• Smart Structures and Systems
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.501-515
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• 2014

This paper presents a linear computational homogenization framework to evaluate the effective (or generalized) electromechanical coupling coefficient (EMCC) of adaptive structures with piezoelectric structural fiber (PSF) composite elements. The PSF consists of a silicon carbide (SiC) or carbon core fiber as reinforcement to a fragile piezo-ceramic shell. For the micro-scale analysis, a micromechanics model based on the variational asymptotic method for unit cell homogenization (VAMUCH) is used to evaluate the overall electromechanical properties of the PSF composites. At the macro-scale, a finite element (FE) analysis with the commercial FE code ABAQUS is performed to evaluate the effective EMCC for structures with the PSF composite patches. The EMCC is postprocessed from free-vibrations analysis under short-circuit (SC) and open-circuit (OC) electrodes of the patches. This linear two-scale computational framework may be useful for the optimal design of active structure multi-functional composites which can be used for multi-functional applications such as structural health monitoring, power harvest, vibration sensing and control, damping, and shape control through anisotropic actuation.

• Composites Research
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.355-364
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• 2018

Flexible energy-storage devices (FESDs) have been studied and developed extensively over the last few years because of demands in various fields. Since electrochemical performance and mechanical flexibility must be taken into account together, different framework from composition of conventional energy-storage devices (ESDs) is required. Numerous types of electrodes have been proposed to implement the FESDs. Herein, we review the works related to the FESDs so far and focus on free-standing electrodes and, especially substrate-based ones. The way to utilize carbon woven fabric (CF) or carbon cloth (CC) as flexible substrates is quite simple and intuitive. However, it is meaningful in the point of that the framework exploiting CF or CC can be extended to other applications resulting in multifunctional composites. Therefore, summary, which is on utilization of carbon-based material and conductive substrate containing CF and CC for ESDs, turns out to be helpful for other researchers to have crude concepts to get into energy-storage multi-functional composite. Moreover, polymer electrolytes are briefly explored as well because safety is one of the most important issues in FESDs and the electrolyte part mainly includes difficult obstacles to overcome. Lastly, we suggest some points that need to be further improved and studied for FESDs.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.1523-1526
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• 2012

In this work, we prepared activated multi-walled carbon nanotubes/polyacrylonitrile (A-MWCNTs/C) composites by film casting and activation method. Electrochemical properties of the composites were investigated in terms of serving as MWCNTs-based electrode materials for electric double layer capacitors (EDLCs). As a result, the A-MWCNTs/C composites had much higher BET specific surface area, and pore volume, and lower volume ratio of micropores than those of pristine MWCNTs/PAN ones. Furthermore, some functional groups were added on the surface of the A-MWCNTs/C composites. The specific capacitance of the A-MWCNTs/C composites was more than 4.5 times that of the pristine ones at 0.1 V discharging voltage owing to the changes of the structure and surface characteristics of the MWCNTs by activation process.

• Carbon letters
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.298-303
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• 2010

A method of functionalization of multi-walled carbon nanotube (MWNT) at room temperature using dry ozone gas is described. The resulting MWNT were characterized by Fourier transform infrared, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. Combined to these analyses and solubility in liquids, it could be concluded that the dry ozone gas exposure introduces polar functional groups such as carboxylic groups to MWNT similar to acidic modification of MWNT. Particularly, the stable dispersion of MWNT in water after ozone treatment above a critical level could be obtained, implying potential bio-application. The hydrophilic functional groups on the MWNT introduced by ozone oxidation were helpful in improving the interaction with functional groups in PA6 such as $-NH_2$ and -CONH- resulting in improved mechanical properties.

• Advanced Composite Materials
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.153-166
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• 2009

A matrix method for evaluating effective electro-magneto-thermo-elastic properties of a generally anisotropic multilayered composite is presented. Physical variables are categorized into two groups: one that satisfies the continuity across the interface between layers and another that satisfies an average inter-layer compatibility (which is also exact). The coupled electro-magneto-thermo-elastic constitutive equation is accordingly reassembled into submatrices, which leads to the derivation of concise and exact matrix expressions for effective properties of a multilayered composite having the coupled physical effects. Comparing the results for a purely elastic multiplayer with those from other theoretical approaches validates the developed method. Examples are given for a PZT-graphite/epoxy composite and a $BaTiO_3-CoFe_2O_4$ multiplayer which exhibit piezo-thermoelastic and magnetoelectric properties, respectively. The result shows how a strong magnetoelectric effect can be achieved by combining piezoelectric and piezomagnetic materials in a multilayered structure. The magnetoelectric coefficient of the $BaTiO_3-CoFe_2O_4$ multiplayer is compared with those for fibrous and particulate composites fabricated with the same constituents.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.100-106
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• 2022

Waterborne polyurethane-acrylate(WPUA) dispersions were prepared by surfactant-free emulsion polymerization in a two-step process. In the first step, polytetrahydrofuran, isophorone diisocyanate, dimethylol proponic acid, and 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate were used to synthesize a vinyl-terminated polyurethane prepolymer. In the second step, styrene, methyl methacrylate, butyl acrylate, and different multi-functional crosslinkers were copolymerized. 1,6-hexanediol diacrylate, trimethylolpropane triacrylate, and pentaerythritol tetraacrylate were used as the crosslinkers, and their effect on the mechanical and thermal properties of WPUA was investigated. Overall, as the number of functional groups of the cross-linker increased, the gel fraction improved to 79.26%, the particle size increased from 75.9 nm to 148.7 nm, and the tensile strength was improved from 5.86 MPa to 12.40 MPa. In thermal properties, the glass transition temperature and decomposition temperature increased by 9.9℃ and 18℃, respectively. The chemical structures of the WPUA dispersions were characterized by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. The synthesized WPUA has high potential for applications such as coatings, leather coatings, adhesives, and wood finishing.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.306-313
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• 2020

To investigate the reinforcing effects of functional fillers in nitrile rubber (NBR) materials, high-structure carbon black (HS45), coated calcium carbonate (C-CaCO3), silica (200MP), and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were used as functional filler, and carbon black (SRF) as a common filler were used for oil-resistant rubber. The curing and mechanical properties of HS45-, 200MP-, and MWCNT-filled NBR compounds were improved compared to those of the SRF-filled NBR compound. The reinforcing effect also increased with a decrease in the particle size of the fillers. The C-CaCO3-filled NBR compound exhibited no reinforcing effect with increasing filler concentration because of their large primary particle size (2 ㎛). The reinforcing behavior based on 100% modulus of the functional filler based NBR compounds was compared by using several predictive equation models. The reinforcing behavior of the C-CaCO3-filled NBR compound was in accordance with the Smallwood-Einstein equation whereas the 200MP- and MWCNT-filled NBR compounds fitted well with the modified Guth-Gold (m-Guth-Gold) equation. The SRF- and HS45-filled NBR compounds exhibited reinforcing behavior in accordance with the Guth-Gold and m-Guth-Gold equations, respectively, at a low filler content. However, the values of reinforcement parameter (100Mf/100Mu) of the SRF- and HS45-filled NBR compounds were higher than those determined by the predictive equation model at a high filler content. Because the chains of SRF composed of spherical filler particles are similarly changed to rod-like filler particles embedded in a rubber matrix and the reinforcement parameter rapidly increased with a high content of HS45, the higher-structured filler. The reinforcing effectiveness of the functional fillers was numerically evaluated on the basis of the effectiveness index (��SRF/��f) determined by the ratio of the volume fraction of the functional filler (��f) to that of the SRF filler (��SRF) at three unit of reinforcing parameter (100Mf/100Mu). On the basis of their effectiveness index, MWCNT-, 200MP-, and HS45-filled compounds showed higher reinforcing effectiveness of 420%, 70%, and 20% than that of SRF-filled compound, respectively whereas C-CaCO3-filled compound exhibited lower reinforcing effectiveness of -50% than that of SRF-filled compound.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.133.1-133.1
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• 2010

In this work, carbon black(CBs)-embed multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) as conductive fillers for activated carbon(ACs)-based electrodes for supercapacitor were prepared by chemical reduction of oxidized MWNTs and CBs. The effect of CBs-MWNT composites on electrochemical performances of ACs-based electrodes were investigated as a function of CB-MWNT ratio. It was found that CBs-MWNTs composites were formed by the reduction reaction of the functional groups of oxidized MWNTs and CBs. It was resulted in the conjugation of CBs onto the MWNT having high surface area and aspect ratio, leading to the enhanced electrical properties of MWNTs. The electrochemical performances, such as current density, charge-discharge, and specific capacitance of the ACs/CBs-MWNT electrodes were higher than that of ACs/MWNTs and conventional ACs/CB electrodes, which was attributed to the synergistic effect of CBs-MWNTs as a conductive filler.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers P
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.142-148
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• 2002

Considerable progress has been made in organic photorefractive materials, since the first observation of photorefractive phenomena from organic materials. Within recent years, a large number of organic photorefractive materials, especially amorphous materials, have been developed based on polymeric composites, fully functional polymers and the multi-functional chromophore approach. Among these organic photorefractive materials, some of them containing carbazole components as a charge transporting function have been demonstrated to exhibit high performance photorefractive effects. The carbazole building blocks with charge transporting function or multifunctions play a very important role in photorefraction. In this paper, it confirmed that acceptor-substituted carbazoles show the multifunctionality both of photoconductivity and electro-optic(EO) activity and photorefractive materials newly can be developed with acceptor-substituted carbazoles.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.65-71
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• 2009

To address the need for new intelligent sensing, this paper introduces nano sensors made of carbon nanotube (CNT) composites and presents their preliminary experiments. Having smart material properties such as piezoresistivity, chemical and bio selectivity, the nano composite can be used as smart electrodes of the nano sensors. The nano composite sensor can detect structural deterioration, chemical contamination and bio signal by means of its impedance measurement (resistance and capacitance). For a structural application, the change of impedance shows specific patterns depending on the structural deterioration and this characteristic is available for an in-situ multi-functional sensor, which can simultaneously detect multi symptoms of the structure. This study is anticipated to develop a new nano sensor detecting multiple symptoms in structural, chemical and bio applications with simple electric circuits.