• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.627-632
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• 2016

Ethyl methacrylate (EMA) monomer coupling onto the polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) film surface was attempted to enhance the interfacial adhesive force between PVDF-polyvinyl chloride (PVC) bilayer films via dielectric barrier corona discharge. The interfacial forces were quite enhanced when PVDF films were treated by corona discharge in an EMA 1% atmosphere. The contact angle of PVDF films decreased due to corona treatment. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis showed that the carbon and oxygen content of the PVDF film surface increased with corona discharge while the fluoride content decreased. The curve fitting of XPS $C_{1s}$ peaks revealed that the non-polar C-C bonded carbon and oxygen-bonded carbon increased gradually with corona treatment, while the fluorine-bonded carbon decreased.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.659-663
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• 2016

The efficiency of a heterogeneous ruthenium zirconia catalyst ($Ru(OH)_x/ZrO_2$) was demonstrated to the selective oxidative transformation of alkenes or alkynes. The scissions of C-C double bonds to aldehydes and triple bonds to diketones or carboxylic acids were carried out with (diacetoxyiodo)benzene as an oxidant under dichloromethane (5 mL)/water (0.5 mL) solvent system at $30^{\circ}C$ for wide range of substrates. The $Ru(OH)_x/ZrO_2$composite showed higher catalytic activity and selectivity than other ruthenium-based homogeneous or heterogeneous catalysts for the scission reaction. The catalyst exhibited a high mechanical stability, and no leaching of the metal was observed during the reaction. These features ensured the reusability of the catalyst for several times for the oxidative cleavage of unsaturated hydrocarbons.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.590-598
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• 2016

In this study, the adsorption behavior from aqueous solution as well as kinetic and thermodynamic parameters of Acid Black 1 were investigated through batch reaction using coconut shell based granular steam activated carbon. The effects of various adsorption parameters such as pH, initial concentration, contact time, temperature were studied. To confirm the effect of pH, pHpzc measurements were analyzed followed by measuring removal efficiencies of Acid Black 1 at the pH range from 3 to 11. Experimental equilibrium adsorption data were fitted using Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin and Dubinin-Radushkevich adsorption isotherm. The conformity of adsorption reaction for pseudo first and second order model were evaluated through kinetic analysis. Values of enthalpy change and activation energy were also investigated through thermodynamic analysis and it was confirmed that the adsorption process was endothermic. The spontaneity of adsorption process was evaluated using the values of entropy and Gibbs free energy changes.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.573-576
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• 2016

In this study, hydrogenation of 1,2,3,3,3-pentafluoropropene was performed to produce R-1234yf as an environmentally friendly refrigerant. Palladium based carbon was prepared as a catalyst in the hydrogenation reaction. The effect of reaction conditions including the weight hourly space velocity (WHSV), reaction temperature and ratio of hydrogen and reactants on the catalytic performance was investigated. Under the identical reaction conditions, the effect of WHSV on the main product selectivity was insignificant, but a high reaction temperature was essential for the good product selectivity. A high product selectivity was also obtained when the ratio of hydrogen and reactants kept less than 1.5. Moreover, a correlation model involving the statistical approach to predict product yields was developed.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.577-582
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• 2016

In this study, we compared and analyzed the flame retardancy and mechanical properties of three different rigid polyurethane foams (RPUF) containing noble non-halogen phosphorus flame retardant (BHP-RPUF) or halogen-phosphorus flame retardant (TCPP-RPUF) or no flame retardant material (Pure-RPUF). The noble phosphorus-based flame retardant, bis(3-(3-hydroxypropoxy)propyl) phenyl phosphate (BHP), was synthesized by the reaction between disodium phenyl phosphate and 3-chloro-1-propanol. Through universal testing machine (UTM) experiments, the compressive strength of BHP-RPUF was similar to that of TCPP-RPUF. From the result of foam morphology analysis, it was confirmed that BHP-RPUF has the lowest thermal conductivity of $0.023W/m{\cdot}K$. We also measured the size of air bubbles using reaction velocity and SEM, and analyzed how they affect the thermal conductivity. In addition, the heat-resisting property was investigated through TGA analysis. The limited oxygen index (LOI) test confirmed that BHP had the ability to increase the flame retardancy of RPUF.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.606-611
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• 2016

In this work, the treatment of heavy metals and phenol in the contaminated soil was investigated by applying direct current (DC) and pulse voltage. When the DC was used, the removal efficiencies for Cu, Zn, As, and Pb were 73, 88, 10, and 10%, respectively, and more than 95% for phenol was removed. Furthermore, when a pulse voltage was employed the removal efficiencies for Cu, Zn, As, and Pb were 88, 92, 40, and 40%, respectively, and 87% of phenol was removed. The results indicate that the application of a pulse voltage for the treatment of contaminated soil reduced electro-osmosis, but increased the rate of electric current movement of heavy metals. In addition, the removal efficiencies for As and Pb have been improved due to the enhanced adsorption capacity of clay components in the soil. Therefore, these experimental results could be effectively applied in remediation technology for the treatment of various heavy metals and phenol.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.555-564
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• 2016

In recent years, methanol has attracted much attention since it can be cleanly manufactured by the combined use of atmospheric $CO_2$ recycling and water splitting via renewable energy. For the concept of "methanol economy", an active methanol synthesis catalyst should be prepared in a sophisticated manner rather than by empirical optimization approach. Even though Cu/ZnO-based catalysts prepared by coprecipitation are well known and have been extensively investigated even for a century, fundamental understanding on the precipitation chemistry and catalyst nanostructure has recently been achieved due to complexity of the necessary preparation steps such as precipitation, ageing, filtering, washing, drying, calcination and reduction. Herein we review the recent reports regarding the effects of various synthesis variables in each step on the physicochemical properties of materials in precursor, calcined and reduced states. The relationship between these characteristics and the catalytic performance will also be discussed because many variables in each step strongly influence the final catalytic activity, called "chemical memory". All discussion focuses on how to prepare a highly active Cu/ZnO-based catalyst for methanol synthesis. Furthermore, the preparation strategy we deliver here would be utilized for designing other coprecipitation-derived supported metal or metal oxide catalysts.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.664-668
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• 2016

The contamination in soil, underground water and river environment became serious due to illegal waste dumping. In this study, our research group analyzed the oil species of illegally disposed oils from J City. After pretreating the mixture of oil, water and solid phases to obtain homogeneous phase components, the physical property analysis, atom analysis, and gas chromatography were performed. From the results showing 11.8% of oxygen content, $-6^{\circ}C$ of pour point and chromatogram pattern. the contaminated oil was identified as a vegetable one. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis was also performed in order to know what kind of vegetable oil was, and the ratio of LLO, OOL and POL was found to be high indicating that the disposed oil is majorly the used soybean oil with some vegetable oil mixtures. This study can be used for identifying contaminators for oils from the illegal waste dumping.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.483-489
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• 2016

Here, we examined the photo-degradation efficiency of $Cu_2Se$-graphene nanocomposites synthesized by a facile and fast microwave-assisted technique. The prepared composites were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Raman spectroscopy, XPS and UV-Vis spectrophotometry. The photocatalytic performance was studied through the decomposition of Rhodamine (Rh B) as a standard dye under visible light radiation. A 95% of Rh B degradation after visible light irradiation for 180 min indicates that the $Cu_2Se$-graphene composite exhibited significant photodegradation efficiency. Therefore, it can be concluded that the synthesized $Cu_2Se$-graphene can be used as a suitable catalyst for decomposing dye pollutants.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.490-494
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• 2016

This paper describes the very efficient and highly enantioselective ring opening of terminal epoxides with alkyl and arene sulfonic acid. The dinuclear chiral (salen) Co complexes bearing Lewis acids of Al, Ga and In catalyze the reaction enantioselectively in the presence of tetrabutylammonium chloride using tert-butyl methyl ether as a solvent. The variation of the anion of the tetra butyl ammonium salt has significant impact on the reactivity and selectivity of the asymmetric ring opening of phenyl glycidyl ether with p-toluenesulfonic acid. The order of reactivity and selectivity was found to be $Cl^-$ > $l^-$ > $Br^-$ > $OH^-$. Strong synergistic effects of the different Lewis acid centers of Co-Al, Co-Ga and Co-In complexes were observed in the catalytic process. The dinuclear chiral salen catalyst containing $AlCl_3$ was found to be most active and highly enantioselective (91% ee).