• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.20 no.11
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• pp.592-599
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• 2010

A porous nickel-tin nano-dendritic electrode, for use as the anode in a rechargeable lithium battery, has been prepared by using an electrochemical deposition process. The adjustment of the complexing agent content in the deposition bath enabled the nickel-tin alloys to have specific stoichiometries while the amount of acid, as a dynamic template for micro-porous structure, was limited to a certain amount to prevent its undesirable side reaction with the complexing agent. The ratios of nickel to tin in the electro-deposits were nearly identical to the ratios of nickel ion to tin ion in the deposition bath; the particle changed from spherical to dendritic shape according to the tin content in the deposits. The nickel to tin ratio and the dendritic structure were quite uniform throughout the thickness of the deposits. The resulting nickel-tin alloy was reversibly lithiated and delithiated as an anode in rechargeable lithium battery. Furthermore, the resulting anode showed much more stable cycling performance up to 50 cycles, as compared to that resulting from dense electro-deposit with the same atomic composition and from tin electrodeposit with a similar porous structure. From the results, it is expected that highly-porous nickel-tin alloys presented in this work could provide a promising option for the high performance anode materials for rechargeable lithium batteries.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.172-178
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• 2013

This study examined the electrochemical deposition and dissolution of lithium on nickel electrodes in 1 mol $dm^{-3}$ (M) $LiPF_6$ dissolved in propylene carbonate (PC) containing different 1,2-dimethoxyethane (DME) concentrations as a co-solvent. The DME concentration was found to have a significant effect on the reactions occurring at the electrode. The poor cycleability of the electrodes in the pure PC solution was improved considerably by adding small amounts of DME. This results suggested that the dendritic lithium growth could be suppressed by using co-solvents. After hundredth cycling in the 1 M $LiPF_6$/PC:DME (67:33) solution, almost no dead lithium has been found from the disassembled cell, resulting from suppression of dendritic lithium growth. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that dendritic lithium formation was greatly affected by the ratio of DME. Raman spectroscopy results suggested that the structure of solvated lithium ions is a crucial important factor in suppressing dendritic lithium formation.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.171-175
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• 2011

Lithium secondary batteries using lithium metal count electrode are easy to use and to analyze the specific characteristics of working electrode. Nevertheless, during the charge operation internal electrical short circuit could be caused by the dendritic growth of lithium. The cell failure by the short circuit depends on the condition of separator such as constitutive material and thickness. To prevent the cell failure caused by the dendritic growth of lithium, the electrochemical properties of the cell of lithium metal count electrode were evaluated for four different kinds of separator. Among the tested separators, GMF (glass micro-fiber filter, $300{\mu}m$) was the most promising one because it could effectively prevent the cell failure during the charge. The cell using GMF separator had relatively low impedance. Generally the cell using thicker separator than $50{\mu}m$ could effectively avoid the cell failure by internal short circuit and had the good cycleability. The highest rate capability by the signature method was acquired in the case of GMF separator.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.10-18
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• 2010

Controlled electrodeposition of dendritic nano-structured gold-platinum (AuPt) alloy onto an electrochemically pretreated carbon paper substrate was conducted in an attempt to improve catalyst utilization and to secure an electronic percolation network toward formic acid (FA) fuel cell application. The AuPt catalysts were obtained by potentiostatic deposition. AuPt catalysts synthesized as bimetallic alloys with 60% Au content exhibited the highest catalytic activity towards formic acid electro-oxidation. The origin of this high activity and the role of Au were evaluated, in particular, by XPS analysis. Polarization and stability measurements with 1 mg $cm^{-2}$ AuPt catalyst (only 0.4 mg $cm^{-2}$ Pt) showed 52 mW $cm^{-2}$ and sustainable performance using 3M formic acid and dry air at $40^{\circ}C$.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.275-284
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• 2003

The positive temperature coefficient (PTC) effects of high density polyethylene (HDPE)/carbon black composite materials were investigated by enhancing adhesive characteristics of electrodes and controlling HDPE chemical crosslinking. When the silver paste was used as an electrode for the same 45 wt% HDPE/carbon composites, the resistance was over 1 $\Omega$, which should be compared with the resistance of 0.2 $\Omega$ for the dendritic copper electrode. In general, the silver-paste electrode exhibited higher electrical resistance than cupper electrode due to the interfacial resistance between the electrode and PTC composites. The HDPE/carbon composite exhibited typical PTC characteristics maintaining a constant resistance up to vicat point and showing a maximum at the melting point of HDPE. The crosslinked HDPE significantly decreased the negative temperature coefficient (NTC) phenomena, and desirably showed a constant or slightly increasing feature of electrical resistance in the high temperature region.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.89.1-89.1
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• 2010

Since Gratzel and co-workers developed a new type of solar cell based on the nanocrystalline $TiO_2$ electrode, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have attracted considerable attention on account of their high solar energy-to-conversion efficiencies (11%), their easy manufacturing process with low cost production compared to conventional p-n junction solar cells. The mechanism of DSSC is based on the injection of electrons from the photoexcited dye into the conduction band of nanocrystalline $TiO_2$. The oxidized dye is reduced by the hole injection process from either the hole counter or electrolyte. Thus, the electronic structures, such as HOMO, LUMO, and HOMO-LUMO gap, of dye molecule in DSSC are deeply related to the electron transfer by photoexcitation and redox potential. To date, high performance and good stability of DSSC based on Ru-dyes as a photosensitizer had been widely addressed in the literatures. DSSC with Ru-bipyridyl complexes (N3 and N719), and the black ruthenium dye have achieved power conversion efficiencies up to 11.2% and 10.4%, respectively. However, the Ru-dyes are facing the problem of manufacturing costs and environmental issues. In order to obtain even cheaper photosensitizers for DSSC, metal-free organic photosensitizers are strongly desired. Metal-free organic dyes offer superior molar extinction coefficients, low cost, and a diversity of molecular structures, compared to conventional Ru-dyes. Recently, novel photosensitizers such as coumarin, merocyanine, cyanine, indoline, hemicyanine, triphenylamine, dialkylaniline, bis(dimethylfluorenyl)-aminophenyl, phenothiazine, tetrahydroquinoline, and carbazole based dyes have achieved solar-to-electrical power conversion efficiencies up to 5-9%. On the other hand, organic dye molecules have large ${\pi}$-conjugated planner structures which would bring out strong molecular stacking in their solid-state and poor solubility in their media. It was well known that the molecular stacking of organic dyes could reduce the electron transfer pathway in opto-electronic devices, significantly. In this paper, we have studied on synthesis and characterization of dendritic organic dyes with different number of electron acceptor/anchoring moieties in the end of dendrimer. The photovoltaic performances and the incident photon-to-current (IPCE) of these dyes were measured to evaluate the effects of the dendritic strucuture on the open-circuit voltage and the short-circuit current.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.117.2-117.2
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• 2011

Since Gratzel and co-workers developed a new type of solar cell based on the nanocrystalline TiO2 electrode, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have attracted considerable attention on account of their high solar energy-to-conversion efficiencies (11%), their easy manufacturing process with low cost production compared to conventional p-n junction solar cells. The mechanism of DSSC is based on the injection of electrons from the photoexcited dye into the conduction band of nanocrystalline TiO2. The oxidized dye is reduced by the hole injection process from either the hole counter or electrolyte. Thus, the electronic structures, such as HOMO, LUMO, and HOMO-LUMO gap, of dye molecule in DSSC are deeply related to the electron transfer by photoexcitation and redox potential. To date, high performance and good stability of DSSC based on Ru-dyes as a photosensitizer had been widely addressed in the literatures. DSSC with Ru-bipyridyl complexes (N3 and N719), and the black ruthenium dye have achieved power conversion efficiencies up to 11.2% and 10.4%, respectively. However, the Ru-dyes are facing the problem of manufacturing costs and environmental issues. In order to obtain even cheaper photosensitizers for DSSC, metal-free organic photosensitizers are strongly desired. Metal-free organic dyes offer superior molar extinction coefficients, low cost, and a diversity of molecular structures, compared to conventional Ru-dyes. Recently, novel photosensitizers such as coumarin, merocyanine, cyanine, indoline, hemicyanine, triphenylamine, dialkylaniline, bis(dimethylfluorenyl)-aminophenyl, phenothiazine, tetrahydroquinoline, and carbazole based dyes have achieved solar-to-electrical power conversion efficiencies up to 5-9%. On the other hand, organic dye molecules have large ${\pi}$-conjugated planner structures which would bring out strong molecular stacking in their solid-state and poor solubility in their media. It was well known that the molecular stacking of organic dyes could reduce the electron transfer pathway in opto-electronic devices, significantly. In this paper, we have studied on synthesis and characterization of dendritic organic dyes with different number of electron acceptor/anchoring moieties in the end of dendrimer. The photovoltaic performances and the incident photon-to-current (IPCE) of these dyes were measured to evaluate the effects of the dendritic strucuture on the open-circuit voltage and the short-circuit current.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.390-396
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• 2012

In order to understand the nature of dendritic zinc growth, electrochemical zinc redox reaction on nickel plate was investigated in aqueous solutions containing different concentrations, 0.2, 0.1 and 0.02 $mol{\cdot}dm^{-3}$ (M), of zinc sulfate ($ZnSO_4$) or zinc chloride ($ZnCl_2$). Zinc ion was efficiently reduced and oxidized on nickel in the high-concentration (0.2 M) solution, whereas relatively poor efficiency was obtained from the other low-concentration solutions (0,1 and 0.02 M). Cyclic voltammetry (CV) analysis revealed that the 0.2 M electrolyte solution decomposes at more positive potentials than the 0.1 and the 0.02 M solutions. These results suggested that the concentration of electrolyte solution and anion would be an important factor that suppresses the reaction of the zinc dendrite formation. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) data revealed that the shape of dendritic zinc and its growing behavior were also influenced by electrolyte concentration.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.305-310
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• 2014

This study examined the morphological changes in lithium surface immersed in 1mol $dm^{-3}$ (M) $LiPF_6 $ dissolved in propylene carbonate (PC) containing different 1,2-dimethoxyethane (DME) concentrations as a co-solvent. A passivation film was formed on the surface of lithium metal by electrolyte decomposition. The passivation film formation reactions were significantly affected by the amount of co-solvent, DME, in electrolyte solution. A stable film was obtained from the 1 M $LiPF_6 $ / PC:DME (67:33) solution in which lithium electrode showed good electrochemical performances. Atomic force microscope (AFM) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) results revealed that there were no direct correlations between changes in the surface morphology of lithium metal and the resistance behavior of its passivation film.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.209-215
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• 2014

We report on the electrocatalytic activities at Pt nanostructure surfaces electrodeposited with different deposition charges on indium tin oxide electrodes for oxygen reduction and methanol oxidation reactions. The surface properties of Pt nanostructures depending on deposition charges were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, electrochemical surface area measurement, X-ray diffraction, and CO stripping analysis, which were correlated to the electrocatalytic activities. Pt nanostructures with deposition charge of 0.03 C exhibited the highest electrocatalytic activity for oxygen reduction and methanol oxidation. The sharp sites of Pt nanostructure and the presence of highly active facet play a key role, whereas the electrochemical surface area does not significantly affect the electrocatalytic activity. The results obtained in this work with regard to the dependence of electrocatalytic activity on the variation of the Pt nanostructures will give insights into the development of advanced electrocatalytic systems.