Junwoo Park

An effective energy harvesting method from a natural water motion active transducer

We demonstrated a new water motion active transducer (WMAT) without any external bias-voltage sources or additional processes, which critically limit the use of conventional passive capacitive transducers that convert mechanical motion into electric energy. From a simple structure, we successfully turned on an LED using various kinds of natural water motion. The WMAT, which has wide applicability, has good potential to be a candidate for generating sustainable electric energy.

Doping effect of viologen on photoconductive device made of poly (p-phenylenevinylene)

We report the photovoltaic properties of the donor‐acceptor composite system of poly ( p-phenylenevinylene !~ PPV! and viologen. We observed the significant enhancement of photocurrent with increasing the doping ratio of viologen. The maximum photocurrent of viologen-doped PPV was nine times as high as that of the pristine PPV. The maximum quantum yield and photosensitivity are 13% ~electron/photon! and 0.05 A/W, respectively, at low bias voltage ~2 2V !. The increase of photocurrent is explained with the efficient charge separation that resulted from the transfer of photoexcited electrons from PPV to viologen. The mixture of PPV and viologen can be used as a sensitive photodiode material.

A new Hypocrea strain producing harzianum A cytotoxic to tumour cell lines

Aims:  To identify a new fungal strain, Hypocrea sp. F000527 producing a trichothecene metabolite, harzianum A, and to evaluate its cytotoxicity to tumour cell lines.

Fluidic Active Transducer for Electricity Generation.

Flows in small size channels have been studied for a long time over multidisciplinary field such as chemistry, biology and medical through the various topics. Recently, the attempts of electricity generation from the small flows as a new area for energy harvesting in microfluidics have been reported. Here, we propose for the first time a new fluidic electricity generator (FEG) by modulating the electric double layer (EDL) with two phase flows of water and air without external power sources. We find that an electric current flowed by the forming/deforming of the EDL with a simple separated phase flow of water and air at the surface of the FEG. Electric signals between two electrodes of the FEG are checked from various water/air passing conditions. Moreover, we verify the possibility of a self-powered air slug sensor by applying the FEG in the detection of an air slug.

Enhanced electrochemical capabilities of lithium ion batteries by structurally ideal AAO separator

In this study, a novel inorganic separator, porous anodic aluminum oxide (AAO), is introduced for a rechargeable lithium ion battery system. The highly ordered AAO gives rise to an ideal structure for battery separators with appropriate porosity (67.4 %), extremely low tortuosity, and thermal durability. The prepared AAO separator has average pore sizes of 75 nm and thickness of 54 μm, which leads to enhanced ionic conductivity (2.196 mS cm−1), discharging capacity at high current rates (20.13 mA h g−1 at 10 C), and capacity retention (82.9%). Moreover, a computer simulation (COMSOL) model shows that the ideal AAO separator structure induces stable lithium ion battery operation in wide ranges of current rate, due to effective suppression of Li dendrite formation. The AAO separator has a strong potential in massive energy storage systems and electric vehicles.

Phase separation in a two-dimensional Co–Cr alloy

Two-dimensional phase separation in a Co–Cr random binary alloy on a W(110) surface was confirmed with ultra-high-vacuum scanning tunneling microscopy. With 1.1 ML Co and 0.1 ML Cr co-deposited at room temperature, the film shows a kinetically limited structure. Upon annealing, phase separation between Co and Cr-rich phases of ∼100 A size was observed. Evidence of compositional inhomogeneity was observed in Cr-rich phases but not in Co-rich phases.

Strong Influence of Humidity on Low-Temperature Thin-Film Fabrication via Metal Aqua Complex for High Performance Oxide Semiconductor Thin-Film Transistors

Oxide semiconductors thin film transistors (OS TFTs) with good transparency and electrical performance have great potential for future display technology. In particular, solution-processed OS TFTs have been attracted much attention due to many advantages such as continuous, large scale, and low cost processability. Recently, OS TFTs fabricated with a metal aqua complex have been focused because they have low temperature processability for deposition on flexible substrate as well as high field-effect mobility for application of advanced display. However, despite some remarkable results, important factors to optimize their electrical performance with reproducibility and uniformity have not yet been achieved. Here, we newly introduce the strong effects of humidity to enhance the electrical performance of OS TFTs fabricated with the metal aqua complex. Through humidity control during the spin-coating process and annealing process, we successfully demonstrate solution-processed InOx/SiO2 TFTs with a good electrical uniformity of ∼5% standard deviation, showing high average field-effect mobility of 2.76 cm2V-1s-1 and 15.28 cm2V-1s-1 fabricated at 200 and 250 °C, respectively. Also, on the basis of the systematic analyses, we demonstrate the mechanism for the change in electrical properties of InOx TFTs depending on the humidity control. Finally, on the basis of the mechanism, we extended the humidity control to the fabrication of the AlOx insulator. Subsequently, we successfully achieved humidity-controlled InOx/AlOx TFTs fabricated at 200 °C showing high average field-effect mobility of 9.5 cm2V-1s-1.

Identification of Droplet-Flow-Induced Electric Energy on Electrolyte–Insulator–Semiconductor Structure

Recently, various energy transducers driven by the relative motion of solids and liquids have been demonstrated. However, in relation to the energy transducer, a proper understanding of the dynamic behavior of ions remains unclear. Moreover, the energy density is low for practical usage mainly due to structural limitations, a lack of material development stemming from the currently poor understanding of the mechanisms, and the intermittently generated electricity given the characteristics of the water motion (pulsed signals). Here, we verify a hypothesis pertaining to the ion dynamics which govern the operation mechanism of the transducer. In addition, we demonstrate enhanced energy transducer to convert the mechanical energy of flowing water droplets into continuous electrical energy using an electrolyte-insulator-semiconductor structure as a device structure. The output power per droplet mass and the ratio of generated electric energy to the kinetic energy of water drops are 0.149v2 mW·g-1·m-2·s2 and 29.8%, respectively, where v is the speed of the water droplet.

Crystallization Kinetics of Lead Halide Perovskite Film Monitored by In Situ Terahertz Spectroscopy

Vibrational modes in the terahertz (THz) frequency range are good indicators of lead halide perovskites crystallization phase. We performed real-time THz spectroscopy to monitor the crystallization kinetics in the perovskite films. First, THz absorptance was measured while the perovskite film was annealed at different temperatures. By analyzing the Avrami exponent, we observed an abrupt dimensionality switch (from 1D to 2D) with increasing temperature starting at approximately 90 °C. We also monitored the laser-induced crystallinity enhancement of the preannealed perovskite film. The THz absorptance increased initially, then subsequently decayed over a couple of hours, although the enhancement factor varies depending on the film crystallinity. In particular, the Avrami analysis implied that the light-induced crystallization was assisted by the 1D diffusion processes. The activation photon energy was measured at 2.3 eV, which indicated that enhanced crystallization originated from the photoinduced structural change of residual lead iodide at the grain boundary.

Fabric Active Transducer Stimulated by Water Motion for Self-Powered Wearable Device

The recent trend of energy-harvesting devices is an adoption of fabric materials with flexible and stretchable according to the increase of wearable electronics. But it is a difficult process to form a core structure of dielectric layer or electrode on fabric materials. In particular, a fabric-based energy-harvesting device in contact with water has not been studied, though there are many challenging issues including insulation and water absorption in a harsh environment. So we propose an effective method to obtain an electrical energy from the water contact using our new fabric energy harvesting device. Our water motion active transducer (WMAT) is designed to obtain electrical energy from the variable capacitance through the movement and contact of water droplet. In this paper, we succeeded in generating an electrical energy with peak to peak power of 280 μW using a 30 μL of water droplet with the fabric WMAT device of 70 mm × 50 mm dimension. Furthermore, we specially carried out spray-coating and transfer processes instead of the conventional spin-coating process on fabric materials to overcome the limitation of its uneven morphology and porous and deformable assembly.