• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.1417-1427
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• 2019

In this study, we evaluated the performance of a commercial pixelated cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) detector for spectroscopy and identified its feasibility as a Compton camera for radiation monitoring in a nuclear power plant. The detection system consisted of a $20mm{\times}20mm{\times}5mm$ CZT crystal with $8{\times}8$ pixelated anodes and a common cathode, in addition to an application specific integrated circuit. The performance of the various radioisotopes $^{57}Co$, $^{133}Ba$, $^{22}Na$, and $^{137}Cs$ was evaluated. In general, the amplitude of the induced signal in a CZT crystal depends on the interaction position and material non-uniformity. To minimize this dependency, a drift time correction was applied. The depth of each interaction was calculated by the drift time and the positional dependency of the signal amplitude was corrected based on the depth information. After the correction, the Compton regions of each spectrum were reduced, and energy resolutions of 122 keV, 356 keV, 511 keV, and 662 keV peaks were improved from 13.59%, 9.56%, 6.08%, and 5%-4.61%, 2.94%, 2.08%, and 2.2%, respectively. For the Compton imaging, simulations and experiments using one $^{137}Cs$ source with various angular positions and two $^{137}Cs$ sources were performed. Individual and multiple sources of $^{133}Ba$, $^{22}Na$, and $^{137}Cs$ were also measured. The images were successfully reconstructed by weighted list-mode maximum likelihood expectation maximization method. The angular resolutions and intrinsic efficiency of the $^{137}Cs$ experiments were approximately $7^{\circ}-9^{\circ}$ and $5{\times}10^{-4}-7{\times}10^{-4}$, respectively. The distortions of the source distribution were proportional to the offset angle.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.3-14
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• 2019

Copper is used in many electronic components and construction parts due to its excellent electrical conductivity and heat transfer characteristics, and also used for pre-plating for double layer coating such as nickel, so that copper is an essential material in modern industry. Despite the expected increase of usage and importance on wiring, sensors and data equipment in the next generation industries, it is hard for securing stable copper supply and resource management resulting from the copper prices are fluctuating owing to the economic crisis in Europe, the low economic growth trend in China, and President Trump's commitment to public industrial facilities investment in U.S.. Since most of the domestic copper consumption is used by electrolytic copper cathode, we studied not only copper recycling technology which is being commercialized but also current research trend under the research stage. This study aims to examine the characteristics of each process and the areas where future recycling technology development is required.

• Journal of the Korean Physical Society
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• v.73 no.12
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• pp.1863-1866
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• 2018

The sodium-iron phosphate maricite-$NaFe_{0.9}Mn_{0.1}PO_4$ was synthesized using the ball mill method. The crystal structure and magnetic properties of the prepared materials were studied using X-ray diffraction (XRD), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), and $M{\ddot{o}}ssbauer$ spectroscopy. Structural refinement of maricite-$NaFe_{0.9}Mn_{0.1}PO_4$ was analyzed using the FullProf program. From the XRD patterns, the crystal structure of maricite-$NaFe_{0.9}Mn_{0.1}PO_4$ was found to be orthorhombic with the space group Pmnb. The lattice parameters of maricite-$NaFe_{0.9}Mn_{0.1}PO_4$ are as follows: $a_0=6.866{\AA}$, $b_0=8.988{\AA}$, $c_0=5.047{\AA}$, and $V=311.544{\AA}^3$. Maricite-$NaFePO_4$ has an edge-sharing structure that consists of $FeO_6$ octahedral. Under an applied field of 100 Oe, the temperature dependences of zero-field-cooled (ZFC) and field-cooled (FC) curves were measured from 4.2 to 295 K. $M{\ddot{o}}ssbauer$ spectra were also recorded at various temperatures ranging from 4.2 to 295 K. We thus confirmed that the $N{\acute{e}}el$ temperature of $NaFe_{0.9}Mn_{0.1}PO_4$ ($T_N=14K$) was lower than that of maricite-$NaFePO_4$ ($T_N=15K$).

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.174-179
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• 2011

We investigated the surface morphology changes of a lithium/sulfur battery using multi-walled canbon nanotube added sulfur electrode during charge-discharge cycling. The Li/S cell showed the first discharge capacity of 1286 mAh/g-S, which utilized is 71% of the theoretical value. It decreased to 328 mAh/g-S at the 100th cycle, which corresponds to about 19% utilization of the total sulfur in the cathode. The spherical lumps of the reaction product were observed on the surface of the sulfur electrode. This material was verified as lithium sulfide by X-ray diffraction measurement. The pores in the separator were filled with reaction product. Thus the diffusion of the $Li^+$ ion decreased, which resulted in the decreased capacity of the Li/S cell.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.24 no.6_2
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• pp.909-917
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• 2021

This study was carried out experimentally on the production and properties of silicon nanopowders characteristics using a transferred type arc plasma apparatus. To investigate the properties of silicon nanopowder, the purity of argon gas(99.999%, 99.9%) and the partial pressure ratio of nitrogen gas(0~90%) were varied. The total pressure in chamber is 400Torr and the silicon chunk amount used as raw material is 300g. The power supplied to the cathode to generate arc plasma was 9~12kW/h, and the electrode was made of tungsten and graphite with a diameter of 13mm. The particle size, impurity elements and powder evaporation rate of the silicon powder were analyzed using the XRD, FE-SEM, TEM and electronic scale. According to the purity of argon gas, the silicon evaporation rate and the particle size were similar, and impurities were generated more in the case of 99.9% purity than 99.999%. When argon gas and nitrogen gas were mixed in the chamber, the silicon evaporation rate and particle size increased as the partial pressure ratio of nitrogen gas increased. In particular, when the partial pressure ratio of nitrogen gas was 80%, the silicon evaporation rate 80g/h, and the particle size was about 80~100nm.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.78-89
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• 2022

ANODE-free Li-metal batteries (AFLMBs) operating with Li of cathode material have attracted enormous attention due to their exceptional energy density originating from anode-free structure in the confined cell volume. However, uncontrolled dendritic growth of lithium on a copper current collector can limit its practical application as it causes fatal issues for stable cycling such as dead Li formation, unstable solid electrolyte interphase, electrolyte exhaustion, and internal short-circuit. To overcome this limitation, here, we report a novel dual-salt electrolyte comprising of 0.2 M LiPF₆ + 3.8 M lithium bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide in a carbonate/ester co-solvent with 5 wt% fluoroethylene carbonate, 2 wt% vinylene carbonate, and 0.2 wt% LiNO₃ additives. Because the dual-salt electrolyte facilitates uniform/dense Li deposition on the current collector and can form robust/ionic conductive LiF-based SEI layer on the deposited Li, a Li/Li symmetrical cell exhibits improved cycling performance and low polarization for over 200 h operation. Furthermore, the anode-free LiFePO₄/Cu cells in the carbonate electrolyte shows significantly enhanced cycling stability compared to the counterparts consisting of different salt ratios. This study shows an importance of electrolyte design guiding uniform Li deposition and forming stable SEI layer for AFLMBs.

• Advances in nano research
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.513-525
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• 2022

In this study, it was aimed to evaluate direct oxidation of aqueous solution containing cefalexin antibiotic with new generation Sn/Sb/Ni: 500/8/1 anode. The fact that there is no such a study on treatment of cefalexin with these new anode made this study unique. According to the operating parameters evaluation COD graphs showed clearer results compared to TOC and CLX and thus, it was it was chosen as major parameter. Furthermore, pseudo-first degree kd values were calculated from CLX results to show more accurate and specific results. Experimental results showed that after 60 min of electrochemical oxidation, complete removal of COD and TOC was accomplished with 750 mg L^-1 KCl, at pH 7, 50 mA cm^-2 current density and 1 cm anode-cathode distance. Also, the stability of the Sn/Sb/Ni anode was evaluated by taking SEM and AFM images and XRD analysis before and after of electrochemical oxidation processes. According to the results, it was not occurred too much change on the anode surface even after 300 h of electrolysis. Thus, it was thought that the anode material was not corroded to a large extent. Furthermore, the removal efficiencies were very high for almost all the time and conditions. According to the results of the study, electrochemical oxidation with new generation Sn/Sb/Ni anodes for the removal of cefalexin antibiotic was found very successful and applicable due to require less reaction time complete mineralization and doesn't require pH adjustment step compared to other studies in literature. In future studies, different antibiotic types should be studied with this anode and maybe with real wastewaters to test applicability of the process in treatment of pharmaceutical wastewaters containing antibiotics, in a better way.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.75-84
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• 2023

The accumulation of spent carbide (YG8), not only pollutes the environment but also causes waste of tungsten, cobalt and other rare metal resources. To better address this issue, we proposed a combined electrochemical separation process of low-temperature aqueous solution and high-temperature molten salt for tungsten and cobalt. H₂WO₄ was obtained from spent carbide in an aqueous solution, and we calcined it to obtain WO₃, which was used as a raw material to obtain tungsten by using molten salt electrodeposition. The influence of the current efficiency and the electrochemical behavior of the discharge precipitation of W(VI) were also studied. The calcination results showed that the morphology of WO₃ was regular and there were no other impurities. The maximum current efficiency of 82.91% was achieved in a series of electrodeposition experiments. According to XRD and SEM analysis, the recovered product was high purity tungsten, which belongs to the simple cubic crystal system. In the W(VI) reduction mechanism experiments, the electrochemical process of W(VI) in NaCl-Na₂WO₄-WO₃ molten salt was investigated using linear scanning voltammetry (LSV) and chronoamperometry in a three-electrode system. The LSV showed that W(VI) was reduced at the cathode in two steps and the electrode reaction was controlled by diffusion. The fitting results of chronoamperometry showed that the nucleation mechanism of W(VI) was an instantaneous nucleation mode, and the diffusion coefficient was 7.379×10^-10 cm²·s^-1.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.567-575
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• 2023

Water electrolysis is undergoing active research as one of the promising technologies for producing effective green hydrogen. Using seawater directly as a raw material for a water electrolysis system can solve the problem of the limitations of existing freshwater raw materials, as seawater accounts for approximately 97% of the water on Earth. At the same time, abundant by-product materials can be obtained, representative examples of which are Cl₂, ClO^-, Br₂, and Mg(OH)₂ produced during electrolysis, depending on their composition and pH environment. In order to develop a successful seawater electrolysis system and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalysts, it is necessary to understand the causes and consequences of reactions that occur in the seawater environment. Therefore, in this paper, we will investigate the reaction mechanism and characteristics of the seawater electrolysis system as well as the research and development trends of electrochemical catalysts used in anode and cathode electrodes.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.387-393
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• 2023

Transition metal chalcogenides are promising cathode materials for next-generation battery systems, particularly sodium-ion batteries. Ni₃Co₆S₈-pitch-derived carbon composite microspheres with a yolk-shell structure (Ni₃Co₆S₈@C-YS) were synthesized through a three-step process: spray pyrolysis, pitch coating, and post-heat treatment process. Ni₃Co₆S₈@C-YS exhibited an impressive reversible capacity of 525.2 mA h g^-1 at a current density of 0.5 A g^-1 over 50 cycles when employed as an anode material for sodium-ion batteries. However, Ni₃Co₆S₈ yolk shell nanopowder (Ni₃Co₆S₈-YS) without pitch-derived carbon demonstrated a continuous decrease in capacity during charging and discharging. The superior sodium-ion storage properties of Ni₃Co₆S₈@C-YS were attributed to the pitch-derived carbon, which effectively adjusted the size and distribution of nanocrystals. The carbon-coated yolk-shell microspheres proposed here hold potential for various metal chalcogenide compounds and can be applied to various fields, including the energy storage field.