• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
• /
• v.28 no.11
• /
• pp.1162-1167
• /
• 2006

The discharge of ballast water from the marine vessel without proper treatment causes the ecological disruption. Therefore, International Marine Organization(IMO) has the plan to force the proper treatment of ballast water before its discharge to open sea. To satisfy the IMO's criteria, several processes such as filtration, UV irradiation, and ozonation etc., were introduced. Since the disinfection of ballast water should be conducted within very short hydrolic retention time, electrochemical treatment can be a promissing process. The DSA(dimensional stable anode) electrode for the electrochemical treatment was prepared by thermal deposition method. The disinfection rate of microorganisms increased with the increasing current density and reaction time under low pH condition. The morphology of sterilized microorganisms was shown by SEM and Microscopy.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
• /
• v.27 no.4
• /
• pp.372-377
• /
• 2016

The carbon felt used as the electrode of vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) requires imprived electrochemical activity for better battery performance and efficiencies. Many efforts have been tried to improve electrochemical activity of the carbon felt as electrodes. In this study the alkali solution, KOH, is applied on surface treatment of the carbon felt electrode. The carbon felts were treated with KOH under room temperature and $80^{\circ}C$. The isopropyl alcohol was applied to improve wettability of the carbon felt during KOH treatment. The KOH treated carbon felt was analyzed by using the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The XPS analysis of carbon felt electrode revealed on increase in the overall surface oxygen content of the carbon felts after KOH treatment. Also, cyclic voltametry tests showed electrochemical characteristics enhancement of the carbon felt.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
• /
• v.36 no.3
• /
• pp.277-283
• /
• 2003

Electrochemical techniques were used to study the surface treatment for improving the pitting corrosion resistance of 304L stainless steel by inhibitors in chloride medium. Sodium molybdate (in concentration range : 0.005-80 g/l) , sodium nitrite (in concentration range : 0.001-50 g/l) and their mixture were used for this study. It was found that, molybdate and nitrite were good passivators for 304L stainless steel, but molybdate was not able to prohibit the pitting ; nitrite prevented pitting corrosion of 304L stainless steel only at the concentration more than 25 g/l. The relationship between pitting potentials and concentrations of inhibitors in the logarithm expression obeyed the linear function. It was found that the surface treatment by mixture of two inhibitors enables stainless steel to have increased the corrosion resistance , the pitting corrosion of 304L stainless steel was completely prohibited by the mixtures of molybdate and nitrite in ratio min, with $m\;\geq\;3\;and\;n\;\geq\;10$. The interesting cases on electrochemical measurement of threshold of inhibitors concentration combination for optimum surface treatment were described.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
• /
• v.9 no.3
• /
• pp.189-194
• /
• 2018

Electrochemical reduction of nitrate was studied using Zn, Cu and (Ir+Ru)-Ti cathodes and Pt/Ti anode in a cell divided by an ion exchange membrane. During electrolysis, effects of the different cathode types on operating parameters (i.e., voltage, temperature and pH), nitrate removal efficiency and by-products (i.e., nitrite and ammonia) formation were investigated. Ammonia oxidation rate in the presence of NaCl was also determined using the different ratios of hypochlorous acid to ammonia. The operating parameter values were similar for all types of cathode materials and were maintained relatively constant. Nitrate was well reduced and converted mostly to ammonia using Zn and Cu cathodes. Ammonia, produced as a by-product of nitrate reduction, was oxidized in the presence of NaCl in the electrochemical process and the oxidation performance was enhanced upon increasing the hypochlorous acid-to-ammonia ratio to 1.09:1. Zn and Cu cathodes promoted the nitrate reduction to ammonia and the produced ammonia was finally removed from solution by reacting with hypochlorite ions. Using Zn or Cu cathodes, instead of noble metal cathodes, in the electrochemical process can be an alternative technology for nitrate-containing wastewater treatment.

• Journal of the Korean Recycled Construction Resources Institute
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.138-144
• /
• 2023

In this study, the effect of electrochemical treatment in mitigating alkali leaching into an aquatic environment was investigated. To modify the surface of cement paste, 1000 mA/m² of the direct current was passed through anodic graphite to the external mesh for 4 weeks. Then, the cement paste specimen was exposed to still water in air-tight condition to prevent natural healing of alkali leaching in the water. For 100 days of monitoring in water, the pH value was marginally increased at the electrochemical treatment, while control specimen ranked to the even higher pH accounting for 13.2 in the pH. Moreover, after the pH monitoring, the pH profile for the paste specimen indicated that the electrochemical treatment was effective in securing the higher alkalinity of cement matrix. The water obtained from alkali leaching process, was used to ecological test for Daphnia magna. It was evident that the electrochemical treatment had minimal adverse effect on ecological impact, while control specimen mostly immobilized the standard Daphnia magna.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
• /
• v.12 no.3
• /
• pp.339-345
• /
• 2021

Spent activated carbons (SACs) collected from a water treatment plant were regenerated and then adopted as electrochemical material in capacitors. The SACs used in this study were regenerated via two steps, namely thermal and chemical activation. However, during the activation process, the adsorbates were converted into ashes, which caused pore blockage and decreased specific surface area. The regenerated SACs were washed with acid solutions with different levels of acidity (strong: HCl, mild: H₃PO₄, and weak: H₂O₂) to remove the ashes. The regenerated SACs washed with HCl exhibited the highest specific surface area, although their capacitance was not the highest. Conversely, the specific surface area of regenerated SACs washed using H₃PO₄ was slightly lower than that of HCl, but exhibited higher capacitance and electrochemical stability. Although the strong acid removed the generated ashes in the pores efficiently, it could adversely affect their structural stability, which would lead to lower capacitance.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.190-197
• /
• 2024

A commercial PbO₂ mesh cylinder electrode was utilized as the anode for the electrochemical degradation of the textile effluent after the biological treatment with the titanium cylinder as the cathode in a self-made tube electrolyzer. The electrochemical performances of the PbO₂ electrode in tube electrolyzer under different initial pH, electrolyte flow rates, current densities and times of the electrochemical degradation were investigated. The experimental results illustrated that the PbO₂ electrode can reduce the chemical oxygen demand (COD) of the textile effluent from 94.0 mg L^-1 to 65.0 mg L^-1 with the current efficiency of 88.3%, the energy consumption of 27.7 kWh kg^-1 (per kilogram of degraded COD) and the carbon emissions of 18.0 kg CO₂ kg^-1 (per kilogram of degraded COD) under the optimal operating conditions. In addition, the COD of the textile effluent could be reduced from 94.0 mg L^-1 to 22.0 mg L^-1 after the fifth electrochemical degradation. Therefore, PbO₂ mesh cylinder electrode in the tube cylinder was promising for the electrochemical degradation of the textile effluent.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
• /
• v.17 no.5
• /
• pp.67-76
• /
• 2013

In this study, the inhibitive effect of electrochemical treatment subjected to fresh and hardened concrete and literature reviews in terms of the treatment were performed. In hardened concrete, chloride ions are mixed during casting to destroy the passivity of steel, and then the current was provided for 2 weeks with 250, 500 and $750mA/m^2$. After completion of electrochemical treatment, the extraction of chloride ions was quantified and repassivation of steel was observed. Simultaneously, the equated levels of current density for 2 weeks were applied to fresh concrete. Steel-concrete interface in concrete was observed by BSE image analysis and the concrete properties in terms of the diffusivity of chloride ions and the resistance of steel corrosion was measured. As the result, electrochemical treatment is very effectiveness to rehabilitate the passive film on the steel surface and 63-73% of chloride ions in concrete were extracted by the treatment. As the treatment was applied to fresh concrete, the resistance of steel corrosion was improved due to the densification of $Ca(OH)_2$ layers in the vicinity of steel. However, an increase in the current density resulted in an increase in surface chloride content of concrete.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
• /
• v.4 no.3
• /
• pp.113-118
• /
• 2013

Fluorophosphate, $Na_2MnPO_4F$ as new cathode material was synthesized by carbothermal treatment method. Prepared $Na_2MnPO_4F$ has particle size under 100 nm and residual carbon exists in surface of $Na_2MnPO_4F$. Additional carbon coating was performed in order to increase the electrochemical properties. Even capacity and overpotential were improved by carbon coating using mechanical ball milling, the reduced crystallinity limited the drastic improvement of the electrochemical properties. To solve this problem, re-heat treatment was involved to recover crystallinity and then notable improvement of electrochemical properties was obtained. Specific amount of $Li^+$ that participates in electrochemical $Li^+$ insertion / extraction reaction, was x = 1 in $Li_xNa_{2-x}MnPO_4F$ within the voltage range of 2.0 to 4.8 V. The doubled capacity by 2 electron reaction can be obtained when NMPF is charged to higher voltage over 4.8 V.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
• /
• v.3 no.1
• /
• pp.24-28
• /
• 2012

The electrocatalytic activities and surface roughness of indium-tin-oxide (ITO) electrodes have been investigated after thermal treatment at 100, 150, or $200^{\circ}C$ for 30 min, 2 h, or 8 h. To check electrocatalytic activities, the electrochemical behavior of four electroactive species (p-hydroquinone, $Ru(NH_3){_6}^{3+}$, ferrocenemethanol, and $Fe(CN){_6}^{4-}$) has been measured. The electron transfer rate for p-hydroquinone oxidation and ferrocenemethanol oxidation increases with increasing the incubation temperature and the incubation period of time, but the rate for $Ru(NH_3){_6}^{3+}$ is similar irrespective of the incubation temperature and period because $Ru(NH_3){_6}^{3+}$ undergoes a fast outer-sphere reaction. Overall, the electrocatalytic activities of ITO electrodes increase with increasing the incubation temperature and period. The surface roughness of ITO electrodes increases with increasing the incubation temperature, and the thermal treatment generates many towering pillars as high as several tens of nanometer.