• Advances in nano research
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.15-29
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• 2016

A low cost environmentally benign surface coating binder is highly desirable in the field of material science. In this report, castor oil based hyperbranched polyester/bitumen modified fly ash nanocomposites were fabricated to achieve the desired performance. The hyperbranched polyester resin was synthesized by a three-step one pot condensation reaction using monoglyceride of castor oil based carboxyl terminated pre-polymer and 2,2-bis (hydroxymethyl) propionic acid. Also, the bulk fly ash of paper industry waste was converted to hydrophilic nano fly ash by ultrasonication followed by transforming it to an organonano fly ash by the modification with bitumen. The synthesized polyester resin and its nanocomposites were characterized by different analytical and spectroscopic tools. The nanocomposite obtained in presence of 20 wt% styrene (with respect to polyester) was found to be more homogeneous and stable compared to nanocomposite without styrene. The performance in terms of tensile strength, impact resistance, scratch hardness, chemical resistance and thermal stability was found to be improved significantly after formation of nanocomposite compared to the pristine system after curing with bisphenol-A based epoxy and poly(amido amine). The overall results of transmission electron microscopic (TEM) analysis and performance showed good exfoliation of the nano fly ash in the polyester matrix. Thus the studied nanocomposites would open up a new avenue on development of low cost high performing surface coating materials.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.345-352
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• 2021

BACKGROUND: Salinity is one of the major limiting factors in agriculture that affect the growth and productivity of crops. It is economically difficult to artificially purify the soil affected by salt. Therefore, the use of plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) in an effort to reduce stress caused by salt is emerging as a cost-effective and environment-friendly method. In this study, the purpose was to isolate the salt-tolerant bacteria from the rhizosphere soil and identify their ability to promote plant growth under salt stress condition. METHODS AND RESULTS: The isolates KST-1, KST-2, AST-3, and AST-4 that showed plant growth-promoting activity for barley in salt conditions were close to Bacillus cereus (KST-1, KST-2, and AST-4) and Bacillus thuringiensis (AST-3) and showed high salt tolerance up to 7% of additional NaCl to the media. When inoculated to barley, the strains had only minor effect on the length of the barley. However, the concentrations of chlorophyll in the barley leaves were found to be higher from the bacteria-inoculated pots than those from the uninoculated control. In particular, the chlorophyll concentration in Bacillus cereus AST-4 experiment was 5.45 times higher than that of the uninoculated control under the same experimental condition. CONCLUSION(S): The isolated salt-tolerant bacteria were found to influence on chlorophyll concentration of the barley. As represented by the strain AST-4, microbes may suggest a cost-effective and environmentally benign method to alleviate salt stress of crops cultivated in salt-accumulated soils such as reclaimed lands.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.186-189
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• 2019

Polypyrrole is a typical electrical conducting polymer, which has an excellent charge transport property. Cyclodextrins are a group of toxic-free and cyclic oligosaccharide molecules, capable of capturing low molecular weight chemicals. Considering these advantages, hybrid materials of polypyrrole and cyclodextrin can be used to detect hazardous compounds. Cyclodextrin molecules can accommodate toxic chemicals by the formation of host-guest complexes and generate electric signals, which are effectively delivered by polypyrrole backbone. In this study, the polypyrrole/cyclodextrin hybrid material was prepared using a facile wet method and included into a hydrogel. Subsequently, it was applied to a simple sensor system with a gold-patterned electrode for the detection of potentially hazardous material, methyl paraben. Compared with pristine polypyrrole, it was found that the polypyrrole/cyclodextrin hybrid showed an improved performance. This study can be an example of using environmentally benign conducting polymer/cyclodextrin hybrids as sensing media.

• Clean Technology
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.233-238
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• 2009

Supercritical fluid processes have gained great attention as a new and environmentally-benign method of preparing the microparticles of energetic materials like explosives and propellants. In this work, RDX (cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine) was selected as a target explosive. The microparticle formation of RDX using supercritical anti-solvent (SAS) recrystallization process was performed and the effect of operating variables on the size and morphology of prepared particles was observed. N,N-Dimethylformamide was used as organic solvent for dissolving the RDX. The size of the RDX particles decreased remarkably up to less than $10\;{\mu}m$ by SAS recrystallization. In the range of operating conditions of the SAS process studied in this work, the finest RDX particles were obtained at 313.15K, 150 bar, and 15wt% RDX concentration in feed solution.

• Clean Technology
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.239-244
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• 2010

The carboxylation of the fluorenyl epoxide with a spiro framework, 9,9'-Bis(4-oxiranylmethoxyphenyl) fluorine (2) was catalyzed by some onium salts such as quaternary ammonium and phosphonium salts to produce the corresponding five-membered cyclic carbonate (3) in an efficient and environmentally benign fashion. The coupling reactions depend greatly on the kind of the halide anions and alkyl chain length of the onium salts. While the reaction was sensitive to the reaction temperature, the reaction trends suggest that the catalytic efficiency of the quaternary ammonium halides may correlate strongly with the melting points of the halides. The reactions using a catalytic amount (2 mol %) of quaternary ammonium bromide with an n-butyl chain at 75.9 bar of $CO_2$ and 393 K give the highest yield of the cyclic carbonate (92%).

• KSBB Journal
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.321-326
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• 2004

Microparticles of an inclusion complex between itraconazole and 2-hydroxypropyl-${\beta}$-cyclodextrin (HP-${\beta}$-CD) were prepared using an environmentally-benign supercritical anti-solvent (SAS) process. In order to evaluate the degree of complexation, the thermal behavior of solid micro particulate complexes was investigated using differential scanning calorimetry. The experimental results obatined for the solubility and dissolution rate of the microparticulate inclusion complexes in a buffer solution of pH 1.2 showed that the complexation of itraconazole with HP-${\beta}$-CD results in a significant increase in the solubility and dissolution rate of itraconazole. For the microparticulate itraconazole/Hp-${\beta}$-CD inclusion complexes prepared by the SAS process, about 80% of itraconazole was found to dissolve in the buffer solution. Our experimental results confirmed that the SAS process is a promising method for the preparation of microparticles of water-insoluble drug/cyclodextrin inclusion complexes.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.577-582
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• 2011

Greenhouse satsuma mandarins (Citrus unshiu Marc., cv. Gungchun) of an early harvesting cultivar were treated by hot water showering at 65$^{\circ}C$ for 10 s at a commercial scale in a packing house and then stored at 5$^{\circ}C$ for 3 weeks and subsequently at 18$^{\circ}C$ for 1 week (simulated shelf-life) to examine the potential use of hot water treatment (HWT) as an environmentally benign method to maintain mandarin quality characteristics during postharvest storage and sale. The respiration rate just after heat treatment or during storage was at a similar level in both the treated and untreated fruit. HWT also had no detrimental effects on quality attributes including pH, titratable acidity, soluble solids content, weight loss, firmness, and peel color. The development of stem-end rot, mold decay, and black rot was lower in the heat-treated fruit compared to those in the untreated control. A sensory evaluation showed that HWT markedly improved fruit appearance, making the fruit cleaner and glossier. The results suggested that HWT can be applied to satsuma mandarin as an effective pretreatment to maintain postharvest quality during storage and marketing.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.227-238
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• 2016

This review article highlights different types of nano-sized catalysts for the selective alcohol oxidation to form aldehydes (or ketones) with supported or immobilized metal nanoparticles. Metal nanoparticle catalysts are obtained through dispersing metal nanoparticles over a solid support with a large surface area. The nanocatalysts have wide technological applications to industrial and academic fields such as organic synthesis, fuel cells, biodiesel production, oil cracking, energy conversion and storage, medicine, water treatment, solid rocket propellants, chemicals and dyes. One of main reactions for the nanocatalyst is an aerobic oxidation of alcohols to produce important intermediates for various applications. The oxidation of alcohols by supported nanocatalysts including gold, palladium, ruthenium, and vanadium is very economical, green and environmentally benign reaction leading to decrease byproducts and reduce the cost of reagents as opposed to stoichiometric reactions. In addition, the room temperature alcohol oxidation using nanocatalysts is introduced.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.731-744
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• 2013

Energy security is a topic of high importance to many countries throughout the world. Countries with access to vast energy supplies enjoy all of the economic and political benefits that come with controlling a highly sought after commodity. Given the desire to diversify away from fossil fuels due to rising environmental and economic concerns, there are limited technology options available for baseload electricity generation. Further complicating this issue is the desire for energy sources to be sustainable and globally scalable in addition to being economic and environmentally benign. Nuclear energy in its current form meets many but not all of these attributes. In order to address these limitations, TerraPower, LLC has developed the Traveling Wave Reactor (TWR) which is a near-term deployable and truly sustainable energy solution that is globally scalable for the indefinite future. The fast neutron spectrum allows up to a ~30-fold gain in fuel utilization efficiency when compared to conventional light water reactors utilizing enriched fuel. When compared to other fast reactors, TWRs represent the lowest cost alternative to enjoy the energy security benefits of an advanced nuclear fuel cycle without the associated proliferation concerns of chemical reprocessing. On a country level, this represents a significant savings in the energy generation infrastructure for several reasons 1) no reprocessing plants need to be built, 2) a reduced number of enrichment plants need to be built, 3) reduced waste production results in a lower repository capacity requirement and reduced waste transportation costs and 4) less uranium ore needs to be mined or purchased since natural or depleted uranium can be used directly as fuel. With advanced technological development and added cost, TWRs are also capable of reusing both their own used fuel and used fuel from LWRs, thereby eliminating the need for enrichment in the longer term and reducing the overall societal waste burden. This paper describes the origins and current status of the TWR development program at TerraPower, LLC. Some of the areas covered include the key TWR design challenges and brief descriptions of TWR-Prototype (TWR-P) reactor. Selected information on the TWR-P core designs are also provided in the areas of neutronic, thermal hydraulic and fuel performance. The TWR-P plant design is also described in such areas as; system design descriptions, mechanical design, and safety performance.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.45-48
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• 2013

Rusts are plant diseases caused by pathogenic fungi of the order Pucciniales. Rusts can affect a variety of plants. Development of new effective and environmentally benign agents against rusts is of great interest. In this study, we investigated the disease control efficacy of the emulsion concentrate (EC10) and wettable powder (WP20) type formulations of the extract of Magnolia officinalis (Magjia90; containing honokiol and magnolol at 90%) against rust diseases of perilla and zoysiagrass in fields. The treatment of EC10 and WP20 of Magjia90 showed control values of 47.9% to 69.6% and Magjia90-WP20 reduced more effectively the development of rust symptoms on perilla plants than Magjia90-EC10. Magjia90-WP20 also highly suppressed zoysiagrass rust with control values of 65.7% to 80.5%. On the other hand, no harmful effect of Magjia90-EC10 and Magjia90-WP20 was observed on the perilla and zoysiagrass plants tested. The results strongly indicate that the extract of M. officinalis (Magjia90) can be used as a natural fungicide for the control of rust diseases.