• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.34 no.11
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• pp.3399-3404
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• 2013

A new accepter unit, pyrrolo[3,2-b]pyrrole-2,5-dione, was prepared and utilized for the synthesis of the conjugated polymers containing electron donor-acceptor pair for OPVs. Pyrrolo[3,2-b]pyrrole-2,5-dione unit, regioisomer of the known pyrrolo[3,4-c]pyrrole-1,4-dione, is originated from the structure of stable synthetic pigment. The new conjugated polymers with 1,4-diphenylpyrrolo[3,2-b]pyrrole-2,5-dione, thiophene and carbazole were synthesized using Suzuki polymerization to generate P1 and P2. The solid films of P1 and P2 show absorption bands with maximum peaks at about 377, 554 and 374, 542 nm and the absorption onsets at 670 and 674 nm, corresponding to band gaps of 1.85 and 1.84 eV, respectively. To improve the hole mobility of the polymer with 1,4-bis(4-butylphenyl)-pyrrolo[3,2-b]-pyrrole-2,5-dione unit, which was previously reported by us, the butyl group at the 4-positions of the N-substituted phenyl group was substituted with hydrogen and methyl group. The field-effect hole mobility of P2 is $9.6{\times}10^{-5}cm^2/Vs$. The device with $P2:PC_{71}BM$ (1:2) showed $V_{OC}$ value of 0.84 V, $J_{SC}$ value of 5.10 $mA/cm^2$, and FF of 0.33, giving PCE of 1.42%.

• 한국태양에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.87-92
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• 2011

The heat from PV modules should be removed for better electrical performance, and can be converted into useful thermal energy. A photovoltaic-thermal(PVT)module is a combination of PV module with a solar thermal collector which forms one device that converts solar radiation into electricity and heat simultaneously. The performance of the PV/Thermal combined collector module is directly influenced by solar radiation that also has an effect on PV module temperature. It is also has believe that the energy performance of PV/T collector is related to absorber design as well as PV module temperature. The existing study has been paid to the PV/Thermal combined collector module with circle tube absorbers. The aim of this study is to analyze the experimental performance of the PV/Thermal combined collector rectangular tube absorbers according to solar radiation. The experimental result show that the average thermal and electrical efficiencies of the PVT collector were 43% and14.81% respectively. Solar radiation is one of the most influential factors to determine the energy performance of PVT collector, but from a certain level of solar radiation the PVT collector receives on, its efficiencies began to decrease.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.08a
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• pp.75.2-75.2
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• 2013

Atomic layer deposition (ALD), utilizing self-limiting surface reactions, could offer promising perspectives for future efficient energy conversion devices. The capabilities of ALD for surface/interface modification and construction of novel architectures with sub-nanometer precision and exceptional conformality over high aspect ratio make it more valuable than any other deposition methods in nanoscale science and technology. In the context, a variety of researches on fabrication of active materials for energy conversion applications by ALD are emerging. Among those materials, one-dimensional nanotubular titanium dioxide, providing not only high specific surface area but also efficient carrier transport pathway, is a class of the most intensively explored materials for energy conversion systems, such as photovoltaic cells and photo/electrochemical devices. The monodisperse, stoichiometric, anatase, TiO2 nanotubes with smooth surface morphology and controlled wall thickness were fabricated via low-temperature template-directed ALD followed by subsequent annealing. The ALD-grown, anatase, TiO2 nanotubes in alumina template show unusual crystal growth behavior which allows to form remarkably large grains along axial direction over certain wall thickness. We also fabricated dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) introducing our anatase TiO2 nanotubes as photoanodes, and studied the effect of blocking layer, TiO2 thin films formed by ALD, on overall device efficiency. The photon convertsion efficiency ~7% were measured for our TiO2 nanotubebased DSCs with blocking layers, which is ~1% higher than ones without blocking layer. We also performed open circuit voltage decay measurement to estimate recombination rate in our cells, which is 3 times longer than conventional nanoparticulate photoanodes. The high efficiency of our ALD-grown, anatase, TiO2 nanotube-based DSCs may be attributed to both enhanced charge transport property of our TiO2 nanotubes photoanode and the suppression of recombination at the interface between transparent conducting electrode and iodine electrolytes by blocking layer.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.123-129
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• 2016

In this paper, results of produced PCU(Power Control Unit) prototype was showed by suggesting and maintaining optimal operation status which let the three functional modules automatically operate with its necessity by prioritizing operation process. In order to validate effectiveness of the suggested method, we produced a test PCU and examined the results. PCU consists of S3R(Sequential Switching Shunt Regulator), BCR(Battery Charge Regulator), and BDR(Battery Discharge Regulator): converting photovoltaic power into constant voltage at linked bus voltage; storing dump power in the battery which is an auxiliary energy storage device; and supplying power charged in battery to the load. To maintain its high reliability and optimal condition of these three power conversion modules, each module operates in parallel and stable bus voltage is required to be retained at all-time due to the nature of power supply for satellite.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.254-261
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• 2019

Distinct from conventional energy-harvesting (EH) technologies, such as the use of photovoltaic, piezoelectric, and thermoelectric effects, betavoltaic energy conversion can consistently generate uniform electric power, independent of environmental variations, and provide a constant output of high DC voltage, even under conditions of ultra-low-power EH. It can also dramatically reduce the energy loss incurred in the processes of voltage boosting and regulation. This study realized betavoltaic cells comprised of p-i-n junctions based on silicon carbide, fabricated through a customized semiconductor recipe, and a Ni foil plated with a Ni-63 radioisotope. The betavoltaic energy converter (BEC) includes an array of 16 parallel-connected betavoltaic cells. Experimental results demonstrate that the series and parallel connections of two BECs result in an open-circuit voltage $V_{oc}$ of 3.06 V with a short-circuit current $I_{sc}$ of 48.5 nA, and a $V_{oc}$ of 1.50 V with an $I_{sc}$ of 92.6 nA, respectively. The capacitor charging efficiency in terms of the current generated from the two series-connected BECs was measured to be approximately 90.7%.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2014.10a
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• pp.585-588
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• 2014

This paper presents a self-powered sensor node circuit using photovoltaic and vibration energy harvesting. The harvested energy from a solar cell and a vibration device(PZT) is stored in a storage capacitor. The stored energy is managed by a PMU(Power Management Unit). In order to supply a stable voltage to the sensor node, an LDO(Low Drop Out Regulator) is used. The LDO drives a temperature sensor and a SAR ADC(Successive Approximate Register Analog-to-Digital Converter), and 10-bit digital output data corresponding to current temperature is obtained. The proposed circuit is designed in a 0.35um CMOS process, and the designed chip size including PADs is $1.1mm{\times}0.95mm$.

• Current Applied Physics
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• v.18 no.12
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• pp.1564-1570
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• 2018

Charge transport dynamics in ZnO based inverted organic solar cell (IOSC) has been characterized with transient photocurrent spectroscopy and localised photocurrent mapping-atomic force microscopy. The value of maximum exciton generation rate was found to vary from $2.6{\times}10^{27}m^{-3}s^{-1}$ ($J_{sat}=79.7A\;m^{-2}$) to $2.9{\times}10^{27}m^{-3}s^{-1}$ ($J_{sat}=90.8A\;m^{-2}$) for devices with power conversion efficiency ranging from 2.03 to 2.51%. These results suggest that nanorods served as an excellent electron transporting layer that provides efficient charge transport and enhances IOSC device performance. The photovoltaic performance of OSCs with various growth times of ZnO nanorods have been analysed for a comparison between AM1.5G spectrum and local solar spectrum. The simulated PCE of all devices operating under local spectrum exhibited extensive improvement with the gain of 13.3-3.7% in which the ZnO nanorods grown at 15 min possess the highest PCE under local solar with the value of 2.82%.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.31 no.11
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• pp.619-625
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• 2021

Cu₂ZnSn(S,Se)₄ (CZTSSe) based thin-film solar cells have attracted growing attention because of their earth-abundant and non-toxic elements. However, because of their large open-circuit voltage (V_oc)-deficit, CZTSSe solar cells exhibit poor device performance compared to well-established Cu(In,Ga)(S,Se)₂ (CIGS) and CdTe based solar cells. One of the main causes of this large V_oc-deficit is poor absorber properties for example, high band tailing properties, defects, secondary phases, carrier recombination, etc. In particular, the fabrication of absorbers using physical methods results in poor surface morphology, such as pin-holes and voids. To overcome this problem and form large and homogeneous CZTSSe grains, CZTSSe based absorber layers are prepared by a sputtering technique with different RTA conditions. The temperature is varied from 510 ℃ to 540 ℃ during the rapid thermal annealing (RTA) process. Further, CZTSSe thin films are examined with X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence, Raman spectroscopy, IPCE, Energy dispersive spectroscopy and Scanning electron microscopy techniques. The present work shows that Cu-based secondary phase formation can be suppressed in the CZTSSe absorber layer at an optimum RTA condition.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.4013-4018
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• 2014

A 0.45 $cm^2$ DSSC device with a glass/FTO/blocking layer/$TiO_2$/N719(dye)/electrolyte/50 nm-Pt/50 nm-Au/FTO/glass was prepared to examine the stability of the Au/Pt bilayered counter electrode (CE) with electrolyte and the energy conversion efficiency (ECE) of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). For comparison, a 100 nm-thick Pt only CE DSSC was also prepared using the same method. The photovoltaic properties, such as the short circuit current density ($J_{sc}$), open circuit voltage ($V_{oc}$), fill factor (FF), and ECE, were checked using a solar simulator and potentiostat with time after assembling the DSSC. The microstructure of the Au/Pt bilayer was examined by optical microscopy after 0~25 minutes. The ECE of the Pt only CE-employed DSSC was 4.60 %, which did not show time dependence. On the other hand, for the Au/Pt CE DSSC, the ECEs after 0, 5 and 15 minutes were 5.28 %, 3.64 % and 2.09 %, respectively. The corrosion areas of the Au/Pt CE determined by optical microscopy after 0, 5, and 25 minutes were 0, 21.92 and 34.06 %. These results confirmed that the ECE and catalytic activity of Au/Pt CE decreased drastically with time. Therefore, a Au/Pt CE-employed DSSC may be superior to the Pt only CE-employed one immediately after integration of the device, but it would degrade drastically with time.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.694-701
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• 2013

A new copolymer named T-TI24T (poly((5,5-(2-butyl-5,6-bisdecyloxy-4,7-di-thiophen-2-yl-isoindole-1,3-dione))- alt-(2,5-thiophene))) based on phthalimide derivative and thiophene is synthesized by the Stille-coupling reaction. The polymer shows relatively high number average molecular weight of 86500 g/mol with good solubility in common organic solvents such as chloroform, 1,2-dichlorobenzene, and toluene and is thermally stable up to $380^{\circ}C$. Besides, it possesses a relatively low highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) energy level of -5.33 eV, promising the high open circuit voltage ($V_{oc}$) for photovoltaic applications. Active layer solution of polymer T-TI24T-as a donor and (6)-1-(3-(methoxycarbonyl)- {5}-1-phenyl[5,6]-fullerene (PCBM)-as an acceptor in different weight ratios is applied to fabricate the polymer solar cell devices. The ratio of polymer/PCBM affects the solar cell efficiency and the best performance exhibits in the device with polymer/PCBM = 1:3 (w/w), which shows a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 0.199% and a $V_{oc}$ of 0.99 V, respectively. Even though the device shows the very low PCE, the $V_{oc}$ is higher than that of well known bulk heterojunction type solar cell based on P3HT:PC61BM (c.a. 0.5 V).