• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.257-262
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• 2019

The control of microstructure is critical for the porous fuel particles used for infiltrating actinide nuclides. This study concerns the effect of heating processes on properties and microstructure of the fuel particles. The uniform gel precursor beads were synthesized by a microfluidic sol-gel process and then the porous $CeO_2$ microspheres, as a surrogate for the ceramic nuclear fuel particles, were obtained by heating treatment of the gel precursors. The fabricated $CeO_2$ microspheres have a narrow size distribution and good sphericity due to the feature of microfluidics. The effects of heating processes parameters, such as heating mode and peak temperatures on the properties of microspheres were studied in detail. An optimized heating mode and the peak temperature of $650^{\circ}C$ were selected to produce porous $CeO_2$ microspheres. The optimized heating mode can avoid the appearance of broken or crack microspheres in the heating process, and as-prepared porous microspheres were of suitable pore size distribution and pore volume for loading minor actinide (MA) solution by an infiltration method that is used for fabrication of MA-bearing nuclear fuel beads. After the infiltration process, $1000^{\circ}C$ was selected as the final temperature to improve the compressive strength of microspheres.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.96-101
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• 2021

Developing effective and earth-abundant electrocatalyst for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is critical for the commercialization of a water splitting system. In particular, the overpotential of the OER is relatively higher than the HER, and thus, it is considered that one of the important methods to enhance the performance of the electrocatalyst is to reduce the overpotential of the OER. We report effects of incorporation of metalloid into Ni(OH)2 microcrystal on electrocatalytic activities. In this study, Te incorporated Ni(OH)2 (��Te-Ni(OH)2) were grown on three-dimensional porous NF by a facile solvothermal method with �� = 1, 3 and 5. Homogeneous microplate structure on the NF was clearly observed for the Ni(OH)2/NF and ��Te-Ni(OH)2/NF samples. However, irregular and collapsed nanostructures were found on the surface of nickel foam when Te precursor ratio is (��) over 3. Electrocatalytic OER properties were analysed by Linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) and Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The amount of Te incorporation used in the electrocatalytic reaction was found to play a crucial role in improving catalytic activity. The optimum Te amount (��) introduced into the Ni(OH)2/NF was discussed with respect to their OER performance.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.258-263
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• 2020

Silicon carbide (SiC) fibers mainly fabricated from polycarbosilane, a ceramic precursor, are applied as reinforcing materials for ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) because of their high temperature oxidation resistance, tensile strength, and light weight. In this study, continuous SiC fibers used to fabricate rope-type flexible heating elements capable of generating high-temperature heat (> 650℃). For high-efficiency heating elements, the resistance of SiC fiber rope was measured by 2-point probe method according to the cross-sectional area and length. In addition, the fabrication conditions of rope-type SiC fiber heating elements were optimized by controlling the oxygen impurities and the size of crystal grains present in the amorphous SiC fiber. As a result, the SiC fiber heating element having a resistance range of about 100~200 Ω exhibited an excellent power consumption efficiency of 1.5 times compared to that of the carbon fiber heating element.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.243-248
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• 2011

Pt deposited porous carbon nanofibers was prepared as a highly sensitive material of hydrogen gas sensor operating at room temperature. Nanofibers was obtained by electrospinning method using polyacrylonitrile as a carbon precursor and then thermally treated for carbon nanofibers. Chemical activation of carbon nanofibers was carried out to enlarge specific surface area up to $2093m^2/g$. Sputtered Pt layer was uniformly distributed keeping the original shape of carbon nanofibers. The hydrogen gas sensing time and sensitivity were improved based on effects of high specific surface area, micropore structure and deposited Pt catalyst.

• Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering
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• v.35 no.11
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• pp.2283-2289
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• 2018

$TiO_2$ microspheres were successfully synthesised by simple solution phase method by using various amount of titanium butoxide as precursor. The prepared $TiO_2$ were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-vis diffuse reflectance absorption spectra (UV-DRS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). XRD analysis revealed that the as-synthesized $TiO_2$ microsphere poses an anatase phase. The photocatalytic degradation experiments were carried out with three different dyes, such as methylene blue, brilliant black, reactive red-120 for four hours under UV light irradiation. The results show that $TiO_2$ morphology had great influence on photocatalytic degradation of organic dyes. The experimental results of dye mineralization indicated the concentration was reduced by a high portion of up to 99% within 4 hours. On the basis of various characterization of the photocatalysts, the reactions involved to explain the photocatalytic activity enhancement due to the concentration of titanium butoxide and morphology include a better separation of photogenerated charge carriers and improved oxygen reduction inducing a higher extent of degradation of aromatics.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.15-19
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• 2021

In this study, we studied a facile method for the synthesis of stable and nearly spherical gold nanoparticles using a tyrosine-rich peptide, Tyr-Tyr-Gly-Tyr-Tyr (YYGYY), as both the reducing and capping agent. The peptide coated spherical and polycrystalline gold nanoparticles with diameters from 3 to 15 nm were successfully synthesized by varying the concentration of the peptide and metal precursor under UV irradiation. The nanoparticles were then characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV-Vis spectroscopy, scanning transmission electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (STEM-EDS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Furthermore, the catalytic activity of gold nanoparticles was confirmed by the reduction of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol, in which the catalytic reaction rate constant was 7.3 × 10-3 s-1.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.635-638
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• 2020

We prepared spherical silica by minimizing the amount of oil through water/oil (W/O) emulsion. The spherical silica was successfully synthesized by using 20 to 60 mL of hexane as an oil for 283 g of water glass. The size of silica was dependent on the amount of oil where the size of silica particles increased as the amount of oil increased. The specific surface areas of samples measured using the BET method were 186 to 230 ㎡/g. X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis results showed that the SiO2 content was more than 90% while sodium was 3.27~4.5 wt. %. The spherical silica prepared in this study could be optimized for mass synthesis and commercialization because the industrial sodium silicate solution was used as a precursor of Si as well as the minimum amounts of hexane and nonionic surfactant were employed.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.458-464
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• 2021

Lithium ion batteries (LIBs) is a kind of rechargeable secondary battery, developed from lithium battery, lithium ions move between the positive and negative electrodes to realize the charging and discharging of external circuits. Zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) are porous crystalline materials in which organic imidazole esters are cross-linked to transition metals to form a framework structure. In this article, ZIF-67 is used as a sacrificial template to prepare nano porous carbon (NPC) coated cobalt nanoparticles. The final product Co/NPC composites with complete structure, regular morphology and uniform size were obtained by this method. The conductive network of cobalt and nitrogen doped carbon can shorten the lithium ion transport path and present high conductivity. In addition, amorphous carbon has more pores that can be fully in contact with the electrolyte during charging and discharging. At the same time, it also reduces the volume expansion during the cycle and slows down the rate of capacity attenuation caused by structure collapse. Co/NPC composites first discharge specific capacity up to 3115 mA h/g, under the current density of 200 mA/g, circular 200 reversible capacity as high as 751.1 mA h/g, and the excellent rate and resistance performance. The experimental results show that the Co/NPC composite material improves the electrical conductivity and electrochemical properties of the electrode. The cobalt based ZIF-67 as the precursor has opened the way for the design of highly performance electrodes for energy storage and electrochemical catalysis.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.455-463
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• 2021

In this study, CeO₂ support is synthesized from cerium hydroxy carbonate prepared using precipitation/digestion method using KOH and K₂CO₃ as the precipitants. The Cu was impregnated to CeO₂ support with the different loading (Cu loading=10-40 wt. %). The prepared Cu/CeO₂ catalysts were applied to a single stage water gas shift (WGS) reaction. Among the prepared catalysts, the 20Cu/CeO₂ catalyst contained 20 wt.% of Cu showed the highest CO conversion (Xco=68% at 400℃). This result was mainly due to a large amount of active sites. In addition, the activity of the 20 Cu/CeO₂ catalyst was maintained without being deactivated for 100 hours because of the strong interaction between Cu and CeO₂. Therefore, it was confirmed that 20 Cu/CeO₂ is a suitable catalyst for a single WGS reaction.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.402-407
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• 2022

Statistical design of experiments was used to optimize the MOF-5 synthesis process. A mixture design was employed to optimize precursor concentration. The optimal composition of three chemical materials, terephthalic acid, zinc acetate dihydrate, and N,N-dimethylformamide for MOF-5 synthesis was determined by extreme vertices design methods as follows; 1 mol : 2.7 mol : 40 mol. A multilevel factorial design was selected to screen the significance of synthesis reaction conditions such as temperature, time, and stirring speed. Statistical analysis results suggested excluding stirring speed from further investigation. Using a central composition design, the synthesis time and temperature were optimized. The quadratic model equation was derived from 13 synthesis experiments. The model predicted that MOF-5 synthesized at 119 ℃ for 10.4 h had the highest crystallinity.