• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2017

Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) can be deposited on various substrates using chemical vapor deposition process, which results in the formation of PDMS thin films with thickness below 5 nm. PDMS layers can be evenly deposited on surfaces of nanoparticles composed of various chemical compositions such as $SiO_2$, $TiO_2$, ZnO, C, Ni, and NiO, and the PDMS-coated surface becomes completely hydrophobic. These hydrophobic layers are highly resistant towards degradation under acidic and basic environments and UV-exposures. Nanoparticles coated with PDMS can be used in various environmental applications: hydrophobic silica nanoparticles can selectively interact with oil from oil/water mixture, suppressing fast diffusion of spill-oil on water and allowing more facile physical separation of spill-oil from the water. Upon heat-treatments of PDMS-coated $TiO_2$ under vacuum conditions, $TiO_2$ surface becomes completely hydrophilic, accompanying formation oxygen vacancies responsible for visible-light absorption. The post-annealed $PDMS-TiO_2$ shows enhanced photocatalytic activity with respect to the bare $TiO_2$ for decomposition of organic dyes in water under visible light illumination. We show that the simple PDMS-coating process presented here can be useful in a variety of field of environmental science and technology.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.28 no.9
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• pp.917-925
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• 2006

The aim of our research was to apply experimental design methodology in the optimization of photocatalytic degradation of azo dye(Reactive orange 16). The reactions were mathematically described as a function of parameters amount of $TiO_2(x_1)$, and dye concentration($x_2$) being modeled by the use of the Box-Behnken method. The results show that the responses of color removal(%)($Y_1$) in photocatalysis of dyes were significantly affected by the synergistic effect of linear term of $TiO_2(x_1)$ and dye concentration($x_2$). Significant factors and synergistic effects for the $COD_{Cr}$, removal(%)($Y_2$) were the linear term of $TiO_2(x_1)$ and dye concentration($x_2$). However, the quadratic term of $TiO_2(x_1^2)$ and dye concentration($x_2^2$) had an antagonistic effect on $Y_1$ and $Y_2$ responses. Canonical analysis indicates that the stationary point was a saddle point for $Y_1$ and $Y_2$, respectively. The estimated ridge of maximum responses and optimal conditions for $Y_1:(X_1,\;X_2)$=(1.11 g/L, 51.2 mg/L) and $Y_2:(X_1,\;X_2)$=(1.42 g/L, 72.83 mg/L) using canonical analysis was 93% and 73%, respectively.