Recently, the electron transport layer (ETL) has become one of the key components for high-performance perovskite solar cell (PSC). This study is motivated by the nonreproducible performance of ETL made of spin coated SnO2 applied to a PSC. We made a comparative study between tin oxide deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) or spin coating to be used as an ETL in N-I-P PSC. 15 nm-thick Tin oxide thin films were deposited by ALD using tetrakisdimethylanmiotin (TDMASn) and using reactant ozone at 120 °C. PSC using ALD SnO2 as ETL showed a maximum efficiency of 18.97 %, and PSC using spin coated SnO2 showed a maximum efficiency of 18.46 %. This is because the short circuit current (Jsc) of PSC using the ALD SnO2 layer was 0.75 mA/cm2 higher than that of the spin coated SnO2. This result can be attributed to the fact that the electron transfer distance from the perovskite is constant due to the thickness uniformity of ALD SnO2. Therefore ALD SnO2 is a candidate as a ETL for use in PSC vacuum deposition.

해양산업시설에서는 많은 종류의 유해물질의 배출 가능성이 존재하기 때문에 이에 대한 체계적인 대응체계가 필요하다. 그 중 연속자동 측정이 가능하면서 ppb 수준의 낮은 검출하한 (limit of detection:LOD)를 갖는 센서 구현은 매우 중요하다. 이를 위해 본 연구에서 는 활성탄소(carbon black)와 Indium tin oxide (ITO) 나노입자를 혼합한 film의 표면저항의 변화를 이용한 고성능 센서 제안 및 구현을 위해 성능인자를 최적화하였다. 센서 구조는 접촉 면적과 전극 간격을 최적화하였다. 접촉 면적이 증가하면 감도, LOD 성능이 향상되었으며 60 mm2에서 최적화되었다. 또한, 전극 간격은 접촉 면적을 일정하게 유지한 상태에서 변화시켰으며 센서 응답은 전극 간격이 감소함에 따라 증가하는 것을 확인하였다. 마지막으로 센서 표면에서의 유해물질의 잔류시간 증가를 위해 화학흡착제를 적용하였다. 화학흡착제는 유해 물질을 선택적으로 흡수할 수 있는 polyester계를 선택하였다. 그 결과 농도가 증가함에 따라 응답이 선형적으로 증가하여 센서로 활용이 가능한 것을 확인하였다. 이러한 3가지의 방법을 통해 센서를 제작하였을 때 액상 유해물질을 기존 센서의 LOD(89.9 ppb)와 비교 10~40 ppb 정도의 낮은 농도를 검출할 수 있는 센서를 구현하였다.

물 공급은 늘어나는 담수 수요와 다르게 줄어들고 있다. 담수의 수요를 충당하기 위해서 나노여과법은 가장 효율 적이고 경제적인 방법이라고 할 수 있다. 해수담수화를 위한 나노여과법의 일반적인 방법으로는 나노여과 멤브레인을 이용한 역삼투압 방식이다. 하지만 기존의 멤브레인들은 주요 특성인 안정성, 경제성, 그리고 살균 및 방오특성이 부족하다. 기존의 나노여과 멤브레인을 향상시키기 위해서 친수성과 방오성이 높은 흑연 산화물이 가장 향상성이 높으며 널리 연구되고 있는 재료이다. 멤브레인 변형은 다른 레이어에 적용될 수 있다. 얇은 막으로 이루어진 멤브레인은 다른 세 레이어로 구성되어 있 다, 표면의 폴리아미드 레이어, 기공 레이어, 그리고 전체적인 구조를 구성하는 지원 직물이다. 정삼투압 토한 에너지 효율적 인 해수담수화 방식이지만 효율이 생물 오염 때문에 떨어진다. 산화그래핀 결합은 향균 기능을 향상할 수 있으며 멤브레인 표면에 바이오필름 생성을 억제할 수 있다. 압력지연삼투는 해수에서 청정에너지를 발전시키는 최고의 방법 중 하나이다. 멤 브레인의 생물 오염은 합성 폴리머 멤브레인의 합성 레이어에 산화 그래핀을 합성하여 줄일 수 있다. 나노여과 멤브레인을 개량하는 여러 연구가 각자의 장단점을 가지고 이루어지고 있다. 이 보고서는 나노여과 멤브레인의 개량, 성질, 그리고 성능 에 대해 논의한다.

Using lanthanum zinc oxide (LZO) film with the ion-beam irradiation, uniform and homogeneous liquid crystal (LC) alignment was achieved. To fabricate the LZO thin film on glass substrate, solution process was conducted as a deposition method. Cross-polarized optical microscopy (POM) and the crystal rotation method reveal the state of LC alignment on the ion-beam irradiated LZO film. Between orthogonally placed polarizers, POM image showed constant black color with regular transmittance. Furthermore, collected incidence angle versus transmittance curve from the crystal rotation method revealed that the LC molecules on the ion-beam irradiated LZO film were aligned homogeneously. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were conducted to reveal the relationship between the ion-beam irradiation and the LC alignment. The ion-beam irradiation changed the LZO film surface to rougher than before by etching effect. Numerical roughness values from AFM analysis supported this phenomenon specifically. XPS analysis showed the chemical composition change due to the ion-beam irradiation by investigation of O 1s, La 3d and Zn 2p spectra. The ion-beam irradiation induced the breakage of chemical bonds in the LZO film surface and this occurred surface chemical anisotropic characteristics for uniform LC alignment.

Synthesizing nanostructured thin films of oxide semiconductors is a promising approach to fabricate highly efficient photoelectrodes for hydrogen production via photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. In this work, we investigate the feasibility as an efficient photoanode for PEC water oxidation of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructured thin films synthesized via a simple method combined with sputtering Zn metallic films on a fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) coated glass substrate and subsequent thermal oxidation of the sputtered Zn metallic films in dry air. Characterization of the structural, optical, and PEC properties of the ZnO nanostructured thin film synthesized at varying Zn sputtering powers reveals that we can obtain an optimum ZnO nanostructured thin film as PEC photoanode at a sputtering power of 40 W. The photocurrent density and optimal photocurrent conversion efficiency for the optimum ZnO nanostructured thin film photoanode are found to be 0.1 mA/cm2 and 0.51 %, respectively, at a potential of 0.72 V vs. RHE. Our results illustrate that the ZnO nanostructured thin film has promising potential as an efficient photoanode for PEC water splitting.

I investigated the homogeneous liquid crystal alignment using parallel patterning on nickel oxide thin film. Nickel oxide thin film was prepared by sol-gel process, which is and cost effective method to form oxide thin film. Since the sol-gel process is solution driven method, the patterning on nickel oxide can be achieved by imprinting lithography. Nickel oxide with parallel pattern was used for liquid crystal alignment layer, which can be a alternative to conventional rubbing process to aligning a liquid crystal molecules. As a result, a high transmittance of 83.9% was confirmed for the NiO film, and a stable horizontal orientation pretilt angle of 0.2° occurred in the imprinted NiO film. These results were judged to be a positive level that can be commercialized in the horizontal alignment type liquid crystal display that is currently used universally. Anisotropic characteristics of nickel oxide induced by a parallel pattern leads to the alignment of liquid crystals.

We report on the fabrication and characterization of an oxide photoanode with a zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorod array embedded in cuprous oxide (Cu2O) thin film, namely a ZnO/Cu2O oxide p-n heterostructure photoanode, for enhanced efficiency of visible light driven photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. A vertically oriented n-type ZnO nanorod array is first prepared on an indium-tin-oxide-coated glass substrate via a seed-mediated hydrothermal synthesis method and then a p-type Cu2O thin film is directly electrodeposited onto the vertically oriented ZnO nanorod array to form an oxide p-n heterostructure. The introduction of Cu2O layer produces a noticeable enhancement in the visible light absorption. From the observed PEC current density versus voltage (J-V) behavior under visible light illumination, the photoconversion efficiency of this ZnO/Cu2O p-n heterostructure photoanode is found to reach 0.39 %, which is seven times that of a pristine ZnO nanorod photoanode. In particular, a significant PEC performance is observed even at an applied bias of 0 V vs Hg/Hg2Cl2, which makes the device self-powered. The observed improvement in the PEC performance is attributed to some synergistic effect of the pn bilayer heterostructure on the formation of a built-in potential including the light absorption and separation processes of photoinduced charge carriers, which provides a new avenue for preparing efficient photoanodes for PEC water splitting.

Membrane fabrication is a critical area that hampers forward osmosis (FO) technology from industrialization. Herein, electrospun poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) nanofiber (NF) was used as a support layer for thin film composite (TFC) FO membrane. The PVA NF was incorporated with sulfonated graphene oxide (sGO). The oxygenous-rich sGO enhanced the hydrophilicity and mechanical strength of PVA NF as revealed by contact angle and tensile strength measurements, and pure water flux. On this support, the active polyamide layer was formed through interfacial polymerization. Meanwhile, FO performance of sGO/PVA TFC membrane is currently being evaluated. This work was supported by NRF of Korea funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT (2016R1A2B1009221 and 2017R1A2B2002109) and Ministry of Education (2009-0093816 and 22A20130012051 (BK21Plus)).

We examined the characteristics of indium tin zinc oxide (ITZO) thin film transistors (TFTs) on polyimide (PI) substrates for next-generation flexible display application. In this study, the ITZO TFT was fabricated and analyzed with a SiOx/ SiNx gate insulator deposited using plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) below 350℃. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) results revealed that the oxygen vacancies and impurities such as H, OH and H2O increased at ITZO/gate insulator interface. Our study suggests that the hydrogen related impurities existing in the PI and gate insulator were diffused into the channel during the fabrication process. We demonstrate that these impurities and oxygen vacancies in the ITZO channel/gate insulator may cause degradation of the electrical characteristics and bias stability. Therefore, in order to realize high performance oxide TFTs for flexible displays, it is necessary to develop a buffer layer (e.g., Al2O3) that can sufficiently prevent the diffusion of impurities into the channel.

We report on the fabrication and photoelectrochemical(PEC) properties of a Cu2O thin film/ZnO nanorod array oxide p-n heterojunction structure with ZnO nanorods embedded in Cu2O thin film as an efficient photoelectrode for solardriven water splitting. A vertically oriented n-type ZnO nanorod array was first prepared on an indium-tin-oxide-coated glass substrate via a seed-mediated hydrothermal synthesis method and then a p-type Cu2O thin film was directly electrodeposited onto the vertically oriented ZnO nanorods array to form an oxide semiconductor heterostructure. The crystalline phases and morphologies of the heterojunction materials were characterized using X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy as well as Raman scattering. The PEC properties of the fabricated Cu2O/ZnO p-n heterojunction photoelectrode were evaluated by photocurrent conversion efficiency measurements under white light illumination. From the observed PEC current density versus voltage (J-V) behavior, the Cu2O/ZnO photoelectrode was found to exhibit a negligible dark current and high photocurrent density, e.g., 0.77 mA/cm2 at 0.5 V vs Hg/HgCl2 in a 1 mM Na2SO4 electrolyte, revealing an effective operation of the oxide heterostructure. In particular, a significant PEC performance was observed even at an applied bias of 0 V vs Hg/ HgCl2, which made the device self-powered. The observed PEC performance was attributed to some synergistic effect of the p-n bilayer heterostructure on the formation of a built-in potential, including the light absorption and separation processes of photoinduced charge carriers.

본 연구에서는 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 wt%의 TiO2를 함유하는 인듐-티타늄 수산화물을 졸 및 염기 첨가에 의해 얻었고, 200oC와 500oC에서 겔화 과정을 통해 ITiO(Indium Titanate Oxide)를 얻었다. 200oC에서 겔화 과정 후 얻어지는 ITiO 입자가 작아서 조밀성이 있는 ITiO 타겟을 제조하였다. 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 wt%의 TiO2를 함유하는 ITiO 타겟을 스퍼터링하여 ITiO 박막을 유리판위에 제작하여 비저항, 전하 이동도, 캐리어 농도를 조사하였다. 이들 박막 중에서 산소 조성이 0.4 %인 조건에서 0.5 wt% 중량% TiO2를 함유하는 ITiO 타겟으로부터 제작된 ITiO 박막이 가장 낮은 비저항, 가장 큰 전하이동도 및 가장 낮은 캐리어 농도를 보임을 알 수 있었고, 얻어진 ITiO 박막의 광투과율을 측정하여 적외선 영역에서 광투과율이 ITO(Indium Tin Oxide) 박막에 비해 현저히 증가함을 발견하였다.