• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.427-436
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• 2023

In the industry, it is recognized that human activities significantly lead to a large amount of wastewater, mainly due to the increased use of water and energy. As a result, the growing field of wastewater resource technology is getting more attention. The common technology for hydrogen production, water electrolysis, requires purified water, leading to the need for desalination and reprocessing. However, producing hydrogen directly from wastewater could be a more cost-effective option compared to traditional methods. To achieve this, a series of first-principle computational simulations were conducted to assess how waste nutrient ions affect standard electrolysis catalysts. This study focused on understanding the adsorption mechanisms of byproducts related to the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in anion exchange membrane (AEM) electrolysis, using Co₃O₄ as a typical non-precious metal catalyst. At the same time, efforts were made to develop a comprehensive free energy prediction model for more accurate predictions of OER results.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.328-334
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• 2007

Chemical heat pump system of 2-propanol/acetone/hydrogen is most suitable to the recovery of waste heat of power plant. various types of 5 wt% Pt-alumina catalysts were prepared for 2-propanol dehydrogenation using sol-gel method. The characteristics and the dehydrogenation reaction rate of each catalyst were investigated. Pt-alumina xerogel catalyst has excellent reaction rate and good durability in comparison with the existing alumina supported Pt catalysts. Pt-alumina aerogel catalyst had the highest reaction rate in all prepared catalysts, but sufficient aging time was necessary to maintain its reaction rate. A potential advantage of the aerogel catalyst is the fact that the high temperature heat treatment is not required. Without heat treatment or with low temperature heat treatment, the Pt-alumina aerogel catalyst has excellent reaction rate as well as durability and this gives us the economic advantage. Alumina xerogel supported Pt catalyst prepared by incipient wetness method showed good reaction rate, and had good mechanical strength. Blank alumina xerogel prepared by sol-gel method can be used for the support of metal catalysts.

• Composites Research
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.355-359
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• 2019

The high efficient water splitting system should involve the reduction of high overpotential value, which was enhanced by the electrocatalytic reaction efficiency of catalysts, during the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) reaction, respectively. Among them, transition metal-based compounds (oxides, sulfides, phosphides, and nitrides) are attracting attention as catalyst materials to replace noble metals that are currently commercially available. Herein, we synthesized optimal monodisperse Co₃[Co(CN)₆]₂ PBAs by FESEM, and confirmed crystallinity by XRD and FT-IR, and thermal behavior of PBAs via TG-DTA. Also, we synthesized monodispersed Co₃O₄ nanocubes by calcination of Co₃[Co(CN)₆]₂ PBAs, confirmed the crystallinity by XRD, and proceeded OER measurement. Finally, the synthesized Co₃O₄ nanocubes showed a low overpotential of 312 mV at a current density of 10 mA·cm^-2 with a low Tafel plot (96.6 mV·dec^-1).

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.212-219
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• 2018

Perovskite type ceramic membranes which exhibit dual ion conduction (proton and oxygen ion conduction) can permeate water and can aid solving operational problems such as temperature gradient and carbon deposition associated with a working solid oxide fuel cell. From this point of view, it is crucial to reveal water transport mechanism and especially the nature of the surface sites that is necessary for water incorporation and evolution. $BaCe_{0.8}Y_{0.2}O_{3-{\alpha}}$ (BCY20) was used as a model proton and oxygen ion conducting membrane in this work. Four different catalytically modified membrane configurations were used for the investigations and water flux was measured as a function of temperature. In addition, CO was introduced to the permeate side in order to test the stability of membrane against water and $CO/CO_2$ and post operation analysis of used membranes were carried out. The results revealed that water incorporation occurs on any exposed electrolyte surface. However, the magnitude of water permeation changes depending on which membrane surface is catalytically modified. The platinum increases the water flux on the feed side whilst it decreases the flux on the permeate side. Water flux measurements suggest that platinum can block water permeation on the permeate side by reducing the access to the lattice oxygen in the surface layer.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.52
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• pp.7.1-7.6
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• 2022

The process of encapsulating cobalt nanoparticles using a graphene layer is mainly direct pyrolysis. The encapsulation structure of hybrids prepared in this way improves the catalyst stability, which greatly reduces the leaching of non-metals and prevents metal nanoparticles from growing beyond a certain size. In this study, cobalt particles surrounded by graphene layers were formed by increasing the temperature in a transmission electron microscope, and they were analyzed using scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM). Synthesized cobalt hydroxide nanosheets were used to obtain cobalt particles using an in-situ heating holder inside a TEM column. The cobalt nanoparticles are surrounded by layers of graphene, and the number of layers increases as the temperature increases. The interlayer spacing of the graphene layers was also investigated using atomic imaging. The success achieved in the encapsulation of metallic nanoparticles in graphene layers paves the way for the design of highly active and reusable heterogeneous catalysts for more challenging molecules.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.35 no.9
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• pp.2726-2732
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• 2014

The promoting effect of rhodium on the structure and activity of the supported Cu-Co based catalysts for CO hydrogenation was investigated in detail. The samples were characterized by DRIFTS, $N_2$-adsorption, XRD, $H_2$-TPR, $H_2$-TPD and XPS. The results indicated that the introduction of rhodium to Cu-Co catalysts resulted in modification of metal dispersion, reducibility and crystal structure. DRIFTS results of CO hydrogenation at reaction condition (P=2 MPa, $T=260^{\circ}C$) indicated the addition of 1 wt % rhodium improved hydrogenation ability of Cu-Co catalysts. The ethanol selectivity and CO conversion were both improved by 1 wt % Rh promoted Cu-Co based catalysts. The alcohol distribution over un-promoted and rhodium promoted Cu-Co based catalysts obeys A-S-F rule and higher chain growth probability was got on rhodium promoted catalyst.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.12 no.11
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• pp.5376-5383
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• 2011

The objective of this study is the development of carbon-recycle technology, that converts carbon dioxide captured from flue gas to carbon monoxide or carbon for reuse in industrial fields. It is difficult to decompose $CO_2$ because $CO_2$ is very stable molecule. And then metal oxide was used as an activation agent or catalyst for the decomposition of $CO_2$ at low temperature. Metal oxides, which converts $CO_2$ to CO or C, were prepared using Ni-ferrite by solid state method and hydrothermal synthesis in this study. TPR/TPO and TGA were used as an analysis method to analyze the decomposition characteristics of $CO_2$. As the results, the reduction area of $H_2$ was high value at 15 wt% of NiO and the decomposition area of $CO_2$ was superior capacity at 5 wt% of NiO. However, TGA data showed contrary results that reduction area of $H_2$ was 28.47wt% and oxidation area by $CO_2$ was 26.95wt% at 2.5 wt% of NiO, one of the Ni-ferrite powders synthesized using solid state method. $CO_2$ decomposition efficiency was 94.66% and it is excellent results in comparison with previous studies.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.346-352
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• 2012

The properties of methane oxidation were studied in this research over transition metal containing $CeO_2$ (TM/$CeO_2$, TM=Ni, Co, Cu, Fe) with TM content of 5 wt. % at atmospheric pressure. The characteristics of catalysts were investigated by various characterization techniques, including XRD, GC, SEM and EPMA analyses. The catalytic tests were carried out in a fixed Rmix ratio of 1.5 ($CH_4/O_2$) in a fixed-bed reactor operating isothermally at atmospheric pressure. Only the Ni/$CeO_2$ catalysts showed syngas production above $400^{\circ}C$ via typical partial oxidation reaction whereas other catalysts induced complete oxidation resulting in the production of $CO_2$ and $H_2O$ in whole reaction temperature range. From the quantitative analysis on carbon deposition after catalytic tests, Cu/$CeO_2$ was found to show the highest resistance on carbon deposition. Therefore Cu can be proposed as an efficient catalyst element which can be combined with a conventional Ni-based SOFC anode to enhance the carbon tolerance.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.250-257
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• 2016

Octahedral $Co_3O_4$/carbon nanofiber (CNF) composites are fabricated using electrospinning and hydrothermal methods. Their morphological characteristics, chemical bonding states, and electrochemical properties are used to demonstrate the improved photovoltaic properties of the samples. Octahedral $Co_3O_4$ grown on CNFs is based on metallic Co nanoparticles acting as seeds in the CNFs, which seeds are directly related to the high performance of DSSCs. The octahedral $Co_3O_4$/CNFs composites exhibit high photocurrent density ($12.73mA/m^2$), superb fill factor (62.1 %), and excellent power conversion efficiency (5.61 %) compared to those characteristics of commercial $Co_3O_4$, conventional CNFs, and metallic Co-seed/CNFs. These results can be described as stemmnig from the synergistic effect of the porous and graphitized matrix formed by catalytic graphitization using the metal cobalt catalyst on CNFs, which leads to an increase in the catalytic activity for the reduction of triiodide ions. Therefore, octahedral $Co_3O_4$/CNFs composites can be used as a counter electrode for Pt-free dye-sensitized solar cells.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.180-186
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• 2022

The production of hydrogen via water electrolysis (i.e., green hydrogen) using renewable energy is key to the development of a sustainable society. However, most current electrocatalysts are based on expensive precious metals and require the use of highly purified water in the electrolyte. We demonstrated the preparation of a non-precious metal catalyst based on CuCo₂O₄ (CCO) via simple electrodeposition. Further, an optimization process for electrodeposition potential, solution concentration and electrodeposition method was develop for a catalyst-substrate integrated electrode, which indicated the highly electrocatalytic performance of the material in electrochemical tests and when applied to an anion exchange membrane water electrolyzer.