• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.62 no.1
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• pp.13-18
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• 2024

To develop flexible electrode materials for wearable devices, we investigated the electrochemical characteristics of carbon fibers tow according to pretreatment. And an electrochemical non-enzymatic sensor was fabricated using glucose as a target. The carbon fibers tow was pretreated through desizing and activation processes, and activation was performed in two ways: chemical oxidation and electrochemical oxidation. Surface morphology of carbon fibers tow samples was observed by SEM and their electrochemical characteristics and sensing performance were investigated by cyclic voltammetry, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and chronoamperometry. Carbon fibers tow samples showed improved electrochemical properties such as reduced R_et, ΔE_p, and increased I_p through pretreatment. And similar electrochemical properties were obtained with both activation methods. We selected electrochemically activated carbon fibers tow as the final electrode material for application of electrochemical sensor. The non-enzymatic glucose sensor based on this electrode has an enhanced sensitivity of 0.744 A/mM (in a linear range of 0.09899~3.75423 mM) and 0.330 mA/mM (3.75423~50 mM), respectively. Through this study, the possibility of using carbon fibers tow was confirmed as an electrode material. It is expected to be used as basic research for development of high-performance flexible electrode materials.

• Carbon letters
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.41-46
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• 2005

Plasma carbon blacks of 20~30 nm diameter were synthesized by direct decomposition of natural gas using a hybrid plasma torch system with 50 kW direct current and 4 MHz of radio frequency. The insulating rector which inside diameter of 400 mm and length of 1500 mm, respectively was kept at 300~$400^{\circ}C$ during the preparation. The ultimate analysis of plasma carbon blacks reveals that the raw plasma carbon blacks contains a large quantity of volatile which is mainly consist of hydrogen. Therefore devolatilization of raw plasma carbon blacks were carried out at $900^{\circ}C$ for one hour under nitrogen atmosphere. The devolatilization leads to the decrease in electrical resistivity and surface oxygen functional groups of plasma carbon black significantly. In order to investigate the plasma carbon as a catalyst support, devolatilized plasma black at $900^{\circ}C$ (DPB) supported PtAu catalyst was synthesized by sodium boronhydride reduction method. Electrochemical measurements and direct formic acid fuel cell test indicated that catalytic activity of DPB supported PtAu catalyst for formic acid oxidation was similar to that of Vulcan XC-72 of commercial carbon black supported one.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.312-319
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• 2010

Carbon membrane materials have received considerable attention for the gas separation including hydrocarbon mixture of ingredients of the volatile organic compounds(VOCs) because they possess their higher selectivity, permeability, and thermal stability than the polymeric membranes. The use of activated carbon membranes makes it possible to separate continuously the VOCs mixture by the selective adsorption-diffusion mechanism which the condensable components are preferentially adsorbed in to the micropores of the membrane. The activated carbon hollow fiber membranes with uniform adsorptive micropores on the wall of open pores and the surface of the membranes have been fabricated by the carbonization of a thin film of phenolic resin deposited on porous alumina hollow fiber membrane. Oxidation, carbonization, and activation processing variables were controlled under different conditions in order to improve the separation characteristics of the activated carbon membrane. Properties of activated carbon hollow fiber membranes and the characterization of a gas permeation by pyrolysis conditions were studied. As the result, the activated carbon hollow fiber membranes with good separation capabilities by the molecular size mechanism as well as selective adsorption on the pores surface followed by surface diffusion effective in the recovery hydrocarbons have been obtained. Therefore, these activated carbon membranes prepared in this study are shown as promising candidate membrane for separation of VOCs.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.245-252
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• 2011

In this study, carbon nanotubes were used as supporter to get high dispersion and high loading of Pt for PEMFC. Thermal oxidation method was applied to carbon nanotubes surface treatment. FT-IR and XPS were used to measure the effect of temperature on functional group. The increased concentration of functional groups was confirmed by XPS analysis, and increased Pt loading and dispersion was also observed by TGA and TEM analysis with increased temperature. Thermal behavior of oxidation is closely related to the manufacture of highly dispersed Pt/MWCNTs. Pt/MWCNTs treatment temperature at $90^{\circ}C$, showed high dispersion and high loading of Pt, and also showed good cell performance.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.19 no.9
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• pp.481-487
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• 2009

The photocatalysts of Fe-ACF/$TiO_2$ compositeswere prepared by the sol-gel method and characterized by BET, XRD, SEM, and EDX. It showed that the BET surface area was related to adsorption capacity for each composite. The SEM results showed that ferric compound and titanium dioxide were distributed on the surfaces of ACF. The XRD results showed that Fe-ACF/$TiO_2$ composite only contained an anatase structure with a Fe mediated compound. EDX results showed the presence of C, O, and Ti with Fe peaks in Fe-ACF/$TiO_2$ composites. From the photocataytic degradation effect, $TiO_2$ on activated carbon fiber surface modified with Fe (Fe-ACF/$TiO_2$) could work in the photo-Fenton process. It was revealed that the photo-Fenton reaction gives considerable photocatalytic ability for the decomposition of methylene blue (MB) compared to non-treated ACF/$TiO_2$, and the photo-Fenton reaction was improved by the addition of $H_2O_2$. It was proved that the decomposition of MB under UV (365 nm) irradiation in the presence of $H_2O_2$ predominantly accelerated the oxidation of $Fe^{2+}$ to $Fe^{3+}$ and produced a high concentration of OH radicals.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.33 no.7
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• pp.2345-2351
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• 2012

Conductive honeycomb-patterned polystyrene (PS) thin films were prepared by the formation of a polyaniline (PANI) thin layer on the surface of the patterned PS thin films using simple one-step chemical oxidative polymerization of aniline. The in situ chemical oxidation polymerization of aniline hydrochloride solution on the patterned structure of the PS films was conducted in the presence of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) to prepare the PANI-MWCNT/PS composite film. The concentration (wt %) of MWCNT was varied in the range of 1%-3% by weight. The dependence of surface morphology of the PANI/PS and PANI-MWCNT/PS composite film to the polymerization time was observed by scanning electron microscopy. The room temperature DC conductivity was obtained by the four-probe technique. The conductivity of the PANI-MWCNT/PS composite film was affected both by the MWCNT concentration and polymerization time. In addition, DC electrical field was loaded during the oxidative polymerization to affect the distribution of the MWCNT included in the composite film, varying the loading voltage in the range of 0.1-3.0 V. The conductivity of the PANI-MWCNT/PS composite film was increased as loading voltage rose. However, this increase stops at a voltage higher than the critical value.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.47-55
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• 1991

Regeneration of carbon-deposited Ni catalyst used for hydrogenation reaction was studied. Deposited carbon was removed by oxidation with various concentrations of oxygen. Activity of the catalysts was tested on aniline hydrogenation as a model reaction. When a carbon-deposited catalyst was treated under oxygen atmosphere, the specific surface area of the catalyst increased and then decreased with the increase of treatment temperature. The treatment temperature which gives maximum specific surface area increased with the decrease of oxygen concentration. Pore size of the support was decreased and sintering of nickel particles was more significant with the increase of oxygen concentration. The catalyst treated under 5 % oxygen concentration recovered its catalytic activity up to 90 % of the initial value, but the treatment under 20 % oxygen concentration gave no significant increase of the catalytic activity. Catalytic activity increased with treatment time when the catalyst was treated under 5 % oxygen concentration, but nearly constant after 1 hour.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.532-539
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• 2011

The physical and chemical properties of the dried low rank coals (LRCs) before and after the surface treatment using ozone and ammonia were characterized in this study. The contents of moisture, volatiles, fixed carbon and ash consisting of dried LRCs before the surface treatment were about 2.0, 44.8, 44.9 and 8.9%, respectively. Also, it was composed of carbon of 62.66%, hydrogen of 4.33%, nitrogen of 0.94%, oxygen of 27.01% and sulfur of 0.09%. The dried LRCs was surface-treated with the various dry methods using gases such as ozone at room temperature, ammonia at $200^{\circ}C$ and then the dried LRCs before and after the surface treatment were characterized by the various analysis methods such as FT-IR, TGA, proximate and elemental analysis, caloric value, ignition test, adsorption of $H_2O$ and $NH_3-TPD$. As a result, the oxygen content increased and the calorific value, ignition temperature and the contents of carbon and hydrogen relatively decreased because the oxygen-contained functional groups were additionally generated by the surface oxidation with ozone which plays a role as an oxidant. Also, its $H_2O$ adsorption ability got higher because the hydrophilic oxygen-contained functional groups were additionally generated by the surface oxidation with ozone. On the other hand, it was confirmed that the dried LRCs after the surface treatment with $NH_3$ at $200^{\circ}C$ have the decreased oxygen content, but the increased calorific value, ignition temperature and contents of carbon and hydrogen because of the decomposition of oxygen-contained functional groups the on the surface. In addition, the $H_2O$ adsorption ability was lowered bucause the surface of the dried LRCs might be hydrophobicized by the loss of the hydrophilic oxygen-contained functional groups. It was concluded that the various physico-chemical properties of the dried LRCs can be changed by the surface treatment.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.224-231
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• 1990

To improve the dispersion of platinum catalyst, the effects of carbon black surface treatment, solvents, surfactants, and ultrasonic homogenizing were examined. Upon introducing the hydrophilic groups acting as an anchorage center of the catalyst on the surface of carbon black by oxidation, the migrating and growing of platinum particles(or ions) during reduction could be restricted. When mixed solvents, surfactants, or ultrasonic homogenizer were used to disperse catalysts on the carbon black, the dispersion of catalyst could be improved, due to the good permeation of chloroplatinic acid through the pore of carbon black. Among the impregnation methods, the method using ultrasonic homogenizer with mixed solvent was the most excellent. Using this method the particle sized could be minimized in less than $30A^{\circ}$ and distributed homogeneously.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.18 no.11
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• pp.583-591
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• 2008

In this study, two series of CNT/$TiO_2$ electrodes were prepared. The decrease of surface area compared with that of the pristine carbon nanotubes (CNTs) indicated the blocking of micropores on the surface of the CNTs; was further supported by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and field emission SEM (FE-SEM) observations. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) results showed that the CNT/$TiO_2$ composites contained a mix of anatase and rutile forms of $TiO_2$ particles when the precursor was $TiO_2$ powder, whereas when the precursor was Ti ($OC_4H_7$) (TNB), the composites contained only the typical single and clear anatase $TiO_2$ particles. The energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) spectra showed the presence of C, O and Ti peaks for all samples. It was found that catalytic decomposition of methylene blue (MB) solution could be attributed to synthetic effects between the $TiO_2$ photocatalysis and electro-assisted CNTs network, and that photoelectrocatalytic oxidation increased with an increase of CNT composition. It was also found that the photoelectrocatalytic oxidation efficiency for MB is higher than that of photocatalytic oxidation. Moreover, the CNT/$TiO_2$ composites catalyst prepared by the impregnation method demonstrates higher photoelectrocatalytic activity than the mechanical mixture with the same CNT content.