Fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) has been used as a representative transparent conductive oxide (TCO) in various optoelectronic applications, including light emitting diodes, solar cells, photo-detectors, and electrochromic devices. The FTO plays an important role in providing electron transfer between active layers and external circuits while maintaining high transmittance in the devices. Herein, we report the effects of substrate rotation speed on the electrical and optical properties of FTO films during ultrasonic spray pyrolysis deposition (USPD). The substrate rotation speeds were adjusted to 2, 6, 10, and 14 rpm. As the substrate rotation speed increased from 2 to 14 rpm, the FTO films exhibited different film morphologies, including crystallite size, surface roughness, crystal texture, and film thickness. This FTO film engineering can be attributed to the variable nucleation and growth behaviors of FTO crystallites according to substrate rotation speeds during USPD. Among the FTO films with different substrate rotation speeds, the FTO film fabricated at 6 rpm showed the best optimized TCO characteristics when considering both electrical (sheet resistance of 13.73 Ω/□) and optical (average transmittance of 86.76 % at 400~700 nm) properties with a figure of merit (0.018 Ω-1).

Fluorine heteroatoms were introduced to increase the limited specific capacitances of electric double-layer capacitors (EDLCs), and the effects of the fluorine atoms were analyzed. To introduce the fluorine, a CF4 plasma treatment was used that introduced the fluorine atoms quickly. Among the fluorine functional groups in the F6-ACA framework, the semi-ionic C–F bonds induced rapid charge transfer and imparted pseudocapacitance. Consequently, we achieved a specific capacitance of 325.68 F/g for the F6-CA sample at 0.5 A/g. By analyzing the contributions of the electric double-layer capacitance and the pseudocapacitance, we determined that the contribution from the pseudocapacitance was 37.57%. A remarkable specific capacitance retention rate of 95.87% was obtained over 1000 charge/discharge cycles with a high current density of 3 A/g. Additionally, the semi-ionic C–F bonds reduced the charge transfer resistance ( Rct) by 36.8%. Therefore, the specific capacitance was improved by the fluorine heteroatoms, and the semi-ionic C–F bonds played a pivotal role in this improvement.

Fluorine (F) recovery from wet process phosphoric acid (WPA) is essential for sustainable resource utilization and environmental protection. This work systematically investigates the F recovery mechanism by air stripping from three simulated systems: H3PO4- H2SiF6-H2O, H3PO4- HF-H2O, H3PO4- H2SiF6-HF-Al3+-H2O, and from two industrial systems: WPA and WPA-Al3+ under different stripping temperatures (60–110 ℃) and stripping times (0–120 min). The influence on the existence form of F, the content of Al3+ cations and the addition of active silica on the F removal rate in the phosphoric acid solution is studied by analyzing the changes in the contents of F, P and Si. The results indicate that the F in the form of H2SiF6 is more easily released from the phosphoric acid solution than that in the form of HF. While, the release of F is inhibited in the presence of the Al3+ in the solution due to the formation of Al-F complexes that are characterized by 19F NMR, 31Si NMR and FTIR techniques. Interestingly, the addition of active silica can promote the conversion of HF to H2SiF6 in the solution and significantly improve the release rate of F. The researching results can provide an important guidance for industrial practice of WPA.

Highly safe lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are required for large-scale applications such as electrical vehicles and energy storage systems. A highly stable cathode is essential for the development of safe LIBs. LiFePO4 is one of the most stable cathodes because of its stable structure and strong bonding between P and O. However, it has a lower energy density than lithium transition metal oxides. To investigate the high energy density of phosphate materials, vanadium phosphates were investigated. Vanadium enables multiple redox reactions as well as high redox potentials. LiVPO4O has two redox reactions (V5+/V4+/V3+) but low electrochemical activity. In this study, LiVPO4O is doped with fluorine to improve its electrochemical activity and increase its operational redox potential. With increasing fluorine content in LiVPO4O1-xFx, the local vanadium structure changed as the vanadium oxidation state changed. In addition, the operating potential increased with increasing fluorine content. Thus, it was confirmed that fluorine doping leads to a strong inductive effect and high operating voltage, which helps improve the energy density of the cathode materials.

Solar cells based on p-conjugated donor-acceptor (D-A) organic molecular systems are a promising alternative to conventional electrical energy generation. D-A molecular systems, which have a triphenylamine (TPA) moiety linked with a benzothiadiazole (BTD) moiety, open the potential development of new small molecule donors for bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells. Here, a series of donor-acceptor-π-acceptor (D-A-π-A) small molecule donors (SMD) derived from triphenylamine (TPA) donor and benzothiadiazole (BTD) acceptor building blocks, were designed for BHJ organic solar cells. The small molecule donors SMD1-4 were studied using density functional theory (DFT) and time dependent-DFT (TDDFT) methods, to understand the effect of cyano and fluorine group functionalization on their properties. The effect of structure alteration by cyano and fluorine group functionalization on the optoelectronic properties, the calculated highest occupied molecular orbitals (HOMOs) and lowest unoccupied molecular orbitals (LUMOs) and the HOMO-LUMO gaps were theoretically explored. The Voc (open-circuit photovoltage) and fill factor (FF) for SMD1-4 were obtained with a PC71BM acceptor, which showed that these organic small molecules are potential small molecule donors for organic bulk heterojunction solar cells.

This study assessed the influences of fluorine introduced into DLC films on the structural and mechanical properties of the sample. In addition, the effects of the fluorine incorporation on the compressive stress in DLC films were investigated. For this purpose, fluorinated diamond-like carbon (F-DLC) films were deposited on cobalt-chromium-molybdenum substrates using radio-frequency plasma-enhanced chemical vapor. The coatings were examined by Raman scattering (RS), Attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic analysis (ATR-FTIR), and a combination of elastic recoil detection analysis and Rutherford backscattering (ERDA-RBS). Nano-indentation tests were performed to measure hardness. Also, the residual stress of the films was calculated by the Stony equation. The ATR-FTIR analysis revealed that F was present in the amorphous matrix mainly as C-F and C-F2 groups. Based on Raman spectroscopy results, it was determined that F made the DLC films more graphitic. Additionally, it was shown that adding F into the DLC coating resulted in weaker mechanical properties and the F-DLC coating exhibited lower stress than DLC films. These effects were attributed to the replacement of strong C = C by feebler C-F bonds in the F-DLC films. F-doping decreased the hardness of the DLC from 11.5 to 8.8 GPa. In addition, with F addition, the compressive stress of the DLC sample decreased from 1 to 0.7 GPa.

Zinc oxide (ZnO) based transparent conducting oxides (TCO) thin films, are used in many applications such as solar cells, flat panel displays, and LEDs due to their wide bandgap nature and excellent electrical properties. In the present work, fluorine and aluminium-doped ZnO targets are prepared and thin films are deposited on soda-lime glass substrate using a RF magnetron sputtering unit. The aluminium concentration is fixed at 2 wt%, and the fluorine concentration is adjusted between 0 to 2.0 wt% with five different concentrations, namely, Al2ZnO98(AZO), F0.5AZO97.5(FAZO1), F1AZO97(FAZO2), F1.5AZO96.5(FAZO3), and F2AZO96(FAZO4). Thin films are deposited with an RF power of 40 W and working pressure of 5 m Torr at 270 oC. The morphological analysis performed for the thin film reveals that surface roughness decreases in FAZO1 and FAZO2 samples when doped with a small amount of fluorine. Further, optical and electrical properties measured for FAZO1 sample show average optical transmissions of over 89 % in the visible region and 82.5 % in the infrared region, followed by low resistivity and sheet resistance of 3.59 × 10−4 Ωcm and 5.52 Ω/sq, respectively. In future, these thin films with excellent optoelectronic properties can be used for thin-film solar cell and other optoelectronics applications.

To improve the flame retardant performance of cellulose fibers, fluorine functional groups were introduced under various controlled fluorination conditions. The properties of the fluorinated cellulose fibers were analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and a thermogravimetric analysis. The fluorine functional group content in the fluorinated cellulose fibers increased with an increase in the fluorination temperature. However, the fluorination reaction increased the char yield and decreased the rate of degradation of the cellulose fibers by introducing donors, enabling the formation of a thick and compact char layer. Therefore, the flame retardant properties of cellulose fibers were improved following the fluorination treatment.