• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.8 no.4B
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• pp.514-518
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• 1999

Gold (Au) is not supposed to react with sapphire(single crystalline ) under thermodynamic equillibrium, therefore, a strong adhesion between these two dissimilar materials is not expected. However, pull test showed that the gold film sputter-deposited onto annealed and pre-sputtered sapphire exhibited very strong adhesion even without post-deposition annealing. Strongly and weakly adhered samples as a result of the pull testing were selected to investigate the adhesion mechanisms with Auger electron spectroscopy. The Au/ interfaces were analyzed using a new technique that probes the interface on the film using Auger electron escape depth. It revealed that one or two monolayers of Au-Al-O compound formed at the Au/Sapphire interface when AES in the UHV chamber. It showed that metallic aluminum was detected on the surface of sapphire substrates after irradiating for 3 min. with 7keV Ar+ -ions. These results agree with TRIM calculations that yield preferential ion-beam etching. It is concluded that the formation of Au-Al-O compound, which is responsible for the strong metal-ceramic bonding, is due to ion-induced cleaning and reduction of the sapphire surface, and the kinetic energy of depositing gold atoms, molecules, and micro-particles as a driving force for the inter-facial reaction.

• The Korean Journal of Ceramics
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.5-12
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• 1997

Charged carbon clusters which are formed by the gas activation are suggested to be responsible for the formation of the metastable diamond film. The number of carbon atoms in the cluster that can reverse the stability between diamond and graphite by the capillary effect increases sensitively with increasing the surface energy ratio of graphite to diamond. The gas activation process produces charges such as electrons and ions, which are energetically the strong heterogeneous nucleation sites for the supersaturated carbon vapor, leading to the formation of the charged clusters. Once the carbon clusters are charged, the surface energy of diamond can be reduced by the electrical double layer while that of graphite cannot because diamond is dielectric and graphite is conducting. The unusual phenomena observed in the chemical vapor deposition diamond process can be successfully approached by the charged cluster model. These phenomena include the diamond deposition with the simultaneous graphite etching, which is known as the thermodynamic paradox and the preferential formation of diamond on the convex edge, which is against the well-established concept of the heterogeneous nucleation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.224-224
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• 2012

For decades, carbon fiber has expanded their application fields from reinforced composites to energy storage and transfer technologies such as electrodes for super-capacitors and lithium ion batteries and gas diffusion layers for proton exchange membrane fuel cell. Especially in fuel cell, water repellency of gas diffusion layer has become very important property for preventing flooding which is induced by condensed water could damage the fuel cell performance. In this work, we fabricated superhydrophobic network of carbon fiber with high aspect ratio hair-like nanostructure by preferential oxygen plasma etching. Superhydrophobic carbon fiber surfaces were achieved by hydrophobic material coating with a siloxane-based hydrocarbon film, which increased the water contact angle from $147^{\circ}$ to $163^{\circ}$ and decreased the contact angle hysteresis from $71^{\circ}$ to below $5^{\circ}$, sufficient to cause droplet roll-off from the surface in millimeter scale water droplet deposition test. Also, we have explored that the condensation behavior (nucleation and growth) of water droplet on the superhydrophobic carbon fiber were significantly retarded due to the high-aspect-ratio nanostructures under super-saturated vapor conditions. It is implied that superhydrophobic carbon fiber can provide a passage for vapor or gas flow in wet environments such as a gas diffusion layer requiring the effective water removal in the operation of proton exchange membrane fuel cell. Moreover, such nanostructuring of carbon-based materials can be extended to carbon fiber, carbon black or carbon films for applications as a cathode in lithium batteries or carbon fiber composites.