensitive to pH changes than the pure TFC membrane. A significant improvement in the anti-fouling property of the membrane was observed, which was ascribed to the favorable change in the membrane's hydrophilicity, surface morphology and surface charge through the addition of an appropriate amount of GO. This study predominantly improved the understanding of the different PA/GO membranes and outlined improved industrial applications of such membranes in the future.