• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.179-186
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• 2011

In an effort to understand the hydrolytic degradation process of cured urea-formaldehyde (UF) resins responsible for the formaldehyde emission of wood-based composite panels, this study analyzed the influence of acid hydrolysis on the morphology of cured UF resins with different formaldehyde/urea (F/U) mole ratios such as 1.6, 1.4, 1.2 and 1.0. Field emission-scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) was employed to observe both exterior and fracture surfaces on thin films of cured UF resins before and after the etching with hydrochloric acid as a simulation of the hydrolytic degradation process. FE-SEM images showed that the exterior surface of cured UF resin with the F/U mole ratio of 1.0 had spherical structures after the acid hydrolysis while the other cured UF resins were not the case. However, the fracture surface observation showed that all the samples possessed spherical structures in the cured state of UF resins although their occurrence and size decreased as the F/U mole ratio increased. For the first time, we found the spherical structures in cured UF resins of higher F/U mole ratio of 1.4. After the acid hydrolysis, the spherical structures became a much predominant at the fracture surface. These results indicated that the spherical structures in cured UF resinswere much more resistant to the hydrolytic degradation by the acid than amorphous region.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.55-60
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• 1996

Tripitaka Koreana were made during Coryo Dynasty from 1236 to 1251 A.D. Buddhist scriptures were engraved on 81.340 wooden plates. Some plates were varnished with Rhus lacquer, but most of them were uncoated. Macroscopically, most of the plates appeared intact due to the storage in a well-ventilated wooden house. Because, they were irregularly used for printings with ink, it can be assumed that they were repeatedly exposed to ink-water and drying processes. The present were made to examine the changes of wood cell structures occurred during long-term aging deterioration processes in these dry archaeological wooden plates. Light, scanning and transmission electron microscopes were employed for this study. Wedge-shaped cracks and delamilations were found from the lumen side toward the compound middle lamellae and they progressed toward primary or secondary walls. A large amount of hypae in vessels and the degradation of vessel-ray pit walls by the fungal hyphae were observed. When compared to the recent wood, the birefringence of wood fibers was considerably lower or completly disappeared, suggesting the degradation of crystalline cellulose in these wood samples. The degradation of the cell wall could be also revealed the calculation of crystallinity with X-ray diffraction and the size of crystalline region was estimated.

• Journal of Conservation Science
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.155-162
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• 2011

In case of leather objects, degradation usually occurs by a combination of factors such as temperature and relative humidity, light and insect and fungi. Because chemical composition differs on the types of leather materials, leather objects affect differently even in the same environment. According to UV degradation, the overall color and gloss difference appeared severe in turn of the cowskin, sheepskin and pigskin specimens. In addition, despite short-term period of RH degradation, leather materials showed stable result on high RH circumstances. Nevertheless, if the leather sustained for a long time on the high RH, the environment can be the cause of mold or microorganisms. This study is to understand the leather objects and the future conservation and then to establish the conservational management of leather object for the future.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.6-10
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• 2016

Until a recent day, degradation of PEMFC (Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells) has been mainly studied in unit cell. But operation and degradation of real PEMFC going along in stack instead of unit cell. Therefore in this work, ADT (Accelerated Degradation Test) of PEMFC was done in stack and the result from stack's test was compared with that of unit cell. The polymer electrolyte membrane was degraded by repeated electrochemical and mechanical degradation method among several ADT methods. Current densities of MEA at 0.6V decreased in stack and unit cell, 28.4% and 27.8% respectively after ADT for 312 hours. Hydrogen crossover current densities of membrane increased in stack and unit cell, 16.8% and 15.2% respectively after ADT for 312 hours. The result of ADT in stack was similar that of ADT in unit cell, which showed that ADT method of unit cell was available to the stack.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.695-700
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• 2014

Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC) can generate hydrogen and oxygen from water by electrolysis. But the electrode and polymer electrolyte membrane degrade rapidly during PEM water electrolysis because of high operation voltage over 1.7V. In order to reduce the rate of anode electrode degradation, unsupported $IrO_2$ catalyst was used generally. In this study, Pt/C catalyst for PEMFC was used as a water electrolysis catalyst, and then the degradation of catalyst and membrane were analysed. After water electrolysis reaction in the voltage range from 1.8V to 2.0V, I-V curves, impedance spectra, cyclic voltammograms and linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) were measured at PEMFC operation condition. The degradation rate of electrode and membrane increased as the voltage of water electrolysis increased. The hydrogen yield was 88 % during water electrolysis for 1 min at 2.0V, the performance at 0.6V decreased to 49% due to degradation of membrane and electrode assembly.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 1994.11a
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• pp.103-103
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• 1994

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.19 no.9
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• pp.1161-1167
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• 2010

The effects of addition of non degradable polymers, polystyrene (PS) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) on the rate of enzymatic degradation of biodegradable poly(l-lactide) (PLLA) have been studied in term of surface structure. Since a component in multicomponent polymeric system has shown surface enrichment, PS and PMMA which have lower surface energy than PLLA were selected as a minor blend component (5 wt%). Enzymatic degradation was carried out at $37^{\circ}C$ and pH 8.5 in the aqueous solution of Proteinase K. Two blend systems, partially miscible (PS/PLLA) and immiscible (PMMA/PLLA), showed the surface enrichment of 4 and 2 times of PS and PMMA, respectively. From the weight loss profile data, the slow degradation rate of both blend films was observed. This indicates that PS or PMMA domains which exist at surface act as a retardant of enzymatic attack.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.520-524
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• 2009

The effects of oxidative degradation on the performance of crosslinked polyethylene pipes were analyzed by the investigation of tensile properties and chemical structure change of the pipes during oxidative degradation. Annealing at high temperatures or UV irradiation method was used to induce the oxidative degradation of the crosslinked polyethylene pipes and the effects of the die temperature on the oxidative degradation of the pipes were also investigated. The tensile properties and chemical structure change of the pipes were investigated by universal testing machine and FT-IR, respectively. With the progress of thermo-oxidative degradation the tensile strength of the pipes slowly decreased but the elongation at break rapidly decreased, and the chemical structure of the pipes also changed considerably because of the introduced oxygen molecules. These results would be useful in estimating the performance deterioration of the crosslinked polyethylene pipes due to the oxidative degradation during production and storage.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Environmental Restoration Technology
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.73-83
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• 2016

Forest degradation reduces ecosystem services provided by forest and could lead to change in composition of species. In North Korea, there has been significant forest degradation due to conversion of forest into terrace fields for food production and cut-down of forest for fuel woods. This study analyzed the phenological changes in North Korea, in terms of vegetation and moisture in soil and vegetation, from March to Octorber 2013, using MODIS (MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) images and indexes including NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index), NDSI (Normalized Difference Soil Index), and NDWI (Normalized Difference Water Index). In addition, marginal farmland was derived using elevation data. Lastly, degraded terrace fields of 16 degree was analyzed using NDVI, NDSI, and NDWI indexes, and marginal farmland characteristics with slope variable. The accuracy value of land cover classification, which shows the difference between the observation and analyzed value, was 84.9% and Kappa value was 0.82. The highest accuracy value was from agricultural (paddy, field) and forest area. Terrace fields were easily identified using slope data form agricultural field. Use of NDVI, NDSI, and NDWI is more effective in distinguishing deforested terrace field from agricultural area. NDVI only shows vegetation difference whereas NDSI classifies soil moisture values and NDWI classifies abandoned agricultural fields based on moisture values. The method used in this study allowed more effective identification of deforested terrace fields, which visually illustrates forest degradation problem in North Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.278-286
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• 2007

As a part of enhancing the performance of wood-plastic composites (WPC), polypropylene (PP)/ nanoclay (NC)/ wood flour (WF) nanocomposites were prepared using melt blending and injection molding process to evaluate their thermal stability. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was employed to investigate thermal degradation kinetics of the nanocomposites both dynamic and isothermal conditions. Dynamic scans of the TGA showed an increased thermal stability of the nanocomposites at moderate wood flour concentrations (up to 20 phr, percentage based on hundred percent resin) while it decreased with the addition of 30 phr wood flour. The activation energy $(E_a)$ of thermal degradation of nanocomposites increased when nanoclay was added and the concentration of wood flour increased. Different equations were used to evaluate isothermal degradation kinetics using the rate of thermal degradation of the composites, expressed as weight loss (%) from their isothermal TGA curves. Degradation occurred at faster rate in the initial stages of about 60 min., and then proceeded in a gradual manner. However, nanocomposites with wood flour of 30 phr heated at $300^{\circ}C$ showed a drastic difference in their degradation behavior, and reached almost a complete decomposition after 40 min. of the isothermal heating. The degree of decomposition was greater at higher temperatures, and the residual weight of isothermal degradation of nanocomposites greatly varied from about 10 to 90%, depending on isothermal temperatures. The isothermal degradation of nanocomposites also increased their thermal stability with the addition of 1 phr nanoclay and of wood flour up to 20 phr. But, the degradation of PP100/NC1/MAPP3/WF30 nanocomposites with 30 phr wood flour occurs at a faster rate compared to those of the others, indicating a decrease in their thermal stability.