• Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.253-267
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• 2015

Corrosion has significant adverse effects on the durability of reinforced concrete (RC) structures, especially those exposed to a marine environment and subjected to mechanical stress, such as bridges, jetties, piers and wharfs. Previous studies have been carried out to investigate the corrosion behaviour of steel rebar in various concrete structures, however, few studies have focused on the corrosion monitoring of RC structures that are subjected to both mechanical stress and environmental effects. This paper presents an exploratory study on the development of corrosion monitoring and detection techniques for RC structures under the combined effects of external loadings and corrosive media. Four RC beams were tested in 3% NaCl solutions under different levels of point loads. Corrosion processes occurring on steel bars under different loads and under alternative wetting - drying cycle conditions were monitored. Electrochemical and microscopic methods were utilised to measure corrosion potentials of steel bars; to monitor galvanic currents flowing between different steel bars in each beam; and to observe corrosion patterns, respectively. The results indicated that steel corrosion in RC beams was affected by local stress. The point load caused the increase of galvanic currents, corrosion rates and corrosion areas. Pitting corrosion was found to be the main form of corrosion on the surface of the steel bars for most of the beams, probably due to the local concentration of chloride ions. In addition, visual observation of the samples confirmed that the localities of corrosion were related to the locations of steel bars in beams. It was also demonstrated that electrochemical devices are useful for the detection of RC beam corrosion.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.93-99
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• 2021

In order to decrease the weight of stretchable energy storage devices, interest in developing lightweight materials to replace metal current collectors is increasing. In this study, nanofibers prepared by electrospinning a conductive polymer, PEDOT:PSS, were used as current collectors for lithium ion batteries. The nanofiber showed improved electrical conductivity by using DMSO, a dopant, and indicated a stretch rate of 30% or more from the elasticity evaluation result. In addition, the use of the nanofiber current collector facilitates penetration of the liquid electrolyte and exhibits the effect of increasing the electronic conductivity through the nanofiber network. The lithium-ion battery using the DMSO-doped PEDOT:PSS@PAM nanofiber current collector indicated a high discharge capacity of 135mAh g^-1, and indicated a high capacity retention rate of 73.5% after 1000 cycles. Thus, the excellent electrochemical stability and mechanical properties of conductive nanofibers showed that they can be used as lightweight current collectors for stretchable energy storage devices.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.1151-1158
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• 2012

High-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) genotypes are the major cause of cervical cancer. Hence, HPV genotype detection is a helpful preventive measure to combat cervical cancer. Recently, several HPV detection methods have been developed, each with different sensitivities and specificities. The objective of this study was to compare HPV high risk genotype detection by an electrochemical DNA chip system, a line probe assay (INNO-LiPA) and sequencing of the L1, E1 regions. A total of 361 cervical smears with different cytological findings were subjected to polymerase chain reaction-sequencing and electrochemical DNA chip assessment. Multiple infections were found in 21.9% (79/361) of the specimens, most prevalently in 20-29-year olds while the highest prevalence of HPV infection was found in the 30-39-year age group. The most prevalent genotype was HPV 16 at 28.2% (138/489) followed by HPV 52 at 9.6% (47/489), with the other types occurring at less than 9.0%. The electrochemical DNA chip results were compared with INNO-LiPA and sequencing (E1 and L1 regions) based on random selection of 273 specimens. The results obtained by the three methods were in agreement except for three cases. Direct sequencing detected only one predominant genotype including low risk HPV genotypes. INNO-LiPA identified multiple infections with various specific genotypes including some unclassified-risk genotypes. The electrochemical DNA chip was highly accurate, suitable for detection of single and multiple infections, allowed rapid detection, was less time-consuming and was easier to perform when compared with the other methods. It is concluded that for clinical and epidemiological studies, all genotyping methods are perfectly suitable and provide comparable results.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2006.07c
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• pp.1627-1628
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• 2006

In this paper, mesoporous only platinum electrode and micro pore platinum electrode with mesoporous Pt are fabricated and characterized on a silicon substrate to check their usability as enzymeless sensing electrodes for developing non-disposable glucose sensors integrated with silicon CMOS read out circuitry. Since most of electrochemical glucose sensors are disposable due to the use of the enzymes that are living creatures, these are limited to use in the in-vivo and continuous monitoring system applications. The proposed mesoporous Pt electrode with approximately 2.5nm in pore diameter and 150nm in height was fabricated by using a nonionic surfactant $C_{16}EO_8$ and an electroplating technique. The micro pore Pt electrode with mesoporous Pt means the mesoporous Pt electrode fabricated on top of micro pore arrayed Pt electrode with approximately $10{\mu}m$ in pore diameter and $80{\mu}m$ in height. The measured current responses at 10mM glucose solution of plane Pt, micro pore Pt, micro pore with mesoporus Pt, and mesoporous Pt electrodes are approximately $9.9nA/mm^2$, $92.4nA/mm^2$, $3320nA/mm^2$ and $44620nA/mm^2$, respectively. These data indicate that the mesoporous Pt electrode is much more sensitive than the other Pt electrodes. Thus, it is promising for non-disposable glucose sensor and electrochemical sensor applications.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.79-85
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• 2015

RC delay is a critical issue for achieving high performance of ULSI devices. In order to minimize the RC delay time, we uses the CMP process to introduce high-conductivity Cu and low-k materials on the damascene. The low-k materials are generally soft and fragile, resulting in structure collapse during the conventional high-pressure CMP process. One troubleshooting method is electrochemical mechanical polishing (ECMP) which has the advantages of high removal rate, and low polishing pressure, resulting in a well-polished surface because of high removal rate, low polishing pressure, and well-polished surface, due to the electrochemical acceleration of the copper dissolution. This study analyzes an electrochemical state (active, passive, transpassive state) on a potentiodynamic curve using a three-electrode cell consisting of a working electrode (WE), counter electrode (CE), and reference electrode (RE) in a potentiostat to verify an electrochemical removal mechanism. This study also tries to find optimum conditions for ECMP through experimentation. Furthermore, during the low-pressure ECMP process, we investigate the effect of current density on surface roughness and removal rate through anodic oxidation, dissolution, and reaction with a chelating agent. In addition, according to the Faraday’s law, as the current density increases, the amount of oxidized and dissolved copper increases. Finally, we confirm that the surface roughness improves with polishing time, and the current decreases in this process.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.22-31
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• 2022

Carbon nanomaterials are considered to be the materials of choice for the fabrication of electrochemical energy storage devices due to their stability, cost-effectiveness, well-established processing techniques, and superior performance compared to other active materials. In the present work, reduced graphene oxide (rGO) has been synthesized and used for the fabrication of a symmetric supercapacitor. The electrochemical performance of the fabricated supercapacitors with three different aqueous electrolytes namely 0.5 M H₂SO₄, 0.5 M H₃PO₄, and 1.0M Na₂SO₄ have been compared and analyzed. Among the three electrolytes, the highest areal specific capacitance of 14 mF/cm² was calculated at a scan rate of 5 mV/s observed with 0.5M H₃PO₄ electrolyte. The results were also confirmed from the charge/discharge results where the supercapacitor with 0.5M H₃PO₄ electrolyte delivered a specific capacitance of 11 mF/cm² at a current density of 0.16 mA/cm². In order to assess the stability of the supercapacitor with different electrolytes, the cells were subjected to continuous charge/discharge cycling and it was observed that acidic electrolytes showed excellent cyclic stability with no appreciable drop in specific capacitance as compared to the neutral electrolyte.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.125-133
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• 2022

Along with the increasing need for point-of-care diagnostics, development of portable, user-friendly, as well as sensitive sensors have gained intensive attention. Among various strategies, electrochromic sensors, which are electrochemically operated colorimetric sensors, have been actively studied. With their ability to report the presence and concentration of analytes by optical signals, electrochromic sensors utilize the advantages of both electrochemical and colorimetric sensors, enabling the simplification of device composition as well as convenient interpretation of results. Up to date, electrochromic sensors have been applied for a wide range of analytes, and further developments such as the introduction of flexible platforms or self-powered systems have been reported, providing a path towards the development of wearable sensor devices. In this review, various types of electrochromic sensors, according to the main strategy in which the electrochemical signals are converted to colorimetric signals, are introduced.

• 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.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.338-343
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• 2017

Activated carbon has lower electrical conductivity and reliability than other carbonaceous materials because of the oxygen functional groups that form during the activation process. This problem can be overcome by doping the material with heteroatoms to reduce the number of oxygen functional groups. In the present study, N, F co-doped activated carbon (AC-NF) was successfully prepared by a microwave-assisted hydrothermal method, utilizing commercial activated carbon (AC-R) as the precursor and ammonium tetrafluoroborate as the single source for the co-doping of N and F. AC-NF showed improved electrical conductivity ($3.8\;S\;cm^{-1}$) with N and F contents of 0.6 and 0.1 at%, respectively. The introduction of N and F improved the performance of the pertinent supercapacitor: AC-NF exhibited an improved rate capability at current densities of $0.5-50mA\;cm^{-2}$. The rate capability was higher compared to that of raw activated carbon because N and F codoping increased the electrical conductivity of AC-NF. The developed method for the co-doping of N and F using a single source is cost-effective and yields AC-NF with excellent electrochemical properties; thus, it has promising applications in the commercialization of energy storage devices.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.112-116
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• 2018

Electric double layer capacitors (EDLCs) are promising candidates for energy storage devices in electronic applications. An EDLC yields high power density but has low specific capacitance. Carbon material is used in EDLCs owing to its large specific surface area, large pore volume, and good mechanical stability. Consequently, the use of carbon materials for EDLC electrodes has attracted considerable research interest. In this paper, in order to evaluate the electrochemical performance, graphene is used as an EDLC electrode with flake sizes of 3, 12, and 60 nm. The surface characteristic and electrochemical properties of graphene were investigated using SEM, BET, and cyclic voltammetry. The specific capacitance of the graphene based EDLC was measured in a 1 M $TEABF_4/ACN$ electrolyte at the scan rates of 2, 10, and 50 mV/s. The 3 nm graphene electrode had the highest specific capacitance (68.9 F/g) compared to other samples. This result was attributed to graphene's large surface area and meso-pore volume. Therefore, large surface area and meso-pore volume effectively enhances the specific capacitance of EDLCs.