• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.423-437
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• 2015

Polyvinylidene fluoride/fullerene nanoparticle (PVDF/$C_{60}$) composite microfiltration (MF) membranes were fabricated by a non-solvent induced phase separation (NIPS) using N, N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc) as solvent and deionized water (DI) as coagulation solution. Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) was added to the casting solution to form membrane pores. $C_{60}$ was added in increments of 0.2% from 0.0% to 1.0% to produce six different membrane types: one pristine PVDF membrane type with no $C_{60}$ added as control, and five composite membrane types with varying $C_{60}$ concentrations of 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0%, respectively. The mechanical strength, morphology, pore size and distribution, hydrophilicity, surface property, permeation performance, and fouling resistance of the six membranes types were characterized using respective analytical methods. The results indicate that membranes containing $C_{60}$ have higher surface porosity and pore density than the pristine membrane. The presence of numerous pores on the membrane caused weaker mechanical strength, but the water flux of the composite membranes increased in spite of their smaller size. Initial flux and surface roughness reached the maximum point among the composite membranes when the $C_{60}$ concentration was 0.6 wt.%.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.175-179
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• 2022

The physical properties of biomaterials are important for their isolation and separation from body fluids. In particular, the precise evaluation of the multi-physical properties of single biomolecules is essential in that the correlation between physical and biological properties of specific biomolecule. However, the majority of scientific equipment, can only determine specific-physical properties of single nanoparticles, making the evaluation of the multi-physical properties difficult. The improvement of analytical techniques for the evaluation of multi-physical properties is therefore required in various research fields. In this study, we developed a motion-tracking algorithm to evaluate the multi-physical properties of single-nanoparticles by analyzing their behavior. We observed the Brownian motion and electric-field-induced drift of fluorescent nanoparticles injected in a microfluidic chip with two electrodes using confocal microscopy. The proposed algorithm is able to determine the size of the nanoparticles by i) removing the background noise from images, ii) tracking the motion of nanoparticles using the circular-Hough transform, iii) extracting the mean squared displacement (MSD) of the tracked nanoparticles, and iv) applying the MSD to the Stokes-Einstein equation. We compared the evaluated size of the nanoparticles with the size measured by SEM. We also determined the zeta-potential and surface-charge density of the nanoparticles using the extracted electrophoretic velocity and the Helmholtz-Smoluchowski equation. The proposed motion-tracking algorithm could be employed in various fields related to biomaterial analysis, such as exosome analysis.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.57-65
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• 2022

Herein a rich, Se-nanoparticle modified Mo-W₁₈O₄₉ nanocomposite as efficient hydrogen evolution reaction catalyst is reported via hydrothermal synthesized process. In this work, Na₂SeSO₃ solution and selenium powder are used as Se precursor material. The structure and composition of the nanocomposites are characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), high-resolution field emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), EDX spectrum analysis and the corresponding element mapping. The improved electrochemical properties are studied by current density, and EIS analysis. The as-prepared Se modified Mo-W₁₈O₄₉ synthesized via Na₂SeSO₃ is investigated by FE-SEM analysis and found to exhibit spherical particles combined with nanosheets. This special morphology effectively improves the charge separation and transfer efficiency, resulting in enhanced photoelectric behavior compared with that of pure Mo-W₁₈O₄₉. The nanomaterial obtained via Na₂SeSO₃ solution demonstrates a high HER activity and low overpotential of -0.34 V, allowing it to deliver a current density of 10 mA cm^-2.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.158-172
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• 2020

In the aspect of saving energy and water, facilitating the separation membrane for the water treatment has been rising recently as one of the possible solutions. However, microbial biofouling effect is the biggest obstacle that hinders reaching higher permeability over a prolonged period of nanofiltration operation. To solve this problem and fully utilize the filtration membranes with enhanced performance, largely two kinds of solutions are studied and the first and the most commonly mentioned type is the one using the silver nanoparticles. Since silver nanoparticles are important to be well tailored on membrane surface, various methods have been applied and suggested. Using silver nanoparticles however also has the drawbacks or possible toxicity risks, raising the need for other types of utilizing non silver particles to functionalize the membrane, such as copper, graphene or zinc oxides, and amine moieties. Each attempt included in either kind has produced some notable results in killing, preventing, or repelling the bacteria while at the same time, left some unsolved points to be evaluated. In this review, the effects of metal nanoparticles and other materials on the antifouling properties of water treatment membranes are summarized.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.398-405
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• 2015

Facilitated transport is considered to be a possible solution to simultaneously improve permeability and selectivity, which is challenging in normal polymeric membranes based on solution-diffusion transport only. We investigated the effect of adding mesoporous $TiO_2$ ($m-TiO_2$) upon the separation performance of facilitated olefin transport membranes comprising poly(vinyl pyrrolidone), Ag nanoparticles, and 7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane as the polymer matrix, olefin carrier, and electron acceptor, respectively. In particular, $m-TiO_2$ was prepared by means of a facile, mass-producible method using poly(vinyl chloride)-g-poly(oxyethylene methacrylate) graft copolymer as the template. The crystal phase of $m-TiO_2$ consisted of an anatase/rutile mixture, of crystallite size approximately 16 nm as determined by X-ray diffraction. The introduction of $m-TiO_2$ increased the membrane diffusivity, thereby increasing the mixed-gas permeance from 1.6 to 16.0 GPU ($1GPU=10^{-6}cm^3$(STP)/($s{\times}cm^2{\times}cmHg$), and slightly decreased the propylene/propane selectivity from 45 to 37. However, both the mixed-gas permeance and selectivity of the membrane containing $m-TiO_2$ rapidly decreased over time, whereas the membrane without $m-TiO_2$ had more stable long-term performance. This difference might be attributed to specific chemical interactions between $TiO_2$ and Ag nanoparticles, causing Ag to lose activity as an olefin carrier.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.15-26
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• 2017

Cobalt ferrocyanide (CoFC) or nickel ferrocyanide (NiFC) magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) were fabricated for efficient removal of radioactive cesium, followed by rapid magnetic separation of the absorbent from contaminated water. The $Fe_3O_4$ nanoparticles, synthesized using a co-precipitation method, were coated with succinic acid (SA) to immobilize the Co or Ni ions through metal coordination to carboxyl groups in the SA. CoFC or NiFC was subsequently formed on the surfaces of the MNPs as Co or Ni ions coordinated with the hexacyanoferrate ions. The CoFC-MNPs and NiFC-MNPs possess good saturation magnetization values ($43.2emu{\cdot}g^{-1}$ for the CoFC-MNPs, and $47.7emu{\cdot}g^{-1}$ for the NiFC-MNPs). The fabricated CoFC-MNPs and NiFC-MNPs were characterized by XRD, FT-IR, TEM, and DLS. The adsorption capability of the CoFC-MNPs and NiFC-MNPs in removing cesium ions from water was also investigated. Batch experiments revealed that the maximum adsorption capacity values were $15.63mg{\cdot}g^{-1}$ (CoFC-MNPs) and $12.11mg{\cdot}g^{-1}$ (NiFC-MNPs). Langmuir/Freundlich adsorption isotherm equations were used to fit the experimental data and evaluate the adsorption process. The CoFC-MNPs and NiFC-MNPs exhibited a removal efficiency exceeding 99.09% for radioactive cesium from $^{137}Cs$ solution ($18-21Bq{\cdot}g^{-1}$). The adsorbent selectively adsorbed $^{137}Cs$, even in the presence of competing cations.