• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.156-161
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• 2015

The electronic structures of the potential candidate semiconductor nanoparticles for dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC), such as $ZnSnO_3$ and $Zn_2SnO_4$, have been investigated by employing X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS). The measured X-ray diffraction patterns show that $ZnSnO_3$ and $Zn_2SnO_4$ samples have the single-phase ilmenite-type structure and the inverse spinel structure, respectively. The measured Zn 2p and Sn 3d core-level XPS spectra reveal that the valence states of Zn and Sn ions are divalent (Zn 2+) and tetravalent (Sn 4+), respectively, in both $ZnSnO_3$ and $Zn_2SnO_4$. On the other hand, the shallow core-level measurements show that the binding energies of Sn 4d and Zn 3d core levels in $ZnSnO_3$ are lower than those in $Zn_2SnO_4$. This work provides the information on the valence states of Zn and Sn ions and their chemical bonding in $ZnSnO_3$ and $Zn_2SnO_4$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.440-440
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• 2012

Nanomaterials have emerged as new building blocks to construct light energy harvesting assemblies. Size dependent properties provide the basis for developing new and effective systems with semiconductor nanoparticles, quantized charging effects in metal nanoparticle or their combinations in 2 and 3 dimensions for expanding the possibility of developing new strategies for photovoltaic system. As top-down approach, we developed a simple and effective method for the large scale formation of self-assembled Cu(In,Ga)$Se_2$ (CIGS) nanostructures by ion beam irradiation. The compositional changes and morphological evolution were observed as a function of the irradiation time. As the ion irradiation time increased, the nano-dots were transformed into a nano-ridge structure due to the difference in the sputtering yields and diffusion rates of each element and the competition between sputtering and diffusion processes during irradiation. As bottom-up approach, we developed the growth of CIGS nanowires using thermal-chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. Vapor-phase synthesis is probably the most extensively explored approach to the formation of 1D nanostructures such as whiskers, nanorods, and nanowires. However, unlike binary or ternary chalcogenides, the synthesis of quaternary CIGS nanostructures is challenging because of the difficulty in controlling the stoichiometry and phase structure. We introduced a method for synthesis of the single crystalline CIGS nanowires in the form of chalcopyrite using thermal-CVD without catalyst. It was confirmed that the CIGS nanowires are epitaxially grown on a sapphire substrate, having a length ranged from 3 to 100 micrometers and a diameter from 30 to 500 nm.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.26 no.11
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• pp.1776-1782
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• 2005

ZnSe/ZnS, UV-blue luminescent core shell quantum dots, were synthesized via a thermal decomposition reaction of organometallic zinc and solvent coordinated Selenium (TOPSe) in a hot solvent mixture. The synthetic conditions of the core (ZnSe) and the shell (ZnS) were independently studied at various reaction temperature conditions. The obtained colloidal nanocrystals at corresponding temperatures were characterized for their optical properties by UV-vis, room temperature solution photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, and further obtained powders were characterized by XRD, TEM, and EDXS analyses. The synthetic temperature condition to obtain the best PL emission intensity for the ZnSe core was 300 ${^{\circ}C}$, and for the optimum shell capping, the temperature was 135 ${^{\circ}C}$. At this temperature, solution PL spectrum showed a narrow emission peak at 427 nm with a PL efficiency of 15%. In addition, the measured particle sizes for the ZnSe/ZnS nanocomposite via TEM were in the range of 5 to 12 nm. Furthermore, we have synthesized water-soluble ZnSe/ZnS nanoparticles by capping the ZnSe/ZnS hydrophobic surface with mercaptoacetate (MAA) molecules. For the obtained aqueous colloidal solution, the UV-vis spectrum showed an absorption peak at 250 nm, and the solution PL emission spectrum showed a peak at 425 nm, which is similar to that for hydrophobic quantum dot ZnSe/ZnS. However, the calculated PL efficiency was relatively low (0.1%) due to the luminescence quenching by water and MAA molecules. The capping ligand was also characterized by FT-IR spectroscopy, with the carbonyl stretching peak in the mercaptoacetate molecule appearing at 1575 $cm ^{-1}$. Finally, the particle sizes of the MAA capped ZnSe/ZnS were measured by TEM, showing a range of 12 to 17 nm.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.207-210
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• 2014

$TiO_2$ oxide semiconductor is being widely studied in various applications such as photocatalyst and photosensor. Pd/$TiO_2$ gas sensor is mainly used to detect $H_2$, CO and ethanol. This study focus on increasing hydrogen detection ability of Pd/$TiO_2$ in room temperature through Al-doping. Pd/$TiO_2$ was fabricated by the hydrothermal method. Contacting to Aluminum (Al) foil led to Al doping effect in Pd/$TiO_2$ by thermal diffusion and enhanced hydrogen sensing response. $TiO_2$ nanoparticles were sized at ~30 nm of diameter from scanning electron microscope (SEM) and maintained anatase crystal structure after Al doping from X-ray diffraction analysis. Presence of Al in $TiO_2$ was confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy at 73 eV. SEM-energy dispersive spectroscopy measurement also confirmed 2 wt% Al in Pd/$TiO_2$ bulk. The gas sensing test was performed with $O_2$, $N_2$ and $H_2$ gas ambient. Pd/Al-doped $TiO_2$ did not response $O_2$ and $N_2$ gas in vacuum except $H_2$. Finally, the normalized resistance ratio ($R_{H2on}/R_{H2off}$) of Pd/Al-doped $TiO_2$ increases about 80% compared to Pd/$TiO_2$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2018.06a
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• pp.141-141
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• 2018

Copper is one of the most abundant metals on earth. Its oxide (CuO) is an intrinsically p-type metal-oxide semiconductor with a bandgap ($E_g$) of 1.2-2.0 eV 1. Copper oxide nanomaterials are considered as promising materials for a wide range of applications e.g., lithium ion batteries, dye-sensitized solar cells, photocatalytic hydrogen production, photodetectors, and biogas sensors 2-7. Recently, high-density and uniform CuO nanostructures have been grown on Cu foils in alkaline solutions 3. In 2011, T. Soejima et al. proposed a facile process for the oxidation synthesis of CuO nanobelt arrays using $NH_3-H_2O_2$ aqueous solution 8. In 2017, G. Kaur et al. synthesized CuO nanostructures by treating Cu foils in $NH_4OH$ at room temperature for different treatment times 9. The surface treatment of Cu in alkaline aqueous solutions is a potential method for the mass fabrication of CuO nanostructures with high uniformity and density. It is interesting to compare the gas sensing properties among CuO nanomaterials synthesized by this approach and by others. Nevertheless, none of above studies investigated the gas sensing properties of as-synthesized CuO nanomaterials. In this study, CuO nanowalls versus nanoparticles were synthesized via the oxidation process of Cu foil in NH4OH solution at $50-70^{\circ}C$. The gas sensing properties of the as-prepared CuO nanoplates were examined with $C_2H_5OH$, $CH_3COCH_3$, and $NH_3$ at $200-360^{\circ}C$.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.253-257
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• 2017

Graphene is a monolayer carbon material which consists of $sp^2$ bonding between carbon atoms. Its excellent intrinsic properties allow graphene to be used in various research fields. Many researchers believe that graphene is suitable for electronic device materials due to its high electrical conductivity and carrier mobility. Through chemical doping, n- or p-type graphene can be obtained, and consequently graphene-based devices which have more comparable structure to common semiconductor-based devices can be fabricated. In our research, we introduced the dielectrophoresis process to the chemical doping step in order to improve the effect of chemical doping of graphene selectively. Under 10 kHz and $5V_{pp}$ (peak-to-peak voltage), doping was conducted and the Au nanoparticles were effectively formed, as well as aligned along the edges of graphene. Effects of the selective chemical doping on graphene were investigated through Raman spectroscopy and the change of its electrical properties were explored. We proposed the method to enhance the doping effect in local region of a graphene layer.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.08a
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• pp.288-288
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• 2013

Lithium-ion battery (LIB) is one of the most important rechargeable battery and portable energy storage for the electric digital devices. In particular, study about the higher energy capacity and longer cycle life is intensively studied because of applications in mobile electronics and electric vehicles. Generally, the LIB's capacity can be improved by replacing anode materials with high capacitance. The graphite, common anode materials, has a good cyclability but shows limitations of capacity (~374 mAh/g). On the contrary, silicon (Si) and germanium(Ge), which is same group elements, are promising candidate for high-performance LIB electrodes because it has a higher theoretical specific capacity. (Si:4200 mAh/g, Ge:1600 mAh/g) However, it is well known that Si volume change by 400% upon full lithiation (lithium insertion into Si), which result in a mechanical pulverization and poor capacity retention during cycling. Therefore, variety of nanostructure group IV elements, including nanoparticles, nanowires, and hollow nanospheres, can be promising solution about the critical issues associated with the large volume change. However, the fundamental research about correlation between the composition and structure for LIB anode is not studied yet. Herein, we successfully synthesized various structure of nanowire such as Si-Ge, Ge-Carbon and Si-graphene core-shell types and analyzed the properties of LIB. Nanowires (NWs) were grown on stainless steel substrates using Au catalyst via VLS (Vapor Liquid Solid) mechanism. And, core-shell NWs were grown by VS (Vapor-Solid) process on the surface of NWs. In order to characterize it, we used FE-SEM, HR-TEM, and Raman spectroscopy. We measured battery property of various nanostructures for checking the capacity and cyclability by cell-tester.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.22 no.10
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• pp.504-507
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• 2012

Synthesis of RGO (reduced graphene oxide)-CdS composite material was performed through CBD (chemical bath deposition) method in which graphene oxide served as the support and Cadmium Sulfate Hydrate as the starting material. Graphene-based semiconductor photocatalysts have attracted extensive attention due to their usefulness for environmental and energy applications. The band gap (2.4 eV) of CdS corresponds well with the spectrum of sunlight because the crystalline phase, size, morphology, specic surface area and defects, etc., of CdS can affect its photocatalytic activity. The specific surface structure (morphology) of the photocatalyst can be effective for the suppression of recombination between photogenerated electrons and holes. Graphene (GN) has unique properties such as a high value of Young's modulus, large theoretical specific surface area, excellent thermal conductivity, high mobility of charge carriers, and good optical transmittance. These excellent properties make GN an ideal building block in nanocomposites. It can act as an excellent electron-acceptor/transport material. Therefore, the morphology, structural characterization and crystal structure were observed using various analytical tools, such as X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy. From this analysis, it is shown that CdS particles were well dispersed uniformly in the RGO sheet. Furthermore, the photocatalytic property of the resulting RGO-CdS composite is also discussed in relation to environmental applications such as the photocatalytic degradation of pollutants. It was found that the prepared RGO-CdS nanocomposites exhibited enhanced photocatalytic activity as compared with that of CdS nanoparticles. Therefore, better efficiency of photodegradation was found for water purification applications using RGO-CdS composite.

• Nano
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• v.13 no.10
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• pp.1850118.1-1850118.17
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• 2018

Nanoparticles of the semiconductor catalyst $Cd_xZn_{1-x}S$ were embedded into the metal organic framework MIL-101(Cr) to obtain $Cd_xZn_{1-x}S@MIL-101$(Cr) nanocomposites. These materials not only possess high surface areas and mesopores but also show good utilization of light energy. The ultraviolet-visible diffuse reflectance patterns of $Cd_xZn_{1-x}S@MIL-101$(Cr) nanocomposites showed that $Cd_{0.8}Zn_{0.2}S@MIL-101$(Cr) possessed good visible light response ability among the synthesized nanocomposites. The photocatalytic performance of the $Cd_xZn_{1-x}S@MIL-101$(Cr) nanocomposites were tested via degradation and mineralization of methylene blue in neutral water solution under light irradiation using a 300W xenon lamp. As a result, using $Cd_{0.8}Zn_{0.2}S@MIL-101$(Cr) as a catalyst, 99.2% of methylene blue was mineralized within 30 min. Due to the synergistic effect of adsorption by the MIL-101(Cr) component and photocatalytic degradation provided by the $Cd_{0.8}Zn_{0.2}S$ component, the $Cd_{0.8}Zn_{0.2}S@MIL-101$(Cr) catalyst displayed superior photocatalytic performance relative to $Cd_{0.8}Zn_{0.2}S$ and MIL-101(Cr). Furthermore, $Cd_{0.8}Zn_{0.2}S@MIL-101$(Cr) possessed excellent stability during photodegradation and exhibited good reusability. The remarkable photocatalytic performance of $Cd_{0.8}Zn_{0.2}S@MIL-101$(Cr) is likely due to the effective transfer of electrons and holes at the heterojunction interfaces.

• Journal of the Korean Physical Society
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• v.73 no.10
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• pp.1444-1451
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• 2018

The surface-to-volume ratio of one-dimensional (1D) semiconductor metal-oxide sensors is an important factor for achieving good gas sensing properties because it offers a wide response area. To exploit this effect, in this study, we determined the optimal calcination temperature to maximize the specific surface area and thereby the sensitivity of the sensor. The $In_2O_3$ nanorods were synthesized by using vapor-liquid-solid growth of $In_2O_3$ powders and were decorated with the Pt nanoparticles by using a sol-gel method. Subsequently, the Pt nanoparticle-decorated $In_2O_3$ nanorods were calcined at different temperatures to determine the optimal calcination temperature. The $NO_2$ gas sensing properties of five different samples (pristine uncalcined $In_2O_3$ nanorods, Pt-decorated uncalcined $In_2O_3$ nanorods, and Pt-decorated $In_2O_3$ nanorods calcined at 400, 600, and $800^{\circ}C$) were determined and compared. The Pt-decorated $In_2O_3$ nanorods calcined at $600^{\circ}C$ showed the highest surface-to-volume ratio and the strongest response to $NO_2$ gas. Moreover, these nanorods showed the shortest response/recovery times toward $NO_2$. These enhanced sensing properties are attributed to a combination of increased surface-to-volume ratio (achieved through the optimal calcination) and increased electrical/chemical sensitization (provided by the noble-metal decoration).