Hydrothermal synthesis of highly crystalline TiO2 nanorods is a well-developed technique and the nanorods have been widely used as the template for growth of various core-shell nanorod structures. Magneli/CdS core-shell nanorod structures are fabricated for the photoelectrochemical cell (PEC) electrode to achieve enhanced carrier transport along the metallic magneli phase nanorod template. However, the long and thin TiO2 nanorods may form a high resistance path to the electrons transferred from the CdS layer. TiO2 nanorods synthesized are reduced to magneli phases, TixO2x-1, by heat treatment in a hydrogen environment. Two types of magneli phase nanorods of Ti4O7 and Ti3O5 are synthesized. Structural morphology and X-ray diffraction analyses are carried out. CdS nano-films are deposited on the magneli nanorods for the main light absorption layer to form a photoanode, and the PEC performance is measured under simulated sunlight irradiation and compared with the conventional TiO2/CdS core-shell nanorod electrode. A higher photocurrent is observed from the stand-alone Ti3O5/CdS coreshell nanorod structure in which the nanorods are grown on both sides of the seed layer.
An Al2O3/AlN bilayer deposited on GaN by atomic layer deposition (ALD) is employed to prepare Al2O3/AlN/GaN metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) diodes, and their interfacial properties are investigated using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) with sputter etch treatment and current-voltage (I-V) measurements. XPS analyses reveal that the native oxides on the GaN surface are reduced significantly during the early ALD stage, indicating that AlN deposition effectively clelans up the GaN surface. In addition, the suppression of Al-OH bonds is observed through the ALD process. This result may be related to the improved device performance because Al-OH bonds act as interface defects. Finally, temperature dependent I-V analyses show that the barrier height increases and the ideality factor decreases with an increase in temperature, which is associated with the barrier inhomogeneity. A Modified Richardson plot produces the Richardson constant of A** as 30.45 Acm−2K−2, which is similar to the theoretical value of 26.4 Acm−2K−2 for n-GaN. This indicates that the barrier inhomogeneity appropriately explains the forward current transport across the Au/Al2O3/AlN/GaN interface.
Lithium-ion batteries have been considered the most important devices to power mobile or small-sized devices due to their high energy density. LixCoO2 has been studied as a cathode material for the Li-ion battery. However, the limitation of its capacity impedes the development of high capacity cathode materials with Ni, Mn, etc. in them. The substitution of Mn and Ni for Co leads to the formation of solid solution phase LiNixMnyCo1-x-yO2 (NMC, both x and y < 1), which shows better battery performance than unsubstituted LiCoO2. However, despite a high discharge capacity in the Ni-rich compound (Ni > 0.8 in the metal site), poor cycle retention capability still remains to be overcome. In this study, aiming to improve the stability of the physical and chemical bonding, we investigate the stabilization effect of Ca in the Ni-rich layered compound Li(Ni0.83Co0.12Mn0.05)O2, and then Ca is added to the modified secondary particles to lower the degree of cationic mixing of the final particles. For the optimization of the final grains added with Ca, the Ca content (x = 0, 2.5, 5.0, 10.0 at.%) versus Li is analyzed.
Graphene is an interesting material because it has remarkable properties, such as high intrinsic carrier mobility, good thermal conductivity, large specific surface area, high transparency, and high Young’s modulus values. It is produced by mechanical and chemical exfoliation, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), and epitaxial growth. In particular, large-area and uniform single- and few-layer growth of graphene is possible using transition metals via a thermal CVD process. In this study, we utilize polystyrene and boron oxide, which are a carbon precursor and a doping source, respectively, for synthesis of pristine graphene and boron doped graphene. We confirm the graphene grown by the polystyrene and the boron oxide by the optical microscope and the Raman spectra. Raman spectra of boron doped graphene is shifted to the right compared with pristine graphene and the crystal quality of boron doped graphene is recovered when the synthesis time is 15 min. Sheet resistance decreases from approximately 2000 Ω/sq to 300Ω/sq with an increasing synthesis time for the boron doped graphene.
Hot-press forming(HPF) steel can be applied successfully to auto parts because of its superior mechanical properties. However, its resistances to aqueous corrosion and the subsequent hydrogen embrittlement(HE) decrease significantly when the steel is exposed to corrosive environments. Considering that the resistances are greatly dependent on the properties of coating materials formed on the steel surface, the characteristics of the corrosion and hydrogen diffusion behaviors regarding the types of coating material should be clearly understood. Electrochemical polarization and impedance measurements reveal a higher corrosion potential and polarization resistance and a lower corrosion current of the Al-coating compared with Zn-coating. Furthermore, it was expected that the diffusion kinetics of the hydrogen atoms would be much slower in the Al-coating, and this would be due mainly to the much lower diffusion coefficient of hydrogen in the Al-coating with a face-centered cubic structure. The superior surface inhibiting effect of the Al-coating, however, is degraded by the formation of local cracks in the coated layer under severe stress conditions, and therefore further study will be necessary to gain a clearer understanding of the effect of cracks formed on the coated layer on the subsequent corrosion and hydrogen diffusion behaviors.
Effects of annealing temperature on the microstructure and mechanical properties through thickness of a Cu-3.0Ni- 0.7Si alloy processed by differential speed rolling are investigated in detail. The copper alloy with a thickness of 3 mm is rolled to a 50 % reduction at ambient temperature without lubricant and subsequently annealed for 0.5 h at 200-900 oC. The microstructure of the copper alloy after annealing is different in the thickness direction depending on the amount of the shear and compressive strain introduced by the rolling; the recrystallization occurs first in the upper roll side and center regions which are largely shear-deformed. The complete recrystallization occurs at an annealing temperature of 800 oC. The grain size after the complete recrystallization is finer than that of the conventional rolling. The hardness distribution of the specimens annealed at 500-700 oC is not uniform in the thickness direction due to partial recrystallization. This ununiformity of hardness corresponds well to the amount of shear strain in the thickness direction. The average hardness and ultimate tensile strength has the maximum values of 250 Hv and 450 Mpa, respectively, in the specimen annealed at 400 oC. It is considered that the complex mode of strain introduced by rolling directly affects the microstructure and the mechanical properties of the annealed specimens.
A boron-doped diamond(BDD) electrode is attractive for many electrochemical applications due to its distinctive properties: an extremely wide potential window in aqueous and non-aqueous electrolytes, a very low and stable background current and a high resistance to surface fouling. An Ar gas mixture of H2, CH4 and trimethylboron (TMB, 0.1 % C3H9B in H2) is used in a hot filament chemical vapor deposition(HFCVD) reactor. The effect of argon addition on quality, structure and electrochemical property is investigated by scanning electron microscope(SEM), X-ray diffraction(XRD) and cyclic voltammetry(CV). In this study, BDD electrodes are manufactured using different Ar/CH4 ratios (Ar/CH4 = 0, 1, 2 and 4). The results of this study show that the diamond grain size decreases with increasing Ar/CH4 ratios. On the other hand, the samples with an Ar/CH4 ratio above 5 fail to produce a BDD electrode. In addition, the BDD electrodes manufactured by introducing different Ar/CH4 ratios result in the most inclined to (111) preferential growth when the Ar/CH4 ratio is 2. It is also noted that the electrochemical properties of the BDD electrode improve with the process of adding argon.
Among the fuel cell electrolyte candidates in the intermediate temperature range, glass materials show stable physical properties and are also expected to have higher ion conductivity than crystalline materials. In particular, phosphate glass has a high mobility of protons since such a structure maintains a hydrogen bond network that leads to high proton conductivity. Recently, defects like volatilization of phosphorus and destruction of the bonding structure have remarkably improved with introduction of cations, such as Zr4+ and Nb5+, into phosphate. In particular, niobium has proton conductivity on the surface because of higher surface acidity. It can also retain phosphorus content during heat treatment and improve chemical stability by bonding with phosphorus. In this study, we fabricate niobium phosphate glass thin films through sol-gel processing, and we report the chemical stability and electrical properties. The existence of the hydroxyl group in the phosphate is confirmed and found to be preserved at the intermediate temperature region of 150-450 oC.