• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2019

Recent industrialization has led to a high demand for the use of fossil fuels. Therefore, the need for producing hydrogen and its utilization is essential for a sustainable society. For an eco-friendly future technology, photoelectrochemical water splitting using solar energy has proven promising amongst many other candidates. With this technique, semiconductors can be used as photocatalysts to generate electrons by light absorption, resulting in the reduction of hydrogen ions. The photocatalysts must be chemically stable, economically inexpensive and be able to utilize a wide range of light. From this perspective, cuprous oxide($Cu_2O$) is a promising p-type semiconductor because of its appropriate band gap. However, a major hindrance to the use of $Cu_2O$ is its instability at the potential in which hydrogen ion is reduced. In this study, gold is used as a bottom electrode during electrodeposition to obtain a preferential growth along the (111) plane of $Cu_2O$ while imperfections of the $Cu_2O$ thin films are removed. This study investigates the photoelectrochemical properties of $Cu_2O$. However, severe photo-induced corrosion impedes the use of $Cu_2O$ as a photoelectrode. Two candidates, $TiO_2$ and $SnO_2$, are selected for the passivation layer on $Cu_2O$ by by considering the Pourbaix-diagram. $TiO_2$ and $SnO_2$ passivation layers are deposited by atomic layer deposition(ALD) and a sputtering process, respectively. The investigation of the photoelectrochemical properties confirmed that $SnO_2$ is a good passivation layer for $Cu_2O$.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF PACKAGING SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.55-62
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• 2021

This study aims to reduce the rancid odor generated during the fermentation process of kimchi by inserting zinc oxide (ZnO) into an inorganic porous material with a high surface area to decompose or adsorb the fermentation odor. ZnO activated by the presence of moisture exhibits decomposition of rancid odors. Mixed with Titanium dioxide (TiO₂), a photocatalyst. To manufacture the packaging liner used in this study, NaOH, ZnCl₂, and TiO₂ powder were placed in a tank with diatomite and water. The sludge obtained via a hydrothermal ultrasonication synthesis was sintered in an oven. After being pin-milled and melt-blended, the powders were mixed with linear low-density polyethylene (L-LDPE) to make a masterbatch (M/B), which was further used to manufacture liners. A gas detector (GasTiger 2000) was used to investigate the total amount of sulfur compounds during fermentation and determine the reduction rate of the odor-causing compounds. The packaging liner cross-section and surface were investigated using a scanning electron microscope-energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (SEM-EDS) to observe the adsorption of sulfur compounds. A variety of sulfur compounds associated with the perceived unpleasant odor of kimchi were analyzed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). For the analyses, kimchi was homogenized at room temperature and divided into several sample dishes. The performance of the liner was evaluated by comparing the total area of the GC-MS signals of major off-flavor sulfur compounds during the five days of fermentation at 20℃. As a result, Nano-grade inorganic compound liners reduced the sulfur content by 67 % on average, compared to ordinary polyethylene (PE) foam liners. Afterwards SEM-EDS was used to analyze the sulfur content adsorbed by the liners. The findings of this study strongly suggest that decomposition and adsorption of the odor-generating compounds occur more effectively in the newly-developed inorganic nanocomposite liners.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.46 no.9
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• pp.577-584
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• 2008

The electrolytic reduction of spent oxide fuel involves the liberation of oxygen in a molten LiCl electrolyte, which results in a chemically aggressive environment that is too corrosive for typical structural materials. So, it is essential to choose the optimum material for the process equipment handling molten salt. In this study, corrosion behavior of Inconel 713LC, Inconel MA 754, Nimonic 80A and Nimonic 90 in the molten salt $LiCl-Li_2O$ under an oxidizing atmosphere was investigated at $650^{\circ}C$ for 72~216 hrs. Inconel 713LC alloy showed the highest corrosion resistance among the examined alloys. Corrosion products of Inconel 713LC were $Cr_2O_3$, $NiCr_2O_4$ and NiO, and those of Inconel MA 754 were $Cr_2O_3$ and $Li_2Ni_8O_{10}$ while $Cr_2O_3$, $LiFeO_2$, $(Cr,Ti)_2O_3$ and $Li_2Ni_8O_{10}$ were produced from Nimonic 80A. Also, corrosion products of Nimonic 90 were found to be $Cr_2O_3$, $(Cr,Ti)_2O_3$, $LiAlO_2$ and $CoCr_2O_4$. Inconel 713LC showed local corrosion behavior and Inconel MA 754, Nimonic 80A, Nimonic 90 showed uniform corrosion behavior.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.199-208
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• 2008

This study is concerned with effects of complex oxides on Charpy impact toughness of heat affected zone (HAZ) of API X80 linepipe steels. Three kinds of steels were fabricated by varying alloying elements such as Ti, Al, and Mg and hot-rolling conditions to form complex oxides, and their microstructures and Charpy impact properties were investigated. The number of complex oxides present in the steel containing excess Ti, Al, and Mg was twice larger than that in the conventional steels, while their size ranged from 1 to $3{\mu}m$ in the three steels. After the HAZ simulation test, the steel containing a number of oxides contained about 20 vol.% of acicular ferrite in the simulated HAZ, together with bainitic ferrite and martensite, whereas the HAZ microstructure of the conventional steels consisted of bainitic ferrite and martensite with a small amount of acicular ferrite. This formation of acicular ferrite in the oxide-containing steel was associated with the nucleation of acicular ferrite at complex oxides, thereby leading to the great (five times or more) improvement of Charpy impact toughness over the conventional steels.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.31 no.11
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• pp.614-618
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• 2021

As the size of market for electric vehicles and energy storage systems grows, the demand for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) is increasing. Currently, commercial LIBs are fabricated with liquid electrolytes, which have some safety issues such as low chemical stability, which can cause ignition of fire. As a substitute for liquid electrolytes, solid electrolytes are now being extensively studied. However, solid electrolytes have disadvantages of low ionic conductivity and high resistance at interface between electrode and electrolyte. In this study, Li₇La₃Zr₂O₁₂ (LLZO), one of the best ion conducting materials among oxide based solid electrolytes, is fabricated through RF-sputtering and various electrochemical properties are analyzed. Moreover, the electrochemical properties of LLZO are found to significantly improve with co-sputtered Li₂O. An all-solid thin film battery is fabricated by introducing a thin film solid electrolyte and an Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ (LTO) cathode; resulting electrochemical properties are also analyzed. The LLZO/Li₂O (60W) sample shows a very good performance in ionic conductivity of 7.3×10^-8 S/cm, with improvement in c-rate and stable cycle performance.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.28-43
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• 2022

To minimize such loss due to aging, research on energetic materials is being actively conducted though, there are difficulties in identifying the comprehensive aging mechanisms as they focused on the respective materials. In this study, thermal and surface analysis were performed on energetic materials composed of metals(W, Ti, and Zr) and KClO₄ oxidizer to solve the blind spots of this aging study. It was newly found that the metals in the hygrothermally aged compounds can cause significant changes in performance. For example, the growth in the thickness of the oxide film on the metals led to an increase in the average value of activation energy(E_α). In addition, the standard deviation of E_α tends to dependent on the type of metal, which is due to the difference in electronegativity.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.269-278
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• 2023

Enzyme Immobilized Membrane Bioreactors (EMBRs) are a novel method to treat dyes within wastewater. Due to their efficacy and high resistance to the environment, there has been a large amount of research being done in this area. There are a variety of ways to approach EMBRs that include both the enzyme itself and the structure of said enzymes. The bioreactor itself can be modified to suit the needs of the dye removal. Ranging from Enzymatic bioreactors to utilizing nanostructures such as graphene oxide or carbon nanotubes. Furthermore, nanoparticles such as TiO₂ can be used to enhance the EMBR further as well. The polymer-based membrane supporting structure also includes a variety of different ways to approach the problem of increasing efficacy. As seen, during the past decades, different approaches to this issue that utilize EMBRs have been done. This review aims to summarize the methodologies and describe the various improvements to EMBRs that have been made.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.39-46
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• 2024

In this study, GTZO(Ga-Ti-Zn-O) thin films were deposited at various working pressures (1~7mTorr) by RF magnetron sputtering to examine the structural, electrical, and optical properties. All GTZO thin films exhibited c-axis preferential growth regardless of working pressure, the GTZO thin film deposited at 1mTorr showed the most excellent crystallinity having 0.38˚ of FWHM. The average transmittance in the visible light region (400~800nm) showed 80% or more regardless of the working pressure. We could observed the Burstein-Moss effect that carrier concentration decrease with the increase of working pressure and thus the energy band gap is narrowed. Figure of merits of GTZO thin film deposited at 1mTorr showed the highest value of 9.08 × 103 Ω-1·cm-1, in this case resistivity and average transmittance in the visible light region were 5.12 × 10-4 Ω·cm and 80.64%, respectively.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2015.08a
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• pp.206.1-206.1
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• 2015

최근에 금속산화물을 증착하는 방법으로 용액공정이 주목 받고 있다. 용액 공정은 대기압에서 매우 간단한 방법으로 복잡한 공정과정을 요구하지 않기 때문에 박막을 경제적으로 간단하게 형성할 수 있다. 하지만 용액공정을 통해 형성한 박막에는 소자의 특성을 열화 시키는 solvent와 탄소계열의 불순물을 많이 포함하고 있어 고온의 열처리가 필수적이다. 박막의 품질을 향상시키기 위해서 다양한 열처리 방법들이 이용되고 있으며, 일반적인 열처리 방법으로는 furnace를 이용한 conventional thermal annealing (CTA)이 많이 이용되고 있다. 하지만, 최근에는 microwave를 이용한 공정이 주목 받고 있다. Microwave energy는 CTA보다 효과적으로 비교적 낮은 온도에서 높은 열처리 효과를 나타낸다. 본 실험은 n-type Silicon 기판에 solution-ZrO2 산화막을 형성 후, oven baking을 한 뒤, CTA와 microwave를 이용하여 solvent와 불순물을 제거 하였다. 전기적 특성을 확인하기 위해 solution ZrO2 산화막 위에 E-beam evaporator를 이용해 Ti 금속 전극을 증착하여 Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (MOS) capacitor를 제작하였다. 다음으로, PRECISION SEMICONDUCTOR PARAMETER ANALYZER (4156B)를 이용하여, capacitance-voltage (C-V) 특성 및 current-voltage (I-V) 특성을 비교하였다. 다음으로, CTA를 통하여 제작한 소자와 전기적 특성을 비교하였다. 그 결과, Microwave irradiation으로 열처리한 MOS capacitor 소자에서 capacitance 값과 flat band voltage, hysteresis 등이 개선되는 효과를 확인하였다. Microwave irradiation 열처리는 100oC 미만의 온도에서 공정이 이루어짐에도 불구하고 시료 내에서의 microwave 에너지의 흡수가 CTA 공정에서의 열에너지 흡수보다 훨씬 효율적으로 이루어지며, 결과적으로 ZrO2 용액의 불순물과 solvent를 낮은 온도에서 제거하여 고품질 박막 형성에 매우 효과적이라는 것을 나타낸다. 따라서, microwave irradiation 열처리 방법은 비정질 산화막이 포함되는 박막 transistor 소자 제작에 대하여 결정적인 열처리 방법이 될 것으로 기대한다.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.59 no.12
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• pp.2218-2224
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• 2010

Dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC) is a promising alternative solar cell to the conventional silicon solar cell due to several advantages. Development of large scale module is necessary to commercialize the DSC in the near future. A scribing technology of the transparent conductive oxide (TCO) is one of the important technologies on the fabrication of DSC module. A quality of the scribed line on the TCO has a decisive effect on the efficiency of DSC module. Among several scribing technologies, the fiber laser is a suitable for scribing the TCO more precisely and accurately because of their own characteristics. In this study, we try to improve the quality of the TCO scribed line by using the fiber laser. Consequently, the operating parameter of fiber laser is optimized to get the TCO scribed line with good quality. And the fiber laser scribing technology of the TCO is applied to the fabrication of the DSC with optimal operating parameter, operating current 3900mA. As a result, the current density and fill factor are improved and the total efficiency is increased because the internal resistances of DSC such as TCO sheet resistance and the resistance concerned to the electron movement in the $TiO_2$ are reduced. This is analyzed by the electrochemistry impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and the equivalent circuit model of the DSC.