• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.16-22
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• 2010

Heavy metals in soils exist in various forms dependent upon surrounding conditions. As the Janghang smelter area is of concern for its high elevated heavy metal concentrations, Korean government decided to remediate the area. Main objectives of this research were; to analyze heavy metal concentrations and their existing forms in the vicinity of the smelter; and to understand differences made by analysis techniques of heavy metals. Top soils of rice field, crop field, bare field, and forestry in the area were sampled and analyzed for their physicochemical characteristics. Concentrations of Cu, Cd, Pb, and As were analyzed with two pretreatment techniques adopted using 0.1 N HCl and aqua regia. To analyze existing forms of heavy metals, Tessier's schemes for sequential extraction technique were adopted. Exchangeable fraction and carbonate bound fraction of heavy metals may pose potential threat to environment and were in the order of Pb > As > Cu > Cd. If assessing mobile fraction of heavy metals by land uses, the order was forestry > bare land > crop field > rice field. When analyzed using Tessier's scheme, high ratio of residual fractions to total arsenic concentration should be considered for remediation design of the area.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.31 no.12
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• pp.1171-1176
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• 2014

Oil retention experiments were conducted and the performance was characterized for electrochemically etched stainless steels. The 304 stainless steels were electrochemically etched in dilute Aqua Regia to form porous structures. The structures were also hierarchical, which provides very large area for oils to adhere. Also the structures had deep valleys, which act as reservoir and are able to resist against oil-detaching forces. Several commercial oils were dispensed to characterize oil retention properties via rotating disk experiment method. The results showed that the etched surfaces have superior oil retention performance in every conditions. Also the retention enhancement ratio went particularly higher as the environments became more severe. This surface modification technique could be applied to other steel products for pretreatments of various kinds of coatings.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.395-399
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• 2017

The thermal properties and crystallization behavior of calcium phosphate glass fabricated using eggshell were examined. Nature eggshell has several impurities in the main component of $CaCO_3$. To manufacture calcium phosphate glass, washed eggshell was dissolved in aqua-regia while adding a solution of isopropyl alcohol, D. I. water and phosphoric acid. The calcined precursor was melted at $1000^{\circ}C$, and the glass ($T_g$ : $540^{\circ}C$) was crystallized at $620{\sim}640^{\circ}C$, which temperature range is relatively low compared to the crystallization temperature of other general types of calcium phosphate glass. The calcium phosphate glass using eggshell was successfully crystallized without any additional nucleating agents due to the multiple effects of impurities such as $Fe_2O_3$, $Al_2O_3$, SrO and $SiO_2$ in the eggshell. The main crystalline phase was ${\beta}-Ca(PO_3)_2$ and a biocompatible material, hydroxyapatite, was also observed. The crystallization process was completed under the condition of a holding time of only 1 h at the low temperature.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.21-33
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• 2004

The objective of this study is to review of environmental assessment of heavy metals derived from various metalliferous mines in Korea. As a results of national wide research for heavy metal contaminations in the vicinity of metalleferous mines, the main contaminants are mine waste materials including tailings. From the materials, toxic elements including As, Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn can be dispersed into downstream through wind and water. Thus, soils around the mines contain elevated levels of those elements, which are over the guide values for environmental regulation of soils in Korea. Arsenic is one of the most important elements contaminated by mining activities, to a less extent, Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn. In spite of remediation works for some metal mines by the government, there are still lots of abandoned mines which are necessary for reclamation of mining sites. This study also includes that metal concentrations in soils and tailings can be varied upon various decomposition methods including 0.1N HC1 and aqua regia and sequential extraction scheme, with differences in each element, too. This may be due to geochemical characteristics of the elements, such as solubility, mobility and chemical forms in the geochemical environment. Finally, it is suggested that a certain organization should be runned by Korean government for management of abandoned mines.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.23-30
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• 2011

Risk based pollution level of Pb and Cd in metal contaminated soils depending on physicochemical properties of soil in a target site was assessed using biotic ligand model. Heavy metal activity in soil solution defined as exposure activity (EA) was assumed to be toxic to Vibrio fischeri and soil organisms. Predicted effective activity (PEA) determined by biotic ligand model was compared to EA value to calculate risk quotient. Field contaminated soils (n = 10) were collected from a formes area and their risk based pollution levels were assessed in the present study using the calculated risk quotient. Concentrations of Pb determined by aqua regia were 295, 258, and 268 mg/kg in B, H and J points and concentrations of Cd were 4.73 and 6.36 mg/kg in G and I points, respectively. These points exceeded the current soil conservation standards. However, risk based pollution levels of the ten points were not able to be calculated because concentrations of Pb and Cd in soil solution were smaller than detection limits or one (i.e., non toxic). It was because heavy metal activity in soil solution was dominant toxicological form to organisms, not a total heavy metal concentration in soil. In addition, heavy metal toxicity was decreased by competition effect of major cations and formation of complex with dissolved organic carbon in soil solution. Therefore, it is essential to consider site-specific factors affecting bioavailability and toxicity for estimating reliable risk of Pb and Cd.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.48-59
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• 2018

Beryllium (Be), cobalt (Co), thallium (Tl) and vanadium (V) are candidates of 21 priority soil pollutants in Korea. The distribution of their concentration in soils from three contamination sources including industrial, roadside and mining areas was investigated. Concentrations of the metals were evaluated quantitatively using pollution indices and the fractionation of metals was conducted using modified SM&T (Standards Measurements and Testing programme) sequential extraction. Concentrations of the metals for all samples from industrial and roadside soils were within the range of natural background levels, while some of Be in soils from abandoned mines exceeded that the range. Enrichment Factor (EF) and Nemerow Integrated Pollution Index (NIPI) for Be, Co, Tl and V showed that there are effects or possibilities of anthropogenic activities. Pollution Load Index (PLI) analyses indicated all investigated sites needed further monitoring. The results of sequential extractions indicated mobile fractions (F1+F2) of Be, Tl and V were below 30% except some of Co in soil, which implies their low mobility to neighboring environment media. Variable tools like sequential extraction, comparison with background/actual concentration and pollution indices, as well as aqua regia extraction should be considered when evaluating Be, Co, Tl, V in soil.

• Proceedings of the KSR Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.1236-1241
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• 2007

The feasibility of soil washing was investigated in the laboratory to treat heavy metals-contaminated railway soil. Various organic acids including ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA) and citric acid as well as inorganic acids such as hydrochloric acid (HCl) and phosphoric acid were tested to evaluate washing efficiency. Generally, inorganic acid showed higher removal efficiency compared to organic acids. Specially, EDTA, which are well known as most effective washing agent to remove heavy metals from soil, was not efficient to remove heavy metals in this study. Among washing agents tested in this study, HCl was most effective. The removal of Cd, Cu, and Pb was high, however, that for Zn and Ni was less than 30% with 0.5 M HCl. This difference comes from analytical methods (Korean Standard Test Method for Soil). Aqua regia was used to extract Zn and Ni, however 0.1 N HCl was used for other metals. As a result, simple washing technology is not effective, to treat railway contaminated soil with heavy metals.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.524-530
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• 2016

Agricultural soils near or around industrial complexes can contain a certain amount of heavy metals that readily enter the food chain and negatively affect human health. Therefore, we conducted the study to investigate the distribution of selected heavy metals, including arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), and zinc (Zn), in farm-land soils around fifteen industrial complexes in the southwestern provinces, Korea. The concentrations of heavy metals in the soil samples were determined by the pseudo-total aqua regia (3 HCl : $1HNO_3$) digestion procedure. The heavy metal concentrations in most soils examined did not exceed the levels of Soil Contamination Warning Standard (SCWS) for agricultural lands (Region 1) presented in Soil Environment Conservation Law (SECL) established by Ministry of Environment (MOE), Korea. However, only one sampling site showed higher As amount ($27.1mg\;kg^{-1}$) than the SCWS level of As ($25mg\;kg^{-1}$). Pollution index (PI) for heavy metals did not exceed 1.0. The PI values were significantly positively correlated (p < 0.01) with the heavy metal concentrations. In particular, the values of correlation coefficient between the Cd and Pb concentrations and the PI values were higher than those estimated from other combinations, and thus the amounts of Cd and Pb in the agricultural soils highly affected the PI values for the heavy metals.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.191-197
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• 1971

Ruthenium content in highly purified palladium metal (99.9%) was determined by counting $^{105}Rh$ nuclide which was produced by $^{104}Ru(n,{\gamma};{\beta}^-)^{105}Rh$ nuclear reaction. Palladium sample and ruthenium standard were irradiated by neutron with the Pneumatic Transfer System of TRIGA MARK II reactor. Palladium and ruthenium were dissolved by treating with aqua-regia and by fusing with sodium peroxide flux respectively. $^{105}Rh$ was separated through anion and cation exchange resin columns. The ruthenium content was determined by comparing the $^{105}Rh$ activities, obtained from the palladium sample, with that from pure ruthenium standard. The detection limit of ruthenium by the present method is about 1 ppm of ruthenium in 10 mg of palladium, which is approximately 40 times more sensitive than that of the conventional radioactivation method which employs $^{102}Ru(n,{\gamma})^{103}Ru$ nuclear reaction.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.90-94
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• 2015

We prepared 8 samples of non-silver and silver-added master alloys containing silicon to confirm the existence of nickel-silicides. We then prepared products made of 14K and 18K white gold by using the prepared master alloys containing 0.25, 0.35, and 0.50 wt% silicon to check for nickel release. We then employed the EN 1811 testing standard to investigate the nickel release of the white gold products, and we also confirmed the color of the white gold products with an UV-VIS-NIR-color meter. We observed $NiSi_x$ residue in all master alloys containing more than 0.50 wt% Si with EDS-nitric acid etching. For the white gold products, we could not confirm the existence of $NiSi_x$ through XRD after aqua-regia etching. In the EN 1811 test, only the white gold products with 0.25 wt% silicon master alloys successfully passed the nickel release regulations. Moreover, we confirmed that our white gold products showed excellent Lab indices as compared to those of commercial white gold ones, and the silver-added master alloys offered a larger L index. Our results indicate that employing 0.25 wt% silicon master alloys might be suitable for white gold products without nickel-silicide defects and nickel release problems.