• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.401-406
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• 2017

Ammonia, $NH_3$, is a key chemical widely used in chemical industries and a toxic pollutant that impacts human health. Thus, there is a need for the development of effective adsorbents with high uptake capacities to adsorb $NH_3$. An adsorbent with a high surface area and a small pore size is generally preferred in order to have a high capacity for the removal of $NH_3$. The use inorganic nanoporous materials as gas adsorbents has increased substantially and emerged as an alternative to zeolite and activated carbon. Herein, mesoporous alumina (MA) was prepared and used as an $NH_3$ adsorbent. MA showed good pore properties such as a uniform pore size and interlinked pore system, when compared to commercial adsorbents (activated carbon, zeolite, and silica powder). MA has free hydroxyl groups, serving as useful adsorption sites for $NH_3$. In an adsorption isotherm test, MA exhibited 4.7-6.5 times higher uptake capacities for $NH_3$ than commercial adsorbents. Although the larger surface areas of adsorbents are important features of ideal adsorbents, a regular and interlinked adsorbent pore system was found to be a more crucial factor to adsorb $NH_3$.

• Proceedings of the Polymer Society of Korea Conference
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• 2006.10a
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• pp.80-80
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• 2006

As the size scale of features continue to shrink in devices, the use of self-assembly, i.e. a "bottom up" approach, for device fabrication becomes increasingly important. Yet, simple self-assembly alone will not be sufficient to meet the increasing demands place on the registry of structures, particularly nanostructured materials. Several criteria are key in the rapid advancement and technology transfer for self-assembling systems. Specifically, the assembly processes must be compatible with current $^{\circ}{\infty}top\;down^{\circ}{\pm}$ approaches, where standard photolithographic processes are used for device fabrication. Secondly, simple routes must be available to induce long-range order, in either two or three dimensions, in a rapid, robust and reliable manner. Thirdly, the in-plane orientation and, therefore, ordering of the structures, must be susceptible to a biasing by an external, macroscopic means in at least one, if not two directions, so that individual elements can be accessed in a reliable manner. Block copolymers, specifically block copolymers having a cylindrical microdomain morphology, are one such material that satisfy many, if not all, of the criteria that will be necessary for device fabrication. Here, we discuss several routes by which these versatile materials can be used to produce arrays of nanoscopic elements that have high aspect ratios (ideal for templating and scaffolding), that exhibit long-range order, that give access to multiple length scale structuring, and that are amenable to being biased by macroscopic features placed on a surface.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.2333-2337
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• 2007

Nanoporous TiO2 and ZrO2 thin films were spin-coated using a surfactant-templated approach from Pluronic P123 (EO20PO70EO20) as the templating agent, titanium alkoxide (Ti(OC4H9)4) as the inorganic precursor, and butanol as a the solvent. The control of the electronic structure of TiO2 is crucial for its various applications. We found that the band gap of the hybrid nanoporous thin films can be easily tuned by adding an acetylacetonestabilized Zr(OC4H9)4 precursor to the precursor solution of Ti(OC4H9)4. Pores with a diameter of 5 nm-10 nm were randomly dispersed and partially connected to each other inside the films. TiO2 and ZrO2 thin films have an anatase structure and tetragonal structure, respectively, while the TiO2-ZrO2 hybrid film exhibited no crystallinity. The refractive index was significantly changed by varying the atomic ratio of titanium to zirconium. The band gap for the nanoporous TiO2 was estimated to 3.43 eV and that for the TiO2-ZrO2 hybrid film was 3.61 eV.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.16-22
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• 2007

Recently, mesoporous metallic materials are becoming more and more important in various applications like catalysts, electrochemical detectors, batteries, and fuel cells because of their high surface area. Among the various methods for manufacturing mesoporous structure, surfactant templating method followed by electroplating has been tried in this study. A mesoporous metallic film was prepared by electrodeposition from electroplating solution mixed with surfactant template. Nonionic type lyotropic liquid crystalline surfactant, Brij56, and nickel acetate based solution were selected as a template material and electroplating solution, respectively. To determine the content of surfactant forming a hexagonal column structure, the phase diagram of electroplating solution and surfactant mixture has been exploited by polarized optical microscopy equipped with heating and cooling stage. Nickel films were electroplated on Cu foil by stepwise potential input method to alleviate the concentration polarization occurred during the electroplating process. TEM and XRD analyses were performed to characterize the size and shape of mesostructures in manufactured nickel films, and electrochemical characterization was also carried out using cyclic voltammetry.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.527-531
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• 2009

Periodic mesoporous organosilicas (PMO) were synthesized using bis(triethoxy silyl) benzene as the precursor and dodecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (DTMA) as the templating agent. From these results of XRD, TEM, and NMR, the pore structure of the material was confirmed to have a well-organized hexagonal structure. Poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) was penetrated into PMO. From the DSC and XRD experiments, the polymer melting transition of crystalline polyethylene oxide (PEO) decreased then finally disappeared. These results prove that the polymer chains penetrate into the PMO channels, and penetrated polymer chains are constrained inside channels of PMO.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.24-25
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• 2011

Molecular self-assembly has several advantages over other nanofabrication methods. Molecular building blocks ensure ultrafine pattern precision, parallel structure formation allows for mass production and a variety of three-dimensional structures are available for fabricating complex structures. Nevertheless, the molecular interaction for self-assembly generally relies on weak forces such as van der Waals force, hydrogen bonding, or hydrophobic interaction. Due to the weak interaction, the structure formation is usually slow and the degree of ordering is low in a self-assembled structure. To promote self-assembly, directed assembly methods employing prepatterned substrates or external fields have been developed and gathered a great deal of technological attention as a next generation nanofabrication process. In this presentation a variety of directed assembly methods for soft nanomaterials including block copolymers, peptides and carbon nanomaterials will be introduced. Block copolymers are representative self-assembling materials extensively utilized in nanofabrication. In contrast to colloid assembly or anodized metal oxides, various shapes of nanostructures, including lines or interconnected networks, can be generated with a precise tunability over their shape and size. Applying prepatterned substrates$^{1,2}$ or introducing thickness modulation$^3$ to block copolymer thin films allowed for the control over the orientational and positional orderings of self-assembled structures. The nanofabrication processes for metals, semiconductors$^4$, carbon nanotubes$^{5,6}$, and graphene$^{6,7}$ templating block copolymer self-assembly will be presented.

• Carbon letters
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• v.18
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• pp.24-29
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• 2016

High pollutant-loading capacities (up to 319 times its own weight) are achieved by three-dimensional (3D) macroporous, slightly reduced graphene oxide (srGO) sorbents, which are prepared through ice-templating and consecutive thermal reduction. The reduction of the srGO is readily controlled by heating time under a mild condition (at 1 10⁻² Torr and 200℃). The saturated sorption capacity of the hydrophilic srGO sorbent (thermally reduced for 1 h) could not be improved further even though the samples were reduced for 10 h to achieve the hydrophobic surface. The large meso- and macroporosity of the srGO sorbent, which is achieved by removing the residual water and the hydroxyl groups, is crucial for achieving the enhanced capacity. In particular, a systematic study on absorption parameters indicates that the open porosity of the 3D srGO sorbents significantly contributes to the physical loading of oils and organic solvents on the hydrophilic surface. Therefore, this study provides insight into the absorption behavior of highly macroporous graphene-based macrostructures and hence paves the way to development of promising next-generation sorbents for removal of oils and organic solvent pollutants.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.151-156
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• 2015

Herein, novel porous structures were fabricated from monomer solutions of dimethylsiloxane and benzene by directional crystallization in twice. First, a honeycomb-like structure was fabricated by $1^{st}$ directional crystallization of solvent. By infiltration of the solution and subsequent $2^{nd}$ directional crystallization, novel structures of different pores in the honeycomb-like structure were fabricated. The porous materials prepared by the repeated directional crystallization have higher indentation modulus and hardness than those of the samples prepared by single directional crystallization. When a higher solution concentration was used in $2^{nd}$ directional crystallization, the maximum increase (indentation modulus: 2140% increase, indentation hardness: 2330% increase) was obtained. On the other hand, porosity and contact angle were lower in the samples from $2^{nd}$ directional crystallization than those from $1^{st}$ directional crystallization. A large decreases was observed, when a relatively high concentration was used in $2^{nd}$ directional crystallization (porosity: 21% decrease, contact angle: 36% decrease).

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.64.2-64.2
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• 2010

In order to improve the overall power conversion efficiency in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), it is very important to secure the sufficient surface area of photocatalytic nanoparticles layer for absorbing dye molecules. It is because increasing the amount of dye absorbed generally results in increasing the amount of light harvesting. In this work, we proposed a new method for increasing the specific surface area of photocatalytic titanium oxide ($TiO_2$) nanoparticles by using an inorganic templating method. Salt-$TiO_2$ composite nanoparticles were synthesized in this approach by spray pyrolyzing both the titanium butoxide and sodium chloride solution. After aqueous removal of salt from salt-$TiO_2$ composite nanoparticles, mesoporous $TiO_2$ nanoparticles with pore size of 2~50 nm were formed and then the specific surface area of resulting porous $TiO_2$ nanoparticle was measured by Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) method. Generally, commercially available P-25 with the average primary size of ~25 nm $TiO_2$ nanoparticles was used as an active layer for dye-sensitized solarcells, and the specific surface area of P-25 was found to be ~50 $m^2/g$. On the other hand, the specific surface area of mesoporous $TiO_2$ nanoparticles prepared in this approach was found to be ~286 $m^2/g$, which is 5 times higher than that of P-25. The increased specific surface area of $TiO_2$ nanoparticles will absorb relatively more dye molecules, which can increase the short curcuit current (Jsc) in DSSCs. The influence of nanoporous structures of $TiO_2$ on the performance of DSSCs will be discussed in terms of the amount of dye molecules absorbed, the fill factor, the short circuit current, and the power conversion efficiency.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.35 no.12
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• pp.3576-3582
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• 2014

Zeolite-templated carbons (ZTCs), which have high specific surface area, were prepared by a conventional templating method using microporous zeolite-Y for catalyst supports in direct methanol fuel cells. The ZTCs were synthesized at different temperatures to investigate the characteristics of the surface produced and their electrochemical properties. Thereafter, Pt-Ru was deposited at different carbonization temperatures by a chemical reduction method. The crystalline and structural features were investigated using X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The textural properties of the ZTCs were investigated by analyzing $N_2$/77 K adsorption isotherms using the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller equation, while the micro- and meso-pore size distributions were analyzed using the Barrett-Joyner-Halenda and Harvarth-Kawazoe methods, respectively. The surface morphology was characterized using transmission electron microscopy and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. The electrochemical properties of the Pt-Ru/ZTCs catalysts were also analyzed by cyclic voltammetry measurements. From the results, the ZTCs carbonized at $900^{\circ}C$ show the highest specific surface areas. In addition, ZTC900-PR led to uniform dispersion of Pt-Ru on the ZTCs, which enhanced the electro-catalytic activity of the Pt-Ru catalysts. The particle size of ZTC900-PR catalyst is about 3.4 nm, also peak current density from the CV plot is $12.5mA/cm^2$. Therefore, electro-catalytic activity of the ZTC900-PR catalyst is higher than those of ZTC1000-PR catalyst.