• The Journal of Advanced Prosthodontics
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.512-520
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• 2014

PURPOSE. The purpose of this study was to assess the surface characteristics and the biocompatibility of zirconium (Zr) coating on Ti-6Al-4V alloy surface by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering method. MATERIALS AND METHODS. The zirconium films were developed on Ti-6Al-4V discs using RF magnetron sputtering method. Surface profile, surface composition, surface roughness and surface energy were evaluated. Electrochemical test was performed to evaluate the corrosion behavior. Cell proliferation, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity and gene expression of mineralized matrix markers were measured. RESULTS. SEM and EDS analysis showed that zirconium deposition was performed successfully on Ti-6Al-4V alloy substrate. Ti-6Al-4V group and Zr-coating group showed no significant difference in surface roughness (P>.05). Surface energy was significantly higher in Zr-coating group than in Ti-6Al-4V group (P<.05). No difference in cell morphology was observed between Ti-6Al-4V group and Zr-coating group. Cell proliferation was higher in Zr-coating group than Ti-6Al-4V group at 1, 3 and 5 days (P<.05). Zr-coating group showed higher ALP activity level than Ti-6Al-4V group (P<.05). The mRNA expressions of bone sialoprotein (BSP) and osteocalcin (OCN) on Zr-coating group increased approximately 1.2-fold and 2.1-fold respectively, compared to that of Ti-6Al-4V group. CONCLUSION. These results suggest that zirconium coating on Ti-6Al-4V alloy could enhance the early osteoblast responses. This property could make non-toxic metal coatings on Ti-6Al-4V alloy suitable for orthopedic and dental implants.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.70.1-70.1
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• 2012

In-situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and infrared (IR) spectroscopy studies of SOFC cathode materials will be discussed in this presentation. The mixed conducting perovskites (ABO3) containing rare and alkaline earth metals on the A-site and a transition metal on the B-site are commonly used as cathodes for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC). However, the details of the oxygen reduction reaction are still not clearly understood. The information about the type of adsorbed oxygen species and their concentration is important for a mechanistic understanding of the oxygen incorporation into these cathode materials. XPS has been widely used for the analysis of adsorbed species and surface structure. However, the conventional XPS experiments have the severe drawback to operate at room temperature and with the sample under ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) conditions, which is far from the relevant conditions of SOFC operation. The disadvantages of conventional XPS can be overcome to a large extent with a "high pressure" XPS setup installed at the BESSY II synchrotron. It allows sample depth profiling over 2 nm without sputtering by variation of the excitation energy, and most importantly measurements under a residual gas pressure in the mbar range. It is also well known that the catalytic activity for the oxygen reduction is very sensitive to their electrical conductivity and oxygen nonstoichiometry. Although the electrical conductivity of perovskite oxides has been intensively studied as a function of temperature or oxygen partial pressure (Po2), in-situ measurements of the conductivity of these materials in contact with the electrolyte as a SOFC configuration have little been reported. In order to measure the in-plane conductivity of an electrode film on the electrolyte, a substrate with high resistance is required for excluding the leakage current of the substrate. It is also hardly possible to measure the conductivity of cracked thin film by electrical methods. In this study, we report the electrical conductivity of perovskite $La_{0.6}Sr_{0.4}CoO_{3-{\delta}}$ (LSC) thin films on yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) electrolyte quantitatively obtained by in-situ IR spectroscopy. This method enables a reliable measurement of the electronic conductivity of the electrodes as part of the SOFC configuration regardless of leakage current to the substrate and cracks in the film.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.19 no.8
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• pp.437-442
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• 2009

This paper describes an improved strategy for controlling the adhesion force using both the antiadhesion and adhesion layers for a successful large-area transfer process. An MPTMS (3-mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane) monolayer as an adhesion layer for Au/Pd thin films was deposited on Si substrates by vapor self assembly monolayer (VSAM) method. Contact angle, surface energy, film thickness, friction force, and roughness were considered for finding the optimized conditions. The sputtered Au/Pd ($\sim$17 nm) layer on the PDMS stamp without the anti-adhesion layer showed poor transfer results due to the high adhesion between sputtered Au/Pd and PDMS. In order to reduce the adhesion between Au/Pd and PDMS, an anti-adhesion monolayer was coated on the PDMS stamp using FOTS (perfluorooctyltrichlorosilane) after $O_2$ plasma treatment. The transfer process with the anti-adhesion layer gave good transfer results over a large area (20 mm $\times$ 20 mm) without pattern loss or distortion. To investigate the applied pressure effect, the PDMS stamp was sandwiched after 90$^{\circ}$ rotation on the MPTMS-coated patterned Si substrate with 1-${\mu}m$ depth. The sputtered Au/Pd was transferred onto the contact area, making square metal patterns on the top of the patterned Si structures. Applying low pressure helped to remove voids and to make conformal contact; however, high pressure yielded irregular transfer results due to PDMS stamp deformation. One of key parameters to success of this transfer process is the controllability of the adhesion force between the stamp and the target substrate. This technique offers high reliability during the transfer process, which suggests a potential building method for future functional structures.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.345-351
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• 2004

Highly ordered pure-silica MCM-41 materials possessing well-defined morphology have been successfully prepared with surfactant used as a template. The fabrication of mesoporous silica has received considerable attention due to the need to develop more efficient materials' for catalysis, separations, and chemical sensing. The surface modified MCM-41 was used as anadsorbent for biomolecules. Silica-supported organic groups and DNA adsorption on surface modified MCM-41 were investigated by FT-IR and UV-Vis spectrometer, respectively. The use of MCM-41 as the modification of electrode surfaces were investigated electrochemical properties of metal mediators with biomolecules. The modified ITO electrodes increased peak currents for a redox process of $[Ru(bpy)_3]^{2+}$ relative to the bare electrode. The electrochemical detection of DNA by cyclic voltammetry when the current is saturated in the presence of the mediator appeared more sensitive due to a higher catalytic current on the MCM-41 supported electrodes modified by carboxylic acid functional groups. The carboxyl or amine groups on the surface of MCM-41 interact and react with the $-NH_2$ groups of guanine and backbone, respectively. Highly ordered mesoporous materials with organic groups could find applications as DNA sensors.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.178-181
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• 2000

In this experiments, tin oxide thin film anode for microbattery was deposited by using RF magnetron sputtering. The RF power and operating pressure during deposition were fixed at $2.5W/cm^2$ and 10mTorr respectively. The partial pressure of oxygen was varied from $0\%\;to\;100\%$ to control oxygen content and metal Sn chips were used further reducing of oxygen content. According to reduction in the oxygen content formation of the irreversible $Li_2O$ was reduced a thin film anode of $SnO_x$ of high capacity was fabricated. The optimum $SnO_x$, thin film was $SnO_{1.43}$ which exhibited a reversible capacity of $ 500{\mu}Ah/cm^2{\mu}m$ and exhibited good reversibility.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.76-76
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• 2008

The resonance properties due to the surface plasmon(SP) excitation of metal nanoparticles make the nanocomposite films promising for various applications such as optical switching devices. In spite of the well-known ultra-sensitive operation of optical switches based on a guided wave, the application of nanocomposite film(NC) has inherent limitation originating from the excessive optical loss related with the surface plasmon resonance(SPR). In this study, we addressed this problem and present the experimental and theoretical analysis on the pump-probe optical switching in prism-coupled Au(1 vol.%):$SiO_2$ nanocomposite waveguide film. The guided mode was successfully generated using a near infrared probe beam of 1550 nm and modulated with an external pump beam of 532 nm close to the SPR wavelength. We extend our approach to ultra-fast operation using a pulsed laser with 5 ns pulse width. To improve the switching speed through the reduction in thermal loading effect accompanied by the resonant absorption of pump beam light, we adopted a metallic film as a coupling layer instead of low-index dielectric layer between the high-index SF10 prism and NC slab waveguide. We observed great enhancement in switching speed for the case of using metallic coupling layer, and founded a distinct difference in origin of optical nonlinearities induced during switching operation using cw and ns laser.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.574-581
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• 2012

The relatively short lifetime is a major obstruction for the commercial applications of OLED. One of the reason for the short lifetime is that the organic materials are interacted with water or oxygen in the atmosphere. Protection of water or oxygen from diffusing into the organic material layers are necessary to increase the lifetime of OLED. Although encapsulation of OLED with glass or metal cans has been established, passivation methods of OLED by organic/inorganic thin films are still being developed. In this paper we have developed in-situ passivation system and thin film passivation method using PECVD by which deposition can be performed at room temperature. We have analyzed the characteristics of the passivated OLED device also. The WVTR (Water Vapor Transmission Rate) for the inorganic thin film mono-layer can be reached down to $1{\times}10^{-2}g/m^2{\cdot}day$ and improved lifetime can be obtained. Thin film passivation methods are expected to be applied to flexible display.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.53-60
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• 2014

Different kinds of post-deposition annealing (PDA) by a rapid thermal process (RTP) are used to enhance the field-effect passivation of $Al_2O_3$ film in crystal Si solar cells. To characterize the effects of PDA on $Al_2O_3$ and the interface, metal-insulator semiconductor (MIS) devices were fabricated. The effects of PDA were characterized as functions of RTP temperature from $400{\sim}700^{\circ}C$ and RTP time from 30~120 s. A high temperature PDA can retard the passivation of thin $Al_2O_3$ film in c-Si solar cells. PDA by RTP at $400^{\circ}C$ results in better passivation than a PDA at $400^{\circ}C$ in forming gas ($H_2$ 4% in $N_2$) for 30 minutes. A high thermal budget causes blistering on $Al_2O_3$ film, which degrades its thermal stability and effective lifetime. It is related to the film structure, deposition temperature, thickness of the film, and annealing temperature. RTP shows the possibility of being applied to the PDA of $Al_2O_3$ film. Optimal PDA conditions should be studied for specific $Al_2O_3$ films, considering blistering.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.3 no.5
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• pp.198-208
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• 2004

Although there has been no general agreement on the mechanism of primary water stress corrosion cracking (PWSCC) as one of major degradation modes of Ni-base alloys in pressurized water reactors (PWR's), common postulation derived from previous studies is that the damage to the alloy substrate can be related to mass transport characteristics and/or repair properties of overlaid oxide film. Recently, it was shown that the oxide film structure and PWSCC initiation time as well as crack growth rate were systematically varied as a function of dissolved hydrogen concentration in high temperature water, supporting the postulation. In order to understand how the oxide film composition can vary with water chemistry, this study was conducted to characterize oxide films on Alloy 600 by an in-situ Raman spectroscopy. Based on both experimental and thermodynamic prediction results, Ni/NiO thermodynamic equilibrium condition was defined as a function of electrochemical potential and temperature. The results agree well with Attanasio et al.'s data by contact electrical resistance measurements. The anomalously high PWSCC growth rate consistently observed in the vicinity of Ni/NiO equilibrium is then attributed to weak thermodynamic stability of NiO. Redox-induced phase transition between Ni metal and NiO may undermine the integrity of NiO and enhance presumably the percolation of oxidizing environment through the oxide film, especially along grain boundaries. The redox-induced grain boundary oxide degradation mechanism has been postulated and will be tested by using the in-situ Raman facility.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.19 no.12
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• pp.637-643
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• 2009

In this study, we analyzed the effect of silicon oxynitride matrix on the optical properties of Au nanoparticles dispersed on composite film and explored the effectiveness of the silicon in fine tuning the refractive index of the composite film for applications in optical waveguide devices. The atomic fraction of nitrogen in $SiO_xN_y$ films was controlled by varying the relative flow ratio of nitrogen gas in reactive sputtering and was evaluated optically using an effective medium theory with Bruggeman geometry consisting of a random mixture between $SiO_2$ and $Si_3N_4$. The Au nanoparticles were embedded in the $SiO_xN_y$ matrix by employing the alternating deposition technique and clearly showed an absorption peak due to the excitation of surface plasmon. With increasing nitrogen atomic fraction in the matrix, the surface plasmon resonance wavelength shifted to a longer wavelength (a red-shift) with an enhanced resonance absorption. These characteristics were interpreted using the Maxwell-Garnett effective medium theory. The formation of a guided mode in a slab waveguide consisting of 3 $\mu$m thick Au:$SiO_xN_y$ nanocomposite film was confirmed at the telecommunication wavelength of 1550 nm by prism coupler method and compared with the case of using $SiO_2$ matrix. The use of $SiO_xN_y$ matrix provides an effective way of controlling the mode confinement while maintaining or even enhancing the surface plasmon resonance properties.