• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.71-76
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• 2010

The electrorefining process, one of main processes which are composed of pyroprocess to recover the useful elements from spent fuel, and the domestic development of electrorefiner have been reviewed. The electrorefiner is composed of an anode basket containing reduced spent fuel such as uranium, transuranic and rare earth elements, and a solid cathode, which are in LiCl-KCl eutectic electrolyte. Oxidation (dissolution) reaction occurs on the anode and a pure uranium is electrochemically reduced (deposited) on the solid cathode. By application of graphite cathode, which has a self-scrapping characteristics for the uranium deposits, and a recovery of the fallen deposits by a screw conveyer, a high-throughput continuous electrorefiner with a capacity of 20 kgU/day has been developed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2017.10a
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• pp.74-74
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• 2017

Electrorefining is a key step in pyroprocessing. The electrorefining process is generally composed of two recovery steps - the deposit of uranium onto a solid cathode and the recovery of the remaining uranium and TRU elements simultaneously by a liquid cadmium cathode. Uranium deposit recovered from the solid cathode is a dendritic powder. It is necessary to separate the adhered salt from the deposits prior to the consolidation of uranium deposit. The adhered salt is composed of lithium, potassium, uranium, and rare earth chlorides. Distillation process was employed for the cathode processing. One of the operation methods is distillation of the salt at low temperature ($900^{\circ}C$), and then melting of the deposit at high temperature to avoid a backward reaction. For the development of the salt distiller, the distillation behavior of the low vapor pressure chlorides should be studied. Rare earth chlorides in the adhered salt of uranium deposits have relatively low vapor pressures compared to the process salt (LiCl-KCl). In this study, the evaporation rates of the lanthanum and neodymium chlorides were measured for the salt separation from electrorefiner uranium deposits in the temperature range of $825{\sim}910^{\circ}C$. The evaporation rate of both chlorides increased with an increasing templerature. The evaporation rate of lanthanum chloride varied from 0.12 to $1.68g/cm^2/h$. Neodymium chloride was more volatile than lanthanum chloride. The evaporation rate of neodymium chloride varied from 0.20 to $4.55g/cm^2/h$. The evaporation rate of both chlorides are more than $1g/cm^2/h$ at $900^{\circ}C$. Even though the evaporation rates of both chlorides were less than that of the process salt, the contents of the lanthanide chlorides were small in the adhered salt. Therefore it can be concluded that $900^{\circ}C$ is suitable for the operation temperature of the salt distiller.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.377-386
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• 2021

The Li-rich oxides are promising cathode materials due to their high energy density. However, characteristics such as low rate capability, unstable cyclic performance, and rapid capacity fading during cycling prevent their commercialization. These characteristics are mainly attributed to the phase instability of the host structure and undesirable side reactions at the cathode/electrolyte interface. To suppress the phase transition during cycling and interfacial side reactions with the reactive electrolyte, K (potassium) doping and Nb oxide coating were simultaneously introduced to a Li-rich oxide (Li_1.2Ni_0.13Co_0.13Mn_0.54O₂). The capacity and rate capability of the Li-rich oxide were significantly enhanced by K doping. Considering the X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, the interslab thickness of LiO₂ increased and cation mixing decreased due to K doping, which facilitated Li migration during cycling and resulted in enhanced capacity and rate capability. The K-doped Li-rich oxide also exhibited considerably improved cyclic performance, probably because the large K⁺ ions disturb the migration of the transition metals causing the phase transition and act as a pillar stabilizing the host structure during cycling. The Nb oxide coating also considerably enhanced the capacity and rate capability of the samples, indicating that the undesirable interfacial layer formed from the side reaction was a major resistance factor that reduced the capacity of the cathode. This result confirms that the introduction of K doping and Nb oxide coating is an effective approach to enhance the electrochemical performance of Li-rich oxides.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.207-212
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• 2007

[ $PSCF3737(Pr_{0.3}Sr_{0.7}Co_{0.3}Fe_{0.7}O_3)$ ] is a good candidate cathode material for IT-SOFC(intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cell) because of high MIEC(mixed ionic electronic conductor) conductivity. In this study, the characteristics of PSCF3737 was investigated and optimizations of sintering temperature and thickness for $PSCF3737(Pr_{0.3}Sr_{0.7}Co_{0.3}Fe_{0.7}O_3)$ was carried out. Impedance responses were divided into two parts by frequency region. Middle frequency part (${\sim}10^2\;Hz$) was concerned with oxygen reduction reaction on surface and low frequency part (${\sim}10^{-1}\;Hz$) was related with oxygen diffusion. The reasonable sintering temperature and thickness of cathode were $1200^{\circ}C$ and about $27\;{\mu}m$ with regard to EIS(electrochemical impedance spectroscopy). ASR(areas specific resistance) of optimized cathode is $0.115\;{\Omega}\;cm^2$ at $700^{\circ}C$.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.541-547
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• 2011

Nanorod-clustered $MnO_2$ precursors with ${\alpha}$-, ${\beta}$-, and ${\gamma}$-phases are synthesized by hydrothermal reaction of $MnSO_45H_2O$ and $(NH_4)S_2O_8$. The formation of nanorod-clustered ${\beta}-MnO_2$ is particularly confirmed under the conditions of high reactant concentration and hydrothermal reaction at $150^{\circ}C$. The spinel $LiMn_2O_4$ nanorod-clusters are also prepared by lithiating the $MnO_2$ precursors, varying the concentration of lithiating agent ($LiC_3H_3O_2{\cdot}2H_2O$) and heat treatment temperature, and characterized for use as cathode material of lithium-ion batteries. As a result, the nanorod-clustered $LiMn_2O_4$ prepared from the ${\beta}-MnO_2$ at higher $LiC_3H_3O_2{\cdot}2H_2O$ concentration and the annealing at $800^{\circ}C$ is proven to show the cubic spinel structure and to achieve the high initial discharge capacity of 120 mAh/g.

• Ceramist
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.378-387
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• 2018

The optimal fabrication conditions for $Gd_{0.1}Ce_{0.9}O_{2-{\delta}}$(GDC) buffer layer and $La_{0.6}Sr_{0.4}Co_{0.2}Fe_{0.8}O_{3-{\delta}}$ (LSCF) cathode on 1mol% $CeO_2-10mol%\;Sc_2O_3$ stabilized $ZrO_2$ (CeScSZ) electrolyte were investigated for application of IT-SOFCs. GDC buffer layer was used in order to prevent undesired chemical reactions between LSCF and CeScSZ. These experiments were carried out with $5{\times}5cm^2$ anode supported unit cells to investigate the tendencies of electrochemical performance, Microstructure development and interface reaction between LSCF/GDC/CeScSZ along with the variations of GDC buffer layer thickness, sintering temperatures of GDC and LSCF were checked, respectively. Electrochemical performance was analyzed by DC current-voltage measurement and AC impedance spectroscopy. Microstructure and interface reaction were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). Although the interfacial reaction between these materials could not be perfectly inhibited, We found that the cell, in which $6{\mu}m$ GDC interlayer sintered at $1200^{\circ}C$ and LSCF sintered at $1000^{\circ}C$ were applied, showed good interfacial adhesions and effective suppression of Sr, thereby resulting in fairly good performance with power density of $0.71W/cm^2$ at $800^{\circ}C$ and 0.7V.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.22-34
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• 1998

The purpose of this study is to develop biosensor for determination of glucose, lactate, and ethanol in foods and food-stuffs simultaneously. The multiple cathode system was prepared with an oxygen electrode having one anode and hexagonal cathode. Glucose oxidase, mutarotase, lactate oxidase, alcohol oxidase and catalase were used for immobilization to determine glucose, lactate, and ethanol. These components including ethanol were simultaneously determined by the immobilized enzymes in the multiple cathode system. The determination of the components by enzyme sensor was based on the maximum slope of oxygen consumption from enzyme reaction of each sensor part. The response time for analysis was 1 min. The optimum condition for glucose, lactate and ethanol sensor was found to be 0.1 M potassium phosphate buffer, pH 7.0 at $40^{\circ}C$. Interferences of various sugars and organic acids were investigated. Less than 10% of error was found in determination of the components except organic acids. This difference was compensated by the modified equation. This system was confirmed by conventional methods. It was concluded that the multiple cathode system of this study is for an effective method to determine sugar, organic acid, ethanol simultaneously in foods.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.252-252
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• 2009

• Proceeding of EDISON Challenge
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• 2014.03a
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• pp.485-487
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• 2014

Nitrogen이 도핑된 graphene에서의 hydrogen evolution에 대한 촉매효과에 대해서 연구를 진행하였다. Reaction free energy를 계산하기 위해서 많은 N-doped graphene 모델을 계산하였으며 pH 조건, silicon cathode의 영향 그리고 zero point energy의 효과를 고려하였다. Volcano plot에 의하면 "pyrol" like model과 N-doped armchair graphene model (aGNR-N1)이 좋은 촉매효과를 가짐을 밝혔다. 또한 free energy diagram을 통하여 "pyrol"과 "aGNR-N1"이 좋은 active site가 될 수 있음을 확인하였고 pH가 증가함에 따라 $H^+$의 에너지가 증가함에 따라 촉매 효과가 줄어듬을 확인하였다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Ceranic Society Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.212.1-212
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• 2003