• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2009

Bio-oil has attracted considerable interest as one of the promising renewable energy resources because it can be used as a feedstock in conventional petroleum refineries for the production of high value chemicals or next-generation hydrocarbon fuels. Currently, catalytic vapor cracking is considered the most potential upgrading method for stabilization of bio-oil, which is a pre-process required prior to feeding bio-oil into refineries. This review introduces the recent research and development trends on bio-oil upgrading via catalytic vapor cracking, focusing on catalysts and upgrading methods used.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.58 no.1
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• pp.163-169
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• 2020

Synthesis of Fe-Co/meso-HZSM5 catalyst, intended to be applied in Fischer-Tropsch (FT) reaction was investigated. The study emphasized the effect of desilication agents, NaOH and KOH, on the catalyst materials properties. Impregnation composition of active metal (Fe and Co) was also examined. HZSM-5, converted from ammonium ZSM-5 through calcination, was treated with NaOH and KOH for desilication, followed by impregnation with 10% metal loading. Fe composition in the initial mixture was varied at 10-50% from total composition. After impregnation, reduction was applied by flowing hydrogen gas at 400 ℃ for 10 hours. The use of KOH solution induced greater mesoporous volumes; however, it had a detrimental effect on zeolite crystal structure. NaOH solutions, on the other hand, increased mesopore area as high as 100%, indicated from surface area increase from 266.28 m²/g of HZSM-5, to 526.03 m²/g of NaOH-desilicated HZSM-5. In addition, the application of NaOH solution increased pore volume from 0.14 cc/g to 0.486 cc/g. Further, more Fe-Co alloys and less oxide of iron (Fe₂O₃) as well cobalt (Co₃O₄) had been commonly observed in the produced catalysts. The largest Fe-Co alloys could be found in 50Fe-50Co/HZSM-5

• Journal of Adhesion and Interface
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.82-87
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• 2013

Preliminary studies on the synthesis of magnetic nanoparticles including nanoporous carbon materials have been done via a direct carbonization process from resol, ferric nitrate and triblock copolymer F127. The results show that the nanoporous magnetite/carbon ($Fe_3O_4$/carbon) with a low $Fe_3O_4$ content (1 wt%) possesses an ordered 2-D hexagonal (p6mm) structure, uniform nanopores (3.6 nm), high surface areas (up to 635 $m^2/g$) and pore volumes (up to 0.48 $cm^3/g$). Magnetite nanoparticles with a small particle size (10.2 nm) were confined in the matrix of amorphous carbon frameworks with superparamagnetic property (7.7 emu/g). The nanoporous magnetite/carbon showed maximum adsorption amount (995 mg/g) of ibuprofen after 24 h at room temperature. The nanoporous magnetite/carbon was separated from solution easily by using a magnet. The nanoporous magnetite/carbon material is a good adsorbent for hydrophobic organic drug molecules, i.e. ibuprofen.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.12 no.2 s.49
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• pp.117-121
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• 2005

Platinum catalysts for the DMFC (Direct Methanol Fuel Cell) were impregnated on several carbon supports and their catalytic activities were evaluated with cyclic voltammograms of methanol electro-oxidation. To increase the activities of the Pt/C catalyst, carbon supports with high electric conductivity such as mesoporous carbon, carbon nanofiber, and carbon nanotube were employed. The Pt/e-CNF (etched carbon nanofiber) catalyst showed higher maximum current density of $70 mA cm^{-2}$ and lower on-set voltage of 0.54 V vs. NHE than the Pt/Vulcan XC-72 in methanol oxidation. Although the carbon named by CNT (carbon nanotube) series turned out to have larger BET surface area than the carbon named by CNF (carbon nanofiber) series, the Pt catalysts supported on the CNT series were less active than those on the CNF series due to their lower electric conductivity and lower availability of pores for Pt loading. Considering that the BET surface area and electric conductivity of the e-CNF were similar to those of the Vulcan XC-72, smaller Pt particle size of the Pt/e-CNF catalyst and stronger metal-support interaction were believed to be the main reason for its higher catalytic activity.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.156-161
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• 2020

In this study, hierarchical mesoporous CuO spheres, ZnO flowers, and heterojunction CuO/ZnO nanostructures were fabricated via a facile hydrothermal method. The as-prepared materials were characterized in detail using various analytical methods such as powder X-ray diffraction, micro Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, field-emission scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The obtained results are consistent with each other. The H₂S-sensing characteristics of the sensors fabricated based on the CuO spheres, ZnO flowers, and CuO/ZnO heterojunction were investigated at different temperatures and gas concentrations. The sensor based on ZnO flowers showed a maximum response of ~141 at 225 ℃. The sensor based on CuO spheres exhibited a maximum response of 218 at 175 ℃, whereas the sensor based on the CuO/ZnO nano-heterostructure composite showed a maximum response of 344 at 150 ℃. The detection limit (DL) of the sensor based on the CuO/ZnO heterojunction was ~120 ppb at 150 ℃. The CuO/ZnO sensor showed the maximum response to H₂S compared with other interfering gases such as ethanol, methanol, and CO, indicating its high selectivity.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.466-470
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• 2022

The catalytic thermal oxidizer process has recently attracted considerable attention for the oxidation and decomposition of volatile organic compounds at low temperatures (< 450 ℃) with high efficiency (> 95%). Although many noble metal catalytic materials are well established, they are expensive and hazardous. Herein, highly active and low-cost Cu-Mn bimetallic catalysts were prepared using a simple and facile synthesis method involving the co-precipitation of Cu and Mn precursors. The synthesis of the catalyst was optimized by controlling the composition ratio of Cu and Mn. The optimized catalyst exhibited a large surface area of 230.8 m²/g with a mesoporous structure. To demonstrate the catalytic performance, the Cu-Mn catalyst was tested for the oxidation reaction of ethyl acetate, showing a high conversion efficiency of 100% at a low temperature of 250 ℃.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.463-463
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• 2014

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have generated a strong interest in the development of solid-state devices owing to their low cost and simple preparation procedures. Effort has been devoted to the study of electrolytes that allow light-to-electrical power conversion for DSSC applications. Several attempts have been made to substitute the liquid electrolyte in the original solar cells by using (2,2',7,7'-tetrakis (N,N-di-p-methoxyphenylamine)-9-9'-spirobi-fluorene (spiro-OMeTAD) that act as hole conductor [1]. Although efficiencies above 3% have been reached by several groups, here the major challenging is limited photoelectrode thickness ($2{\mu}m$), which is very low due to electron diffusion length (Ln) for spiro-OMeTAD ($4.4{\mu}m$) [2]. In principle, the $TiO_2$ layer can be thicker than had been thought previously. This has important implications for the design of high-efficiency solid-state DSSCs. In the present study, we have fabricated 3-D Transparent Conducting Oxide (TCO) by growing tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) nanowire (NWs) arrays via a vapor transport method [3] and mesoporous $TiO_2$ nanoparticle (NP)-based photoelectrodes were prepared using doctor blade method. Finally optimized light-harvesting solid-state DSSCs is made using 3-D TCO where electron life time is controlled the recombination rate through fast charge collection and also ITO NWs length can be controlled in the range of over $2{\mu}m$ and has been characterized using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). Structural analyses by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and X-Ray diffraction (XRD) results reveal that the ITO NWs formed single crystal oriented [100] direction. Also to compare the charge collection properties of conventional NPs based solid-state DSSCs with ITO NWs based solid-state DSSCs, we have studied intensity modulated photovoltage spectroscopy (IMVS), intensity modulated photocurrent spectroscopy (IMPS) and transient open circuit voltages. As a result, above $4{\mu}m$ thick ITO NWs based photoelectrodes with Z907 dye shown the best performing device, exhibiting a short-circuit current density of 7.21 mA cm-2 under simulated solar emission of 100 mW cm-2 associated with an overall power conversion efficiency of 2.80 %. Finally, we achieved the efficiency of 7.5% by applying a CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite sensitizer.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.737-741
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• 2005

In this study, the effect of copper content on the NO removal efficiency by Cu/MCM-41 has been investigated. MCM-41 was prepared by hydrothermal synthesis using a gel mixture of colloidal silica solution and cetyltrimethylammonium. Cu/MCM-41 was manufactured with copper content (5, 10, 20, and 40%) in Cu(II) acetylacetonate. The surface properties of MCM-41 were investigated by using pH, XRD, and FT-IR analyses. $N_2/77K$ adsorption isotherm characteristics, including the specific surface area and micropore volume were studied by BET's equation and Boer's t-plot methods. NO removal efficiency was confirmed by gas chromatography technique. From the experimental results, the MCM-41 was analyzed to have the surface functional groups of Si-OH and Si-O-Si and the characteristic diffraction lines (100), (110), (200), and (210) corresponding to a hexagonal arrangement structure. The copper content supported on MCM-41 appeared to increase the NO removal efficiency in spite of decreasing the specific surface areas or micropore volumes. Consequently, it was found that the copper content in Cu/MCM-41 played an important role in improving the NO removal efficiency, which was mainly attributed to the catalytic reactions.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.27 no.11
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• pp.631-635
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• 2017

We report facile solution processing of mesoporous hematite (${\alpha}-Fe_2O_3$) thin films for high efficiency solar-driven water splitting. $Fe_2O_3$ thin films were prepared on fluorine doped tin oxide(FTO) conducting substrates by spin coating of a precursor solution followed by annealing at $550^{\circ}C$ for 30 min. in air ambient. Specifically, the precursor solution was prepared by dissolving non-toxic $FeCl_3$ as an Fe source in highly versatile dimethyl sulfoxide(DMSO) as a solvent. The as-deposited and annealed thin films were characterized for their morphological, structural and optical properties using field-emission scanning electron microscopy(FE-SEM), X-ray diffraction(XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS) and UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy. The photoelectrochemical performance of the precursor (${\alpha}-FeOOH$) and annealed (${\alpha}-Fe_2O_3$) films were characterized and it was found that the ${\alpha}-Fe_2O_3$ film exhibited an increased photocurrent density of ${\sim}0.78mA/cm^2$ at 1.23 V vs. RHE, which is about 3.4 times higher than that of the ${\alpha}-FeOOH$ films ($0.23mA/cm^2$ at 1.23 V vs. RHE). The improved performance can be attributed to the improved crystallinity and porosity of ${\alpha}-Fe_2O_3$ thin films after annealing treatment at higher temperatures. Detailed electrical characterization was further carried out to elucidate the enhanced PEC performance of ${\alpha}-Fe_2O_3$ thin films.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.543-548
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• 2015

Si/C/CNF composites as anode materials for lithium-ion batteries were examined to improve the capacity and cycle performance. Si/C/CNF composites were prepared by the fabrication process including the synthesis and magnesiothermic reduction of SBA-15 to obtain Si/MgO by ball milling and the carbonization of phenol resin with CNF and HCl etching. Prepared Si/C/CNF composites were then analysed by BET, XRD, FE-SEM and TGA. Among SBA-15 samples synthesized at reaction temperatures between 50 and $70^{\circ}C$, the SBA-15 at $60^{\circ}C$ showed the largest specific surface area. Also the electrochemical performances of Si/C/CNF composites as an anode electrode were investigated by constant current charge/discharge test, cyclic voltammetry and impedance tests in the electrolyte of LiPF6 dissolved in mixed organic solvents (EC : DMC : EMC = 1 : 1 : 1 vol%). The coin cell using Si/C/CNF composites (Si : CNF = 97 : 3 in weight) showed better capacity (1,947 mAh/g) than that of other composition coin cells. The capacity retention ratio decreased from 84% (Si : CNF = 97 : 3 in weight) to 77% (Si : CNF = 89 : 11 in weight). It was found that the Si/C/CNF composite electrode shows an improved cycling performance and electric conductivity.