Electrochemical water splitting has emerged as a pivotal technology for green hydrogen production, offering a viable pathway toward a sustainable energy future. Among various electrolysis systems, Anion exchange membrane water electrolysis is particularly noteworthy as a cost-effective solution capable of operating under the fluctuating power inputs typical of renewable energy sources. However, the overall efficiency of water splitting is fundamentally limited by the oxygen evolution reaction, which exhibits sluggish kinetics compared to the hydrogen evolution reaction. While IrO2 and RuO2 serve as current benchmarks, their scarcity and high cost necessitate the development of earth-abundant alternatives. This review provides a comprehensive overview of fundamental OER mechanisms including the adsorbate evolution mechanism, lattice oxygen mechanism, and oxide path mechanism while highlighting how new pathways can circumvent traditional scaling relations. We discuss recent advancements in transition metal-based electrocatalysts, encompassing oxides, hydroxides, chalcogenides, phosphides, nitrides, and carbides, with a focus on innovative design strategies such as defect engineering, heteroatom doping, and heterostructure construction. This paper concludes by addressing current challenges and offering perspectives on future directions for the development of highly efficient and economically viable oxygen evolution electrocatalysts for large-scale applications.
Oxygen evolution reaction is a critical bottleneck for the development of efficient electrochemical hydrogen production because of its sluggish reaction. Among various catalysts, transition metal-based layered double hydroxide has drawn significant attention due to their excellent catalytic properties and cost-effectiveness. This paper begins with basic crystal structures, and then conventional adsorbate evolution mechanism of layered double hydroxide. Strategies for enhancing catalytic properties based on adsorbate evolution mechanism and lattice oxygen mechanism that could surpass theoretical limit of adsorbate evolution mechanism are discussed. This paper ends with a brief discussion on the challenges and future directions of layered double hydroxide-based oxygen evolution reaction catalysts.
Titanium dioxide (TiO₂) holds significant scientific and technological relevance as a key photocatalyst and resistive random-access memory, demonstrating unique physicochemical properties and serving as an n-type semiconductor. Understanding the density and arrangement of oxygen vacancies (VOs) is crucial for tailoring TiO₂’s properties to diverse technological needs, driving increased interest in exploring oxygen vacancy complexes and superstructures. In this mini review, we summarize the recent understandings of the fundamental properties of oxygen vacancies in bulk rutile (R-TiO₂) and anatase (A-TiO₂) based on DFT and beyond method. We specifically focus on the excess electrons and their spatial arrangement of disordered single VO in bulk R and A-TiO₂, aligned with the experimental findings. We also highlight the theoretical works on investigating the geometries and stabilities of ordered VOs complexes in bulk TiO₂. This comprehensive review provides insights into the fundamental properties of excess electrons in reduced TiO₂, offering valuable perspectives for future research and technological advancements in TiO₂-based devices.
Inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etching (ICP-RIE) of copper thin films patterned with SiO2 hard masks was carried out using piperidine/O2/Ar gas mixture. The etch rate, etch selectivity, and etch profile of copper thin films were investigated by varying gas concentration in piperidine/O2/Ar gas mixture. In addition, the etch parameters including ICP RF power, DC-bias voltage to substrate, and process pressure were varied to examine the etch characteristics. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and optical emission spectroscopy were employed to elucidate the etch mechanism under piperidine/O2/Ar gas chemistry. Finally, 150 nm-line patterned copper thin films were successfully etched using piperidine/ O2/Ar etch gas under the optimized etch conditions.
High reliability thin film transistors are important factors for next-generation displays. The reliability of transparent a-IGZO semiconductors is being actively studied for display applications. A plasma treatment can fill the oxygen vacancies in the channel layer and the channel layer/insulating layer interface so that the device can work stably under a bias voltage. This paper studies the effect of plasma treatment on the performance of a-IGZO TFT devices. The influence of different plasma gases on the electrical parameters of device and its working reliability are reviewed. The article mentions argon, fluorine, hydrogen and several ways of processing in the atmosphere. Among these methods, F (fluorine) plasma treatment can maximize equipment reliability. It is expected that the presented results will form a basis for further research to improve the reliability of a-IGZO TFT.
In this study, a TiO2/TiO2-x-based resistance variable memory was fabricated using a DC/RF magnetron sputtering system and ALD. In order to analyze the effect of oxygen plasma treatment on the performance of resistance random access memory (ReRAM), the TiO2/TiO2-x-based ReRAM was evaluated by applying RF power to the TiO2-x oxygen-holding layer at 30, 60, 90, 120, and 150 W, respectively. The ReRAM was fabricated, and the electrical and surface area performances were compared and analyzed. In the case of ReRAM without oxygen plasma treatment, the I-V curve had a hysteresis curve shape, but the width was very small, with a relatively high surface roughness of the oxygen-retaining layer. However, in the case of oxygen plasma treatment, the HRS/LRS ratio for the I-V curve improved as the applied RF power increased; stable improvement was also noted in the surface roughness of the oxygen-retaining layer. It was confirmed that the low voltage drive was not smooth due to charge trapping in the oxygen diffusion barrier layer owing to the high intensity ReRAM applied with an RF power of approximately 150 W.
An 80 nm thick zinc aluminate thin film was deposited on a glass substrate via radio-frequency (rf) magnetron sputtering and heat treated to analyze changes in the wetting angles due to a surface modification. The thin films were modified from hydrophilic to hydrophobic by a simple thermal treatment. The surface modification from a heat treatment increased the wetting angles up to 111°, which was explained by the relationship with the excess surface area. The wetting angles of the annealed thin films decreased with increasing exposure time under ambient conditions, which was attributed to the oxygen vacancies in the films that were introduced during deposition. The annealed thin films were treated by ionized oxygen via oxygen plasma. After the oxygen plasma treatment, the decreased wetting angles were maintained at ~95° for 11 days.
Ga2O3/n-type 4H-SiC heterojunction diodes were fabricated by RF magnetron sputtering. The optical properties of Ga2O3 and electrical properties of diodes were investigated. I-V characteristics were compared with simulation data from the Atlas software. The band gap of Ga2O3 was changed from 5.01 eV to 4.88 eV through oxygen annealing. The doping concentration of Ga2O3 was extracted from C-V characteristics. The annealed oxygen exhibited twice higher doping concentration. The annealed diodes showed improved turn-on voltage (0.99 V) and lower leakage current (3 pA). Furthermore, the oxygen-annealed diodes exhibited a temperature cross-point when temperature increased, and its ideality factor was lower than that of as-grown diodes.
The effect of low temperature (250℃) heat treatment after electron irradiation (irradiation time = 30, 180, 300s) on the chemical bonding and electrical properties of ZnO thin films prepared using a sol-gel process were examined. XPS (X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy) analysis showed that the electron beam irradiation decreased the concentration of M-O bonding and increased the OH bonding. As a result of the electron beam irradiation, the carrier concentration of ZnO films increased. The on/off ratio was maintained at ~105 and the VTH values shifted negatively from 11 to 1 V. As the irradiation time increased from 0 to 300s, the calculated S. S. (subthreshold swing) of ZnO TFTs increased from 1.03 to 3.69 V/decade. These values are superior when compared the sample heat-treated at 400℃ representing on/off ratio of ~102 and S. S. value of 10.40 V/decade.
In this study, we observed current-voltage characteristics of the MIM (metal-insulator-metal) structure. The WOx material was used between metal electrodes as the oxide insulator. The structure of the Al/WOx/TiN shows bipolar resistive switching and the operating direction of the resistive switching is clockwise, which means set at negative voltage and reset at positive voltage. The set process from HRS (high resistance state) to LRS (low resistance state) occurred at - 2.6 V . The reset process from LRS to HRS occurred at 2.78 V . The on/off current ratio was about 10 and resistive switching was performed for 5 cycles in the endurance characteristics. With consecutive switching cycles, the stable Vset and Vreset were observed. The electrical transport mechanism of the device was based on the migration of oxygen ions and the current-voltage curve is following (Ohm``s Law → Trap-Controlled Space Charge Limited Current → Ohm``s Law) process in the positive voltage region.
The conduction behavior and electron concentration change in a-IGZO thin-films according to the RTA (rapid thermal annealing) were studied. The electrical characteristics of TFTs (thin-film-transistors) annealed by different temperatures were measured. The sheet resistance, electron concentration, and oxygen vacancy of a-IGZO film were measured by the four-point-probe-measurement, hall-effect-measurement, and XPS analysis. The RTA process increased the driving current of IGZO TFTs but the VTH shifted to the negative direction at the same time. When the RTA temperature is higher than 250℃, the leakage current at off-state increased significantly. This is attributed to the increase of oxygen vacancy resulting in the increase of electron concentration. We demonstrate that the RTA is a promising process to adjust the VTH of TFT because the RTA process can easily modify the electron concentration and control the conductivity of IGZO film with short process time.
The object of this study is to obtain the optimum mix proportion of halogen free compound with flame resistance and, for the purpose, thermal/electrical characteristics test are conducted using compatibilizing agents, flame resistance agents, hydroxide aluminum, sunscreen, antioxidant and silicon oil on the base resin of linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE), Ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA). Existing compound method accompanies many requirements to be satisfied including a lot of addition of flame resistance agents, prohibition of impact on mixing capability with base and property and etc. In this study, different from the existing method, the optimum mix proportionis determined and experimented by adding nano clay. Oxygen index test shows no difference between specimens whileT-6, T-9 shows oxygen index of 29[%] and 26[%], respectively. This is concluded that hydroxide aluminum, which is aflame resistance agent, leads low oxygen index. From UL94-V vertical flame resistance test, the combustion behavior is determined as V-0, Fail based on UL94-V decision criteria. Viscometry shows low measurements in specimens with separate addition of compatibilizing agents or nano clay. Volume resistivity test shows low measurement mainly in specimens without compatibilizing agents. Therefore, with the flame resistance compound shows better performance for thermal/electrical property and the optimum mix proportion are achieved among many existing materials.
We have investigated the structural and electrical properties of Si-Zn-Sn-O (SZTO) thin filmsdeposited by RF magnetron sputtering at various deposition temperatures from RT to 350℃. All theSZTO thin fims are amorphous structure. The mobility of SZTO thin film has been changed dependingon the deposition temperature. SZTO thin film transistor shows mobility of 8.715 ㎠/Vs at roomtemperature. We performed the electrical stress test by applying gate and drain voltage. SZTO thin filmtransistor shows good stability deposited at room temperature while showing poor stability deposited at350℃. As a result, the electrical performance and stability have been changed depending on depositiontemperature mainly because high deposition temperature loosened the amorphous structure generatingmore oxygen vacancies.
The effect of oxygen pressure in the synthesis of ZnO nanostructures through thermal evaporation of Zn powder was investigated. The thermal evaporation process was carried out in oxygen ambient for 1 hr at 1,000℃ under different pressures. The oxygen pressure was changed in range of 0.5 ? 900 Torr. Any nanostructure was not formed on the specimens prepared at oxygen pressures lower than 10 Torr. When oxygen pressure was 100 Torr, ZnO nanowires were observed. With increasing the oxygen pressure to 500 Torr, the morphology of ZnO nanostructures changed from wire to tetrapod. For all the samples, room temperature photoluminescence spectra show a strong green emission peak at around 550 nm.
In this work, we study on the effects of the oxygen pressure on the structural and crystalline of MgZnO thin films. MgZnO thin films were deposited on p-Si (111) substrates by using pulsed laser deposition. The X-ray diffraction analysis and energy dispersive X-ray results revealed that as the oxygen pressure increased and Mg content in the MgZnO films decreased. Also Crystal structure was changed from cubic rock salt to hexagonal wurtzite. Alpha step and atomic force microscopy results showed that the thickness of the films are about 100 nm, and it has been found that the MgZnO (002) preferred orientation were deposited with increasing the oxygen pressure. Therefore, the effect of the preferred orientation, the crystallization grew in the form of the columnar; Grain size and RMS of the films were increased with increasing oxygen pressure.
The dependency of sputtering power on the electrical performances in amorphous HIZO-TFT (hafnium-indium-zinc-oxide thin film transistors) has been investigated. The HIZO channel layers were prepared by using radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering method with different sputtering power at room temperature. TOF-SIMS (time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry) was performed to confirm doping of hafnium atom in IZO film. The field effect mobility (μFE) increased and threshold voltage (Vth) shifted to negative direction with increasing sputtering power. This result can be attributed to the high energy particles knocking-out oxygen atoms. As a result, oxygen vacancies generated in HIZO channel layer with increasing sputtering power resulted in negative shift in Vth and increase in on-current.
The semiconducting material of ZnO in II-VI group was well known as its good application for photo electronics, chemical sensors and field effect transistors due to the remarkable optical properties with wide energy band gap and great ionic reactivities. Up to now the growth of a good quality of ZnO film has been issued for better performances. Even though there were many deposition methods for making ZnO films, pulse laser deposition methods have been preferred for high crystalline films. In this report, the ZnO film was also created by pulsed laser deposition technique which also showed high crystalinity. By controlling several factors when deposited, it was investigated that the optimal condition for ZnO film formation. Mainly, oxygen partial pressures and growth temperatures were changed when ZnO films were synthesized and followed the characterization by HRXRD and AFM.
Preparation and Electrochemical Properties of Pr1-x(Sr, Ca)xCoO3Cathode Materials for Zinc Air Batteries Sang-Hun Heo, Seung-Wook Eom, Hyun-Soo Kim Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society.2009; 12(4): 342. CrossRef
Structural and X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy Study of Al-Doped Zinc-Oxide Thin Films Bong Ju Lee, Ho Jun Song, Jin Jeong Advances in Materials Science and Engineering.2015; 2015: 1. CrossRef
Effect of the Change of Deposition Time on the Secondary Direction and Abnormal Shape of Grains Growth of SnO2Thin Films Jin Jeong Advances in Materials Science and Engineering.2015; 2015: 1. CrossRef
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