• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2016

Capacity of layered lithium nickel-cobalt-manganese oxide ($LiNi_{1-x-y}Co_xMn_yO_2$) cathode material can increase by raising the charge cut-off voltage above 4.3 V vs. $Li/Li^+$, but it is limited due to anodic instability of conventional electrolyte. We have been screening and evaluating various sulfone-based compounds of dimethyl sulfone (DMS), diethyl sulfone (DES), ethyl methyl sulfone (EMS) as electrolyte additives for high-voltage applications. Here we report improved cycling performance of $LiNi_{0.5}Co_{0.2}Mn_{0.3}O_2$ cathode by the use of dimethyl sulfone (DMS) additive under an aggressive charge condition of 4.6 V, compared to that in conventional electrolyte, and cathode-electrolyte interfacial reaction behavior. The cathode with DMS delivered discharge capacities of $198-173mAhg^{-1}$ over 50 cycles and capacity retention of 84%. Surface analysis results indicate that DMS induces to form a surface protective film at the cathode and inhibit metal-dissolution, which is correlated to improved high-voltage cycling performance.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.31 no.8
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• pp.2304-2308
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• 2010

A $LiNi_{0.8}Co_{0.15}Al_{0.05}O_2$ (LNCAO/C) active material composite cathode was coated with carbon. The conductive carbon coating was obtained by addition of surfactant during synthesis. The addition of surfactant led to the formation of an amorphous carbon coating layer on the pristine LNCAO surface. The layer of carbon coating was clearly detected by FE-TEM analysis. In electrochemical performance, although the LNCAO/C showed similar capacity at low C-rate conditions, the rate capability was improved by the form of the carbon coating at high current discharge state. After 40 cycles of charge-discharge processes, the capacity retention of LNCAO/C was better than that of LNCAO. The carbon coating is effectively protected the surface structure of the pristine LNCAO during Li insertion-extraction.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2002.05b
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• pp.111-118
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• 2002

A new lithium niobate optical modulator with a polymer buffer layer on Ni in-diffused optical waveguide is proposed for the fist time, successfully fabricated and examined at a wavelength of 1.3 mm. By determining the diffusion parameters of Ni in-diffused waveguide to achieve more desirable mode size which is well matched to the mode in the fiber, the detailed results on the achievement of high optical throughput are reported. In addition, the usefulness of polymer buffer layer which can be applicable to a buffer layer in Ni in-diffused waveguide devices is demonstrated. Several sets of channel waveguides fabricated on Z-cut lithium niobate by Ni in-diffusion were obtained and on which coplanar traveling-wave type electrodes with a polymer-employed buffer layer were developed by a conventional fabrication method for characterizing of electro-optical performances of the proposed device. The experimental results show that the measured half-wave voltage is of ~10 V and the total measured fiber-to-fiber insertion loss is of ~6.4 dB for a 40 mm long at a wavelength of =1.3 mm, respectively. From the experimental results, it is confirmed that the polymer-employed buffer layer in LiNbO3 optical modulator can be a substitute material instead of silicon oxide layer which is usually processed at a high temperature of over $300^{\circ}C$. Moreover, the fabrication tolerances by using polymer materials in LiNbO3 optical modulators are much less strict in comparison to the case of dielectric buffer layer.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.26-38
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• 2010

Degradation in Solid Oxide Fuel Cell performance can be ascribed to the following fundamental processes from the materials chemical point of view; that is, diffusion in solids and reaction with gaseous impurities. For SOFC materials, diffusion in solids is usually slow in operation temperatures $800\sim1000^{\circ}C$. Even at $800^{\circ}C$, however, a few processes are rapid enough to lead to some degradations; namely, Sr diffusion in doped ceria, cation diffusion in cathode materials, diffusion related with metal corrosion, and sintering of nickel anodes. For gaseous impurities, chromium containing vapors are important to know how the chemical stability of cathode materials is related with degradation of performance. For LSM as the most stable cathode among the perovskite-type cathodes, electrochemical reduction reaction of $CrO_3$(g) at the electrochemically active sites is crucial, whereas the rest of the cathodes have the $SrCrO_4$ formation at the point where cathodes meet with the gases, leading to rather complicated processes to the degradations, depending on the amount and distribution of reacted Cr component. These features can be easily generalized to other impurities in air or to the reaction of nickel anodes with gaseous impurities in anode atmosphere.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.231-232
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• 2007

Nickel oxide thin films were deposited by the DC magnetron reactive sputtering process under the conditions such as various oxygen flow rates(0, 3, 6, 8, 10 sccm) with constant 33 sccm argon flow rate for the sputtering time of 40 second with the power of 0.3 kW. Sheet resistances were measured by the four point probes. In order to observe discharge voltage characteristics according to the oxygen flow rates, the sputtering processes were performed under the powers of 0.2kW and 0.3kW. The feasibility of the coating system for high quality ferromagnetic thin films was tested through the electromagnetic simulation and the thin film thickness measurement from the experiment. It was shown that a discharge voltage was decreased under the low power and low oxygen flow rate, since the oxygen was quickly saturated on nickel target surface. The sheet resistance was increased as oxygen flow rate increased. The film thickness deposited by the coating system for ferromagnetic target was improved approximately 10% in comparison with previous coating systems.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.39-43
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• 2023

Carrier-selective contacts (CSCs) solar cells are considerably attractive on highly efficient crystalline silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells due to their advantages of high thermal tolerance and the simple fabrication process. CSCs solar cells require a hole selective contact (HSC) layer that selectively collects only holes. In order to selectively collect holes, it must have a work function characteristic of 5.0 eV or more when contacted with n-type Si. The VO_x, NiO_x, and CuI_x thin films were fabricated and analyzed respectively to confirm their potential usage as a hole-selective contact (HSC) layer. All thin films showed characteristics of band-gap engergy > 3.0 eV, work function > 5.0 eV and minority carrier lifetime > 1.5 ms.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.226-231
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• 2020

Polyvinyl pyrrolidone nanofibers including nickel, zinc, and iron precursors were fabricated via the electrospinning method. To convert as-spun nanofibers to Ni0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 oxide nanof ibers which is capable of shielding an electromagnetic wave, heat treatment conditions were optimized. To obtain the heat treatment condition that can exclude amorphous carbon black and secondary crystal phase, samples were taken at each temperature while the calcination process and analyzed. According to the X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, the Ni0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 crystal phase started to appear from 300℃, but it was confirmed through energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) analysis that heat treatment of 500℃ or more was required to remove most of the carbon black. When the calcination temperature exceeds 650℃, crystal nuclei starts to grow and the fiber surface condition becomes rough, so it was confirmed that the heat treatment conditions should be selectively determined according to the application field.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.105-112
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• 2020

Transition metal oxide, which undergoes a conversion reaction in the negative electrode material for a lithium-ion batteries, has a high specific capacity, but still has several critical problems. In this study, manganese pyrophosphate (Mn₂P₂O₇), nickel pyrophosphate (Ni₂P₂O₇), and carbon composite materials with pyrophosphates as novel negative electrode materials instead of transition metal oxide, are synthesized through simple solid-state reaction. The initial reversible capacity of Mn₂P₂O₇ and Ni₂P₂O₇ are 333 and 340 mAh g^-1, and when the composite materials are composed with carbon, the reversible capacity increases to 433 and 387 mAh g^-1, respectively. The initial Coulombic efficiency is also improved by about 10%. The Mn₂P₂O₇ and carbon composite material has the highest initial capacity and efficiency, and has the best cycle performance. Mn₂P₂O₇ containing polyanion, has a lower specific capacity due to the large mass of polyanion compared to MnO (manganese oxide). However, since Mn₂P₂O₇ shows a voltage curve with a slope, the charging (lithiation) voltage increases from 0.51 to 0.57 V (vs. Li/Li⁺), and the discharge (delithiation) voltage decreases from 1.15 to 1.01 V (vs. Li/Li⁺). Therefore, the voltage efficiency of the cell is improved because the voltage difference between charging and discharging is greatly reduced from 0.64 to 0.44 V, and the operating voltage of the full cell increases because the negative electrode potential is lowered during the discharging process.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.411-417
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• 2022

Environmental issues such as global warming due to fossil fuel use are now major worldwide concerns, and interest in renewable and clean energy is growing. Of the various types of renewable energy, green hydrogen energy has recently attracted attention because of its eco-friendly and high-energy density. Electrochemical water splitting is considered a pollution-free means of producing clean hydrogen and oxygen and in large quantities. The development of non-noble electrocatalysts with low cost and high performance in water splitting has also attracted considerable attention. In this study, we successfully synthesized a NiCo₂O₄/NF electrode for an oxygen evolution reaction in alkaline water splitting using a hydrothermal method, which was followed by post-heat treatment. The effects of heat treatment on the electrochemical performance of the electrodes were evaluated under different heat-treatment conditions. The optimized NCO/NF-300 electrode showed an overpotential of 416 mV at a high current density of 50 mA/cm² and a low Tafel slope (49.06 mV dec^-1). It also showed excellent stability (due to the large surface area) and the lowest charge transfer resistance (12.59 Ω). The results suggested that our noble-metal free electrodes have great potential for use in developing alkaline electrolysis systems.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.27 no.9
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• pp.547-550
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• 2014

In this study, the electrical characteristics of the nickel (Ni)/carbon nanotube (CNT)/$SiO_2$ structures were investigated in order to analyze the mechanism of CNT in MOS device structures. We fabricated 4H-SiC MOS capacitors with or without CNTs. CNT was dispersed by isopropyl alcohol. The capacitance-voltage (C-V) and current-voltage (I-V) are characterized. Both devices were measured by Keithley 4200 SCS. The experimental flatband voltage ($V_{FB}$) shift was positive. Near-interface trap charge density ($N_{it}$) and negative oxide trap charge density ($N_{ox}$) value of CNT embedded MOS capacitors was less than that values of reference samples. Also, the leakage current of CNT embedded MOS capacitors is higher than reference samples. It has been found that its oxide quality is related to charge carriers and/or defect states in the interface of MOS capacitors.