• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.401-415
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• 2021

Soft robots are promising devices for applications in drug delivery, sensing, and manufacturing. Traditional hard robotics are manufactured with rigid materials and their degrees of motion are constrained by the orientation of the joints. In contrast to rigid counterpart, soft robotics, employing soft and stretchable materials that easily deforms in shape, can realize complex motions (i.e., locomotion, swimming, and grappling) with a simple structure, and easily adapt to dynamic environment. Among them, the magnetic actuators exhibit unique characteristics such as rapid and accurate motion control, biocompatibility, and facile remote controllability, which make them promising candidates for the next-generation soft robots. Especially, the magnetic actuators instantly response to the stimuli, and show no-hysteresis during the recovery process, essential for continuous motion control. Here, we present the state-of-the-art fabrication process of magnetically controllable nano-/micro-composites, magnetically aligning process of the composites, and 1-dimensional/multi-dimensional multimodal motion control for the nextgeneration soft actuators.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.56 no.12
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• pp.854-860
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• 2018

In spite of the many attractive properties of (W,Ti)C, its low fracture toughness limits its wide application. To improve the fracture toughness generally a second phase is added to fabricate a nanostructured composite. In this regard, graphene was considered as the reinforcing agent of (W,Ti)C. (W,Ti)C-graphene composites that were sintered within 2 min using pulsed current activated heating under a pressure of 80 MPa. The rapid consolidation method allowed retention of the nano-scale microstructure by blocking the grain growth. The effect of graphene on the hardness and microstructure of the (W,Ti)C-graphene composite was studied using a Vickers hardness tester and FE-SEM. The grain size of (W,Ti)C was reduced remarkably by the addition of graphene. Furthermore, the hardness decreased and the fracture toughness improved with the addition of graphene.

• Composites Research
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.31-36
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• 2010

The improvement of electrical conductivity of carbon-fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) has been investigated by silver nano-particles coating for the purpose of lightning strike protection. Silver nano-particles in colloid were sprayed on the surface of carbon fibers, which were then impregnated by epoxy resin to form a CFRP specimen. Electrical resistance was measured by contact resistance meter which utilize the principles of the AC 4-terminal method. Electrical resistance value was then converted to electrical conductivity. The coated silver nano-particles on the carbon fibers were verified by SEM and EDS. The electrical conductivity was increased by three times of the ordinary CFRP.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.256-268
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• 2019

In this research, some mechanical properties of Al₂O₃-based composites containing nanoSiC and nanoMgO additives, including elasticity modulus, hardness, and fracture toughness, have been evaluated. Micron-sized Al₂O₃ powders containing 0.08 wt.% nanoMgO particles have been mixed with different volume fractions of nanoSiC particles (2.5 to 15 vol.%). Untreated samples have been sintered by using hot-press technique at temperatures of 1600 to 1750℃. The results show significant increases in the mechanical characteristics with increases in the sintering temperature and amount of nanoSiC particles, with the result that the elasticity modulus, hardness, and fracture toughness were obtained as 426 GPa, 21 GPa, and 4.5 MPa.m^1/2, respectively.

• 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.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.23-28
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• 2013

Epoxy resins are widely used in microelectronics packaging such as printed circuit board and encapsulating for semiconductor manufacturing. Water can diffuse into and through the epoxy matrix systems and moisture absorption at boarding interfaces of matrix resin systems can lead to a hydrolysis at the interfaces resulting in delamination of encapsulating materials. In the study, the changes of diffusion coefficient and moisture content ratio of epoxy resin systems with nano-sized fillers according to the change of liquid type epoxy resins were investigated. RE-304S, RE-310S, RE-810NM and HP-4032D as a epoxy resin, Kayahard AA as a hardener, and 1B2MI as a catalyst were used in these epoxy resin systems. After curing, moisture content ratios were measured with time under the 85 and 85% relative humidity condition using a thermo-hydrostat. The maximum moisture absorption ratio and diffusion coefficient of EMC decrease with the filler content. It can be seen that these decreases are due to the increase of filler surface area and the decrease of moisture through channel with the content of nano-sized filler.

• Composites Research
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.171-176
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• 2018

We proposed new and easy fabrication method of micro-nano hierarchical structures for synthetic dry adhesives and conducted feasibility tests of alignment characteristics of nano-materials in the microstructures by capillary effect. Candidates of fabrication conditions were selected based on the degree of cure and viscosity of mixtures of multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), which were measured with respect to the fabrication conditions. Scanning electron microscopy images of cross sections of MWCNT-PDMS microstructures were analyzed. MWCNT alignment in microstructures was better when fabrication temperature and degree of cure at fabricating start were lower, but areal density of MWCNTs was little affected by fabrication conditions.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.42 no.12 s.283
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• pp.842-845
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• 2005

Glass composites containing ceramic fiber have been developed for Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) seals. Effect of glass type, loading pressure and thermal cycle the leak rates of composite seals was investigated. Seal performance of two commercial glasses was compared with that of $SiO_2BaO-B_2O_3$ glass synthesized in this work. The leak rate for seals made of pyrex(R) increases from $\~0.0005\;to\;\~0.004sccm/cm$ as the gas pressure increases from 10 to 50 kPa. The soda lime silicate glass seal shows the leak rate two times higher than the one made of pyrex(R) or $SiO_2BaO-B_2O_3$ glass. The viscosity of glass at the seal test temperature is presumed to affect the leak rate of the glass seal. As the applied loading pressure increases from 0.4 to 0.8 MPa at $750^{\circ}C$, the leak rate decreases from 0.038 to 0.024 sccm/cm for composite seals. It has been found that during 50 thermal cycles between $450^{\circ}C\;to\;700^{\circ}C$ leak rates remained almost constant, ranging from 0.025 to 0.03sccm/cm. The results showed an excellent thermal cycle stability as well as sealability of the glass matrix ceramic fiber composite seals.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.45-52
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• 1999

This paper describes how the gold particles self assemble on the specific phase on the microphase separated block copolymer thin film and form a well ordered patterns. For this study, polystyrene-polybutadiene-polystyrene (PS-PB-PS) triblock copolymer (30wt % PS) thin films (${\sim}100nm$) having a cylindrical morphology were cast from 0.1wt% toluene solution to be used as polymer thin film templates. The films having either vertical PS cylinders or in-plane PS cylinders in PB matrix from each different solvent evaporation condition were obtained. Cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy(TEM) was used to study the surface and bulk morphologies of block copolymer thin films. Small amount of gold particles was evaporated on a block copolymer thin film template to obtain a nano-scale pattern. When an as-cast thin film template was used, gold particles preferentially self assemble on the low surface tension PB phase and a relatively well ordered pattern in nano-scale was produced. However, after the formation of a low surface energy PB rich layer upon annealing, a gold self-assembled pattern was not observed.

• Composites Research
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.76-81
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• 2018

In this study, the elemental mercury removal behaviors of silver-plated porous carbons materials were investigated. The pore structures and total pore volumes of the hybrid materials were analyzed by $N_2$ adsorption/desorption analysis at 77 K. The pore structures and surface morphologies of the hybrid materials were characterized by XRD and SEM, respectively. The elemental mercury adsorption capacities of all silver-plated porous carbons hybrid materials were higher than those of the as-received samples, despite the fact that the specific surface areas and total pore volumes decreased with increasing metal loading time. It was found that silver nanoparticles showed excellent elemental mercury removal behaviors in carbonaceous hybrid materials.