• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2001.04a
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• pp.172-181
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• 2001

Upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) system employs granular sludge to treat various wastewaters including landfill leachate. CH$_4$ production of the granules determines overall performance of a UASB reactor. Sludge granules are developed by self-granulation of microorganisms and dynamic balance between granule growth and decay results in coexistence of granules with different sizes in the reactor. In this study, granules taken from a laboratory-scale UASB reactor were classified into 4 groups based on their diameters and their Physicochemical characteristics we were investigated. Each group was analyzed for settling ability, specific methanogenic activity (SMA), and elemental content. Settling ability was proportional to granule diameter. suggesting effective detainment of larger granules in the reactor. When acetate or glucose was used as a substrate, all groups showed relatively slight difference in SMA. However SMA with a volatile fatty acid mixture showed significant increase with granule diameter, suggesting better establishment of syntrophic relationship in larger granules. Larger granules showed higher value of SMA upon environmental changes (i.e., PH, temperature, or toxicant concentration). Comparative analysis of elemental contents showed that content (dry weight %) of most tested elements (iron, calcium, phosphorus, zinc, nickel. and manganese) deceased with granule diameter, suggesting importance of these elements for initial granulation. Taken together, this study verified experimentally that Physicochemical Properties of granules are related to granule size distributions. Overall results of physicochemical characterization supports that larger.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.282-286
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• 2009

The synthesis and characterization of catalysts supported on multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs). $Pt/Au/TiO_2$ is added to a CNTs(cabon nano tube) carbon support to improve the performance of a direct methanol fuel cell. XRD and SEM showed that uniform anatase $TiO_2$ and Pt/Au particles were about 200 nm and 20${\sim}$25 nm in diameter. The composite catalyst activities were measured by cyclic voltammetry (CV), demonstrating that it is more promising for use in fuel cells.

• Plant Biotechnology Reports
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.79-88
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• 2011

Vitis vinifera cv. Koshu is a traditional grape cultivar that has been grown for centuries in Japan. The Koshu grape has pink-colored skin and Koshu wines have slight astringency. We demonstrated for the first time the characterization of hydroxycinnamic acids, flavan-3-ols, and flavonoids in Koshu grape using high-performance liquid chromatography and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. The gross weight of phenolic compounds excluding anthocyanins and proanthocyanidins in Koshu grape at harvest was higher than those in Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, and Merlot grapes. In addition, hydroxycinnamic acid and monomeric flavonol contents in Koshu grape were also higher than those in the other grape cultivars. Transcription analysis of cinnamic acid 4-hydroxylase, p-coumarate 3-hydroxylase, caffeate methyltransferase, and flavonol synthase genes indicated high accumulation of hydroxycinnamic acids and flavonols in Koshu grape skin compared with the other cultivars. These findings obtained by chemical and molecular approaches partially explained the phenolic characteristics and the peculiar astringency of Koshu grape.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.32 no.12
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• pp.1102-1106
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• 2008

Microfluidics deals with the behavior, precise control and manipulation of fluids at a micro scale. It has become increasingly prevalent in various applications such as biomedical applications (diagnostics, therapeutics, and cell/tissue engineering), inkjet head, and fuel cells etc. The issue of inspection and characterization of microfluidics has emerged as a major consideration in design, fabrication, and detection of microfluidic devices. In this paper, we characterize a diffusion based mixing in Y-microchannel using a fluorescent optical scanner based on a DVD pick-up module, which is widely used in optical storages. Using fluorescent dye, we measure the fluorescent intensity that represents the mixing patterns in Y-microchannel. We also compare these experimental results with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation ones. It is shown that the proposed optical scanner can be used as an alternative measurement system with high performance and cost-effectiveness, compared to conventional optical tools such as epifluorescent microscopes using high resolution CCD camera and confocal microscopes with photomultiplier (PMT) detectors.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.464.1-464.1
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• 2014

Among numerous material candidates, Cu(InxGa1-x)(SySe2-y) (CIGS) thin films have emerged as promising material candidates for thin film solar cell applications due to the high energy conversion efficiency and relatively low fabrication cost. The CIGS thin film solar cells consist of several materials, including Mo back contacts, ZnO-based window layers, and CdS buffer layers. All these materials have different crystal structures and contain quite distinct chemical elements, and hence the device characterization requires careful analyses. Most of all, identification of the major trap states resulting in the carrier recombination processes is a key step toward realization of high efficiency CIGS solar cells. We have carried out electrical investigations of CIGS thin film solar cells to specify the major trap states and their roles in photovoltaic performance. In particular, we have used the temperature-dependent transport characterizations and admittance spectroscopy. In this presentation, we will introduce some exemplary studies of DC and AC electrical characteristics of the CIGS solar cells.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.565-569
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• 2009

Nano-sized green and blue phosphor powders were synthesized by liquid phase method to confirm the size and morphology. By using that process, the particle sizes of green and blue phosphor particles were 80 nm and 60 nm, respectively. The characteristic comparison of $Zn_2SiO_4$ : Mn and BAM : Eu was carried out and as a result, $Zn_2SiO_4$ : Mn powders showed an higher PL performance compared to BAM : Eu.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.31 no.11
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• pp.3272-3278
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• 2010

Synthesis and structural characterization of peripherally ferrocene-substituted zinc phthalocyanine (ZnPc-Fc) were carried out for efficient far-red/near-IR performance in dye-sensitized nanostructured $TiO_2$ solar cells. Incorporating ferrocene into phthalocyanine strongly improved the dye solubility in polar organic solvents, and reduced surface aggregation due to the steric effect of bulky ferrocene substituents. The involvement of electron transfer reaction pathways between ferrocene and phthalocyanine in ZnPc-Fc was evidenced by completely quenched fluorescence from S1 state (< 0.08% vs ZnPc). Strong absorption bands at 542 and 682 nm were observed in the transient absorption spectroscopy of ZnPc-Fc in DMSO, which was excited at a 670 nm laser pulse with a 15 ps full width at half maximum. Also, the excited state absorption signals at 450 - 600 and 750 - 850 nm appeared from the formation of charge separated state of phthalocyanine's anion. The lifetime of the charge separate state in ZnPc-Fc was determined to be $170{\pm}8$ ps, which was almost 17 times shorter than that of the ZnPc.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.251-262
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• 2015

In this work the preparation and characterization of a membrane containing a uniform mesoporous Titanium oxide top layer on a porous stainless steel substrate has been studied. The 316 L stainless steel substrate was prepared by powder metallurgy technique and modified by soaking-rolling and fast drying method. The mesoporous titania membrane was fabricated via the sol-gel method. Morphological studies were performed on both supported and unsupported membranes using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and field emission scanning microscope (FESEM). The membranes were also characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and $N_2$-adsorption / desorption measurement (BET analyses). It was revealed that a defect-free anatase membrane with a thickness of $1.6{\mu}m$ and 4.3 nm average pore size can be produced. In order to evaluate the performance of the supported membrane, single-gas permeation experiments were carried out at room temperature with nitrogen gas. The permeability coefficient of the fabricated membrane was $4{\times}10^{-8}\;lit\;s^{-1}\;Pa^{-1}\;cm^{-1}$.

• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.34-42
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• 2017

Material defects in the Steam Generator Tubes (SGT) of sodium cooled fast breeder reactor (PFBR) can lead to leakage of water into sodium. The water and sodium reaction will lead to major accidents. Therefore, the examination of steam generator tubes for the early detection of defects is an important requirement for safety and economic considerations. In this work, the Magnetic Flux Leakage (MFL) based Non Destructive Testing (NDT) technique is used to perform the defect detection process. The rectangular notch defects on the outer surface of steam generator tubes are modeled using COMSOL multiphysics 4.3a software. The obtained MFL images are de-noised to improve the integrity of flaw related information. Grey Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM) features are extracted from MFL images and taken as input parameter to train the neural network. A comparative study on characterization have been carried out using feed-forward back propagation (FFBP) and cascade-forward back propagation (CFBP) algorithms. The results of both algorithms are evaluated with Mean Square Error (MSE) as a prediction performance measure. The average percentage error for length, depth and width are also computed. The result shows that the feed-forward back propagation network model performs better in characterizing the defects.

• Proceedings of the Korea Committee for Ocean Resources and Engineering Conference
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• 2003.05a
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• pp.294-299
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• 2003

The efficiency of complex slurry preparation route for the development of high performance RS-SiCf/SiC composites has been investigated. The green bodies for RS-SiC and RS-SiCf/SiC composite materials prior to the infiltration of molten silicon were prepared with various C/SiC complex matrix slurries, which associated with both different sizes of starting SiC particles and blending ratios of starting SiC and carbon particles. The reinforcing materials in the composite system were uncoated and C coated Tyranno SA SiC fiber. The characterization of RS-SiC and RS-SiCf/SiC composite materials was examined by means of SEM, EDS and three point bending test. Based on the mechanical property-microstructure correlation, process optimization methodology is discussed.