• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.95-104
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• 2018

Biosurfactants or microbial surfactants are surface-active biomolecules that are produced by a variety of microorganisms. Biodegradability and low toxicity have led to the intensification of scientific studies on a wide range of industrial applications for biosurfactants in the field of environmental bioremediation as well as the petroleum industry and enhanced oil recovery. However, the major issues in biosurfactant production are high production cost and low yield. Improving the bioindustrial production processes relies on many strategies, such as the use of cheap raw materials, the optimization of medium-culture conditions, and selecting hyperproducing strains. The present work aims to obtain a mutant with higher biosurfactant production through applying mutagenesis on Bacillus subtilis SPB1 using a combination of UV irradiation and nitrous acid treatment. Following mutagenesis and screening on blood agar and subsequent formation of halos, the mutated strains were examined for emulsifying activity of their culture broth. A mutant designated B. subtilis M2 was selected as it produced biosurfactant at twice higher concentration than the parent strain. The potential of this biosurfactant for industrial uses was shown by studying its stability to environmental stresses such as pH and temperature and its applicability in the oil recovery process. It was practically stable at high temperature and at a wide range of pH, and it recovered above 90% of motor oil adsorbed to a sand sample.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.378.2-378.2
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• 2016

Biosensors currently suffer from severe non-specific adsorption of proteins, which causes false positive errors in detection through overestimation of the affinity value. Overcoming this technical issue motivates our research. Polyethylene glycol (PEG) is well known for its ability to reduce the adsorption of biomolecules; hence, it is widely used in various areas of medicine and other biological fields. Likewise, amine functionalized surfaces are widely used for biochemical analysis, drug delivery, medical diagnostics and high throughput screening such as biochips. As a result, many coating techniques have been introduced, one of which is plasma polymerization - a powerful coating method due to its uniformity, homogeneity, mechanical and chemical stability, and excellent adhesion to any substrate. In our previous works, we successfully fabricated plasmapolymerized PEG (PP-PEG) films [1] and amine functionalized films [2] using the plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) technique. In this research, an amine functionalized PP-PEG film was fabricated by using the plasma co-polymerization technique with PEG 200 and ethylenediamine (EDA) as co-precursors. A biocompatible amine functionalized film was surface characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The density of the surface amine functional groups was carried out by quantitative analysis using UV-visible spectroscopy. We found through surface plasmon resonance (SPR) analysis that non-specific protein adsorption was drastically reduced on amine functionalized PP-PEG films. Our functionalized PP-PEG films show considerable potential for biotechnological applications such as biosensors.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.331-331
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• 2009

Hafnium oxide ($HfO_2$) attracted by one of the potential candidates for the replacement of si-based oxides. For applications of the high-k gate dielectric material, high thermodynamic stability and low interface-trap density are required. Furthermore, the amorphous film structure would be more effective to reduce the leakage current. To search the gate oxide materials, metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitors was fabricated by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) on indium tin oxide (ITO) coated glass with different oxygen pressures (30 and 50 mTorr) at room temperature, and they were deposited by Au/Ti metal as the top electrode patterned by conventional photolithography with an area of $3.14\times10^{-4}\;cm^2$. The results of XRD patterns indicate that all films have amorphous phase. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) images show that the thickness of the $HfO_2$ films is typical 50 nm, and the grain size of the $HfO_2$ films increases as the oxygen pressure increases. The capacitance and leakage current of films were measured by a Agilent 4284A LCR meter and Keithley 4200 semiconductor parameter analyzer, respectively. Capacitance-voltage characteristics show that the capacitance at 1 MHz are 150 and 58 nF, and leakage current density of films indicate $7.8\times10^{-4}$ and $1.6\times10^{-3}\;A/cm^2$ grown at 30 and 50 mTorr, respectively. The optical properties of the $HfO_2$ films were demonstrated by UV-VIS spectrophotometer (Scinco, S-3100) having the wavelength from 190 to 900 nm. Because films show high transmittance (around 85 %), they are suitable as transparent devices.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.70-76
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• 1991

Water soluble poly(sulfonated styrene-co-acrylic acid) was polymerized with sulfonated styrene and acrylic acid in the presence of silver sulfate at $99^{\circ}C$ for 4 hrs. The complex formation of poly(sulfonated styrene-co-acrylic acid) with Cu(II) was carried out. The maximum absorption wavelength of the poly(sulfonated styrene-co-acrylic)-Cu(II) system at different pH values was observed at 274 nm and 295 nm. The reduced viscosity of the poly(sulfonated styrene-co-acrylic acid)-Cu(II) complex were measured in the various pH ranges. The formation constants and stability constants of poly(sulfonated styrene-co-acrylic acid)-Cu(II) complex were calculated from Bjerrum method. The changes of enthalpy, free energy and entropy in the above reaction were determined by Ringbom method.

• Journal of Korea Technical Association of The Pulp and Paper Industry
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.49-55
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• 2013

To explore the paper materials for restoration of the Annals of the Joseon Dyansty, durability of the three type of the traditional Korean Papers were estimated in this study, through moist heat artificial aging test. Three types(D, F, and G) which showed the best preservation performance in dry heat and UV treatment in the previous study were selected and artificial accelerated aging treatment with moist-heat process was conducted; the viscosity change rate was D>G>F; folding endurance G>D>F; $L^*$ value F>D>G; $a^*$ and $b^*$ change rate D>G>F; brightness decrease rate D>G>F, suggesting paper F showed the least change rate in physical/optical properties. Also the CLSM image observation showed fair coherence among fibers and confirmed paper mulberry. And in FDI extraction from each sample, paper F showed the highest value. Overall, paper F (traditional glossy paper) showed the highest stability against thermal treatment. It confirms that paper F is suitable as restoration paper for tributary remains including the annals of the Joseon Dynasty for its steady strength/viscosity decrease rate and color change rate.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.669-669
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• 2013

Hierarchical N doped TiO2 nanostructured catalyst with micro, meso and macro porosity have been synthesized by a facile self-formation route using ammonia and titanium isopropoxide precursor. The samples were calcined in different calcination temperature ranging from $300^{\circ}C$ to $800^{\circ}C$ at slow heating rate ($5^{\circ}C$/min) and designated as NHPT-300 to NHPT-800. $TiO_2$ nanostructured catalyst have been characterized by physico-chemical and spectroscopy methods to explore the structural, electronic and optical properties. UV-Vis diffuse reflectance spectra confirmed the red shift and band gap narrowing due to the doping of N species in TiO2 nanoporous catalyst. Hierarchical macro porosity with fibrous channel patterning was observed (confirmed from FESEM) and well preserved even after calcination at $800^{\circ}C$, indicating the thermal stability. BET results showed that micro and mesoporosity was lost after $500^{\circ}C$ calcination. The photocatalytic activity has been evaluated for methanol oxidation to formaldehyde in visible light. The enhanced photocatalytic activity is attributed to combined synergetic effect of N doping for visible light absorption, micro and mesoporosity for increase of effective surface area and light harvestation, and hierarchical macroporous fibrous structure for multiple reflection and effective charge transfer.

• Biomaterials and Biomechanics in Bioengineering
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.129-140
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• 2016

This article reports the development of biodegradable photoluminescent polymer (BPLP)-based nanoparticles (NPs) incorporating either magnetic nanoparticles (BPLP-MNPs) or gadopentate dimeglumine (BPLP-Gd NPs), for cancer diagnosis and treatment. The aim of the study is to compare these nanoparticles in terms of their surface properties, fluorescence intensities, MR imaging capabilities, and in vitro characteristics to choose the most promising dual-imaging nanoprobe. Results indicate that BPLP-MNPs and BPLP-Gd NPs had a size of $195{\pm}43nm$ and $161{\pm}55nm$, respectively and showed good stability in DI water and 10% serum for 5 days. BPLP-Gd NPs showed similar fluorescence as the original BPLP materials under UV light, whereas BPLP-MNPs showed comparatively less fluorescence. VSM and MRI confirmed that the NPs retained their magnetic properties following encapsulation within BPLP. Further, in vitro studies using HPV-7 immortalized prostate epithelial cells and human dermal fibroblasts (HDFs) showed > 70% cell viability up to $100{\mu}g/ml$ NP concentration. Dose-dependent uptake of both types of NPs by PC3 and LNCaP prostate cancer cells was also observed. Thus, our results indicate that BPLP-Gd NPs would be more appropriate for use as a dual-imaging probe as the contrast agent does not mask the fluorescence of the polymer. Future studies would involve in vivo imaging following administration of BPLP-Gd NPs for biomedical applications including cancer detection.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.38 no.7
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• pp.364-370
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• 2016

In this paper, the technique that determines efficient process combinations for the ultrapure water production was studied. The ultrapure water is one of the industrial water used in industrial activity and required in the advanced technology integrated industry. It is produced by combined process including filtration, ion exchange processes, the reverse osmosis (RO) process, degassing (DG) process and UV-oxidation (UVox) process. An ultrapure water production process consists of 15-20 different water treatment unit process. In this study, a pilot plant was built and operated to research the design parameters for the individual process. Through the pilot plant operation, 19 effective combinations were optimized among various processes. And then, 11 of them satisfied the final quality of the ultrapure water. The stability and economic feasibility were evaluated about the final 11 process combinations.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.32 no.8
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• pp.2737-2742
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• 2011

Ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) of an ethyl-substituted tetracyclododecene (8-ethyltetracyclo[$4.4.0.1^{2,5}.1^{7,10}$] dodec-3-ene, Et-TCD) was carried out in the presence of a ternary catalyst system consisting of $WCl_6$, triisobutyl aluminium (iso$Bu_3Al$), and ethanol. The optimal molar ratio of Et-TCD/$WCl_3$/iso-$Bu_3Al$/ethanol was found as 500/1/3/2 at which the yield of ring-opened polymer was 100%. 1-Hexene was shown to be an effective molecular weight controlling agent for ROMP reaction of Et-TCD. The hydrogenation of the ring opened polymer (p-Et-TCD) was conducted successfully using Pd(5 wt %)/${\gamma}$-$Al_2O_3$ at $80^{\circ}C$ for 1 h. Chemical structures of p-Et-TCD and its hydrogenated product($H_2$-p-Et-TCD) were characterized using 2D NMR techniques ($^1H-^1H$ COSY and $^1H-^{13}C$ HSQC). The changes of physical properties such as thermal stability, glass transition temperature and light transmittance after the hydrogenation were also investigated using TGA, DSC, and UV.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.227-231
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• 2005

We have developed a microsystem with a capillary electrophoresis (CE) and an electrochemical detector (ECD). The microfabricated CE-ECD systems are adequate for a disposable type and the characteristics are optimized for an application to the electrochemical detection. The system was realized with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-glass chip and indium tin oxide electrode. The injection and separation channels (80 um wide$\ast$40 um deep) were produced by moulding a PDMS against a microfabricated master with relatively simple and inexpensive methods. A CE-ECD systems were fabricated on the same substrate with the same fabrication procedure. The surface of PDMS layer and ITO-coated glass layer was treated with UV-Ozone to improve bonding strength and to enhance the effect of electroosmotic flow. For comparing the performance of the ITO electrodes with the gold electrodes, gold electrode microchip was fabricated with the same dimension. The running buffer was prepared by 10 mM 2-(N-morpholino)ethanesulfonic acid (MES) titrated to PH 6.5 using 0.1 N NaOH. We measured olectropherograms for the testing analytes consisted of catechol and dopamine with the different concentrations of 1 mM and 0.1 mM, respectively. The measured current peaks of dopamine and catechol are proportional to their concentrations. For comparing the performance of the ITO electrodes with the gold electrodes, electropherograms was measured for CE-ECD device with gold electrodes under the same conditions. Except for the base current level, the performances including sensitivity, stability, and resolution of CE-ECD microchip with ITO electrode are almost the same compared with gold electrode CE-ECD device. The disposable CE/ECD system showed similar results with the previously reported expensive system in the limit of detection and peak skew. When we are using disposable microchips, it is possible to avoid polishing electrode and reconditioning.