• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.125-131
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• 2009

An electrolytic system (zinc anode-gallium cathode) was setup to evaluate the performance of several stirrers prepared for this study, where stirrers have been used to prevent uranium from forming dendrite on the cathode in pyrochemical process. In the case of no-stirring condition, zinc dendrites began to grow on the gallium surface in 1 hour and some dendrite grew out of the cathode crucible around 6 hours. When a rectangular stirrer or a tilt stirrer was rotated, at 40${\sim}$150 rpm, to mix the liquid gallium cathode, dendritic growth of zinc metal was prevented irrespective of revolution speed, but some of the deposits overflowed out of the cathode crucible owing to the large centrifugal forces at 150 rpm. The harrow stirrer did not nearly retard the dendrite growth at 40 rpm, but the dendrite growth was retarded at higher than 100 rpm and the zinc deposits also did not overflow at 150 rpm. Pounder could also prevent the dendrite growth to some extent but it had some difficulties in operation compared with other types of stirrers.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.9-17
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• 2010

The LCC (Liquid Cadmium Cathode) structure to be developed for inhibiting the formation and growth of the uranium dendrite has been known as a key part in the electrowinning process for the simultaneous recovering of uranium and TRU (TRans Uranium) elements from spent fuels. A zinc-gallium (Zn-Ga) experimental system which is able to be functional in aqueous condition and normal temperature has been set up to observe the formation and growth phenomena of the metal dendrites on liquid cathode. The growth of the zinc dendrites on the gallium cathode and the performance of the existing stirrer type and pounder type cathode structure were observed. Although the mechanical strength of the dendrites appeared to be weak in the electrolyte and easily crashed by the various cathode structures, it was difficult to effectively submerge the dendrite into the bottom of the liquid cathode. Based on the results of the aqueous phase experiments, a lab-scale electrowinning experimental apparatus which are applicable to the development of LCC srtucture for the electrowinning process was established and the performance tests of the different types of LCC structure were conducted to prohibit the uranium dendrite growth on LCC surface. The experimental results of the stirrer type LCC structures have shown that they could not effectively remove the uranium dendrites growing at the inner side of the LCC crucible and the performances of the paddle and harrow type LCC structure were similar. Therefore a mesh type LCC structure was developed to push down the uranium dendrites to the bottom of the LCC crucible growing on the LCC surface and at the inner side of the crucible. From the experimental results for the performance test of the mesh type LCC structure, the uranium was recovered over 5 wt% in cadmium without the growth of uranium dendrites. After completion of the experiments, solid precipitates of the bottom of the LCC crucible were identified as an intermetallic compound (UCd11) by the chemical analysis.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.39 no.10
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• pp.928-934
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• 2002

Gallium doped Zinc Oxide(GZO) films were deposited by dc magnetron sputtering using a GZO ceramic target at various conditions such as substrate temperature (RT, 400), residual water pressure ($P_{H_2O}$; 1.61${\times}10^{-4}∼2.2{\times}10^{-3}$ Pa), introduction of $H_2$ gas (8.5%) and different magnetic field strengths(250, 1000G). GZO films deposited without substrate heating showed clear degradation in film crystallinity and electrical properties with increasing $P_{H_2O}$. The resistivity increased from 3.0${\times}10^{-3}$ to 3.1${\times}10^{-2}{\Omega}㎝$ and the grain size of the films decreased from 24 to 3 nm when PH2O was increased from 1.61${\times}10^{-4}$ to 2.2${\times}10^{-3}$ Pa. However, degradation in electrical properties with increasing $P_{H_2O}$ was not observed for the films deposited with introduction of 8.5% $H_2$. When magnetic field strength of the cathode increased from 250G to 1000G, crystallinity and electrical properties of GZO films improved remarkably about all the $P_{H_2O}$. This result could be attributed to the decrease in film damage caused by the decrease in plasma impedance.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.88-88
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• 2010

The liquid metal ion sources(LMIS) in FIB system have many advantages of high current density, high brightness, and low ion energy spread. Most FIB systems use LMIS because the beam spot size of LMIS is smaller than of gas field ionization sources(GFIS). LMIS basically consists of a emitter(needle, anode), a reservoir(gallium) and a extractor(cathode). But several LMIS have new electrode called the suppressor. We investigated characteristics of LMIS with a suppressor. The characteristics of the threshold voltage and current-voltage (I-V) were observed under the varying extracting voltage with floated suppressor voltage, and under the varying suppressor voltages with fixed extractor voltage. We also simulated LMIS with the suppressor through CST(Computer Simulation Technology). We can explain characteristics of LMIS with a suppressor using the electric field.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.161-176
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• 2021

In this study, the electrochemical behavior of Sm on the binary liquid Al-Ga cathode in the LiCl-KCl molten salt system is investigated. First, the co-reduction process of Sm(III)-Al(III), Sm(III)-Ga(III), and Sm(III)-Ga(III)-Al(III) on the W electrode (inert) were studied using cyclic voltammetry (CV), square-wave voltammetry (SWV) and open circuit potential (OCP) methods, respectively. It was identified that Sm(III) can be co-reduced with Al(III) or Ga(III) to form Al_zSm_y or Ga_xSm_y intermetallic compounds. Subsequently, the under-potential deposition of Sm(III) at the Al, Ga, and Al-Ga active cathode was performed to confirm the formation of Sm-based intermetallic compounds. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) analyses indicated that Ga₃Sm and Ga₆Sm intermetallic compounds were formed on the Mo grid electrode (inert) during the potentiostatic electrolysis in LiCl-KCl-SmCl₃-AlCl₃-GaCl₃ melt, while only Ga₆Sm intermetallic compound was generated on the Al-Ga alloy electrode during the galvanostatic electrolysis in LiCl-KCl-SmCl₃ melt. The electrolysis results revealed that the interaction between Sm and Ga was predominant in the Al-Ga alloy electrode, with Al only acting as an additive to lower the melting point.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.320-323
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• 2014

Ga-doped $LiFePO_4$ cathode materials were synthesized using a hydrothermal method. The microstructural characteristics and electrochemical performances were systematically investigated using field emission scanning electron microscopy, high-resolution X-ray diffraction, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, charge-discharge cycling, cyclic voltammetry, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Among the as-prepared samples, $LiFe_{0.96}Ga_{0.04}PO_4$ demonstrates the best electrochemical properties in terms of discharge capacity, electrochemical reversibility, and cycling performance with an initial discharge capacity of $125mAh\;g^{-1}$ and high lithium ion diffusion coefficient of $1.38{\times}10^{-14}cm^2s^{-1}$ (whereas for $LiFePO_4$, these were $113mAh\;g^{-1}$ and $8.09{\times}10^{-15}cm^2\;s^{-1}$, respectively). The improved electrochemical performance can be attributed to the facilitation of Li+ ion effective diffusion induced by $Ga^{3+}$ substitution.