We present the rectifying and nitrogen monoxide (NO) gas sensing properties of an oxide semiconductor heterostructure composed of n-type zinc oxide (ZnO) and p-type copper oxide thin layers. A CuO thin layer was first formed on an indium-tin-oxide-coated glass substrate by sol-gel spin coating method using copper acetate monohydrate and diethanolamine as precursors; then, to form a p-n oxide heterostructure, a ZnO thin layer was spin-coated on the CuO layer using copper zinc dihydrate and diethanolamine. The crystalline structures and microstructures of the heterojunction materials were examined using X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The observed current-voltage characteristics of the p-n oxide heterostructure showed a non-linear diode-like rectifying behavior at various temperatures ranging from room temperature to 200 oC. When the spin-coated ZnO/CuO heterojunction was exposed to the acceptor gas NO in dry air, a significant increase in the forward diode current of the p-n junction was observed. It was found that the NO gas response of the ZnO/CuO heterostructure exhibited a maximum value at an operating temperature as low as 100 oC and increased gradually with increasing of the NO gas concentration up to 30 ppm. The experimental results indicate that the spin-coated ZnO/CuO heterojunction structure has significant potential applications for gas sensors and other oxide electronics.

Cu circuits were successfully fabricated on flexible PET(polyethylene terephthalate) substrates using wettability difference and electroless plating without an etching process. The wettability of Cu plating solution on PET was controlled by oxygen plasma treatment and SiOx-DLC(silicon oxide containing diamond like carbon) coating by HMDSO(hexamethyldisiloxane) plasma. With an increase of the height of the nanostructures on the PET surface with the oxygen plasma treatment time, the wettability difference between the hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity increased, which allowed the etchless formation of a Cu pattern with high peel strength by selective Cu plating. When the height of the nanostructure was more than 1400 nm (60 min oxygen plasma treatment), the reduction of the critical impalement pressure with the decreasing density of the nanostructure caused the precipitation of copper in the hydrophobic region.

본 연구에서는 파이로프로세싱에서 발생하는 배기체 내 요오드 포집을 위한 매질로서 고가의 은 기반 흡착제를 대체하기 위 한 상용 구리메쉬의 가능성에 대해 연구하였다. 열역학적 계산을 통해 구리 금속과 요오드 기체의 반응은 100 ~ 500℃ 온도 범위에서 자발적으로 일어나며 요오드화구리(CuI)를 형성할 것으로 예상되었다. 실험을 통해 반응 온도에 따른 요오드 포 집 효율의 영향을 분석한 결과, 1개의 구리메쉬(질량 0.26 g)를 이용하여 반응 온도를 300, 400℃로 변화하였을 때 각각 5 및 6 wt%의 요오드(초기질량 2.0 g)가 포집됨을 확인하였다. 또한, 반복 실험 결과를 토대로 구리메쉬 표면에 형성된 반응 생성 물(CuI)의 자발적인 탈리 현상으로 구리의 활용률이 증가할 수 있음을 확인하였다. 반응 생성물의 CuI 상 형성은 X-선 회절 실험을 통해 확인하였으며, 표면 분석은 주사전자현미경을 이용하여 수행하여 그 결과를 보고하였다.

H2S is a flammable toxic gas that can be produced in plants, mines, and industries and is especially fatal to humanbody. In this study, CuO nanowire structure with high porosity was fabricated by deposition of copper on highly porous single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) template followed by oxidation. The SWCNT template was formed on alumina substrates bythe arc-discharge method. The oxidation temperatures for Cu nanowires were varied from 400 to 800oC. The morphology andsensing properties of the CuO nanowire sensor were characterized by FESEM, Raman spectroscopy, XPS, XRD, and current-voltage examination. The H2S gas sensing properties were carried out at different operating temperatures using dry air as thecarrier gas. The CuO nanowire structure oxidized at 800oC showed the highest response at the lowest operating temperatureof150oC. The optimum operating temperature was shifted to higher temperature to 300oC as the oxidation temperature waslowered. The results were discussed based on the mechanisms of the reaction with ionosorbed oxygen and the CuS formationreaction on the surface.

We present the detection characteristics of nitrogen monoxide(NO) gas using p-type copper oxide(CuO) thin film gas sensors. The CuO thin films were fabricated on glass substrates by a sol-gel spin coating method using copper acetate hydrate and diethanolamine as precursors. Structural characterizations revealed that we prepared the pure CuO thin films having a monoclinic crystalline structure without any obvious formation of secondary phase. It was found from the NO gas sensin measurements that the p-type CuO thin film gas sensors exhibited a maximum sensitivity to NO gas in dry air at an operating temperature as low as 100 oC. Additionally, these CuO thin film gas sensors were found to show reversible and reliable electrical response to NO gas in a range of operating temperatures from 60 oC to 200 oC. It is supposed from these results that the ptype oxide semiconductor CuO thin film could have significant potential for use in future gas sensors and other oxide electronics applications using oxide p-n heterojunction structures.

In this study, the behavior of densification of copper powders during high-pressure torsion (HPT) at room temperature is investigated using the finite element method. The simulation results show that the center of the workpiece is the first to reach the true density of copper during the compressive stage because the pressure is higher at the center than the periphery. Subsequently, whole workpiece reaches true density after compression due to the high pressure. In addition, the effective strain is increased along the radius during torsional stage. After one rotation, the periphery shows that the effective strain is increased up to 25, which is extensive deformation. These high pressure and severe strain do not only play a key role in consolidation of copper powders but also make the matrix harder by grain refinement.

A powder-in-sheath rolling (PSR) process utilizing a copper alloy tube was applied to a fabrication of a multi-walled carbon nanotube (CNT) reinforced aluminum matrix composite. A copper tube with an outer diameter of 30 mm and a wall thickness of 2 mm was used as a sheath material. A mixture of pure aluminum powders and CNTs with the volume contents of 1, 3, 5 vol% was filled in the tube by tap filling and then processed to 93.3% height reduction by a rolling mill. The relative density of the CNT/Al composite fabricated by the PSR decreased slightly with increasing of CNTs content, but showed high value more than 98%. The average hardness of the 5%CNT/Al composite increased more than 3 times, compared to that of unreinforced pure Al powder compaction. The hardness of the CNT/Al composites was some higher than that of the composites fabricated by PSR using SUS304 tube. Therefore, it is concluded that the type of tube affects largely on the mechanical properties of the CNT/Al composites in the PSR process.

In this study, nano-scale copper powders were reduction treated in a hydrogen atmosphere at the relativelyhigh temperature of 350℃ in order to eliminate surface oxide layers, which are the main obstacles for fabricating anano/ultrafine grained bulk parts from the nano-scale powders. The changes in composition and microstructure beforeand after the hydrogen reduction treatment were evaluated by analyzing X-ray diffraction (XRD) line profile patternsusing the convolutional multiple whole profile (CMWP) procedure. In order to confirm the result from the XRD lineprofile analysis, transmitted electron microscope observations were performed on the specimen of the hydrogen reduc-tion treated powders fabricated using a focused ion beam process. A quasi-statically compacted specimen from the nano-scale powders was produced and Vickers micro-hardness was measured to verify the potential of the powders as thebasis for a bulk nano/ultrafine grained material. Although the bonding between particles and the growth in size of theparticles occurred, crystallites retained their nano-scale size evaluated using the XRD results. The hardness results dem-onstrate the usefulness of the powders for a nano/ultrafine grained material, once a good consolidation of powders isachieved.

In this study, nanocrystalline Cu-Ni bulk materials with various compositions were cold compacted by a shock compaction method using a single-stage gas gun system. Since the oxide layers on powder surface disturbs bonding between powder particles during the shock compaction process, each nanopowder was hydrogen-reduced to remove the oxide layers. X-ray peak analysis shows that hydrogen reduction successfully removed the oxide layers from the nano powders. For the shock compaction process, mixed powder samples with various compositions were prepared using a roller mixer. After the shock compaction process, the density of specimens increased up to 95% of the relative density. Longitudinal cross-sections of the shock compacted specimen demonstrates that a boundary between two powders are clearly distinguished and agglomerated powder particles remained in the compacted bulk. Internal crack tended to decrease with an increase in volumetric ratio of nano Cu powders in compacted bulk, showing that nano Cu powders has a higher coherency than nano Ni powders. On the other hand, hardness results are dominated by volume fraction of the nano Ni powder. The crystalline size of the shock compacted bulk materials was greatly reduced from the initial powder crystalline size since the shock wave severely deformed the powders.

Wastewater containing heavy metals such as copper (Cu) and nickel (Ni) is harmful to humans and the environment due to its high toxicity. Crystallization in a fluidized bed reactor (FBR) has recently received significant attention for heavy metal removal and recovery. It is necessary to find optimum reaction conditions to enhance crystallization efficacy. In this study, the effects of crystallization reagent and pH were investigated to maximize crystallization efficacy of Cu-S and Ni-S in a FBR. CaS and Na2S·9H2O were used as crystallization reagent, and pH were varied in the range of 1 to 7. Additionally, each optimum crystallization condition for Cu and Ni were sequentially employed in two FBRs for their selective removal from the mixture of Cu and Ni. As major results, the crystallization of Cu was most effective in the range of pH 1-2 for both CaS and Na2S·9H2O reagents. At pH 1, Cu was completely removed within five minutes. Ni showed a superior reactivity with S in Na2S·9H2O compared to that in CaS at pH 7. When applying each optimum crystallization condition sequentially, only Cu was firstly crystallized at pH 1 with CaS, and then, in the second FBR, the residual Ni was completely removed at pH 7 with Na2S·9H2O. Each crystal recovered from two different FBRs was mainly composed of CuxSy and NiS, respectively. Our results revealed that Cu and Ni can be selectively recovered as reusable resources from the mixture by controlling pH and choosing crystallization reagent accordingly.

The aim of this work was to investigate the effects of electrodeposition conditions on the microstructural characteristics of copper thin films. The microstructure of electroplated Cu films was found to be highly dependent on electrodeposition conditions such as system current and current density, as well as the bath solution itself. The current density significantly changed the preferred orientation of electroplated Cu films in a DC system, while the solution itself had very significant effects on microstructural characteristics in a pulse-reverse pulse current system. In the DC system, polarization at high current above 30 mA, changed the preferred orientation of Cu films from (220) to (111). However, Cu films showed (220) preferred orientation for all ranges of current density in the pulse-reverse pulse current system. The grain size decreased with increasing current density in the DC system while it remained relatively constant in the pulse-reverse pulse current system. The sheet resistance increased with increasing current density in the DC system due to the decreased grain size.

We report the nitrogen monoxide (NO) gas sensing properties of p-type CuO-nanorod-based gas sensors. We synthesized the p-type CuO nanorods with breadth of about 30 nm and length of about 330 nm by a hydrothermal method using an as-deposited CuO seed layer prepared on a Si/SiO2 substrate by the sputtering method. We fabricated polycrystalline CuO nanorod arrays at 80˚C under the hydrothermal condition of 1:1 morality ratio between copper nitrate trihydrate [Cu(NO2)2·3H2O] and hexamethylenetetramine (C6H12N4). Structural characterizations revealed that we prepared the pure CuO nanorod array of a monoclinic crystalline structure without any obvious formation of secondary phase. It was found from the gas sensing measurements that the p-type CuO nanorod gas sensors exhibited a maximum sensitivity to NO gas in dry air at an operating temperature as low as 200˚C. We also found that these CuO nanorod gas sensors showed reversible and reliable electrical response to NO gas at a range of operating temperatures. These results would indicate some potential applications of the p-type semiconductor CuO nanorods as promising sensing materials for gas sensors, including various types of p-n junction gas sensors.

To understand how reactivity between reinforcing nanoparticles and aqueous solution affects electrodeposited Cu thin films, two types of commercialized cerium oxide (ceria, CeO2) nanoparticles were used with copper sulfate electrolyte to form in-situ nanocomposite films. During this process, we observed variation in colors and pH of the electrolyte depending on the manufacturer. Ceria aqueous solution and nickel sulfate (NiSO4) aqueous solutions were also used for comparison. We checked several parameters which could be key factors contributing to the changes, such as the oxidation number of Cu, chemical impurities of ceria nanoparticles, and so on. Oxidation number was checked by salt formation by chemical reaction between CuSO4 solution and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution. We observed that the color changed when H2SO4 was added to the CuSO4 solution. The same effect was obtained when H2SO4 was mixed with ceria solution; the color of ceria solution changed from white to yellow. However, the color of NiSO4 solution did not show any significant changes. We did observe slight changes in the pH of the solutions in this study. We did not obtain firm evidence to explain the changes observed in this study, but changes in the color of the electrolyte might be caused by interaction of Cu ion and the by-product of ceria. The mechanical properties of the films were examined by nanoindentation, and reaction between ceria and electrolyte presumably affect the mechanical properties of electrodeposited copper films. We also examined their crystal structures and optical properties by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and UV-Vis spectroscopy.

We investigated the characteristics of electroless plated Cu films on screen printed Ag/Anodized Al substrate. Cu plating was attempted using neutral electroless plating processes to minimize damage of the anodized Al substrate; this method used sodium hypophosphite instead of formaldehyde as a reducing agent. The basic electroless solution consisted of CuSO4·5H2O as the main metal source, NaH2PO2·H2O as the reducing agent, C6H5Na3O7·2H2O and NH4Cl as the complex agents, and NiSO4·6H2O as the catalyser for the oxidation of the reducing agent, dissolved in deionized water. The pH of the Cu plating solutions was adjusted using NH4OH. According to the variation of pH in the range of 6.5~8, the electroless plated Cu films were coated on screen printed Ag pattern/anodized Al/Al at 70˚C. We investigated the surface morphology change of the Cu films using FE-SEM (Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy). The chemical composition of the Cu film was determined using XPS (X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy). The crystal structures of the Cu films were investigated using XRD (X-ray Diffraction). Using electroless plating at pH 7, the structures of the plated Cu-rich films were typical fcc-Cu; however, a slight Ni component was co-deposited. Finally, we found that the formation of Cu film plated selectively on PCB without any lithography is possible using a neutral electroless plating process.

The conductive polymer composites recently became increasingly to many fields of industry due to their electrical properties. To understand these properties of composites, electrical properties were measured and were studied relatively. Electrical conductivity measurements showed percolation phenomena. Percolation theories are frequently applied to describe the insulator-to-conductor transitions in composites made of a conductive filler and an insulating matrix. It has been showed both experimentally and theoretically that the percolation threshold strongly depends on the aspect ratio of filler particles. The critical concentration of percolation formed is defined as the percolation threshold. This paper was to study epoxy resin filled with copper. The experiment was made with vehicle such as epoxy resin replenished with copper powder and the study about their practical use was performed in order to apply to electric and electronic industry as well as general field. The volume specific resistance of epoxy resin composites was 3.065~13.325 in using copper powder. The weight loss of conductive composites happened from 350℃~470℃.