• Membrane Journal
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.120-132
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• 2021

Microbial fuel cell (MFC) is a bio-electrochemical device that generates electricity by utilizing bacterial catalytic activity that degrades wastewater. Proton exchange membrane (PEM) is the core component of MFC that decides its performance, and Nafion membrane is the most widely used PEM. In spite of the excellent performance of Nafion, it has drawbacks such as high cost, biofouling issue, and non-biodegradable property. Recent studies in MFC attempted to synthetize the alternative membrane for Nafion by incorporating various polymers, sulfonating, fluorinating, and doping other chemicals. This review summarizes characteristics and performances of different composite membrane based MFCs, mostly focusing on PEM.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.61 no.3
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• pp.456-462
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• 2023

An electrically conductive and transparent electrode was created by applying a dispersion of pristine single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and silver nanowires to a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film using a bar coating method. The SWCNTs were added to increase the electrical conductivity and transmittance of the silver nanowires while also preventing the haze from increasing due to the stacking of multiple layers containing SWCNTs and silver nanowires on the PET substrate. The silver nanowires in the electrode were also found to be stable against oxidation. The transparent electrode displayed excellent electrical and optical properties, with a sheet resistance of 47 Ω/□, transmittance of 96.72%, and haze of 1.93%. Additionally, the sheet resistance of the electrode remained stable over time, with a change of only 6.4% after a constant temperature and humidity test, making it suitable for long-term use. A hybrid transparent electrode that is economically feasible and environmentally sustainable has been developed through the utilization of pristine SWCNT and silver nanowire.

• Clean Technology
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.78-82
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• 2011

For effectively photochemical hydrogen production, P (negative semiconductor) and B (positive semiconductor) ions (0.1, 0.2, 0.5, and 1.0 mol%) incorporated $TiO_2$ (P- and B-$TiO_2$) nanometer sized particles were prepared using a solvothermal method as a photocatalyst. The characteristics of the synthesized P- and B-$TiO_2$ photocatalysts were analyzed by X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), W-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis), and Photoluminescence spectra (PL). The evolution of $H_2$ from methanol/water (1:1) photo-splitting over B-$TiO_2$ photocatalysts was enhanced compared to those over pure $TiO_2$ and P-$TiO_2$ photocatalysts; 0.42 mL of $H_2$ gas was evolved after 10 h when 0.5 g of a 1.0 mol% B-$TiO_2$ catalyst was used.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.301-310
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• 2014

In this study, the silica nanoparticles were considerably chosen to improve a dimensional stability, proton transport and electrochemical performance of the resulting inorganic-organic nanocomposite membranes. For this purpose, hydrophobic silica (Aerosil$^{(R)}$ 812, Degussa) and hydrophilic silica (Aerosil$^{(R)}$ 380, Degussa) nanoparticles were, respectively, introduced into a Sulfonated poly(arylene ether sulfone) (SPAES) polymer matrix. The $SiO_2$ particles are evenly dispersed in a SPAES matrix by the aid of a non-ionic surfactant (Pluronics$^{(R)}$ L64). A $SiO_2$ content plays an important role in membrane microstructures and membrane properties such as proton conductivity and water uptake. Therefore, to study nanocomposite membranes with excessive amount of silica, the content of silica nanoparticles were increased up to 5 wt%. Interestingly, a hydrophobic $SiO_2$ containing nanocomposite membrane showed better electrochemical performance (29% higher than pristine SPAES) despite of low proton conductivity due to its adhesive properties with a catalyst layer in a single cell test. All the silica-SPAES membranes exhibited better performance than a pristine SPAES membrane.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.323-332
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• 1976

The x or $x^0+x'$ values of the nonstoichiometric chemical formula $TiO_{2-x}$ or $Ti_{2-(x^0+x')}$ have been measured by a specially made magnetic quartz microbalance in a temperature range from 600 to $1300^{\circ}C$ under oxygen pressures of $1{\times}10^{-6} to 1 atm. The standard x or $x^0$ value of the rutile is 0.00148. The x values $under_xoxygen$ pressure of 1 atm decrease with temperatures and then the stoichiometric rutile (or x = 0) is formed at $1130^{\circ}C$. The x values varied between 0.00148 and 0.01719 at a temperature range from 600 to $1300^{\circ}C$ under $1{\times}10^{-9}{\sim}1{\times}10^{-2}$ atm oxygen pressures. The enthalpies of formation of the nonstoichiometric rutile, $H_f$, varied between 21.05 and 29.97 Kcal/mole under the above conditions. The 1/n values calculated from the plots of log X' vs. log $Po_2$ are -{\frac{1}{2}}{\sim}-{\frac{1}{4}} under low oxygen pressure range of $1{\times}10^{-6}\;to\;1{\times}10^{-4}$ atm. Many physical properties of the titanium dioxide, such as the stability of the rutile, Electrical conductivity, catalytic activity and defects, can be explained through the x values and the thermodynamic data calculated from the temperature and oxygen pressure dependences of the x' values.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.155-163
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• 2011

Carbon nanotubes (CNT) have been attracted much attention since they have been expected to be used in various areas by virtue of their outstanding physical, electrical, and chemical properties. In order to make full use of their prominent electric conductivity in some areas such as electron emission sources, device interconnects, and electrodes in energy storage devices, direct growth of CNT with vertical alignment is definitely beneficial issue because they can maintain mechanical stability and high conductivity at the interface between substrates. Here, we report direct growth of vertically aligned CNT (VCNT) on Cu foils using thermal chemical vapor deposition and characterize the field emission property of the VCNT. The VCNT's height was controlled by changing the growth temperature, growth time, and catalytic layer thickness. Optimum growth condition was found to be $800^{\circ}C$ for 20 min with acetylene and hydrogen mixtures on Fe catalytic layer of 1 nm thick. The diameter of VCNT grown was smaller than that of usual multi walled CNT. Based on the result of field emission characterization, we concluded that the VCNT on Cu foils can be useful in various potential applications where high conductivity through the interface between CNT and substrate is required.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.30-36
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• 2014

Redox complexes to transport electrons from enzyme to electrodes are very important part in glucose sensor. Pentacyanoferrate-bound aniline ($Fe(CN)_5$-aminopyridine), was prepared as a potential redox mediator in a glucose dehydrogenase (GDH)-glucose sensor. The synthesized pyridyl-$NH_2$ to pentacyanoferrate was characterized by the electrochemical and spectroscopic methods. A amperometric enzyme-linked electrode was developed based on GDH, which catalyses the oxidation of glucose. Glucose was detected using GDH that was co-immobilized with an $Fe(CN)_5$-aminopyridine and gold nano-particles (AuNPs) on ITO electrodes. The $Fe(CN)_5$-aminopyridine and AuNPs immobilized onto ITO electrodes provided about a two times higher electrochemical response compared to that of a bare ITO electrode. As glucose was catalyzed by wired GDH, the electrical signal was monitored at 0.4 V versus Ag/AgCl by cyclic voltammetry. The anode currents was linearly increased in proportion to the glucose concentration over the 0~10 mM range.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.207-212
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• 2014

An ultrathin sheet-like carbon nanostructure provides an important model of a two-dimensional graphite structure with strong anisotropy in physical properties. As an easy and cheap route for mass production, RF thermal plasma synthesis of freestanding carbon nanosheet from $CH_4$ (Methane) and $C_3H_8$ (Propane) is presented. Using vapor synthesis process with RF inductively thermal plasma, carbon nanosheets were obtained without catalysts and substrates. The synthesized carbon nanosheets were characterized using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis. The carbon nanosheets synthesized using methane and propane generally showed 5~6 and 15~16 layers with a wrinkled morphology and size of approximately 100 nm.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.259-269
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• 2002

A battery based on the lithium/elemental sulfur redox couple has the advantage of high theoretical specific capacity of 1,675 mAh/g-sulfur. However, Li/S battery has bad cyclic durability at room temperature due to sulfur active material loss resulting from lithium polysulfide dissolution. To improve the cycle life of Li/S battery, PEGDME (Poly(ethylene glycol) dimethyl ether) 500 containing 1M LiTFSI salt which has high viscosity was used as electrolyte to retard the polysulfide dissolution and nano-sized $Mg_{0.6}Ni_{0.4}O$ was added to sulfur cathode as additive to adsorb soluble polysulfide within sulfur cathode. From experimental results, the improvement of the capacity and cycle life of Li/S battery was observed( maximum discharge capacity : 1,185 mAh/g-sulfur, C50/C1 = 85 % ). Through the charge-discharge test, we knew that PEGDME 500 played a role of preventing incomplete charge-discharge $behavior^{1,2)$. And then, in sulfur dissolution analysis and rate capability test, we first confirmed that nano-sized $Mg_{0.6}Ni_{0.4}O$ had polysulfide adsorbing effect and catalytic effect of promoting the Li/S redox reaction. In addition, from BET surface area analysis, we also verified that it played the part of increasing the porosity of sulfur cathode.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.425-429
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• 2014

Until a recent day, degradation of PEMFC MEA(membrane and electrode assembly) has been studied, separated with membrane degradation and electrode degradation, respectively. But membrane and electrode were degraded coincidentally at real PEMFC operation condition. During simultaneous degradation, there was interaction between membrane degradation and electrode degradation. Hydrogen permeability was used often to measure degradation of electrolyte membrane in PEMFC. In case of hydrogen permeability measured by LSV(Linear Sweep Voltammetry) method, the degradation of electrode decrease the value of hydrogen crossover current due to LSV methode's dependence on electrode active area. In this study hydrogen permeability was measured by gas chromatograph(GC) when membrane and electrode degraded at the same time. It was showed that degradation of electrode did not affect the hydrogen permeability measured by GC because of GC methode's independence on electrode active area.