• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.28 no.11
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• pp.971-981
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• 2019

This study evaluated the photocatalytic oxidation efficiency of volatile organic compounds by $Cu_2O-TiO_2$ under visible-light irradiation. $Cu_2O-TiO_2$ was synthesized by an ultrasonic-assisted method. The XRD result indicated successful p-n type photocatalysts. However, no diffraction peaks belonging to $TiO_2$ were observed for the $Cu_2O-TiO_2$. The Uv-vis spectra result revealed that the synthesized $Cu_2O-TiO_2$ can be activated under visible-light irradiation. The FE-TEM/EDS result showed the formation of synthesized nanocomposites in the commercial P25 $TiO_2$, the undoped $TiO_2$, and $Cu_2O-TiO_2$ and componential analysis in the undoped $TiO_2$ and $Cu_2O-TiO_2$. The photocatalytic oxidation efficiencies of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and o-xylene with $Cu_2O-TiO_2$ were higher than those of P25 $TiO_2$ and undoped $TiO_2$. These results indicate that the prepared $Cu_2O-TiO_2$ photocatalyst can be applied effectively to control gaseous BTEX.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.24 no.9
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• pp.988-994
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• 2014

The effluents of chemical and petroleum industries often contain non-biodegradable aromatic compounds, with phenol being one of the major organic pollutants present among a wide variety of highly toxic organic chemicals. Phenol is toxic upon ingestion, contact, or inhalation, and it is lethal to fish even at concentrations as low as 0.005 ppm. Phenol biodegradation has been studied in detail using bacterial strains. However, these microorganisms suffer from substrate inhibition at high concentrations of phenol, whereby growth is inhibited. A phenol-degrading bacterium, P21, was isolated from oil-contaminated soil. The phenotypic characteristics and a phylogenetic analysis indicated the close relationship of strain P21 to Rhodococcus pyridinovorans. Phenol biodegradation by strain P21 was studied under shaking condition. The optimal conditions for phenol biodegradation by strain P21 were 0.09% $KNO_3$, 0.1% $K_2HPO_4$, 0.3% $NaH_2PO_4$, 0.015% $MgSO_4{\cdot}7H_2O$, 0.001% $FeSO_4{\cdot}7H_2O$, initial pH 9, and $20-30^{\circ}C$, respectively. When 1,000 ppm of phenol was added to the optimal medium, the strain P21 completely degraded it within two days. Rhodococcus pyridinovorans P21 could grow in up to 1,500 ppm of phenol as the sole carbon source in a batch culture, but it could not grow in a medium containing above 2,000 ppm. Moreover, strain P21 could utilize toxic compounds, such as toluene, xylene, and hexane, as a sole carbon source. However, no growth was detected on chloroform.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.52 no.5
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• pp.638-646
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• 2014

The effect of in-organic chelating agents with Fe(II) and Fe(III) in modified Fenton was evaluated to degradation BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylene). Citric acid and pyrophosphate were used in experimentals and an optimum chelating agent for BTEX degradation was determined. In $H_2O_2$/Fe(III)/citric acid, degradation of BTEX was decreased when concentration of citric acid was increased. In $H_2O_2$/Fe(III)/pyrophosphate, degradation of BTEX was increased when concentration of pyrophosphate was increased and degradation for BTEX was relatively high compared with $H_2O_2$/Fe(III)/citric acid. In $H_2O_2$/Fe(II)/chelating agents, degradation for BTEX was high and pH variation was minimized when molar ratio of Fe(II) and citric acid was 1:1. Optimum molar concentration of Fe(II), citric acid and $H_2O_2$ were 7 mM, 7mM and 500 mM for degradation of 100 mg/L of benzene to obtain best efficiency of $H_2O_2$, least precipitation of iron and best degradation.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.767-771
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• 1999

Poly(ester-imide)(PEI) for the electrical insulation coating was synthesized and evaluated with one-step method as well as two-step method. For the synthesis of poly(ester-imide), imide repeat unit of N,N'-(4,4'-diphenylmethane) bistrimellitimide(DID) was initially made from trimellitic anhydride(TMA) and methylene dianiline(MDA), followed by the second stage reaction of esterification. One-step reaction was performed by reaction of TMA, MDA, dimethyl terephthalate(DMT), ethylene glycol(EG), and 1,3,5-tris-(2-hydroxy ethyl) isocyanurate(THEIC) in m-cresol solvent at a time. The synthesized poly(ester-imide) was cured with xylene, P-5030K(phenol-formaldehyde resin), TK-8(TDI type blocked polyisocyanate) and tetrapropyltitanate(TPT). It was found that the content of hydroxyl group, amount of DMT, and imide repeat unit played important role for the properties of electrical insulation coating film.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.10 no.7
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• pp.1028-1034
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• 1999

Poly(lactic acid) is expected to be one of the most promising biodegradable polymers. However, the high molecular weight polymer could be obtained by ring-opening polymerization process conventionally, which raises the production cost and decreases the final yield. In this study, linear and star-shaped poly(L-lactic acid)s were prepared by direct solution polycondensation method and their physical and thermal properties were examined. Tin compounds were found to be effective catalyst for the preparation of high molecular weight polymers. When 0.2g (0.5 wt % of monomer) of $SnCl_2$ and 100 mL of p-xylene were used, the polymer yield and molecular weight were relatively high. As a means to obtain higher molecular weight polymer easily in the direct polycondensation system, dipentaerythritol(dipet) or pentaerythritol(pet) was introduced as a multifunctional branching monomer to provide a star-shaped poly(lactic acid). Moderately high molecular weight polymers with the inherent viscosity values up to 1.14 dL/g(weight-average molecular weight of about 140000 by GPC) were obtained and could be cast strong and transparent films.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.672-676
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• 2015

Spherical phospholipid bilayers, vesicles, were formed with respect to phase of each layer via a double emulsion technique. The conversion of phosphatidylcholine (PC) to phosphatidic acid (PA) at the outer layer, caused by phospholipase D (PLD), induced a curvature change in the vesicles, which eventually led them to fuse each other. The effect of the lipid layer physical-properties on the PLD-induced vesicle fusion was investigated using the fluorescence intensity change. 8-Aminonaphthalene-1,3,6-trisulfonic acid disodium salt(ANTS) and p-Xylene-bis(N-pyridinium bromide)(DPX) were encapsulated in the vesicles, respectively, for the quantification of the fusion. The fluorescence scale was calibrated with the fluorescence of a 1/1 mixture of ANTS and DPX vesicles in NaCl buffer taken as 100% fluorescence (0% fusion) and the vesicles containing both ANTS and DPX as 0% fluorescence (100% fusion), considering the leakage into the medium studied directly in a separate experiment using vesicles containing both ANTS and DPX. It was observed that the fusion occurred to the liquid-phase of the inner layer only. The fusion behaviors were very similar for both solid and liquid of the outer layer. However, the leakage was faster for the solid-phase outer-layer than the liquid-phase outer-layer. The difference in the leakage seems to be caused by the lipid concentration and the lateral diffusivity in the layer.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.435-441
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• 2008

In this paper, we investigated the electrical properties of triisopropylsilyl (TIPS) pentacene organic thin-film transistor (OTFT) depending on solvent type. We spin coated TIPS pentacene by using chlorobenzene, p-xylene, chloroform, and toluene as solvents. Fabricated OTFT with chlorobenzene shows field-effect mobility of $1.0{\times}10^{-2}cm^2/V{\cdot}s$, on/off ratio of $4.3{\times}10^3$ and threshold voltage of 5.5 V. In contrast, with chloroform, the mobility is $5.8{\times}10^{-7}cm^2/V{\cdot}s$, on/off ratio of $1.1{\times}10^2$ and threshold voltage of 1.7 V. Moreover we measured the grain size of each TIPS pentacene solvent by atomic force microscopy (AFM). From these results, it can be concluded that a solvent with higher boiling point results in better electrical characteristics due to large grain size and high crystallinity of TIPS pentacene layer. In this paper TIPS pentacene with chlorobenzene shows the best electrical properties.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.240-250
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• 2004

A gas chromatography-mass spectrometric (GC-MS) assay method was developed for the rapid and sensitive determination of volatile- and semivolatile organic compounds in water. Two hundreds mL of water sample was extracted in a 250 mL separatory funnel with 1 ml of pentane at pH 6.5. Fluorobenzene and 1,2-dichlorobenzene-d4 as internal standards were added to water sample and the solution was mechanically shaken for 5 min and analyzed by GC-MS (selected ion monitoring) without more any concentration or purification steps. The peaks had good chromatographic properties and the extraction of these compounds from water also gave relatively high recoveries with small variations. The range of detection limits of the assay was 0.5-10 ng/L. Turnaround time for up to about 40 samples was one day. This method is simple, convenient, and can be learned easily by relatively inexperienced personnel. This method was used to analyze 15 volatile- and semivolatile organic compounds in water of a Lake, and raw and treated water from three Water Treatment Plants in Korea. As the analytical results, benzene, toluene, xylene, isopropylbenzene, 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene, 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene, naphthalene and 2,4,6-trichlorophenol were detected at concentrations of up to 0.4, 1.9, 1.3, 0.2, 1.8, 13.0, 1.7 and $1.1{\mu}g/L$, respectively. But chlorobenzene, trichloroethylene, tetrachloroethylene, ethylbenzene, n-butylbenzene and dibromochloropropane levels during that period were not significant. The removal effect of the compounds in three Water Treatment Plants was calculated. The compounds studied were generally removed during conventional water treatment, especially during the active carbon filtration.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.345-348
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• 2015

An organic solvent stable lipase from solvent-tolerant Pseudomonas sp. BCNU 171 had an optimal pH of 8 and an optimal temperature of 37℃. This crude extracellular lipase from BCNU 171 exhibited increased stability in the presence of various types of solvents at high concentrations (25%, v/v). The lipase stability was found to be highest in the presence of xylene (137%), followed by toluene (131%), octane (130%), and butanol (104%). Overall, BCNU 171 lipase tended to be more stable than immobilized commercial lipase (Novozyme435) in the presence of organic solvents. Furthermore, BCNU 171 lipase maintained about 90% of its enzyme original activity in the presence of NH₄⁺, Na⁺, Ba²⁺, Hg²⁺, Ni²⁺, Cu²⁺, and Ca²⁺ion and significantly increased its enzyme activity in the presence of various emulsifying agents. Thus, the organic solvent stable lipase from Pseudomonas sp. BCNU 171 could be usable as a potential whole cell biocatalyst and for synthetic applications of enzymes for industrial chemical processes in organic solvents without using immobilization.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.209-218
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• 2010

The fifty six components of volatile organic compounds(VOCs) were continuously measured by the hour to see the distributions their of its concentration and the ozone creating contribution of nitric oxides and VOCs in Gamjeon Odor and VOCs Monitoring Network from April to September, 2008. Aromatics occupied 51.3% of VOCs and paraffins, alkanes and olefins came in order. The monthly concentration of VOCs in Gamjeon was high in July and low in September. As for hourly concentration of ozone and nitric oxides, ozone started to increase since 10am having the highest in the daytime, and nitric oxides had the different trend from that of ozone, showing the lowest in the daytime. The photochemical ozone creating potentials(POCPs) of toluene, propane, m/p-xylene, ethylbenzene, and 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene were 30.6%, 10.2%, 9.4%, 7.4% and 5.2% respectively. These five components occupied 62.8% of total POCPs, which means they contributed to the ozone creation mainly. Related with the ozone creating contribution, the ratio of VOCs to NOx was generally under 6 occupied 72.0%, which came under the area coexisting the limit of VOCs. Therefore it is thought that the management of emission source of VOCs is very important for the reduction of ozone.