Won Bo Lee

Self-ordering behavior of nanoporous anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) in malonic acid anodization

The self-ordering behavior of anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) has been investigated for anodization of aluminum in malonic acid (H4C3O4) solution. In the present study it is found that a porous oxide layer formed on the surface of aluminum can effectively suppress catastrophic local events (such as breakdown of the oxide film and plastic deformation of the aluminum substrate), and enables stable fast anodic oxidation under a high electric field of 110‐140 V and ∼100 mA cm −2 . Studies on the self-ordering behavior of AAO indicated that the cell homogeneity of AAO increases dramatically as the anodization voltage gets higher than 120 V. Highly ordered AAO with a hexagonal arrangement of the nanopores could be obtained in a voltage range 125‐140 V. The current density (i.e., the electric field strength (E) at the bottom of a pore) is an important parameter governing the self-ordering of the nanopores as well as the interpore distance (Dint) for a given anodization potential (U ) during malonic acid anodization. S Supplementary data are available from stacks.iop.org/Nano/18/475713 (Some figures in this article are in colour only in the electronic version)

Architectural Engineering of Rod–Coil Compatibilizers for Producing Mechanically and Thermally Stable Polymer Solar Cells

While most high-efficiency polymer solar cells (PSCs) are made of bulk heterojunction (BHJ) blends of conjugated polymers and fullerene derivatives, they have a significant morphological instability issue against mechanical and thermal stress. Herein, we developed an architecturally engineered compatibilizer, poly(3-hexylthiophene)-graft-poly(2-vinylpyridine) (P3HT-g-P2VP), that effectively modifies the sharp interface of a BHJ layer composed of a P3HT donor and various fullerene acceptors, resulting in a dramatic enhancement of mechanical and thermal stabilities. We directly measured the mechanical properties of active layer thin films without a supporting substrate by floating a thin film on water, and the enhancement of mechanical stability without loss of the electronic functions of PSCs was successfully demonstrated. Supramolecular interactions between the P2VP of the P3HT-g-P2VP polymers and the fullerenes generated their universal use as compatibilizers regardless of the type of fullerene acceptors, including mono- and bis-adduct fullerenes, while maintaining their high device efficiency. Most importantly, the P3HT-g-P2VP copolymer had better compatibilizing efficiency than linear type P3HT-b-P2VP with much enhanced mechanical and thermal stabilities. The graft architecture promotes preferential segregation at the interface, resulting in broader interfacial width and lower interfacial tension as supported by molecular dynamics simulations.

Three-Dimensional Multilayered Nanostructures with Controlled Orientation of Microdomains from Cross-Linkable Block Copolymers

Three-dimensional (3D) nanostructures were obtained by the directed formation of multilayer block copolymer (BCP) thin films. The initial step in this strategy involves the assembly and cross-linking of cylinder-forming polystyrene-b-poly(methyl methacrylate) (PS-b-PMMA) BCP, in which 1.5 mol % of reactive azido (-N(3)) groups were randomly incorporated along the styrene backbone. Significantly, assembly of thin films of lamellar-forming BCPs on top of the underlying cross-linked cylindrical layer exhibited perpendicular orientations of microdomains between lamellae and cylinder layers. From the theoretical calculation of free energy in the multilayers, it was found that the nematic interactions between polymer chains at the interface play a critical role in the perpendicular orientation of lamellae on the cross-linked cylinder layers. Removal of the PMMA domains then affords nonsymmetrical nanostructures which illustrate the promise of this strategy for the design of well-defined 3D nanotemplates. It was also demonstrated that this structure can be effectively used to enhance the light extraction efficiency of GaN light-emitting diodes. Furthermore, we anticipate that such 3D nanotemplates can be applied to various areas, including advanced BCP nanolithography and responsive surface coating.

Ordered Ni nanohole arrays with engineered geometrical aspects and magnetic anisotropy

Ni nanohole arrays are prepared by a replication process involving sputtering, polymer molding pressing, and electroplating techniques, using anodic alumina membranes as templates. Nanohole diameter to interhole distance ratio is engineered by suitable template processing. From the analysis of the magnetization curves for increasing nanohole diameter, it is concluded that coercivity increases due to the pinning of domain walls to nanoholes, while in-plane anisotropy decreases owing to local shape anisotropy effects.

Frustrated self-assembly of dendron and dendrimer-based supramolecular liquid crystals

A new “inverted” topological configuration is demonstrated both experimentally and theoretically for self-assembled dendron and dendrimer-based supramolecular liquid crystals in which the dendrons/dendrimers occupy the continuous domain and the ionically attached pendant chains are confined in discrete domains. All previous studies on dendrimer and dendron-based liquid crystals have reported “normal” liquid crystalline configurations in which the dendritic templates occupy discrete domains (in spherical or columnar phases) or continuous struts (in bicontinuous cubic phases), while the pendant chains occupy the continuous space-filling domain. These surprising results mandate a re-examination of the packing mechanisms for this important class of materials and open new routes to unique nanostructures of possible use in existing and emerging technologies.

Automatic configuration of random access channel parameters in LTE systems

In 3G long term evolution (LTE) systems, the random access channel (RACH) is used for initial access, resource request, and handover. Since the random access delay is determined by the arrival rate of the random access preambles and the number of RACH subframes, we should configure the number of RACH subframes given the arrival rate in order to guarantee the delay performance. In this work, by carefully taking account of a tradeoff between the number of RACH subframes and the random access delay, we present an optimization formulation that minimizes the number of RACH subframes for a given delay requirement. Furthermore, since the arrival rate of the random access preambles is time varying in reality, we further propose an estimation scheme for the arrival rate by reflecting the periodicity and the correlation between recent and future arrival rates. Our simulation results show that the proposed scheme for tuning the RACH subframes gives very promising network performance under time-varying environments.

Self-consistent field theory for lipid-based liquid crystals: hydrogen bonding effect.

A model to describe the self-assembly properties of aqueous blends of nonionic lipids is developed in the framework of self-consistent field theory (SCFT). Thermally reversible hydrogen bonding between lipid heads and water turns out to be a key factor in describing the lyotropic and thermotropic phase behavior of such systems. Our model includes reversible hydrogen bonding imposed in the context of the grand canonical ensemble and exact conditions of binding equilibrium. The lipid molecules are modeled as a rigid head and a flexible Gaussian tail, and the water molecules are treated explicitly. Here, we focus on systems where the lipid molecule has a relatively small hydrophilic head compared to the hydrophobic tail, such as monoolein in water. Experimentally, this system has both normal phase sequences (inverted hexagonal to inverted double gyroid cubic phase) and reverse phase sequences (lamellar to inverted double gyroid cubic phase) as the water volume fraction increases. From SCFT simulations of the model, two phase diagrams corresponding to temperature independent or dependent interaction parameters chi are constructed, which qualitatively capture the phase behavior of the monoolein-water mixture. The lattice parameters of the simulated mesophases are compared with the experimental values and are found to be in semiquantitative agreement. The role of various structural and solution parameters on the phase diagrams is also discussed.

Enhancing p-Type Thermoelectric Performances of Polycrystalline SnSe via Tuning Phase Transition Temperature

SnSe emerges as a new class of thermoelectric materials since the recent discovery of an ultrahigh thermoelectric figure of merit in its single crystals. Achieving such performance in the polycrystalline counterpart is still challenging and requires fundamental understandings of its electrical and thermal transport properties as well as structural chemistry. Here we demonstrate a new strategy of improving conversion efficiency of bulk polycrystalline SnSe thermoelectrics. We show that PbSe alloying decreases the transition temperature between Pnma and Cmcm phases and thereby can serve as a means of controlling its onset temperature. Along with 1% Na doping, delicate control of the alloying fraction markedly enhances electrical conductivity by earlier initiation of bipolar conduction while reducing lattice thermal conductivity by alloy and point defect scattering simultaneously. As a result, a remarkably high peak ZT of ∼1.2 at 773 K as well as average ZT of ∼0.5 from RT to 773 K is achieved for Na0.01(Sn1-xPbx)0.99Se. Surprisingly, spherical-aberration corrected scanning transmission electron microscopic studies reveal that NaySn1-xPbxSe (0 < x ≤ 0.2; y = 0, 0.01) alloys spontaneously form nanoscale particles with a typical size of ∼5-10 nm embedded inside the bulk matrix, rather than solid solutions as previously believed. This unexpected feature results in further reduction in their lattice thermal conductivity.

High-Resolution Spin-on-Patterning of Perovskite Thin Films for a Multiplexed Image Sensor Array

Inorganic-organic hybrid perovskite thin films have attracted significant attention as an alternative to silicon in photon-absorbing devices mainly because of their superb optoelectronic properties. However, high-definition patterning of perovskite thin films, which is important for fabrication of the image sensor array, is hardly accomplished owing to their extreme instability in general photolithographic solvents. Here, a novel patterning process for perovskite thin films is described: the high-resolution spin-on-patterning (SoP) process. This fast and facile process is compatible with a variety of spin-coated perovskite materials and perovskite deposition techniques. The SoP process is successfully applied to develop a high-performance, ultrathin, and deformable perovskite-on-silicon multiplexed image sensor array, paving the road toward next-generation image sensor arrays.

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