• Applied Microscopy
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.405-415
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• 1999

In general, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is usually used in the investigation of polymer microstructure. Microtoming, solution casting, staining and carbon replica method are frequently introduced to the study of the polymer morphology with TEM, however the sample preparation procedure of those techniques is very difficult, and it takes a long time. The purpose of this study is to develop a new sample preparation technique which is suitable for the investigation of the various shapes and species of polyolefin microstructure by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). By modifying the conventional chemical etching method, we developed a new chemical etching technique and sample preparation procedure that are suitable for SEM study of polymer microstructure. In this study the permanganate etching method is introduced and the optimum etching condition are determined by simply adjusting the etchant formulation, concentration and etching time. This technique has shown good reproducibility and it's morphological results agree well with other works on various types of microstructures such as spherulite characterization of isotatic polypropylene $(\alpha/\beta)$, polyethylene and poly-propylene copolymer characterization, and the study of lamellar growth pattern of unsheared or oriented materials. This technique has also been applied to the industrial fields for characterization of the polyolefin film, automobile products and the others.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.332-332
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• 2010

We have successfully demonstrated the inkjet printing method to create $Al_2O_3$ films withouWe have successfully demonstrated the inkjet printing method to create $Al_2O_3$ films without a high temperature sintering process. In order to remove the coffee ring effect in the ink drop, we have introduced a co-solvent system in order to create Marangoni flow in the ink drop, which leads to the dense packing of ceramic powders on the substrate during inkjet process. The packing density of the Inkjet-printed $Al_2O_3$ films is around 60% (max. 70%) which is very high compared to the value obtained from the same material films by other conventional methods such as film casting, dip coating process, etc. The voids inside the films (which are around 40% of the entire film volume) are filled with the polymer resin (Cyanate ester) by the infiltration process. This resin infiltration is also implemented by the inkjet printing process right after the Ah03 film ink-jetting process. The microstructures of the printed $Al_2O_3$ films are investigated by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) to understand the degree of packing density in the printed films. The inkjet-printed $Al_2O_3$ films have been characterized to investigate its thickness and roughness. Quality factor of the printed $Al_2O_3$ film is also measured to be over 300 at 1MHz.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.101-105
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• 2016

Recently, the hydrophobic surface has been attracted because of the excellent opto-physical properties. Various processing methods such as chemical, mechanical, photolithographic and laser processing are competitively introduced for fabrication of hydrophobic surface of polymer, metal and ceramics. In this paper, we fabricated the hydrophobic surface of copper metal by simple method which irradiated 355 nm UV-pulsed laser in order to shape microgrooves and increased surface roughness through oxidation process at room temperature. Finally the contact angle is dramatically increased by maximum $45^{\circ}$, as a result of oxidation which simply created nanostructures on the microstructures without expensive chemical process.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.173-178
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• 2011

Separator of stack in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is high cost and heavy. If we make it low cost and lighter, it will have a great ripple. In this study, low carbon steel is used as base metal of separator because the cost of low carbon steel is very cheaper commercial metal material than stainless steels, which is widely used as separator. Low carbon steel has not a good corrosion resistance. In order to improve the corrosion resistance and electrolytic conductivity, low carbon steel needs to be surface treated. We made Chromium electroplated layer of $5{\mu}m$, $10{\mu}m$ thickness on the surface of low carbon steel and it was nitrided for 2 hours at $1000^{\circ}C$ in a furnace with 100 torr nitrogen gas pressure. Cross-sectional and surface microstructures of surface treated low carbon steel are investigated using SEM. And crystal structures are investigated by XRD. Interfacial contact resistance and corrosion tests were considered to simulate the internal operating conditions of PEMFC stack. The corrosion test was performed in 0.1 N $H_2SO_4$ + 2 ppm $F^-$ solution at $80^{\circ}C$. Throughout this research, we try to know that low carbon steel can be replaced stainless steel in separator of PEMFC.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.399-406
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• 2004

Glass-like carbon precursors shrink significantly during curing and carbonization, which leads to crack formation and bending. Cured furan resin powder and ethanol were added to furan resin to diminish the weight loss, to suppress the shrinkage and bending, and to readily release the gases evolved during polymerization and curing. Curing and carbonization were controlled by pressure and slow heating to avoid damage to the samples. The effect of the filler and ethanol on the fabrication process was examined by measuring the properties of the glass-like carbon, such as the specific gravity, bending strength, electrical resistivity, and microstructural change. The specific gravities of the filler-added glass-like carbons were higher than those of the ethanol-added samples because of the formation of macropores from the vaporization of ethanol during the curing and polymerization processes. Although the ethanol-added glass-like carbons exhibited lower bending strengths after carbonization than did the filler-added samples, the opposite result was observed after aging at 2,600$^{\circ}C$. We found that the macropores created from ethanol were contracted and removed upon heat treatment. The electrical resistivity of the glass-like carbon aged at 2,600$^{\circ}C$ was lower than those of the samples carbonized at 1,000$^{\circ}C$. We attribute this phenomenon to the fact that aging at high temperature led to well-developed microstructures, the removal of macropores, and the reduction of the surface area.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.585-592
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• 2011

The enhancement of the cold-start capability of polymer electrolyte fuel cells is of great importance in terms of the durability and reliability of fuel-cell vehicles. In this study, vanadium oxide films deposited onto the flat surface of metallic bipolar plates were synthesized to investigate the feasibility of their use as an efficient self-heating source to expedite the temperature rise during startup at subzero temperatures. Samples were prepared through the dip-coating technique using the hydrolytic sol-gel route, and the chemical compositions and microstructures of the films were characterized by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and field-emission scanning electron microscopy. In addition, the electrical resistance hysteresis loop of the films was measured over a temperature range from -20 to $80^{\circ}C$ using a four-terminal technique. Experimentally, it was found that the thermal energy (Joule heating) resulting from self-heating of the films was sufficient to provide the substantial amount of energy required for thawing at subzero temperatures.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.454-454
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• 2014

Silicon microwire array is one of the promising platforms as a means for developing highly efficient solar cells thanks to the enhanced light trapping efficiency. Among the various fabrication methods of microstructures, deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) process has been extensively used in fabrication of high aspect ratio microwire arrays. In this presentation, we show precisely controlled Si microwire arrays by tuning the DRIE process conditions. A periodic microdisk arrays were patterned on 4-inch Si wafer (p-type, $1{\sim}10{\Omega}cm$) using photolithography. After developing the pattern, 150-nm-thick Al was deposited and lifted-off to leave Al microdisk arrays on the starting Si wafer. Periodic Al microdisk arrays (diameter of $2{\mu}m$ and periodic distance of $2{\mu}m$) were used as an etch mask. A DRIE process (Tegal 200) is used for anisotropic deep silicon etching at room temperature. During the process, $SF_6$ and $C_4F_8$ gases were used for the etching and surface passivation, respectively. The length and shape of microwire arrays were controlled by etching time and $SF_6/C_4F_8$ ratio. By adjusting $SF_6/C_4F_8$ gas ratio, the shape of Si microwire can be controlled, resulting in the formation of tapered or vertical microwires. After DRIE process, the residual polymer and etching damage on the surface of the microwires were removed using piranha solution ($H_2SO_4:H_2O_2=4:1$) followed by thermal oxidation ($900^{\circ}C$, 40 min). The oxide layer formed through the thermal oxidation was etched by diluted hydrofluoric acid (1 wt% HF). The surface morphology of a Si microwire arrays was characterized by field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM, Hitachi S-4800). Optical reflection measurements were performed over 300~1100 nm wavelengths using a UV-Vis/NIR spectrophotometer (Cary 5000, Agilent) in which a 60 mm integrating sphere (Labsphere) is equipped to account for total light (diffuse and specular) reflected from the samples. The total reflection by the microwire arrays sample was reduced from 20 % to 10 % of the incident light over the visible region when the length of the microwire was increased from $10{\mu}m$ to $30{\mu}m$.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.301-310
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• 2014

In this study, the silica nanoparticles were considerably chosen to improve a dimensional stability, proton transport and electrochemical performance of the resulting inorganic-organic nanocomposite membranes. For this purpose, hydrophobic silica (Aerosil$^{(R)}$ 812, Degussa) and hydrophilic silica (Aerosil$^{(R)}$ 380, Degussa) nanoparticles were, respectively, introduced into a Sulfonated poly(arylene ether sulfone) (SPAES) polymer matrix. The $SiO_2$ particles are evenly dispersed in a SPAES matrix by the aid of a non-ionic surfactant (Pluronics$^{(R)}$ L64). A $SiO_2$ content plays an important role in membrane microstructures and membrane properties such as proton conductivity and water uptake. Therefore, to study nanocomposite membranes with excessive amount of silica, the content of silica nanoparticles were increased up to 5 wt%. Interestingly, a hydrophobic $SiO_2$ containing nanocomposite membrane showed better electrochemical performance (29% higher than pristine SPAES) despite of low proton conductivity due to its adhesive properties with a catalyst layer in a single cell test. All the silica-SPAES membranes exhibited better performance than a pristine SPAES membrane.