• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.3
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• pp.538-543
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• 2020

Boric acid is used as a coolant for pressurized-water reactors, and the degree of burnup is controlled by the concentration of boric acid. Therefore, accurate measurement of the concentration of boric acid is an important factor in reactor safety. An improved system was proposed for the accurate determination of boron concentration. A new boron-concentration measurement technique, called multisensitive detection, was developed to improve the measurement accuracy of boron meters. In previous studies, laboratory-scale experiments were performed based on different sensitivity detectors, confirming a 65% better accuracy than conventional single-detector boron meters. Based on these experimental results, an experimental system simulating the coolant-circulation environment in the reactor was constructed; accuracy analysis of the boron meter with a multisensitivity detector was performed at the actual coolant pressure and temperature. In this study, the boron concentration conversion equation was derived from the calibration test, and the accuracy of the boron concentration conversion equation was examined through a repeatability test. Through the experiment, it was confirmed that the accuracy was up to 87.5% higher than the conventional single-detector boron meter.

• Carbon letters
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.127-132
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• 2004

Chop molding composites and 2D carbon/carbon composites were manufactured by hot press molding method. Phenol resin of novolac type was used for matrix precursor and PAN-based carbon, PAN-based graphite and pitch-based carbon fiber were used for reinforcement and boron oxide was used for oxidation retardant. All of the composites were treated by $2000^{\circ}C$ and $2400^{\circ}C$ graphitization process, respectively. After graphitization process, amount of a boron residue in carbon/carbon composites is much according to irregularity of used raw materials. Under the presence of boron in carbon/carbon composites, catalytic effect of boron was a little at $2000^{\circ}C$ graphitization temperature. However, it was quite at $2400^{\circ}C$ graphitization.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.432.2-432.2
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• 2016

A new A-D-A type (Acceptor-Donor-Acceptor) conjugated based on pyridine-borane complex (Donor), non-boron fluorine (Donor) and 2,5-bis(alkyl)-3,6-di(thiophen-2-yl)pyrrolo[3,4-c]pyrrole-1,4(2H,5H)-dione (DPP) (Acceptor) were designed and synthesized via Pd-catalyzed Suzuki cross-coupling reaction. The synthesized boron based complex exhibited high electron affinity, which indicates deep HOMO energy levels and good visible absorption led to their use as donors in BHJ (bulk heterojunction) solar cells. Inverted devices were fabricated, reaching open-circuit voltage as high as 0.91eV. To probe structure-property relationship and search for design principle, we have synthesized pyridine-boron based electron donating small molecules. In this study, we report a new synthetic approach, molecular structure, charge carrier mobility and morphology of blended film and their correlation with the photovoltaic J-V characteristics in details.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.5 no.6
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• pp.227-232
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• 2004

We investigated a nonvolatile nanomemory element based on boron nitride nanopeapods using molecular dynamics simulations. The studied system was composed of two boron-nitride nanotubes filled Cu electrodes and fully ionized endo-fullerenes. The two boron-nitride nanotubes were placed face to face and the endo-fullerenes came and went between the two boron-nitride nanotubes under alternatively applied force fields. Since the endo-fullerenes encapsulated in the boron-nitride nanotubes hardly escape from the boron-nitride nanotubes, the studied system can be considered to be a nonvolatile memory device. The minimum potential energies of the memory element were found near the fullerenes attached copper electrodes and the activation energy barrier was $3{\cdot}579 eV$. Several switching processes were investigated for external force fields using molecular dynamics simulations. The bit flips were achieved from the external force field of above $3.579 eV/{\AA}$.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.318-329
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• 2016

Reducing critical boron concentration in a commercial pressurized water reactor core offers many advantages in view of safety and economics. This paper presents a preliminary investigation of a reduced-boron pressurized water reactor core to achieve a clearly negative moderator temperature coefficient at hot zero power using the newly-proposed "Burnable absorber-Integrated Guide Thimble" (BigT) absorbers. The reference core is based on a commercial OPR1000 equilibrium configuration. The reduced-boron ORP1000 configuration was determined by simply replacing commercial gadolinia-based burnable absorbers with the optimized BigT-loaded design. The equilibrium cores in this study were directly searched via repetitive Monte Carlo depletion calculations until convergence. The results demonstrate that, with the same fuel management scheme as in the reference core, application of the BigT absorbers can effectively reduce the critical boron concentration at the beginning of cycle by about 65 ppm. More crucially, the analyses indicate promising potential of the reduced-boron OPR1000 core with the BigT absorbers, as its moderator temperature coefficient at the beginning of cycle is clearly more negative and all other vital neutronic parameters are within practical safety limits. All simulations were completed using the Monte Carlo Serpent code with the ENDF/B-VII.0 library.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.6
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• pp.2321-2328
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• 2022

The passive safety system is adopted in an AP1000 nuclear power unit to improve the operation safety of the whole unit. However, due to boron diffusion and periodic sampling, boron dilution occurs in the core makeup tank. The boron replenishment process in the core makeup tank is essential and becomes particularly important. Based on the validated models, this article numerically investigates the influence of the replenishment flow rate and the position on the boron distribution in the core makeup tank. The thermal fatigue phenomenon of the "T" connection caused by replenishment is analyzed. Finally, the replenishment strategy is proposed to benefit both boron mixing in the core makeup tank and eliminating the thermal fatigue of the "T" connection.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.248-255
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• 2012

Three levels of boron (0, 30, 60 ppm) were supplemented in practical corn-soybean based starter and grower diets, containing either adequate or inadequate Ca or P. A total of 1,800, 1-day-old sexed broiler chicks were assigned to six dietary treatments and fed with the experimental diets for 42 days. Boron improved the overall feed conversion ratio, but increased body weight only at 21 days of age (p<0.01). Boron decreased feed intake in the case of feeding on a diet deficient in Ca and P, and tended to increase feed intake when birds received a diet adequate in Ca and P, signifying significant boron by Ca-P interaction (p<0.01). Mortality was not influenced by boron (p>0.05). Dietary Ca and P deprivation reduced body weight and feed consumption significantly, but did not influence the feed conversion ratio and mortality (p>0.05). Serum Ca level, ALP and ALT activities were not influenced either by dietary Ca and P deficiency or boron supplementation. Serum P content increased with respect to boron at 30 ppm. Bone breakage strength was not affected by dietary variables. Tibia ash, Ca and P were increased in response to the supplementation diet with 30 ppm boron, whereas 60 ppm showed no effect in most cases. Accordingly, the dietary boron supplementation of 30 ppm significantly decreased fecal Ca and P excretion, while there was a numerical decline in the 60 ppm boron as compared to the 0 ppm boron group. Data presented herein indicated that boron, either at the 30 ppm or 60 ppm supplementation level, was effective in conversion of feed to body weight, whereas only boron at 30 ppm contributed to the mineralization of bone thereby augmenting more Ca and P while excreting less through faeces.

• Journal of the Korea Concrete Institute
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.85-92
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• 2017

This study examines the characteristics of mortar mixed with various boron compounds. The adapted boron compounds, classified into acid, slightly alkaline and strongly alkaline with respect to the value of the pH are acid-based boron (AA), low-alkaline-based boron (AB), and high-alkaline-based boron (HB). The pH test, setting test and compressive strength test are performed to evaluate the physical and chemical properties of mortar, and SEM imaging is conducted to analyze the microstructure of mortar. The measured pH shows that the specimens mixed with boron compounds have lower pH than the basic mortar without boron and that loss of pH occurs according to time. The setting test reveals that the initial and final setting times of the specimens mixed with boron compounds occur later than the basic mortar, which disagrees slightly with the previous literature stating that the setting time can be shortened according to the alkalinity. From the compressive strength test and SEM imaging results, it is recommended to determine the optimal content of boron considering type and composition of the boron compounds.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.25 no.9
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• pp.497-502
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• 2015

The hardenability of boron steel specimens with different molybdenum and chromium contents was investigated using dilatometry and microstructural observations, and then was quantitatively measured at a critical cooling rate corresponding to 90 % martensite hardness obtained from a hardness distribution plotted as a function of cooling rate. Based on the results, the effect of an austenitizing temperature on the hardenability and tensile properties was discussed in terms of segregation and precipitation behavior of boron atoms at austenite grain boundaries. The molybdenum addition completely suppressed the formation of pro-eutectoid ferrite even at the slowest cooling rate of $0.2^{\circ}C/s$, while the chromium addition did at the cooling rates above $3^{\circ}C/s$. On the other hand, the hardenability of the molybdenum-added boron steel specimens decreased with an increasing austenitizing temperature. This is associated with the preferred precipitation of boron atoms since a considerable number of boron atoms could be concentrated along austenite grain boundaries by a non-equilibrium segregation mechanism. The secondary ion mass spectroscopy results showed that boron atoms were mostly segregated at austenite grain boundaries without noticeable precipitation at higher austenitization temperatures, while they formed as precipitates at lower austenitization temperatures, particularly in the molybdenum-added boron steel specimens.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.813-817
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• 1987

High value sheet resistance (Rs' 1K-33K\ulcorner/) polysilicon resistors were fabricated using double ion implantation with boron as the major dopant and phosphorus compensation. It is observed that Rs sensitivity to the net doping concentration is decreased by one order of magnitude compared to the conventional (boron implanted)polysilicon resistors. The temperature co-efficient of resistance (TCR) measured between 25\ulcorner and 125\ulcorner shows equivalent values to those of non-compensated resistors for the same Rs. A qualitative electrical conductiion mechanism for compensated polysilicon resistor is proposed, based on the existing grain boundary charge trapping theory.