• Particle and aerosol research
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.151-159
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• 2016

Since airborne viruses have been known to aggravate indoor air quality, studies on development of anti-viral air filter increase recently. In this study, a mass aerosol particle generator for coating a commercial air filter (over $300{\times}300mm^2$) was built, and evaluated by comparing a commercial particle generator. Then, via this device, a commercial air filter was coated with anti-viral material ($SiO_2-Ag$ nanoparticles in this study), so fabrication of commercial anti-viral air filter was performed and the pressure drop, filtration efficiency, and anti-viral ability of the filter were evaluated against aerosolized bacteriophage MS2 in a continuous air flow condition. The result showed that the particle generation of the new generator was more than about 8.5 times over which of the commercial one. Consequently, $SiO_2-Ag$ particle coating on a filter does not have significant effects on the filtration efficiency and pressure drop with different areas, and the average anti-viral efficiency of the $SiO_2-Ag$ filter was about 92% when the coating areal density was $1.0{\times}10^{12}particles/m^2$.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.1-6
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• 2017

Functional coatings, such as anti-reflection and self-cleaning, are frequently applied to cover glass for photovoltaic applications. Anti-reflection coatings made of mesoporous silica film have been shown to enhance the light transmittance. $TiO_2$ photocatalyst films are often applied as a self-cleaning coating. In this study, transparent hydrophobic anti-reflective and self-cleaning coatings made of $SiO_2/TiO_2$ thin layers were fabricated on a slide glass substrate by the sol-gel and dip-coating processes. The morphology of the functional coatings was characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The optical properties of the functional coatings were investigated using an UV-visible spectrophotometer. Contact angle measurements were performed to confirm the hydrophobicity of the surface. The results showed that the $TiO_2$ films exhibit a high transmittance comparable to that of the bare slide glass substrate. The $TiO_2$ nanoparticles make the film more reflective and lead to a lower transmittance. However, the transmittance of the $SiO_2/TiO_2$ thin layers is 93.5% at 550 nm with a contact angle of $110^{\circ}$, which is higher than that of the bare slide glass (2.0%).

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.67-78
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• 2017

Combustion of ethanol (EtOH) at low temperatures has been studied using titania- and silica-supported platinum nanocrystallites with different sizes in a wide range of 1~25 nm, to see if EtOH can be used as a clean, alternative fuel, i.e., one that does not emit sulfur oxides, fine particulates and nitrogen oxides, and if the combustion flue gas can be used for directly heating the interior of greenhouses. The results of $H_2-N_2O$ titration on the supported Pt catalysts with no calcination indicate a metal dispersion of $0.97{\pm}0.1$, corresponding to ca. 1.2 nm, while the calcination of 0.65% $Pt/SiO_2$ at 600 and $900^{\circ}C$ gives the respective sizes of 13.7 and 24.6 nm when using X-ray diffraction technique, as expected. A comparison of EtOH combustion using $Pt/TiO_2$ and $Pt/SiO_2$ catalysts with the same metal content, dispersion and nanoparticle size discloses that the former is better at all temperatures up to $200^{\circ}C$, suggesting that some acid sites can play a role for the combustion. There is a noticeable difference in the combustion characteristics of EtOH at $80{\sim}200^{\circ}C$ between samples of 0.65% $Pt/SiO_2$ consisting of different metal particle sizes; the catalyst with larger platinum nanoparticles shows higher intrinsic activity. Besides the formation of $CO_2$, low-temperature combustion of EtOH can lead to many other pathways that generate undesired byproducts, such as formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, acetic acid, diethyl ether, and ethylene, depending strongly on the catalyst and reaction conditions. A 0.65% $Pt/SiO_2$ catalyst with a Pt crystallite size of 24.6 nm shows stable performances in EtOH combustion at $120^{\circ}C$ even for 12 h, regardless of the space velocity allowed.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.17-23
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• 2015

Objectives: The cytotoxcities of Au, Ag, SWCNT, $SiO_2$, and ZnO nanomaterials were evaluated in order to assess their potential toxicological effects in in vitro cell models using colony forming efficiency (CFE) assay. Methods: The CFE assay of the test materials was carried out on Hep G2 cells. The size distribution of nanomaterials was studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Changes in cell viability after treatment with a toxicant will result in a decreased number of colonies formed in comparison to solvent. Results: The TEM images show that all the particles except SWCNT and ZnO can be considered approximately spherical. The gold and $SiO_2$ nanoparticles show no response (no toxicity) in concentration response experiments. A statistically significant toxic effect was found in Hep G2 cells treated with Ag, SWCNT and ZnO nanomaterials. Conclusion: In this study, we considered CFE assay to be a promising test for screening studies for cytotoxicity with physicochemical analysis.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.1065-1082
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• 2016

The main aim of this study is to predict the compressive and flexural strengths of self-compacting mortar (SCM) containing $nano-SiO_2$, $nano-Fe_2O_3$ and nano-CuO using wavelet-based weighted least squares-support vector machines (WLS-SVM) approach which is called WWLS-SVM. The WWLS-SVM regression model is a relatively new metamodel has been successfully introduced as an excellent machine learning algorithm to engineering problems and has yielded encouraging results. In order to achieve the aim of this study, first, the WLS-SVM and WWLS-SVM models are developed based on a database. In the database, nine variables which consist of cement, sand, NS, NF, NC, superplasticizer dosage, slump flow diameter and V-funnel flow time are considered as the input parameters of the models. The compressive and flexural strengths of SCM are also chosen as the output parameters of the models. Finally, a statistical analysis is performed to demonstrate the generality performance of the models for predicting the compressive and flexural strengths. The numerical results show that both of these metamodels have good performance in the desirable accuracy and applicability. Furthermore, by adopting these predicting metamodels, the considerable cost and time-consuming laboratory tests can be eliminated.

• Proceedings of the Korean Magnestics Society Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.34.2-34.2
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• 2007

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.27.2-27.2
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• 2010

In recent years, there is a strong requirement of low cost, stable microelectro mechanical systems (MEMS) for resonators, microswitches and sensors. Most of these devices consist of freely suspended microcantilevers, which are usually made by the etching of some sacrificial materials. Herein, we have attempted to use Si nanowires, inherited from the parent Si wafer, as a sacrificial material due to its porosity, low cost and ease of fabrication. Prior to the fabrication of the Si nanowires silver nanoparticles were continuously formed on the surface of Si wafer. Vertically aligned Si nanowires were fabricated from the parent Si wafers by aqueous chemical route at $50^{\circ}C$. Afterwards, the morphological and structural characteristics of the Si nanowires were investigated. The morphology of nanowires was strongly modulated by the resistivity of the parent wafer. The 3-step etching of nanowires in diluted KOH solution was carried out at room temperature in order to control the fast etching. A layer of $Si_3N_4$ (300 nm) was used for the selective fabrication of nanowires. Finally, a freely suspended bridge of zinc oxide (ZnO) was fabricated after the removal of nanowires from the parent wafer. At present, we believe that this technique may provide a platform for the inexpensive fabrication of futuristic MEMS.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.08a
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• pp.191.2-191.2
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• 2013

The negative photoconductivity was frequently observed in some semiconductors. It was known that the origin of the negative photoresponse from ZnO is molecular chemisorption or the charging effect of nanoparticles in bulk matrix. However, the origin of the negative photoresponse of thin film was not still clear. One of possible explanation is due to the deep level trap scheme, which describes the origin of the negative photoresponse via defect state under illumination of light. However, the defect states below Fermi level have high capture rate by Coulomb effect, so that these states are usually filled by electrons if the defect states have donor-like character. Therefore the condition which the defect states located in below Fermi level should be partially filled by electrons make more difficult to understand of mechanism of the negative photoresponse. In this study, n-ZnO/p-Si heterojunction diodes were fabricated by UHV RF magnetron sputter. Then, some diodes show the negative photoresponse under ultra-violet light illumination. The defect state of the ZnO was analyzed by photoluminescence and deep level transient spectroscopy. To interpret the negative photoconductivity, band diagram was simulated by using SCAPS program.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.24 no.8
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• pp.417-422
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• 2014

In this study, we investigated localized surface plasmon resonance and the related coupling phenomena with respect to various geometric parameters of Ag nanoparticles, including the size and inter-particle distance. The plasmon resonances of Ag nanoparticles were studied using three-dimensional finite difference time domain(FDTD) calculations. From the FDTD calculations, we discovered the existence of a symmetric and an anti-symmetric plasmon coupling modes in the coupled Ag nanoparticles. The dependence of the resonance wavelength with respect to the inter-particle distance was also investigated, revealing that the anti-symmetric mode is more closely correlated with the inter-particle distance of the Ag nanoparticles than the symmetric mode. We also found that higher order resonance modes are appeared in the extinction spectrum for closely spaced Ag nanoparticles. Plasmon resonance calculations for the Ag particles coated with a $SiO_2$ layer showed enhanced plasmon coupling due to the strengthened plasmon resonance, suggesting that the inter-particle distance of the Ag nanoparticles can be estimated by measuring the transmission and absorption spectra with the plasmon resonance of symmetric and anti-symmetric localized surface plasmons.

• Composites Research
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.365-370
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• 2020

The icing formation at aircraft occur problems such as increasing weight of the body, fuel efficiency reduction, drag reduction, the error of sensor, and etc. The viscosity of polyurethane (PU) topcoat was measured at 60℃ in real time to set the pre-curing time. SiO2 nanoparticles were dispersed in ethanol using ultra-sonication method. The SiO2/ethanol solution was sprayed on PU topcoat that was not cured fully with different pre-curing conditions. Surface roughness of SiO2/PU nanocomposites were measured using surface roughness tester and the surface roughness data was visualized using 3D mapping. The adhesion property between SiO2 and PU topcoat was evaluated using adhesion pull-off test. The static contact angle was measured using distilled water to evaluate the hydrophobicity. Finally, the pre-curing time of PU topcoat was optimized to exhibit the hydrophobicity of SiO2/PU topcoat.