• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
• /
• v.35 no.3
• /
• pp.196-202
• /
• 2007

Mutations in the cystathionine ${\beta}$-synthase (CBS) gene cause homocystinuria, the most frequent inherited disorder in sulfur metabolism. CBS is the unique enzyme using both heme and pyridoxal 5-phosphate (PLP) for activity. Among the reported 140 mutations, one of the most common disease-causing alterations in human CBS is G307S mutation. To investigate the pathogenic mechanism of G307S by spectroscopic methods, we engineered the full length and the truncated G247S mutation of yeast CBS that is corresponding mutation to human G307S. Yeast CBS does not contain heme and thus gives a merit to study the spectroscopic properties. The UV-visible spectra of the purified full length and the truncated G247S yeast CBSs showed the total absence of PLP in the protein. The absence of PLP in G247S mutation was also confirmed by the PLP-cyanide adduct formation experiment, which was conducted by the incubation of the purified enzyme with KCN. The adducts were detected using a circular dichroism (CD) and a spectrofluorimeter. Radio isotope activity assay of full length and truncated G247S proteins also gave no activity. Our yeast G247S mutation data suggested that G307S might make the distortion of the active site so that cofactor PLP and substrate can not fit inside the active site. Our yeast CBS study addressed the reason why the G307S mutation in human CBS makes the enzyme inactive that consequently leads to severe clinical phenotype.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
• /
• v.15 no.5
• /
• pp.527-533
• /
• 2006

Spinel $LiNi_xMn_{2-x}O_4$ thin films were synthesized up to x = 0.9 by a sol-gel method employing spin-coating. The Ni-substituted films were found to maintain cubic structure at low x but to exhibit tetragonal structure for $x{\geq}0.6$. Such cubic-tetragonal phase transition indicates that $Ni^{3+}(d7)$ ions with low-spin $(t_{2g}^6,e_g^1)$ state occupy the octahedral sites of the compound, thus being subject to the Jahn-Teller distortion. By x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy both $Ni^{2+}$ and $Ni^{3+}$ ions were detected. Optical properties of the $LiNi_xMn_{2-x}O_4$ films were investigated by spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) in the visible?ultraviolet range. The measured dielectric function spectra by SE mainly consist of broad absorption structures attributed to charge-transfer (CT) transitions, $O^{2-}(2p){\rightarrow}Mn^{4+}(3d)$ for 1.9 $(t_{2g})$ and $2.8{\sim}3.0$ eV $(e_g)$ structures and $O^{2-}(2p){\rightarrow}Mn^{3+}(3d)$ for 2.3 $(t_{2g})$ and $3.4{\sim}3.6$ eV $(e_g)$ structures. Also, sharp absorption structures were observed at about 1.6, 1.7, and 1.9 eV, interpreted as due to d-d crystal-field transitions within the octahedral $Mn^{3+}$ ion. The strengths of these absorption structures are reduced by the Ni substitution. Rapid reduction of the CT transition strength involving the eg states for x = 0.6 is attributed to the reduced wavefunction overlap between the $e_g$ and the $O^{2-}(2p)$ states due to the tetragonal extension of the lattice constant by the Jahn-Teller effect.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.47-50
• /
• 2007

[ $ZnCr_2O_4$ ] shows geometrically frustrated magnet. Recently, $CoCr_2O_4$ has been investigated for multiferroic property and dielectric anomalies by spin-current model. Polycrystalline $CoCr_2O_4$ and $CoCrFeO_4$ compounds was prepared by wet-chemical process. Crystallographic and magnetic properties of $CoCr_2O_4$ and $CoCrFeO_4$ were investigate by using the x-ray diffractometer(XRD), vibrating sample magnetometer(VSM), superconducting quantum interference device magnetometer(SQUID), and $M\"{o}ssbauer$ spectroscopy. The crystal structure was found to be single-phase cubic spinel with space group of Fd3m. The lattice constants of $CoCr_2O_4$ and $CoCrFeO_4$ $a_0$ were determined to be 8.340 and 8.377 ${\AA}$, respectively. The ferrimagnetic transition temperature for the both samples were observed at 97 K and 320 K. The $M\"{o}ssbauer$ absorption spectra at 4.2 K show that the well developed two sextets are superposed with small difference of hyperfine field($H_{hf1}=507\;and\;H_{hf2}=492\;kOe$). Isomer shift values($\delta$) of the two sextets are found to be 0.33 and 0.34 mm/s relative to the Fe metal, respectively, which are consistent with the high spin $Fe^{3+}$ charge state.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.44 no.6
• /
• pp.526-532
• /
• 2000

Cation exchange separation and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometric(ICP-AES) determination of ruthenium in HCl solutions were studied to quantitatively determine ruthenium in spent nuclear fuels. Ruthenium-bearing samples were dissolved with the mixed acid solution(9 : 1 mole ratio, HCl-HNO$_3$) using an acid digestion bomb. Based on the absorption spectra and ion exchange behaviour of ruthenium in hydrochloric acid media, its possible chemical species were discussed. On a cation exchange column (0.7 ${\times}$ 8.0 cm) packed with AG 50W ${\times}$ 8(100~200 mesh) and equilibrated with 0.5 M HCl, ruthenium was eluated with 0.5 M HCl while uranium was retained on the column. The established separation method was applied to a simulated spent nuclear fuel and resulted in the recovery of 98.5% with a relative standard deviation of 0.7%.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.499-503
• /
• 2019

Characteristics of solar cells employing a lattice matched GaInP/GaAs quantum well (QW) structure in a single N-AlGaInP/p-InGaP heterojunction (HJ) were investigated and compared to those of solar cells without QW structure. The epitaxial layers were grown on a p-GaAs substrate with $6^{\circ}$ off the (100) plane toward the <111>A. The heterojunction of solar cell consisted of a 400 nm N-AlGaInP, a 590 nm p-GaInP and 14 periods of a 10 nm GaInP/5 nm GaAs for QW structure and a 800 nm p-GaInP for the HJ structure (control cell). The solar cells were characterized after the anti-reflection coating. The short-circuit current density for $1{\times}1mm^2$ area was $9.61mA/cm^2$ for the solar cell with QW structure while $7.06mA/cm^2$ for HJ control cells. Secondary ion mass spectrometry and external quantum efficiency results suggested that the significant enhancement of $J_{sc}$ and EQE was caused by the suppression of recombination by QW structure.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
• /
• v.14 no.2
• /
• pp.76-82
• /
• 2004

Crystallographic and magnetic properties for Brownmillerite-type oxides $Ca_{1-x}$Sr$_{x}$FeO$_{2.5}$ (x = 0, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, 1.0) were investigated using x-ray diffraction (XRD) and Mossbauer spectroscopy. Polycrystalline samples were prepared by conventional solid-state reaction method. Information on exact crystalline structures, lattice parameters, bond lengths and bond angles were obtained by refining their XRD profiles using a Rietveld method. The crystal structures were found to be all orthorhombic with space group Icmm (x = 0, 0.3) and Icmm (x = 0.5, 0.7, 1.0) The lattice parameters increased monotonically with increasing Sr concentration. Both the tetrahedral and the octahedral sites were considerably distorted and elongated along b-axis. While bond lengths and bond angles O-Fe-O tend to increase minutely with the increase of Sr content, bond angles Fe-O-Fe decreased accordingly. The Mossbauer spectra showed two sets of sharp sextets originating from ferric ions occupying the tetrahedral and the octahedral sites under the magnetic transition temperature T$_{N}$. Regardless of the compositions x, the electric quadrupole splittings were -0.3 mm/s and 0.4 mm/s for the octahedral and the tetrahedral site, respectively. Above T$_{N}$, the Mossbauer spectra showed the paramagnetic doublets whose electric quadrupole splittings were about 1.6 mm/s, irrespective of compositions x. T$_{N}$ was found to decrease monotonically with the increase of Sr concentration. Ratios of absorption area for the two sites were almost 1:1 up to as high as 0.95 T$_{N}$ for all x. The result of the Debye temperature indicated that the inter-atomic binding force for the Fe atoms in the tetrahedral site was stronger than that for the octahedral site.hedral site.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
• /
• v.2 no.3
• /
• pp.270-278
• /
• 1991

Carboxymethyl chitin(CM-chitin) was prepared by the reaction of alkali chitin with monochloroacetic acid in isopropyl alcohol. According to the pH variation, the adsorptivity of this chelating polymer to the alkali-earth metal ions such as $Ca^{2+},\;Mg^{2+}$, $Sr^{2+}$, $Ba^{2+}$ ions was determined by batch method. The adsorption tendency of this chelating polymer to most metal ions was increased with the increase of pH. The highest degree of adsorption was observed toward $Ca^{2+}$ ion among the alkali-earth metal ions. The selectivity adsorption property toward $Ca^{2+}$ ion was examined in the solution of $Ca^{2+}$ and $Mg^{2+}$ ions, and it was observed that CM-chitin showed excellent selectivity to $Ca^{2+}$ ion than $Mg^{2+}$ ion. $Mg^{2+}$ ion bound to CM-chitin molecule in the presence of $Ca^{2+}$ ion owing to low equilibrium constant. In the adsorption experiment of $Ca^{2+}$ and $Mg^{2+}$ ions to the CM-chitin under coexistence of $Na^+$ and $K^+$ ions, it observed that adsorptivity of only $Ca^{2+}$ ions was not affected by these monovalent cations.

• Journal of Korean Ophthalmic Optics Society
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.71-76
• /
• 2008

Purpose: A simple and efficient method to prepare nanocrystalline ZnO thin film with pure strong UV emission on soda-lime-silica glass substrates by low-temperature annealing was improved. Methods: Crystal structural, surface morphological, and optical characteristics of nanocrystalline ZnO thin films deposited on soda-lime-silica glass substrates by prefiring final annealing process at 300$^{\circ}C$ were investigated by using X-ray diffraction analysis, field emission-scanning electron microscope, scanning probe microscope, ultraviolet-visible-near infrared spectrophotometer, and photoluminescence. Results: Highly c-axis-oriented ZnO films were obtained by prefiring at 300$^{\circ}C$. A high transmittance in the visible spectra range and clear absorption edge in the ultra violet range of the film was observed. The PL spectrum of ZnO thin film with a deep near band edge emission was observed while the defect-related broad green emission was nearly quenched. Conclusions: Our work will be possibly adopted to cheaply and easily fabricate ZnO-based optoelectronic devices at low temperature, below 300$^{\circ}C$, in the future.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.19 no.6
• /
• pp.646-651
• /
• 2018

This paper reports that the electronic properties at a $P3HT/TiO_2$ interface associated with exciton dissociation and transport can be tailored by the insertion of a graphene quantum dot (GQD) layer. For donor/acceptor interface modification in an $ITO/TiO_2/P3HT/Al$ photovoltaic (PV) device, a continuous GQD film was prepared by a sonication treatment in solution that simplifies the conventional processes, including laser fragmentation and hydrothermal treatment, which limits a variety of component layers and involves low cost processing. The high conductivity and favorable energy alignment for exciton dissociation of the GQD layer increased the fill factor and short circuit current. The origin of the improved parameters is discussed in terms of the broad light absorption and enhanced interfacial carrier transport.

• Clean Technology
• /
• v.27 no.2
• /
• pp.146-151
• /
• 2021

Pure and Sm ion doped BiVO₄ catalysts were synthesized using a conventional hydrothermal method and characterized by XRD, DRS, SEM, and PL. We also examined the activity of these materials on the photocatalytic decomposition of rhodamine B under visible light irradiation. The doping of Sm ion into BiVO₄ catalyst changed the ms-BiVO₄ crystal structure into the tz-BiVO₄ crystal structure in the low synthesis temperature. Light absorption analysis using DRS showed that all the catalysts displayed strong absorption in the visible range of the electromagnetic spectrum regardless of Sm ion doping. In addition, an amorphous morphology was shown in the pure BiVO₄ catalyst, but the morphology of the BiVO₄ catalyst doped with Sm ion was changed into an ellipse shape and also the particle size decreased. In the photocatalytic decomposition of rhodamine B, Sm ion doped BiVO₄ catalyst showed higher photocatalytic activity than the pure BiVO₄ catalyst. In addition, the Sm3-BVO catalyst doped with 3% Sm ion showed the highest photocatalytic activity, as well as the highest formation rate of OH radicals (•OH) and the highest PL peak. This result suggests that the formation rate of OH radicals produced in the interface between the photocatalyst and water is well correlated with the photocatalytic activity.