• KEPCO Journal on Electric Power and Energy
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.447-452
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• 2016

It is imperative to develop an effective pathway to depolymerize lignin into liquid fuel that can be used as a bioheavy oil. Lignin can be converted into liquid products either by a solvent-free thermal cracking in the absence air, or thermo-chemical degradation in the presence of suitable solvents and chemicals. Here we show that the solvent-assisted liquefaction has produced promising results in the presence of metal-based catalysts. The supercritical ethanol is an efficient liquefaction solvent, which not only provides better solubility to lignin, but also scavenges the intermediate species. The concentrated sulfuric acid hydrolysis lignin (CSAHL) was completely liquefied in the presence of solid catalysts (Ni, Pd and Ru) with no char formation. The effective deoxy-liquefaction nature associated with scEtOH with aid hydrodeoxygenation catalysts, resulted in significant reduction in oxygen-to-carbon (O/C) molar ratio up to 61%. The decrease in oxygen content and increase in carbon and hydrogen contents increased the calorific value bio-oil, with higher heating value (HHV) of $34.6MJ{\cdot}Kg^{-1}$. The overall process is energetically efficient with 129.8% energy recovery (ER) and 70.8% energy efficiency (EE). The GC-TOF/MS analysis of bio-oil shows that the bio-oil mainly consists of monomeric species such as phenols, esters, furans, alcohols, and traces of aliphatic hydrocarbons. The bio-oil produced has better flow properties, low molecular weight, and high aromaticity.

• Carbon letters
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• v.26
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• pp.88-94
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• 2018

This manuscript explains the effective determination of urea by redox cyclic voltammetric analysis, for which a modified polypyrrole-graphene oxide (PPY-GO, GO 20% w/w of PPY) nanocomposite electrode was developed. Cyclic voltammetry measurements revealed an effective electron transfer in 0.1 M KOH electrolytic solution in the potential window range of 0 to 0.6 V. This PPY-GO modified electrode exhibited a moderate electrocatalytic effect towards urea oxidation, thereby allowing its determination in an electrolytic solution. The linear dependence of the current vs. urea concentration was reached using square-wave voltammetry in the concentration range of urea between 0.5 to $3.0{\mu}M$ with a relatively low limit of detection of $0.27{\mu}M$. The scanning electron microscopy was used to characterize the morphologies and properties of the nanocomposite layer, along with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The results indicated that the nanocomposite film modified electrode exhibited a synergistic effect, including high conductivity, a fast electron-transfer rate, and an inherent catalytic ability.

• Environmental Sciences Bulletin of The Korean Environmental Sciences Society
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.71-78
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• 2000

The chlorination of municipal drinking water supplies leads to the formation of so-called disinfection by-products(DBPs), many of which have been reported to cause harmful health effects based on animal studies. This study was conducted: 1) to observe seasonal changes in the major DBPs at four sampling sites on a drinking water distribution system located in Chunchon, Kangwon Do; and 2) to examine the effects of major water quality parameters on the formation of DBPs. During the field sampling, the water temperature, pH, and total and free chlorine residuals were all measured. The water samples were then analyzed for total organic carbon(TOC) and eight disinfection by-products in the laboratory. Chloroform, dichloroacetic acid, and trichloroacetic acid were the major constituents of the measured DBPs. The concentrations of the total DBPs were highest in fall, particularly in October, and lowest in summer. The concentrations of the total DBPs increased with increasing TOC concentrations. Multiple regression analyses showed that the concentrations of chloroform, bromodichloromethane, and chloral hydrate were linearly correlated with the pH. Other water parameters were not included in the regression equations. Accordingly, these results suggest that TOC and pH are both important factors in the formation of DBPs.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.48 no.6
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• pp.878-887
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• 2020

A neutral extract (NE), that is soluble in cold water and has excellent antioxidant activity, from Pinus radiata pine bark was prepared by sodium bicarbonate treatment, and its chemical characteristics were investigated. NE was prepared by treating P. radiata bark with 0.8% NaHCO₃ aqueous solution with a 5 : 1 liquor-to-bark ratio at boiling temperature for 1 h, resulting in 44% yield and final pH of 6.66. The yield of NE was 11% higher than that of the hot water extract (HWE) due to the increase in the solubility of polyphenols, the main component in the bark, by NaHCO₃ treatment. NE was characterized through FT-IR, NMR, and MALDI TOF MS analyses. The results indicated that NE is mostly composed of proanthocyanidins (PAs) consisting of procyanidin (PC) units. The acetylated neutral extract (Ac-NE) had weight average molecular weight (${\bar{M}}w$) of 5,300 Da. The Ac-NE had wide molecular weight distribution and its polydispersity (${\bar{M}}w/{\bar{M}}n$) was 6 times higher than that of pure PA. The antioxidant activity of NE was determined by 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging assay and showed that NE had comparable antioxidant activity with pure PA.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.21 no.7
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• pp.594-598
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• 2008

The metal catalyst particles which there is as impurities on a tip part of carbon nanotube (CNT) are not good to apply it to a nano-electronic device. It was very important the opening of CNT-tip to fix a target bio material and a material to accept in CNT in a biosensor, so we performed $HNO_3$ wet etching to remove the metal catalyst particle which there was on a tip part of CNT grown up in the study and observed the opened CNT-tip with etching time. We synthesized the CNTs using a HF-PECVD method and choses the CNT length of 700 nm for the application of nano-electronic device such as a biosensor etc.. We observed the opened CNT-tip with wet etching times of $HNO_3$ (10, 30, 60 min). From the results, we observed that the CNT-tip was opened with the increase of wet etching time lively. In case of CNTs etched during 60 min, we confirmed that there was not the ratio of Ni included in CNTsI as catalyst. Conclusively, in the case of CNT etched for 60 minutes, it is completely good for application of a biosensor and, in addition, the metal-free CNTs will contribute to the application of other nanoelectronic devices.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.401-406
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• 2017

Ammonia, $NH_3$, is a key chemical widely used in chemical industries and a toxic pollutant that impacts human health. Thus, there is a need for the development of effective adsorbents with high uptake capacities to adsorb $NH_3$. An adsorbent with a high surface area and a small pore size is generally preferred in order to have a high capacity for the removal of $NH_3$. The use inorganic nanoporous materials as gas adsorbents has increased substantially and emerged as an alternative to zeolite and activated carbon. Herein, mesoporous alumina (MA) was prepared and used as an $NH_3$ adsorbent. MA showed good pore properties such as a uniform pore size and interlinked pore system, when compared to commercial adsorbents (activated carbon, zeolite, and silica powder). MA has free hydroxyl groups, serving as useful adsorption sites for $NH_3$. In an adsorption isotherm test, MA exhibited 4.7-6.5 times higher uptake capacities for $NH_3$ than commercial adsorbents. Although the larger surface areas of adsorbents are important features of ideal adsorbents, a regular and interlinked adsorbent pore system was found to be a more crucial factor to adsorb $NH_3$.

• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.787-800
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• 2016

The aim of the paper is to analyze nonlinear transverse vibration of an embedded piezoelectric plate reinforced with single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). The system in rested in a Pasternak foundation. The micro-electro-mechanical model is employed to calculate mechanical and electrical properties of nanocomposite. Using nonlinear strain-displacement relations and considering charge equation for coupling between electrical and mechanical fields, the motion equations are derived based on energy method and Hamilton's principle. These equations can't be solved analytically due to their nonlinear terms. Hence, differential quadrature method (DQM) is employed to solve the governing differential equations for the case when all four ends are clamped supported and free electrical boundary condition. The influences of the elastic medium, volume fraction and orientation angle of the SWCNTs reinforcement and aspect ratio are shown on frequency of structure. The results indicate that with increasing volume fraction of SWCNTs, the frequency increases. This study might be useful for the design and smart control of nano/micro devices such as MEMS and NEMS.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.215-224
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• 2020

In the present study, according to the important of porosity in low specific weight in comparison of high stiffness of carbon nanotubes reinforced composite, buckling and free vibration analysis of sandwich composite beam in two configurations, of laminates using differential quadrature method (DQM) is studied. Also, the effects of porosity coefficient and three types of porosity distribution on critical buckling load and natural frequency are discussed. It is shown the buckling loads and natural frequencies of laminate 1 are significantly larger than the results of laminate 2. When configuration 2 (the core is made of FRC) and laminate 1 ([0/90/0/45/90]_s) are used, the first natural frequency rises noticeably. It is also demonstrated that the influence of the core height in the case of lower carbon volume fractions is negligible. Even though, when volume fraction of fiber increases, the critical buckling load enhances smoothly. It should be noticed the amount of decline has inverse relationship with the beam aspect ratio. Investigating three porosity patterns, beam with the distribution of porosity Type 2 has the maximum critical buckling load and first natural frequency. Among three elastic foundations (constant, linear and parabolic), buckling load and natural frequency in linear variation has the least amount. For all kind of elastic foundations, when the porosity coefficient increases, critical buckling load and natural frequency decline significantly.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.88-97
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• 2013

Technical investigation to figure out the problems arising during in-situ heating electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) analysis inside scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was carried out. EBSD patterns were successfully acquired up to $830^{\circ}C$ without degradation of EBSD pattern quality in steels. Several technical problems such as image drift and surface microstructure pinning were taking place during in-situ experiments. Image drift problem was successfully prevented in constant current supplying mode. It was revealed that the surface pinning problem was resulted from the $TiO_2$ oxide particle formation during heating inside SEM chamber. Surface pinning phenomenon was fairly reduced by additional platinum and carbon multi-layer coating before in-situ heating experiment, furthermore was perfectly prevented by improvement of vacuum level of SEM chamber via leakage control. Plane view in-situ observation provides better understanding on the overall feature of recrystallization phenomena and cross sectional in-situ observation provides clearer understanding on the recrystallization mechanism.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.295-303
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• 2009

A simulated wastewater containing the dye Rhodamine B (RhB) was electrolytically treated using a three-dimensional electrode reactor equipped with granular activated carbon (GAC) as particle electrode. The effect of type of packing material (GAC, ACF, Nonwoven fabric fiber coated with activated carbon), amounts of GAC packing (25-100 g), current (0.5-3 A) and electrolyte concentration (0.5-3 g/l) was evaluated. Experimental results showed that performance for RhB decolorization of the 3 three-dimensional electrodes lie in: GAC > Nonwoven fabric fiber > ACF. When considered RhB decolorization, oxidants concentration and electric power, optimum GAC dosage was 50 g. Generated concentration of 3 oxidants ($ClO_2$, free Cl, $H_2O_2$) was increased with increase of applied current, however optimum current for RhB degradation was 2.5 A. The oxidants concentration was increased with increase of NaCl concentration and optimum NaCl dosage for RhB degradation was 1.5 g/l.