2 research outputs found
Ultrathin Plasmonic Optical/Thermal Barrier: Flashlight-Sintered Copper Electrodes Compatible with Polyethylene Terephthalate Plastic Substrates
In recent years,
highly conductive, printable electrodes have received tremendous attention
in various research fields as the most important constituent components
for large-area, low-cost electronics. In terms of an indispensable
sintering process for generating electrodes from printable metallic
nanomaterials, a flashlight-based sintering technique has been regarded
as a viable approach for continuous roll-to-roll processes. In this
paper, we report cost-effective, printable Cu electrodes that can
be applied to vulnerable polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates,
by incorporating a heretofore-unrecognized ultrathin plasmonic thermal/optical
barrier, which is composed of a 30 nm thick Ag nanoparticle (NP) layer.
The different plasmonic behaviors during a flashlight-sintering process
are investigated for both Ag and Cu NPs, based on a combined interpretation
of the experimental results and theoretical calculations. It is demonstrated
that by a continuous printing process and a continuous flashlight-sintering
process, the Cu electrodes are formed successfully on large PET substrates,
with a sheet resistance of 0.24 Ω/sq and a resistivity of 22.6
μΩ·cm
Sloughing a Precursor Layer to Expose Active Stainless Steel Catalyst for Water Oxidation
Hydrogen
production by water electrolysis has been regarded as a promising
approach to wean away from sourcing energy through fossil fuels, as
the produced hydrogen gas can be converted to electrical or thermal
energy without any harmful byproducts. However, an efficient hydrogen
production is restricted by the sluggish oxygen evolution reaction
(OER) at the counter anode. Therefore, the development of new OER
catalysts with high catalytic activities is crucial for high performance
water splitting. Here, we report a novel sloughing method for the
fabrication of an efficient OER catalyst on a stainless steel (SS)
surface. A chalcogenide (Fe–S) overlayer generated by sulfurization
on the SS surface is found to play a critical role as a precursor
layer in the formation of an active surface during water oxidation.
Interestingly, a newly exposed catalytic layer after sloughing off
the Fe–S overlayer has a nanoporous structure with changed
elemental composition, resulting in a significant improvement in OER
performance with an overpotential value of 267 mV at a current density
of 10 mA cm<sup>–2</sup> (in 1 M KOH). Our novel method for
the preparation of OER catalyst provides an important insight into
designing an efficient and stable electrocatalyst for the water splitting
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