• Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.3.1-3.14
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• 2023

Objectives: This study evaluated the effect of different nanoparticulated zinc oxide (nano-ZnO) and conventional-ZnO ratios on the physicochemical properties of calcium aluminate cement (CAC). Materials and Methods: The conventional-ZnO and nano-ZnO were added to the cement powder in the following proportions: G1 (20% conventional-ZnO), G2 (15% conventional-ZnO + 5% nano-ZnO), G3 (12% conventional-ZnO + 3% nano-ZnO) and G4 (10% conventional-ZnO + 5% nano-ZnO). The radiopacity (R_ad), setting time (S_et), dimensional change (D_c), solubility (S_ol), compressive strength (C_st), and pH were evaluated. The nano-ZnO and CAC containing conventional-ZnO were also assessed using scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Radiopacity data were analyzed by the 1-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Bonferroni tests (p < 0.05). The data of the other properties were analyzed by the ANOVA, Tukey, and Fisher tests (p < 0.05). Results: The nano-ZnO and CAC containing conventional-ZnO powders presented particles with few impurities and nanometric and micrometric sizes, respectively. G1 had the highest Rad mean value (p < 0.05). When compared to G1, groups containing nano-ZnO had a significant reduction in the S_et (p < 0.05) and lower values of D_c at 24 hours (p < 0.05). The C_st was higher for G4, with a significant difference for the other groups (p < 0.05). The S_ol did not present significant differences among groups (p > 0.05). Conclusions: The addition of nano-ZnO to CAC improved its dimensional change, setting time, and compressive strength, which may be promising for the clinical performance of this cement.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.126-130
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• 2023

In response to environmental demands, pyrolysis is one of the practical methods for obtaining reusable oils from waste plastics. However, the waste plastic pyrolysis oils (WPPO) are consumed as low-grade fuel oil due to their impurities. Thus, this study focused on the upgrading method to obtain naphtha catalytic cracking feedstocks from WPPO by the hydroprocessing, including hydrotreating and hydrocracking reaction. Especially, various transition metal sulfides supported catalysts were investigated as hydrotreating and hydrocracking catalysts. The catalytic performance was evaluated with a 250 ml-batch reactor at 370~400 ℃ and 6.0 MPa H₂. Sulfur-, nitrogen-, and chlorine-compounds in WPPO were well eliminated with nickel-molybdenum/alumina catalysts. The NiMo/ZSM-5 catalyst has the highest naphtha yield.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.21-32
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• 2023

Because the application of lithium has gradually increased for the production of lithium ion batteries (LIBs), more research studies about recycling using solvent extraction (SX) should focus on Li⁺ recovery from the waste solution obtained after the removal of the valuable metals nickel, cobalt and manganese (NCM). The raffinate obtained after the removal of NCM metal contains lithium ions and other impurities such as Na ions. In this study, we optimized a selective SX system using di-(2-ethylhexyl) phosphoric acid (D2EHPA) as the extractant and tri-n-butyl phosphate (TBP) as a modifier in kerosene for the recovery of lithium from a waste solution containing lithium and a high concentration of sodium (Li⁺ = 0.5 ~ 1 wt%, Na⁺ = 3 ~6.5 wt%). The extraction of lithium was tested in different solvent compositions and the most effective extraction occurred in the solution composed of 20% D2EHPA + 20% TBP + and 60% kerosene. In this SX system with added NaOH for saponification, more than 95% lithium was selectively extracted in four extraction steps using an organic to aqueous ratio of 5:1 and an equilibrium pH of 4 ~ 4.5. Additionally, most of the Na⁺ (92% by weight) remained in the raffinate. The extracted lithium is stripped using 8 wt% HCl to yield pure lithium chloride with negligible Na content. The lithium chloride is subsequently treated with high purity ammonium bicarbonate to afford lithium carbonate powder. Finally the lithium carbonate is washed with an adequate amount of water to remove trace amounts of sodium resulting in highly pure lithium carbonate powder (purity > 99.2%).

• Resources Recycling
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.3-8
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• 2023

This study discussed production, demand, and future prospects of rubidium, which is an alkali group metal that is highly reactive to various media and requires carefulness in handling, but no significant environmental hazard of rubidium has been reported yet. Rubidium is used in various fields such as optoelectronic equipment, biomedical, and chemical industries. Because of difficulty in production as well as limited demand, the transaction price of rubidium is relatively high, but its detail information such as market status and potential growth is uncertain. However, if the mass production of versatile ultra-high-performance equipment such as quantum computers and the necessity of rubidium use in the equipment are confirmed, there is a possibility that the rubidium market will expand in the future. Rubidium is often found together with lithium, beryllium, and cesium, and may be present in granite containing minerals such as lepidolite and pollucite, as well as in seawater and industrial waste. Several technologies such as acid leaching, roasting, solvent extraction, and adsorption are used to recover rubidium. The maximum recovery efficiency of the rubidium from the sources and the processing above is generally high, but, in many practices, rubidium is not the main recovery target, and therefore the actual recovery effects should depend on presence of other valuable components or impurities, together with recovery costs, energy consumption, environmental issues, etc. In conclusion, although the current production and consumption of rubidium are limited, with consideration of the possible market fluctuations according to the emergence of large-scale demand sources, etc., further investigations by related institutions should be necessary.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.9-17
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• 2023

Efforts are currently underway to develop a method for efficiently recovering lithium from the cathode material of waste lithium iron phosphate batteries (LFP). The successful application of lithium battery recycling can address the regional ubiquity and price volatility of lithium resources, while also mitigating the environmental impact associated with both waste battery material and lithium production processes. The isomorphic substitution leaching process was used to recover lithium from spent lithium iron phosphate batteries. Lithium was leached by the isomorphic substitution of Fe²⁺ in LFP using a relatively inexpensive ferric chloride etching solution as a leaching agent. In the study, the leaching rate of lithium was compared using the ferric chloride etching solution at various multiples of the LFP molar ratio: 0.7, 1.0, 1.3, and 1.6 times. The highest lithium leaching rate was shown at about 98% when using 1.3 times the LFP molar ratio. Subsequently, to eliminate Fe, the leachate was treated with NaOH. The Fe-free solution was then used to synthesize lithium carbonate, and the harvested powder was characterized and validated. The surface shape and crystal phase were analyzed using SEM and XRD analysis, and impurities and purity were confirmed using ICP analysis.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.352-361
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• 2023

Steam methane reforming is currently the most widely used technology for producing hydrogen, a clean fuel. Hydrogen produced by steam methane reforming contains impurities such as carbon monoxide, and it is essential to undergo an appropriate post-purification step for commercial usage, such as fuel cells. Recently, membrane separation technology has been gaining great attention as an effective purification method; in this study, we evaluated the feasibility of using commercial polysulfone membranes for biogas upgrading to separate and recover hydrogen from a hydrogen/carbon monoxide gas mixture. Initially, we examined the physicochemical properties of the commercial membrane used. We then conducted performance evaluations of the commercial membrane module under various conditions using mixed gas, considering factors such as stage-cut and operating pressure. Finally, based on the evaluation results, we carried out simulations for process design. The maximum H₂ permeability and H₂/CO separation factor for the commercial membrane process were recorded at 361 GPU and 20.6, respectively. Additionally, the CO removal efficiency reached up to 94%, and the produced hydrogen concentration achieved a maximum of 99.1%.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.63-69
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• 2022

Vanadium dioxide shows a unique and interesting property of metal-insulator transition, which has attracted great attention from the viewpoints of fundamental materials science and industrial applications. In this study, the effect of Mg and W addition on the metal-insulator transition of VO₂ were investigated for the bulk materials that are prepared by spark plasma sintering. The X-ray diffraction analysis of the sintered specimens revealed that the lattice parameters barely change, and the secondary phases are present. The transition temperature of MIT appears in the range of 64.2-64.6℃, regardless of the impurity element and content. On the other hand, the addition of Mg and W alters the electrical conductivity, i.e., the electrical conductivity increases by a factor of up to 2.4 or decrease by a factor of up to 57.4 depending on the impurity type and its content. The thermal conductivity showed the values of 1.8~2.5 W/m·K below the transition temperature, and the values of 1.9~2.8 W/m·K above the transition temperature. These changes in electrical and thermal conductivities can be attributed to the combination of the change in charge carrier density, the impurities as scattering centers, and the change in microstructures.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.665-669
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• 2023

The crude methylnaphthalene oil (CMNO) contains nitrogen compounds (NCs) such as quinoline (QU), isoquinoline (IQU), and indole (IN). These NCs in the CMNO are treated as impurities contained in the CMNO due to contamination of the atmospheric environment and unpleasant odors. In order to improve the quality of CMNO, this study examined the effect of extraction experimental factors on the reduction of NCs contained in CMNO using CMNO as a raw material and an aqueous formamide solution as a solvent, respectively. The increase in the volume ratio of solvent to feed in initial (S/F)₀ in initial increased the distribution coefficient of NCs and the selectivity of NCs in reference to 2-methylnaphthalene (2MNA). Additionally, an increase in operating temperature (T) increased the distribution coefficient of NCs but conversely decreased selectivity. The compositions of QU, IQU, and IN in the raffinate oil recovered through equilibrium extraction under a constant condition (volume fraction of water to solvent in initial (y_w,0) = 0.1, (S/F)₀ = 9, T = 303 K, liquid-liquid contacting time = 72 h) were reduced by about 58.5 wt%, 61.9 wt%, and 73.4 wt%, respectively, compared to those of CMNO. The formamide extraction method in this study was expected to be an effective reduction method for NCs contained in CMNO.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Laboratory Science
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.261-268
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• 2023

[¹⁸F]Fluorocholine is a radiopharmaceutical used non-invasively in positron emission tomography to diagnose parathyroid adenoma, prostate cancer, and hepatocellular carcinoma by evaluating the choline metabolism. In this study, a radiolabeling method for [¹⁸F]fluorocholine was optimized using a solid phase extraction (SPE) cartridge. [¹⁸F]Fluorocholine was labeled in two steps using an automated synthesizer. In the first step, dibromomethane was reacted with [¹⁸F]KF/K2.2.2/K₂CO₃ to obtain the intermediate [¹⁸F]fluorobromomethane. In the second step, [¹⁸F]fluorobromomethane was passed through a Sep-Pak^Ⓡ Silica SPE cartridge to remove the impurities and then reacted with N,N-dimethylaminoethanol (DMAE) in a Sep-Pak^Ⓡ C18 SPE cartridge to label [¹⁸F]fluorocholine. The reaction conditions of [¹⁸F]fluorocholine were optimized. The synthesis yield was confirmed according to the number of silica cartridges and DMAE concentration. No statistically significant difference in the synthesis yield of [¹⁸F]fluorocholine was observed when using four or three silica cartridges (P>0.05). The labeling yield was 11.5±0.5% (N=4) when DMAE was used as its original solution. On the other hand, when diluted to 10% with dimethyl sulfoxide, the radiochemical yield increased significantly to 30.1±5.2% (N=20). In conclusion, [¹⁸F]Fluorocholine for clinical use can be synthesized stably in high yield by applying an optimized synthesis method.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.39-47
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• 2024

In this study, LiDAR-detective black material is synthesized by recycling silicon sludge (SS) that is generated from semiconductor manufacturing process, and its recognition is confirmed using two types of LiDAR sensors (MEMS and Rotating LiDAR). In detail, metal impurities on the surface of SS is removed, followed by coating of titanium dioxide (TiO₂) and subsequent chemical reduction to obtain SS-derived black TiO₂ (SS/bTiO₂) material. As-prepared SS/bTiO₂ is mixed with transparent paint to prepare hydrophilic black paints and applied to a glass substrate using a spray gun. SS/bTiO₂-based paint shows similar blackness (L^*=15.7) compared to commercial carbon black-based paint, and remarkable NIR reflectance (26.5R%, 905nm). Furthermore, MEMS and Rotating LiDAR have successfully detected the SS/bTiO₂-based paint. This is attributed to the occurrence of high reflection of light at the interface between the black TiO₂ and the silicon sludge according to the Fresnel's reflection principle. Hence, the new application field to effectively recycle silicon sludge generated in the semiconductor manufacturing process has been presented.