Young-Seok Shim

Au-decorated WO3 cross-linked nanodomes for ultrahigh sensitive and selective sensing of NO2 and C2H5OH

Au-decorated WO3 cross-linked nanodomes are fabricated using soft templates composed of highly ordered polystyrene beads and self-agglomeration of Au. The distribution and size of Au nanoparticles on the surface of WO3 cross-linked nanodomes are controlled by varying the thickness of the initial Au film. The responses of Au-decorated WO3 cross-linked nanodomes to various gases such as NO2, CH3COCH3, C2H5OH, NH3, CO, H2, and C6H6 are at least 5 times higher than those of bare WO3 cross-linked nanodomes. The response enhancement by Au decoration is dependent on the target gas, which is attributed to an interplay between electronic and chemical sensitizations. In particular, the Au-decorated WO3 cross-linked nanodomes exhibit extremely high sensitivities and selectivities, and ppt-level detection limits to NO2 and C2H5OH at 250 °C and 450 °C, respectively. These results suggest that Au-decorated WO3 cross-linked nanodomes are very promising for use in breath analysers to diagnose both asthma and lung cancer from exhaled human breath.

Effects of alkaline oxide additives on the microstructure and humidity sensitivity of MgCr2O4TiO2

Abstract We have investigated the effects of alkaline oxide additives such as Na2O, K2O and Li2O on the microstructure and humidity sensitivity of MgCr2O4ue5f8TiO2. The addition of Na2O and K2O, especially Na2O, helps to reduce the pore size through the formation of very small soluble phases, which consequently improves the humidity-sensing characteristics, such as the sensitivity, linearity and hysteresis. However, Li2O causes grain overgrowth and consequently the formation of large pores, leading to poor humidity sensitivity.

Vertically ordered SnO2 nanobamboos for substantially improved detection of volatile reducing gases

Vertically ordered SnO2 nanorods with Au nanoparticles deposited in multiple steps, namely, SnO2 nanobamboos are synthesized by a glancing-angle deposition technique. The highly ordered porous structures enable us to detect sub-ppb levels of volatile reducing gases with a fast response speed by maximizing the sensitization effects of the Au nanoparticles.

A wafer-scale antireflective protection layer of solution-processed TiO2 nanorods for high performance silicon-based water splitting photocathodes

Sustainable and efficient conversion of solar energy to transportable green energy and storable fuels, hydrogen, represents a solution to the energy crisis and reduces the consumption of fossil fuels, which are mainly responsible for the rise in global temperature. Solar water splitting using semiconductors, such as silicon, is promising to satisfy the global energy demand by producing hydrogen molecules. However, the solar to hydrogen conversion efficiency of a silicon photoelectrode is suppressed by overpotential, high reflectance and/or instability in liquid electrolytes. Herein, we report the synthesis of multifunctional solution-processed TiO2 nanorods on a 4-inch p-silicon wafer with controllable heights and diameters for highly efficient water splitting photocathodes. The solution-processed passivation layer of TiO2 nanorods reduces the overpotential of the silicon photocathode due to its catalytic properties. The TiO2 NRs also dramatically improves the light absorption of silicon due to the antireflective ability of the nanorods. The reflectance of silicon is decreased from 37.5% to 1.4% and enhances the saturated photocurrent density. The Pt-decorated (1–2.5 nm diameter) TiO2 nanorods/p-Si photocathodes show a short circuit current density of up to 40 mA cm−2, an open circuit voltage ∼440 mV and incident photon to current conversion efficiency of >90% using 0.5 M H2SO4 electrolyte with simulated 1 sun irradiation. The heterostructure photocathodes are stable for more than 52 h without noticeable degradation and an ideal regenerative cell efficiency of 2.5% is achieved.

Microscopic Evidence for Strong Interaction between Pd and Graphene Oxide that Results in Metal‐Decoration‐Induced Reduction of Graphene Oxide

Graphene oxide (GO) is reduced spontaneously when palladium nanoparticles are decorated on the surface. The oxygen functional groups at the GO surface near the nanoparticles are absorbed to the palladium to produce a palladium oxide interlayer. Palladium therefore grows on the GO with preferred orientations, resulting in unique microstructural and electrical properties.

Metal Oxide Nanocolumns for Extremely Sensitive Gas Sensors

Highly ordered SnO2 and NiO nanocolumns have been successfully achieved by glancing-angle deposition (GLAD) using an electron beam evaporator. Nanocolumnar SnO2 and NiO sensors exhibited high performance owing to the porous nanostructural effect with the formation of a double Schottky junction and high surface-to-volume ratios. When all gas sensors were exposed to various gases such as C2H5OH, C6H6, and CH3COCH3, the response of the highly ordered SnO2 nanocolumn were over 50 times higher than that of the SnO2 thin film. This work will bring broad interest and create a strong impact in many different fields owing to its particularly simple and reliable fabrication process.

Synthesis of Numerous Edge Sites in MoS2 via SiO2 Nanorods Platform for Highly Sensitive Gas Sensor

The utilization of edge sites in two-dimensional materials including transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) is an effective strategy to realize high-performance gas sensors because of their high catalytic activity. Herein, we demonstrate a facile strategy to synthesize the numerous edge sites of vertically aligned MoS2 and larger surface area via SiO2 nanorod (NRs) platforms for highly sensitive NO2 gas sensor. The SiO2 NRs encapsulated by MoS2 film with numerous edge sites and partially vertical-aligned regions synthesized using simple thermolysis process of [(NH4)2MoS4]. Especially, the vertically aligned MoS2 prepared on 500 nm thick SiO2 NRs (500MoS2) shows approximately 90 times higher gas-sensing response to 50 ppm NO2 at room temperature than the MoS2 film prepared on flat SiO2, and the theoretical detection limit is as low as ∼2.3 ppb. Additionally, it shows reliable operation with reversible response to NO2 gas without degradation at an operating temperature of 100 °C. The use of the proposed facile approach to synthesize vertically aligned TMDs using nanostructured platform can be extended for various TMD-based devices including sensors, water splitting catalysts, and batteries.

Temperature and Gas Sensing Multifunctional Ceramic Sensors

Multifunctional structures with two kinds of materials have been intensively investigated in order to improve their electrical characteristic with two functions simultaneously. However, the research regarding of multifunctional ceramic sensor is still in a preliminary stage and how to integrate them with low-cost and high-yield mass production process remains a challenge issue. In this study, we fabricated the multifunctional ceramic sensor composed of temperature and gas sensors. Moreover, we investigated the CO sensing properties of three dimensional nanostuctured thin film gas sensors fabricated with silica ( nanosphere (