Now showing 1 - 10 of 21
  • Publication
    Annealing Effects on Polycrystalline Silicon Germanium (SiGe) Thin Films grown on Nanostructured Silicon Substrates using Thermal Evaporation Technique
    ( 2022-10-01) ;
    Eop T.S.
    ;
    ;
    Sopian K.
    ;
    ;
    Zaidi S.H.
    Polycrystalline SiGe thin films have been formed after thermal annealing of formerly vacuum evaporated a-Ge layers. The a-Ge thin films were deposited onto nanostructured Si substrates via low-cost thermal evaporation method. Then, the films were annealed in a furnace at temperatures ranging from 400 °C to 1000 °C resulting in crystal growth of the SiGe layers. In general, the annealing temperature for polycrystalline SiGe is between 600 °C – 800 °C. The crystalline structure of the SiGe layer is improved as a function of increased temperature. This is shown by the low FWHM of about 5.27 as compared to the commercially available Ge substrates where the FWHM value is about 5.06. This method also produces more relax Ge layer where the strain value is 0.261.
  • Publication
    Annealing effects on polycrystalline silicon germanium (SiGe) thin films grown on nanostructured silicon substrates using thermal evaporation technique
    ( 2022-10) ;
    Eop, T. S.
    ;
    ;
    Sopian, K.
    ;
    ;
    Zaidi, S. H.
    Polycrystalline SiGe thin films have been formed after thermal annealing of formerly vacuum evaporated a-Ge layers. The a-Ge thin films were deposited onto nanostructured Si substrates via low-cost thermal evaporation method. Then, the films were annealed in a furnace at temperatures ranging from 400 °C to 1000 °C resulting in crystal growth of the SiGe layers. In general, the annealing temperature for polycrystalline SiGe is between 600 °C – 800 °C. The crystalline structure of the SiGe layer is improved as a function of increased temperature. This is shown by the low FWHM of about 5.27 as compared to the commercially available Ge substrates where the FWHM value is about 5.06. This method also produces more relax Ge layer where the strain value is 0.261.
  • Publication
    Effect of graphene oxide on microstructure and optical properties of TiO2 thin film
    ( 2019-01-01)
    Azani A.
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    ;
    Razak K.A.
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    ;
    Mohd Salleh M.A.A.
    ;
    Abdul Razak M.F.S.
    ;
    ;
    Ramli M.M.
    ;
    ;
    Chobpattana V.
    GO/TiO2 thin films have been synthesized from titanium (IV) isopropoxide (TTIP) by a sol-gel method. The films were deposited onto a glass substrate using spin coating deposition technique then were subjected to annealed process at 350 °C. The different amount of graphene oxide (GO) was added into the parent solution of sol in order to investigate the microstructure, topography, optical band gap and photocatalytic activity of the thin films. The prepared thin films were characterized by atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV-VIS spectrophotometry and degradation of methylene blue (MB). AFM images reveal a rougher surface of GO/TiO2 thin film than bare TiO2 thin film due to GO particles. Moreover, the SEM images showed the formation of semispherical microstructure of bare TiO2 changes to some larger combined molecules with GO addition. The UV-Vis spectrophotometer results show that with optical direct energy gap decreases from 3.30 to 3.18 eV after GO addition due to the effect of high surface roughness and bigger grain size. Furthermore, the optical results also indicated that GO improved the optical properties of TiO2 in the visible range region.
  • Publication
    A Study on the Environmental Impact During Distribution and Disposal Stages for the 3-Ply Face Masks by Using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
    The demand of face masks had increased tremendously due to pandemic outbreak of COVID-19, leading to the increment production rate of face masks in Malaysia. Waste is also produced at the same time, resulting impacts towards the environment. Due to the land scarcity issue in Malaysia, the end of life treatment for the waste is taken into consideration. The study tools used in this study is life cycle assessment (LCA) to identify the significant potential environmental impact produced during the life cycle stages for distribution and disposal through GaBi Education Software. The disposal stage between landfill and incineration of the 3-Ply face masks is studied to determine the end of life treatment for it. The impact assessment method selected in this study is CML 2001-Jan 2016 with the environmental indicator of Global Warming Potential (GWP), Acidification Potential (AP), Eutrophication Potential (EP) and Ozone Depletion Potential (ODP). GWP results in producing highest impact to the environment during both distribution and disposal stages. The impact of GWP also relates to the climate change. Modern incineration is recommended to overcome the issue of land scarcity in Malaysia as the amount of waste by 3-Ply face masks are increasing due to the pandemic COVID-19, reducing the impacts towards the environment.
  • Publication
    Microstructure evolution of Ag/TiO2 thin film
    ( 2021) ; ; ;
    Mohd Izrul Izwan Ramli
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    ; ;
    Kazuhiro Nogita
    ;
    Hideyuki Yasuda
    ;
    Marcin Nabiałek
    ;
    Jerzy J. Wysłocki
    Ag/TiO2 thin films were prepared using the sol-gel spin coating method. The microstructural growth behaviors of the prepared Ag/TiO2 thin films were elucidated using real-time synchrotron radiation imaging, its structure was determined using grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD), its morphology was imaged using the field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), and its surface topography was examined using the atomic force microscope (AFM) in contact mode. The cubical shape was detected and identified as Ag, while the anatase, TiO2 thin film resembled a porous ring-like structure. It was found that each ring that coalesced and formed channels occurred at a low annealing temperature of 280 °C. The energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) result revealed a small amount of Ag presence in the Ag/TiO2 thin films. From the in-situ synchrotron radiation imaging, it was observed that as the annealing time increased, the growth of Ag/TiO2 also increased in terms of area and the number of junctions. The growth rate of Ag/TiO2 at 600 s was 47.26 µm2/s, and after 1200 s it decreased to 11.50 µm2/s and 11.55 µm2/s at 1800 s. Prolonged annealing will further decrease the growth rate to 5.94 µm2/s, 4.12 µm2/s and 4.86 µm2/s at 2400 s, 3000 s and 3600 s, respectively.
  • Publication
    Fabrication and simulation of silicon nanogaps pH sensor as preliminary study for Retinol Binding Protein 4 (RBP4) detection
    In this research, a silicon nanogap biosensor has the potential to play a significant role in the field of biosensors for detecting Retinol Binding Protein 4 (RBP4) molecules due to its unique nanostructure morphology, biocompatibility features, and electrical capabilities. Additionally, as preliminary research for RBP4, a silicon nanogap biosensor with unique molecular gate control for pH measurement was developed. Firstly, using conventional lithography followed by the Reactive-ion etching (RIE) technique, a nanofabrication approach was utilized to produce silicon nanogaps from silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers. The critical aspects contributing to the process and size reduction procedures were highlighted to achieve nanometer-scale size. The resulting silicon nanogaps, ranging from 100 nm to 200 nm, were fabricated precisely on the device. Secondly, pH level detection was performed using several types of standard aqueous pH buffer solutions (pH 6, pH 7, pH 12) to test the electrical response of the device. The sensitivity of the silicon nanogap pH sensor was 7.66 pS/pH (R² = 0.97), indicating that the device has a wide range of pH detecting capacity. This also includes the silicon nanogap biosensor validated by simulation, with the sensitivity obtained being 3.24 μA/e.cm² (R² = 0.98). The simulation of the sensitivity is based on the interface charge (Qf) that represents the concentration of RBP4. The results reveal that the silicon nanogap biosensor has excellent characteristics for detecting pH levels and RBP4 with outstanding sensitivity performance. In conclusion, this silicon nanogap biosensor can be used as a new electrical RBP4 biosensor for biomedical diagnostic applications in the future.
  • Publication
    Annealing effects on Polycrystalline Silicon Germanium (SiGe) thin films grown on nanostructured silicon substrates using thermal evaporation technique
    (Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), 2022-10) ;
    Eop, T. S.
    ;
    ; ;
    Sopian, K.
    ;
    Zaidi, S. H.
    Polycrystalline SiGe thin films have been formed after thermal annealing of formerly vacuum evaporated a-Ge layers. The a-Ge thin films were deposited onto nanostructured Si substrates via low-cost thermal evaporation method. Then, the films were annealed in a furnace at temperatures ranging from 400 °C to 1000 °C resulting in crystal growth of the SiGe layers. In general, the annealing temperature for polycrystalline SiGe is between 600 °C – 800 °C. The crystalline structure of the SiGe layer is improved as a function of increased temperature. This is shown by the low FWHM of about 5.27 as compared to the commercially available Ge substrates where the FWHM value is about 5.06. This method also produces more relax Ge layer where the strain value is 0.261.
  • Publication
    Tin and germanium substitution in lead free perovskite solar cell: current status and future trends
    (IOP Publishing, 2020) ;
    Faith Shi Xin Then
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    ;
    Suhaila Sepeai
    ;
    Norasikin Ahmad Ludin
    Tin and germanium-based perovskite solar cell is gaining interest in lead-free perovskite solar cells as it is less toxic as compared to lead but possess almost all the characteristics of a perfect solar cell materials. Within 5 years, the reported efficiency of tin-based solar cells has increased from 6.4% to 9%. Although facing with stability issues as it is easily oxidised in ambient air, several studies have proven that the stability issues can be reduced. One of it is by using cesium as the 'A' cation. On the other hand, although studies on germanium-based perovskite solar cells are rarely conducted, promising results are shown when it is alloyed with tin producing narrower bandgaps and better stability owing to the protection of the GeO2 surface layer.
  • Publication
    Metal induced crystallization of polycrystalline silicon germanium: The morphological study between nickel and copper
    (AIP Publishing Ltd., 2023)
    T. S. Eop
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    ;
    L. Mohamad Jazi
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    K. S. Ting
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    ;
    Abdul Kareem Thottoli
    In this study, metal induced crystallization technique is used in to obtain the lower temperature point in crystallization. Two different metals with one non-metal configuration as a baseline i.e. SiGe/Ni, SiGe/Cu and SiGe. A simple metal-assisted chemical etching method is used to fabricate the Si nanopillar, with Ag acting as a catalyst. Following by deposition of metal namely nickel (Ni) and copper (Cu) then undergo thermal annealing from 200 ℃ until 1000 ℃ to improve the crystallinity of the Ge layer. Morphological studies of surface area were conducted using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results show that the crystallization temperature of SiGe with Ni was obtained at 400 ℃ while the crystallization temperature of SiGe without any metal was obtained at 600 ℃. Meanwhile the crystallinity, for SiGe/Cu only occurs in very low level where the structure did not change until the annealing was conducted at 600 ℃. Based from these result, it is proved that the metal can help lowering the crystallization temperature and improving the defects of SiGe.
  • Publication
    Progress in tin-germanium perovskite solar cells: A review
    ( 2023-11-01)
    Azizman M.S.A.
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    ; ;
    Ibrahim N.
    ;
    Sepeai S.
    ;
    Ludin N.A.
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    Nor M.N.M.
    ;
    Ho L.N.
    The primary cause for concern in developing perovskite solar cells (PSCs) is the potential environmental repercussions of employing lead (Pb) as the absorber. The majority of studies hypothesised that the use of tin-based perovskite could be the key to creating environmentally and financially viable PSCs. This is because tin (Sn) and lead (Pb) are both elements in group 14 of the periodic table. Perovskite materials based on tin and lead also have nearly ideal direct band gaps, which range from 1.23 eV to 1.30 eV. Nonetheless, major challenges that may suppress the potential of Sn-based PSCs include the stability issue with low formation energy, high carrier density, and easily oxidised from Sn2+ to Sn4+ upon exposure to air. These limitations are anticipated to be vital impediments to creating a stable and effective Sn-based perovskite. Recent advances have shown that alloying with germanium (Ge) is one of the approaches to overcome stability issues and thus improve the overall efficiency of the PSCs. However, the stability and efficiency of these Ge-based PSCs are still unable to surpass those of Pb-based devices. This review covers the research interest in SnGe PSCs from the initial study to the current year by focusing on the methodology used and significant results. The output is believed to be useful in developing Pb-free PSCs using SnGe-based materials.
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