• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.96-107
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• 2014

Extreme recovery of the thermal energy from the combustion of flue gas may bring about early gas condensation resulting in the increased formation of nitric acid vapor. The behavior of the nitric acid formed inside the stack and in the atmosphere was investigated through a computer-aided simulation in this study. Low temperatures led to high conversion rates of the nitrogen oxide to nitric acid, according to the Arrhenius relationship. Larger acid plumes could be formed with the cooled flue gas at $40^{\circ}C$ than the present exiting gas at $115^{\circ}C$. The acid vapor plume of 0.1 ppm extended to 25 m wide and 200 m high. The wind, which had a seasonal local average of 3 m/s, expanded the influencing area to 170 m along the ground level. Its tail stretched 50 m longer at $40^{\circ}C$ than at $115^{\circ}C$. The emission concentration of the acid vapor in the summer season was a little lower than in the winter. However, a warm atmosphere facilitated the Brownian motion of the discharged flue gas, finally leading to more vigorous dispersion.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.198-205
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• 2012

The corrosion properties of anodized films on aluminium 6070 alloy in a sulfuric acid have been studied. Comparison to evaluate the anodized A6070 and pure 6070 specimen, corrosion tests in $HNO_3$ vapor environment of the 20 wt.% were performed up to 72 hours. Characteristics of film formation and surface morphology were examined by optical microscopy, FE-SEM, and EDS. The oxide film anodized in the sulfuric acid solution contained 5 to 10 wt.% of sulfur. In the initial stages of corrosion, anodized specimens exhibited corrosion resistance than the pure specimen. However, the corrosion conditions in 24 hours, corrosion was far more anodized specimen than pure specimen. Therefore, anodized films contained sulfur, nitric acid vapor in the environment is thought to stimulate corrosion.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.565-571
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• 2008

The surface properties of activated carbon modified by acids and base were studied. The influence of the surface chemistry on the adsorption of benzene and acetone vapor on modified activated carbons has been investigated The modified activated carbons were obtained by treatment with acetic acid ($CH_3COOH$), nitric acid ($HNO_3$) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH). The modified activated carbons had similar porosity but different surface chemistry and adsorption characteristics. The total surface acidity (sum of functional groups) of activated carbon (AC-AN) treated by nitric acid was 2.6 times larger than that of activated carbon (AC) before the acid treatment. Especially, carboxyl group was much developed by nitric acid treatment. The benzene equilibrium adsorption capacity of AC-AN decreased 20% more than that of AC. However, the acetone equilibrium adsorption capacity of AC-AN increased 20% more than that of AC because of the large increase of carboxyl group and acidity.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.64-73
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• 2013

Because some particulate matter emission sources may inherently produce soluble species, or some soluble species may be produced during atmospheric transport, it is important to understand the origin of a particles's solubility when water-soluble tracers are used in source apportionment studies. Laboratory experiments were performed on three types of soils (Mongolia grassland, Mongolia desert, and Korean rural soils), to study the impact of acidification by nitric acid vapor on the solubility of metals in the soils. To achieve this goal, concentrations of water-soluble metals (Na, Mg, Al, K, Ca, Mn, and Fe) in the soils measured before and after acidification. Contributions of concentrations of water-soluble metal species before and after acidification attack to their total concentrations varied little with soil type. Concentrations of water-soluble Mg, Al, K, Ca, Mn, and Fe from the soils after interaction with nitric acid vapor increased, with significant increases in soluble Ca and Mn for all soil types suggesting soil acidification enhances the amount of leachable metal species in soil dust. There was little increase in water-soluble Na and K after acidification for each soil type. This experiment demonstrates that quantities of water-soluble metal species in particulate matter are produced under high gaseous nitric acid conditions.

• Carbon letters
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.207-217
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• 2011

We discuss the influence of few-walled carbon nanotubes (FWCNTs) treated with nitric acid and/or sulfuric acid on field emission characteristics. FWCNTs/tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) thin film field emitters were fabricated by a spray method using FWCNTs/TEOS sol one-component solution onto indium tin oxide (ITO) glass. After thermal curing, they were found tightly adhered to the ITO glass, and after an activation process by a taping method, numerous FWCNTs were aligned preferentially in the vertical direction. Pristine FWCNT/TEOS-based field emitters revealed higher current density, lower turn-on field, and a higher field enhancement factor than the oxidized FWCNTs-based field emitters. However, the unstable dispersion of pristine FWCNT in TEOS/N,N-dimethylformamide solution was not applicable to the field emitter fabrication using a spray method. Although the field emitter of nitric acid-treated FWCNT showed slightly lower field emission characteristics, this could be improved by the introduction of metal nanoparticles or resistive layer coating. Thus, we can conclude that our spray method using nitric acid-treated FWCNT could be useful for fabricating a field emitter and offers several advantages compared to previously reported techniques such as chemical vapor deposition and screen printing.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.118-123
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• 2018

5 nm-thick $SiO_2$ layers formed by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) are densified to improve the electrical and interface properties by using nitric acid oxidation of Si (NAOS) method at a low temperature of $121^{\circ}C$. The physical and electrical properties are clearly investigated according to NAOS times and post-metallization annealing (PMA) at $250^{\circ}C$ for 10 min in 5 vol% hydrogen atmosphere. The leakage current density is significantly decreased about three orders of magnitude from $3.110{\times}10^{-5}A/cm^2$ after NAOS 5 hours with PMA treatment, although the $SiO_2$ layers are not changed. These dramatically decreases of leakage current density are resulted from improvement of the interface properties. Concentration of suboxide species ($Si^{1+}$, $Si^{2+}$ and $Si^{3+}$) in $SiO_x$ transition layers as well as the interface state density ($D_{it}$) in $SiO_2/Si$ interface region are critically decreased about 1/3 and one order of magnitude, respectively. The decrease in leakage current density is attributed to improvement of interface properties though chemical method of NAOS with PMA treatment which can perform the oxidation and remove the OH species and dangling bond.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.312-316
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• 2005

Adsorption characteristics of $CO_2$ on activated carbons were evaluated using dynamic adsorption method in a fixed bed with acid treatment, LiOH impregnation and water vapor supply. Physical and chemical properties of the activated carbons were measured using SEM, EDS, nitrogen adsorption, FTIR and XRD. Nitric acid treatment led to the decrease in BET surface area and the increase in oxygen content of virgin activated carbon, and it produced a new functional group that included nitrogen. For the reduction of BET surface area by LiOH impregnation, the nitric acid treated activated carbon (NAC) was less than the virgin activated carbon (AC). Large particles of LiOH were present on the carbon surface when the content of LiOH was over 2 wt%. The adsorbed amount of $CO_2$ on activated carbon in a fixed bed increased with the acid treatment, LiOH impregnation and water vapor supply. The XRD results indicated that LiOH was converted to $Li_2CO_3$ after the adsorption of $CO_2$ on LiOH precursor.

• Carbon letters
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.31-40
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• 2005

The carbon nanofibers (CNFs) were synthesized through the catalytic decomposition of hydrocarbons in a quartz tube reactor. The CNFs prepared from $C_3H_8$ at $550^{\circ}C$ was selected as the purification sample due to the higher content of impurity than that prepared from other conditions. In this study, we carried out the purification of CNFs by oxidation in air or carbon dioxide after acid treatment, and investigated the influence of purification parameters such as kind of acid, concentration, oxidation time, and oxidation temperature on the structure of CNFs. The metal catalysts could be easily eliminated from the prepared CNFs by liquid phase purification with various acids and it was verified by ICP analysis, in which, for example, Ni content decreased from 2.51% to 0.18% with 8% nitric acid. However, the particulate carbon and heterogeneous fibers were not removed from the prepared CNFs by thermal oxidation in air and carbon dioxide. This result can be explained by that the direction of graphene sheet in CNFs is vertical to the fiber axis and the CNFs are oxidized at about the similar rate with the impurity carbon.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.280-284
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• 2004

Multicrystalline silicon wafers were textured in an alkaline bath, basically using sodium hydroxide and in acidic bath, using mainly hydrofluoric acid (HF), nitric acid $(HNO_3)$ and de-ionized water (DIW). Some wafers were also acid polished for the comparative study. Comparison of average reflectance of the samples treated with the new recipe of acidic solution showed average diffuse reflectance less than even 5 percent in the optimized condition. Solar cells were thus fabricated with the samples following the main steps such as phosphorus doping for emitter layer formation, silicon nitride deposition for anti-reflection coating by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) and front surface passivation, screen printing metallization, co-firing in rapid thermal processing (RTP) Furnace and laser edge isolation and confirmed >14 % conversion efficiency from the best textured samples. This isotropic texturing approach can be instrumental to achieve high efficiency in mass production using relatively low cost silicon wafers as starting material.

• Journal of Korean Society of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.310-321
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• 2019

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate types and characteristics of chemical substances used in LCD(Liquid crystal display) panel manufacturing process. Methods: The LCD panel manufacturing process is divided into the fabrication(fab) process and module process. The use of chemical substances by process was investigated at four fab processes and two module processes at two domestic TFT-LCD(Thin film transistor-Liquid crystal display) panel manufacturing sites. Results: LCD panels are manufactured through various unit processes such as sputtering, chemical vapor deposition(CVD), etching, and photolithography, and a range of chemicals are used in each process. Metal target materials including copper, aluminum, and indium tin oxide are used in the sputtering process, and gaseous materials such as phosphine, silane, and chlorine are used in CVD and dry etching processes. Inorganic acids such as hydrofluoric acid, nitric acid and sulfuric acid are used in wet etching process, and photoresist and developer are used in photolithography process. Chemical substances for the alignment of liquid crystal, such as polyimides, liquid crystals, and sealants are used in a liquid crystal process. Adhesives and hardeners for adhesion of driver IC and printed circuit board(PCB) to the LCD panel are used in the module process. Conclusions: LCD panels are produced through dozens of unit processes using various types of chemical substances in clean room facilities. Hazardous substances such as organic solvents, reactive gases, irritants, and toxic substances are used in the manufacturing processes, but periodic workplace monitoring applies only to certain chemical substances by law. Therefore, efforts should be made to minimize worker exposure to chemical substances used in LCD panel manufacturing process.