• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.332-338
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• 2023

Thermite welding is an exceptional process that does not require additional energy supplies, resulting in welded joints that exhibit mechanical properties and conductivity equivalent to those of the parent materials. The global adoption of thermite welding is growing across various industries. However, in Korea, limited research is being conducted on the core technology of thermite welding. Currently, domestic production of thermite powder in Korea involves recycling copper oxide (CuO). Unfortunately, controlling the particle size of waste CuO poses challenges, leading to the unwanted formation of pores and cracks during thermite welding. In this study, we investigate the influence of powder particle size on thermite welding in the production of Cu-thermite powder using waste CuO. We conduct the ball milling process for 0.5-24 h using recycled CuO. The evolution of the powder shape and size is analyzed using particle size analysis and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Furthermore, we examine the thermal reaction characteristics through differential scanning calorimetry. Additionally, the microstructures of the welded samples are observed using optical microscopy and SEM to evaluate the impact of powder particle size on weldability. Lastly, hardness measurements are performed to assess the strengths of the welded materials.

• Advances in nano research
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.53-69
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• 2024

Advancements in the technology of building materials has led to diverse applications of nanomaterials with the aim to monitor concrete structures. While there are myriad instances of the use of nanoparticles in building materials, the production of smart nano cement-composites is often expensive. Thereupon, this research aims to discover a sustainable nanomaterial from tyre waste using the pyrolysis process as part of the green manufacturing circle. Here, Nano Structure Tyre-Char (NSTC) is introduced as a zero-dimension carbon-based nanoparticle. The NSTC particles were characterized using various standard characterization techniques. Several salient results for the NSTC particles were obtained using microscopic and spectroscopic techniques. The size of the particles as well as that of the agglomerates were reduced significantly using the milling process and the results were validated through a scanning electron microscope. The crystallite size and crystallinity were found to be ~35nm and 10.42%, respectively. The direct bandgap value of 5.93eV and good optical conductivity at 786 nm were obtained from the ultra violet visible spectroscopy measurements. The thermal analysis reveals the presence of a substantial amount of carbon, the rate of maximum weight loss, and the two stages of phase transformation. The FT-Raman confirms the presence of carboxyl groups and a ID/IG ratio of 0.83. Water contact angle around 140° on the surface implies the highly hydrophobic nature of the material and its low surface energy. This characteristic process assists to obtain a sustainable nanomaterial from waste tyres, contributing to the development of a smart building material.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.162-167
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• 2018

The effect of the average particle size and shape of silver nanoparticles for the transparent conductive film (TCF) was studied. Optical and electrical properties of silver conductive lines coated on the polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film was also measured. Silver nanoparticles produced by Ag-CM, Ag-ME, Ag-EE methods showed an excellent conductivity compared to those produced by Ag-EB, Ag-CR and Ag-PL methods, but a little difference in the transparency. In the case of the former three silver nanoparticles, the average particle size was about 80 nm or less and the size was uniform. For the latter case, the severe agglomeration phenomena of particles was observed and the average particle size was 100 nm or more. This result was consistent with the result of the uniformity of the pattern shape and thickness on conductive line patterns observed by SEM. Therefore, it was confirmed that the electrical characteristics could be obtained when the average particle size of silver nanoparticles is smaller and the uniformity of the particles is maintained.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.15-21
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• 2019

We investigated the structural, electrical and optical properties of zinc oxide (ZnO) ultra-thin films grown at $150^{\circ}C$ by atomic layer deposition (ALD). Diethylzinc and deionized water were used as metal precursors and reactants, respectively, for the deposition of ZnO thin films. The growth rate per ALD cycle was a constant 0.21 nm/cycle at $150^{\circ}C$, and samples below 50 cycles had amorphous properties due to the relatively thin thickness at the initial ALD growth stage. With the increase of the thickness from 100 cycles to 200 cycles, the crystallinity of ZnO thin films was increased and hexagonal wurtzite structure was observed. In addition, the particle size of the ZnO thin film increased with increasing number of ALD cycles. Electrical properties analysis showed that the resistivity value decreased with the increase of the thin film thickness, which is correlated with the decrease of the grain boundary concentration in the thicker ZnO thin film due to the increase of grain size and the improvement of the crystallinity. Optical characterization results showed that the band edge absorption in the near ultraviolet region (300 nm~400 nm) was increased and shifted. This phenomenon is due to the increase of the carrier concentration with the increase of the ZnO thin film thickness. This result agrees well with the decrease of the resistivity with the increase of the thin film thickness. Consequently, as the thickness of the thin film increases, the stress on the film surface is relaxed, the band gap decreases, and the crystallinity and conductivity are improved.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.330-335
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• 2018

A new approach for the fabrication of organic-organic conducting composite thin films using simultaneous co-vaporization vapor phase polymerization (SC-VPP) of two or more monomers that have different polymerization mechanisms (i.e., oxidation-coupling polymerization and radical polymerization) was reported for the first time. In this study, a PEDOT-PSMA composite thin film consisting of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)(PEDOT) and poly(styrene-co-maleic anhydride)(PSMA) was prepared by SC-VPP process. The preparation of organic-organic conductive composite thin films was confirmed through FT-IR and $^1H-NMR$ analyses. The surface morphology analysis showed that the surface of PEDOT-PSMA thin film was rougher than that of PEDOT thin film. Therefore, PEDOT-PSMA exhibited lower electrical conductivity than that of PEDOT. But the conductivity can be improved by adding 2-ethyl-4-methyl imidazole as a weak base. The contact angle of PEDOT-PSMA was about $50^{\circ}$, as compared to $62^{\circ}$ for PEDOT. The demonstrated methodology for preparing an organic-organic conductive hybrid thin film is expected to be useful for adjusting intrinsic conductive polymer (ICP)'s surface properties such as mechanical, optical, and roughness properties.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.204-210
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• 2020

ZnO thin films are of considerable interest because they can be customized by various coating technologies to have high electrical conductivity and high visible light transmittance. Therefore, ZnO thin films can be applied to various optoelectronic device applications such as transparent conducting thin films, solar cells and displays. In this study, ZnO rod and thin films are fabricated using aqueous chemical bath deposition (CBD), which is a low-cost method at low temperatures, and environmentally friendly. To investigate the structural, electrical and optical properties of ZnO for the presence of citrate ion, which can significantly affect crystal form of ZnO, various amounts of the citrate ion are added to the aqueous CBD ZnO reaction bath. As a result, ZnO crystals show a nanorod form without citrate, but a continuous thin film when citrate is above a certain concentration. In addition, as the citrate concentration increases, the electrical conductivity of the ZnO thin films increases, and is almost unchanged above a certain citrate concentration. Cu(In,Ga)Se₂ (CIGS) solar cell substrates are used to evaluate whether aqueous CBD ZnO thin films can be applicable to real devices. The performance of aqueous CBD ZnO thin films shows performance similar to that of a sputter-deposited ZnO:Al thin film as top transparent electrodes of CIGS solar cells.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.56-56
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• 2010

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) have attracted much attention as a promising material for transparent conducting films (TCFs), due to their superior electrical conductivity, high mechanical strength, and complete flexibility as well as their one-dimensional morphological features of extremely high length-to-diameter ratios. This study investigated three kinds of SWCNTs with different purities: as-produced SWCNTs (AP-SWCNTs), thermally purified SWCNTs (TH-SWCNTs), thermally and acid purified SWCNTs (TA-SWCNTs). The purity of each SWCNT sample was assessed by considering absorption peaks in the semiconducting ($S_{22}$) and metallic ($M_{11}$) tubes with UV-Vis NIR spectroscopy and a metal content with thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The purity increased as proceeding the purification stages from the AP-SWCNTs through the thermal purification to the acid purification. The samples containing different contents of SWCNTs were dispersed in water using sodium dodecyl benzensulfate (SDBS). Aqueous suspensions of different purities of SWCNTs were prepared to have similar absorbances in UV-Vis absorption measurements so that one can make the TCFs possess similar optical transmittances irrespective of the SWCNT purity. Transparent conductive SWCNT networks were formed by spraying an SWCNT suspension onto a poly(ethyleneterephthalate) (PET) substrate. As expected, the TCFs fabricated with AP-SWCNTs showed very high sheet resistances. Interestingly, the TH-SWCNTs gave lower sheet resistances to the TFCs than the TA-SWCNTs although the latter was of higher purity in the SWCNT content than the former. The TA-SWCNTs would be shortened in length and be more bundled by the acid purification, relative to the TH-SWCNTs. For both purified (TH, TA) samples, the subsequent nitric acid ($HNO_3$) treatment greatly lowered the sheet resistances of the TCFs, but almost eliminated the difference of sheet resistances between them. This seems to be because the electrical conductivity increased not only due to further removal of surfactants but also due to p-type doping upon the acid treatment. The doping effect was likely to overwhelm the effect of surfactant removal. Although the nitric acid treatment resulted in the similar. electrical properties to the two samples, the TCFs of TH-SWCNTs showed much lower sheet resistances than those of the TA-SWCNTs prior to the acid treatment.

• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.239-247
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• 2005

In this study, we have used newly developed dual-beam shearography which is based on laser speckle that includes various information about an object. Among the several shearing techniques, we used Michelson shearing interference technique which is the most powerful. Acrylate plate was used as a sample, which has inner defects and low thermal conductivity. Michelson shearing interferometer was used for obtaining speckle fringes. We also used phase shifting technique to get a phase map. Using single beam illumination, we could obtain mixture of deformation components of both in-plane and out-of-plane. In order to separate the two components, we have used dual-beam shearography technique. We have obtained a speckle pattern of both before and after deformation. Through LS filtering and unwrapping processes, we could find a position and a shape of the inner defects easily. Deformation of the acrylate plate due to thermal heating has occurred mainly in z-direction(out-of-plane) because it has low thermal conductivity. The acrylate plate was deformed only at the restricted area where the electrical heat applied.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.66-72
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• 2000

The behavior of nucleation and crystallization in the $Li_2O_3-SiO_2$ glass heat-treated at different condition under the conventional and microwave processing was studied by differential thermal analysis (DTA), X-ray diffractometry (XRD), optical microscopy (OM), and electrical conductivity measurement. Nucleation temperature and temperature of maximum nucleation rate in both conventionally and microwave heat-treated samples were 460~$500^{\circ}C$ and $580^{\circ}C$, respectively. It was expected that the probability for bulk crystallization increased in microwave heat-treated sample, compared to conventionally heat-treated one. Degree of crystallization increased with increasing crystallization temperature in both conventionally and microwave heat-treated samples. However, pattern of crystallization growth under microwave processing appeared to be quite different from that under the conventional one due to its internal or volumetric heating. Electrical conductivity of conventionally and microwave heat-treated samples were 1.337~2.299, 0.281~~$0.911{\times}10^{-7}\Omega {\textrm}{cm}^{-1}$, respectively.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.46 no.7
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• pp.7-14
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• 2009

In this paper, the effects of annealing conditions on the structural ((002) intensity, FWHM, d-spacing, grain size, (002) peak position), optical (UV peak, UV peak position) and electrical properties (carrier concentrations, resistivity, mobility) of ZnO films were investigated. ZnO films were deposited onto SiO$_2$/si substrates by RF magnetron sputtering from a ZnO target. The substrate was not heated during deposition. ZnO films were annealed in temperature ranges of $500\sim650^{\circ}C$ in the O$_2$ flow for 5$\sim$20 min. The film average thicknesses were in the range of 291 nm. The surface morphologies and structures of the samples were characterize by SEM and XRD, respectively. The optical properties were evaluated by photoluminescence (PL) measurement at room temperature (RT) using a He-Cd 325 nm laser. As the annealing temperature and time vary, the following relations were also observed: (1) proportional relationships among UV intensity (002) intensity, and grain size exist, (2) UV intensity is inversely proportional to FWHM, (3) there is no special relationship between UV intensity and electron carrier concentrations, (4) d-spacing is inversely proportional to (002) peak position, (5) UV peak position in the range of 3.20$\sim$3.24 eV means that ZnO films have a n-type conductivity which was consistent with that obtained from the electrical property, (6) the optimal conditions for the best optical and structural characteristics were found to be oxygen fraction, (O$_2$/(O$_2$+Ar)) of 0.2, RF power of 240W, substrate temperature of RT, annealing condition of 600$^{\circ}C$ for 20 min, and sputtering pressure of 20 mTorr.