• Journal of Surface Science and Engineering
• /
• v.51 no.6
• /
• pp.365-371
• /
• 2018

1D core-shell nanostructures have attracted great attention due to their enhanced physical and chemical properties. Specifically, oriented single-crystalline $TiO_2$ nanorods or nanowires on a transparent conductive substrate would be more desirable as the building core backbone. However, a facile approach to produce such structure-based hybrids is highly demanded. In this study, a three-step hydrothermal method was developed to grow NiMn-layered double hydroxide-decorated $TiO_2$/carbon core-shell nanorod arrays on transparent conductive fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrates. XRD, SEM, TEM, XPS and Raman were used to analyze the obtained samples. The in-situ fabricated hybrid nanostructured materials are expected to be applicable for photoelectrode working in water splitting.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.33 no.6
• /
• pp.1989-1992
• /
• 2012

We present a low temperature (${\approx}70^{\circ}C$) method to prepare anatase, vertically aligned feather-like $TiO_2$ (VAFT) nanowire arrays $via$ reactive pulsed DC magnetron sputtering. The synthesis method is general, offering a promising strategy for preparing crystalline nanowire metal oxide films for applications including gas sensing, photocatalysis, and 3rd generation photovoltaics. As an example application, anatase nanowire films are grown on fluorine doped tin oxide coated glass substrates and used as the photoanode in dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). AM1.5G power conversion efficiencies for the solar cells made of 1 ${\mu}m$ thick VAFT have reached 0.42%, which compares favorably to solar cells made of the same thickness P25 $TiO_2$ (0.35%).

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2005.07a
• /
• pp.461-462
• /
• 2005

In order to improve the efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC), $TiO_2$ electrode screen-printed on transparent conducting oxide (TCO) substrate was sintered in variation with different temperature(350 to $550^{\circ}C$). $TiO_2$ electrode on fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) glass was assembled with Pt counter electrode on FTO glass. I-V properties of DSC were measured under solar simulator. Also, effect of sintering temperature on surface morphology of $TiO_2$ films was investigated to understand correlation between its surface morphology and sintering temperature. Such surface morphology was observed by atomic force microscopy (AFM). From the measurement results, at sintering temperature of $500^{\circ}C$, both efficiency and fill factor of DSC were mutually complementary, enhancing highest fill factor and efficiency. Consequently, it was considered that optimum sintering temperature of $\alpha$-terpinol included $TiO_2$ paste is at $500^{\circ}C$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2007.11a
• /
• pp.511-511
• /
• 2007

Low-emissivity (low-e) coatings with visible transparency have attracted increased interest m reducing heat radiation loss through window panes from ecological and sustainable aspects. $TiO_2$-silver transparent thin films for low-e have good properties for UV and IR blocking as well as photocatalyst compared to that with commercial UV blocking films such as fluorine doped oxide (FTO), antimony doped tin oxide (ATO), etc. In this study, transparent $TiO_2$-silver thin films were prepared by successive ink-jet printing of commercial nano silver and $TiO_2$ sol. The $TiO_2$ sol, as ink for ink-jet printing, were synthesized by hydrothermal process in the autoclave externally pressurized with $N_2$ gas of 200 bar at $120^{\circ}C$ for 10 hrs. The synthesized $TiO_2$ sols were all formed with brookite phase and their particle size was several to 30 nm. At first nano sized silver sol was coated on glass substrate, after that $TiO_2$ sol was coated by ink-jet printing. With increasing coating thickness of $TiO_2$-silver multilayer by repeated ink-jet coating, the absorbance of UV region (under 400nm) and IR region (over 700nm) also increase reasonably, compared to that with commercial UV blocking films.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2016.02a
• /
• pp.407.1-407.1
• /
• 2016

Electrochromism is defined as a phenomenon which involves persistently repeated change of optical properties between bleached state and colored state by simultaneous injection of electrons and ions, sufficient to induce an electrochemical redox process. Due to this feature, considerable progress has been made in the synthesis of electrochromic (EC) materials, improvements of EC properties in EC devices such as light shutter, smart window and variable reflectance mirrors etc. Among the variable EC materials, solid-state inorganics in particular, metal oxide semiconducting materials such as nickel oxide (NiO) have been investigated extensively. The NiO that is an anodic EC material is of special interest because of high color contrast ratio, large dynamic range and low material cost. The high performance EC devices should present the use of standard industrial production techniques to produce films with high coloration efficiency, rapid switching speed and robust reversibility. Generally, the color contrast and the optical switching speed increase drastically if high surface area is used. The structure of porous thin film provides a specific surface area and can facilitate a very short response time of the reaction between the surface and ions. The large variety of methods has been used to prepare the porous NiO thin films such as sol-gel process, chemical bath deposition and sputtering. Few studies have been reported on NiO thin films made by using sol-gel method. However, compared with dry process, wet processes that have the questions of the durability and the vestige of bleached state color limit the thin films practical use, especially when prepared by sol-gel method. In this study, we synthesis the porous NiO thin films on the fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) glass by using sputtering and anodizing method. Also we compared electrical and optical properties of NiO thin films prepared by sol gel. The porous structure is promised to be helpful to the properties enhancement of the EC devices.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
• /
• v.7 no.4
• /
• pp.97-102
• /
• 2019

Bifacial and semitransparent hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin-film solar cells in p-i-n configuration were prepared with front and rear transparent conducting oxide (TCO) electrodes using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition method. Fluorine-doped tin oxide and tin-doped indium oxide films were used as front and rear TCO contacts, respectively. Film thickness of intrinsic a-Si:H absorber layers were controlled from 150 nm to 450 nm by changing deposition time. The dependence of performance characteristics of solar cells on the front and rear illumination direction were investigated. For front illumination, gradual increase in the short-circuit current density (J_SC) from 10.59 mA/㎠ to 14.19 mA/㎠ was obtained, whereas slight decreases from 0.83 V to 0.81 V for the open-circuit voltage (V_OC) and from 68.43% to 65.75% for fill factor (FF) were observed. The average optical transmittance in the wavelength region of 380 ~ 780 nm of the solar cells decreased gradually from 22.76% to 15.67% as the absorber thickness was changed from 150 nm to 450 nm. In case of the solar cells under rear illumination condition, the J_SC increased from 10.81 to 12.64 mA/㎠ and the FF deceased from 66.63% to 61.85%, while the V_OC values were maintained at 0.80 V with increasing the absorber thickness from 150 nm to 450 nm. By optimizing the deposition parameters, a high-quality bifacial and semitransparent a-Si:H solar cell with 350 nm-thick i-a-Si:H absorber layer exhibited the conversion efficiencies of 7.69% for front illumination and 6.40% for rear illumination, and average visible optical transmittance of 17.20%.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.18-27
• /
• 2014

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), developed two decades ago, are considered to be an attractive technology among various photovoltaic devices because of their low cost, accessible dye chemistry, ease of fabrication, high power conversion efficiency, and environmentally friendly nature. A typical DSSCs consists of a dye-coated $TiO_2$ photoanode, a redox electrolyte, and a platinum (Pt)-coated fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) counter electrode. Among them, redox electrolytes have proven to be extremely important in improving the performance of DSSCs. Due to many drawbacks of iodide electrolytes, many research groups have paid more attention to seeking other alternative electrolyte systems. With regard to this, one-electron outer sphere redox shuttles based on cobalt complexes have shown promising results: In 2014, porphyrin dye (SM315) with the cobalt (II/III) redox couple exhibited a power conversion efficiency of 13% in DSSCs. In this review, we will provide an overview and perspectives of cobalt redox electrolytes in DSSCs.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2016.02a
• /
• pp.276.2-276.2
• /
• 2016

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) are promising candidates for light-to-energy conversion devices due to their low-cost, easy fabrication and relative high conversion efficiency. An important component of DSCs is counter electrode (CE) collect electrons from external circuit and reduct I3- to I-. The conventional CEs are thermally decomposed Pt on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) glass substrates, which have shown excellent performance and stability. However, Pt is not suitable in terms of cost effect. In this report, we demonstrated that nickel sulfide thin films by atomic layer deposition (ALD)-using Nickel(1-dimethylamino-2-methyl-2-butanolate)2 and hydrogen sulfide at low temperatures of $90-200^{\circ}C$-could be good CEs in DSCs. Notably, ALD allows the thin films to grow with good reproducibility, precise thickness control and excellent conformality at the angstrom or monolayer level. The nickel sulfide films were characterized using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, hall measurements and cyclic voltammetry. The ALD grown nickel sulfide thin films showed high catalytic activity for the reduction of I3- to I- in DSC. The DSCs with the ALD-grown nickel sulfide thin films as CEs showed the solar cell efficiency of 7.12% which is comparable to that of the DSC with conventional Pt coated counter electrode (7.63%).

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2016.02a
• /
• pp.156.1-156.1
• /
• 2016

Nickel sulfide (NiS) is one of the most promising candidates as an electrode material for supercapacitors due to its good capacitive properties, high electrical conductivity and low cost. In addition to the development of the new electrode materials, nanostructuring the electrode surface is one of the main issues in enhancing the capacitive performance of the supercapacitors because the increased surface area can improve the charge transfer and energy storage processes occurring at the electrode surface. However, most nanofabrication techniques require complicated and delicate nanoprocesses, and hence are not suitable for practical use. In this work, we developed a simple method to fabricate nanostructured NiS electrodes by depositing NiS onto $TiO_2$ nanoparticles. First, $TiO_2$ nanoparticles were spin-coated on a fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrate, and then NiS layers were deposited onto the $TiO_2$ nanoparticles by consecutive dip-coatings in the solutions containing nickel and sulfur precursors. This nanostructured NiS electrode showed significantly improved capacitive properties compared to the electrode of NiS films deposited without $TiO_2$ nanoparticles. The asymmetric full-cell supercapacitor with this nanostructured NiS electrode and activated carbon electrode was also fabricated and investigated.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2007.06a
• /
• pp.335-338
• /
• 2007

Cost effectiveness is an important parameter for producing DSSCs as compared to the widely used conventional silicon based solar cells. A fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrate coated with a catalytic amount of platinum is used as counter electrode in dye-sensitized solar cell. Carbonaceous materials are quite attractive to replace platinum due to their high electronic conductivity, corrosion resistance towards $I_{2}$, good catalytic effect and low cost. In this paper, the unit DSSCs with Pt and CNT as a counter electrode were connected in series-parallel externally, then the current-voltage curves were investigated to find out the connection characteristics of the DSSC with CNT counter electrode. The connection characteristics of the DSSC with CNT counter electrode is superior to that of the DSSC with Pt counter electrode. And a parallel connection of the DSSC with CNT counter electrode has higher efficiency than a series connection of that.