A research paper on photovoltaic devices for the production of hydrogen gas, a next-generation energy source by Jung Tae Park, a professor of chemical engineering at Konkuk University, was published in the cover paper of September 21 issue. (The name of the paper: Synthesis of Ag2O decorated hierarchical TiO2 templated by double comb copolymers for efficient solar water splitting) Professor. Jung Tae Park Gyo Hun Choi, the 1st author Professor Park's research team made mesoporous nanostructures using both branched copolymers and combined them with one-dimensional nanorods to produce hierarchical photoelectrodes. Later, silver oxide particles were introduced to increase the plasmonic effect by visible light. (Figure 1) As previously reported, nanostructures using block or branched copolymers have a single pore structure, so that the specific surface area of the photoelectrode device and the enhancement of electrolyte penetration could not be satisfied at the same time. The mesoporous nanostructure using the copolymer is easy to control the size of the pores that it was possible to implement a high performance photoelectrochemical device. (Figure 2)
The first author is Gyo Hun Choi, a master's program student, and co-authors are Seung Man Lim, Juyoung Moon, Jeong Min Lim, and Uoon Chul Baek, master’s program students of Department of Chemical Engineering. This research was supported by Ministry of Science and ICT and Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning.
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