• Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering
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• v.35 no.12
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• pp.2442-2451
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• 2018

Novel highly active visible-light photocatalysts in the form of zinc bismuth oxide ($ZnBi_2O_4$) and graphite hybrid composites were prepared by coupling via a co-precipitation method followed by calcination at $450^{\circ}C$. The asprepared $ZnBi_2O_4$-graphite hybrid composites were tested for the degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) solutions under visible-light irradiation. The existence of strong electronic coupling between the two components within the $ZnBi_2O_4$-graphite heterostructure suppressed the photogenerated recombination of electrons and holes to a remarkable extent. The prepared composite exhibited excellent photocatalytic activity, leading to more than 93% of RhB degradation at an initial concentration of $50mg{\cdot}L^{-1}$ with 1.0 g catalyst per liter in 150 min. The excellent visible-light photocatalytic mineralization of $ZnBi_2O_4-1.0graphite$ in comparison with pristine $ZnBi_2O_4$ could be attributed to synergetic effects, charge transfer between $ZnBi_2O_4$ and graphite, and the separation efficiency of the photogenerated electrons and holes. The photo-induced $h^+$ and the superoxide anion were the major active species responsible for the photodegradation process. The results demonstrate the feasibility of $ZnBi_2O_4-1.0graphite$ as a potential heterogeneous photocatalyst for environmental remediation.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.31 no.12
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• pp.657-664
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• 2021

To build a highly active photocatalytic system with high efficiency and low cast of TiO₂, we report a facile hydrothermal technique to synthesize Ag₂Se-nanoparticle-modified TiO₂ composites. The physical characteristics of these samples are analyzed by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray analysis, transmission electron microscopy and BET analysis. The XRD and TEM results show us that TiO₂ is coupled with small sized Ag₂Se nanoplate, which has an average grain size of about 30 nm in diameter. The agglomeration of Ag₂Se nanoparticles is improved by the hydrothermal process, with dispersion improvement of the Ag₂Se@TiO₂ nanocomposite. Texbrite BA-L is selected as a simulated dye to study the photodegradation behavior of as-prepared samples under visible light radiation. A significant enhancement of about two times the photodegradation rate is observed for the Ag₂Se@TiO₂ nanocomposite compared with the control sample P25 and as-prepared TiO₂. Long-term stability of Ag₂Se@TiO₂ is observed via ten iterations of recycling experiments under visible light irradiation.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.102-106
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• 2022

Currently, the demand for real-time monitoring of water quality has increased dramatically. Total organic carbon (TOC) analysis is a suitable method for real-time analysis compared with conventional biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) methods in terms of analysis time. However, this method is expensive because of the complicated internal processes involved. The photocatalytic titanium dioxide (TiO2)-based TOC method is simpler as it omits more than three preprocessing steps. This is because it reacts only with organic carbon (OC) without extra processes. We optimized the rate between the TiO2 photocatalyst and binder solution and the TiO2 concentration. The efficiency was investigated under 365 nm UV exposure onto a TiO2 coated substrate. The optimized conditions were sufficient to apply a real-time monitoring system for water quality with a short reaction time (within 10 min). We expect that it can be applied in a wide range of water quality monitoring industries.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.120-127
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• 2022

Nitrogen oxide(NOx) is a major cause of air pollution, exists in the form of nitrogen monoxide and nitrogen dioxide, and is harmful to the human body. Recently, a number of studies to reduce NOx in the atmosphere have been conducted, and these efforts have been the same in the field of construction materials. It is known that NOx can be efficiently removed by using a photocatalytic reaction. In this study, the NOx removal performance of the foam composite using activated carbon(AC) and titanium dioxide(TiO₂) was investigated. AC was used to enhance the photocatalytic reaction of TiO₂ by increasing the internal specific surface area of the foam composite. In this study, foam composites were prepared using the substitution rate of AC as the main variable. The NOx removal performance of specimen was evaluated according to the test method presented in ISO-22197-1. The specific surface area of the foam composite showed a tendency to increase according to the AC content, but decreased at 15% or more. Also, when the AC substitution rate was 15%, the NOx removal efficiency was the highest.

• Clean Technology
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.147-154
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• 2022

Titanate nanotubes (TNTs) were synthesized via alkaline hydrothermal treatment using commercial TiO₂ nanoparticles (P25). The TNTs were prepared at various TiO₂/NaOH ratios, hydrothermal temperatures, and hydrothermal times. The synthesized catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction, field-emission scanning electron microscopy, N₂ adsorption-desorption isotherms, field-emission transmission electron microscopy, and ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy. TNTs were generated upon a decrease in the TiO₂/NaOH ratio due to the dissolution of TiO₂ in the alkaline solution and the generation of new Ti-O-Ti bonds to form titanate nanoplates and nanotubes. The hydrothermal treatment temperature and time were important factors for promoting the nucleation and growth of TNTs. The TNT catalyst with the largest surface area (389.32 m² g^-1) was obtained with a TiO₂/NaOH ratio of 0.25, a hydrothermal treatment temperature of 130 ℃, and a hydrothermal treatment time of 36 h. Additionally, we investigated the photocatalytic activity of methyl violet 2B (MV) over the TNT catalysts under UV irradiation and found that the degradation efficiencies of the TNTs were higher than that of P25. Among the TNT catalysts, the TNT catalyst that was hydrothermally synthesized for 36 h (TNT 36 h) exhibited a 96.9% degradation efficiency and a degradation rate constant that was 4.8 times higher than P25 due to its large surface area, which allowed for more contact between the MV molecules and TNT surfaces and facilitated rapid electron transfer. Finally, these results were correlated with the specific surface area.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.61-68
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• 2000

The use of photo-catalytic processes in pollution abatement and resource has a significant economic importance. Therefore, the applications of photochemical oxidation of secondary effluent driven by UV, TiO2, TiO2/UV, H2O2/UV and TiO2/H2O2/UV, have been investigated in order to treat the secondary effluent from municipal sewage. Various experimental parameters such as BOD, CODcr, Nurbidity, total P, and SPC were examined in each photo-catalytic reaction system. The results showed that the application of single oxidant such as UV, TiO2 only has a minor effect on parameters reduction (CODcr, BOD, etc) to treat the secondary effluent, whereas the combinations of oxidants increase the removal efficiency. The best removal efficiency in every parameters was achieved by the combination of TiO2, H2O2 and UV. It was also found that the optimum amount of TiO2 for the treatment was 1g/ι to achieve water reuse standard. From the results, the photocatalytic reaction system can be an alternative as a post-treatment to treat the secondary effluent from municipal sewage.

• Rapid Communication in Photoscience
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.35-37
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• 2014

PEC (photoelectrochemical) water splitting for $O_2/H_2$ production is one of the promising but difficult way to utilize solar energy. Among photocatalytic materials for PEC water oxidation, $BiVO_4$ (Eg = 2.4 eV) has been recently intensively studied since it has various advantageous properties. But its maximum efficiency has not been realized owing to kinetic factors - slow water oxidation at surface & insufficient stability. These problems can be simultaneously solved by application of oxygen evolution catalyst (OEC) such as $CoO_x$, Co-Pi, $IrO_x$ etc. Herein we report the first successful application of $NiFeO_x$ OEC on $BiVO_4$, showing good performance compared to other effective OEC applied on $BiVO_4$ under basic conditions. The enhanced activity of OEC loaded $BiVO_4$ has been supported by the surface charge separation efficiency and electrochemical impedance studies.

• Journal of Industrial Technology
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• v.32 no.A
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• pp.95-102
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• 2012

To advance luminance efficiency of Titania at visible range, N-doped $TiO_2$ was prepared by using ammonium hydroxide as a source of nitrogen. The photoactivities of the synthesized $TiO_2$ were evaluated on the basis of degradation of humic acid in aqueous solutions with different light sources, UV-C, UV-A and fluorescent lamp. As a result, at UV-C is high efficiency $UV_{254}$ decrease and TOC removal. In this study, the best synthetic conditions of N-doped $TiO_2$ were 5.0 M of ammonium hydroxide concentration and calcination temperature of $550^{\circ}C$. The degradation rate of humic acid as an evaluation of photoactivities of the catalysts were conducted with pH variation, decrease rate of molecular absorption, removal rate of total organic carbon and fluorescece evolution for humic acid solution. XRD and SEM were applied for analysis of surface analysis of the catalysts.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2010

This is an overview paper reporting our most recent work on processing and microstructure of nano-structured oxides and their photoluminescence and photo-catalysis properties. Zinc oxide and related transition metal oxides such as vanadium pentoxide and titanium dioxide were produced by a combination of magnetron sputtering, hydrothermal growth and atmosphere controlled heat treatment. Special morphology and microstructure were created including nanorods arrays, core-brushes, nano-lollipops and multilayers with very large surface area. These structures showed special properties such as much enhanced photoluminescence and chemical reactivity. The photo-catalytic properties have also been promoted significantly. It is believed that two factors contributed to the high reactivity: the large surface area and the interaction between different oxides. The transition metal oxides with different band gaps have much enhanced photoluminescence under laser stimulation. Use of these complex oxide structures as electrodes can also improve the energy conversion efficiency of solar cells. The mixed oxide complex may provide a promising way to high-efficiency photo emitting materials and photo-catalysts.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.08a
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• pp.70-70
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• 2013

As the costs of carbon-footprinetd fuels grow continuously and simultaneously atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration increases, solar fuels are receiving growing attention as alternative clean energy carriers. These fuels include molecular hydrogen and hydrogen peroxide produced from water, and hydrocarbons converted from carbon dioxide. For high efficiency solar fuel production, not only light absorbers (oxide semiconductors, Si, inorganic complexes, etc) should absorb most sunlight, but also charge separation and interfacial charge transfers need to occur efficiently. With this in mind, this talk will introduce the fundamentals of solar fuel production and artificial photosynthesis, and then discuss in detail on photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting and CO2 conversion. This talk largely divides into two section: PEC water oxidation and PEC CO2 reduction. The former is very important for proton-coupled electron transfer to CO2. For this oxidation, a variety of oxide semiconductors have been tested including TiO2, ZnO, WO3, BiVO4, and Fe2O3. Although they are essentially capable of oxidizing water into molecular oxygen, the efficiency is very low primarily because of high overpotentials and slow kinetics. This challenge has been overcome by coupling with oxygen evolving catalysts (OECs) and/or doping donor elements. In the latter, surface-modified p-Si electrodes are fabricated to absorb visible light and catalyze the CO2 reduction. For modification, metal nanoparticles are electrodeposited on the p-Si and their PEC performance is compared.