• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.55 no.9
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• pp.3260-3267
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• 2023

Zr-Nb alloy have been widely used as fuel rods in nuclear power plants. However, from the Fukushima nuclear accident, the weakness of the rod was revealed under harsh conditions, and research on the safety of these types of rods was conducted after the disaster. The method of depositing chromium onto the existing Zr-Nb alloy fuel rods is being considered as a means by which to compensate for the weakness of Zr-Nb alloy rods because chromium is strong against oxidation at high temperatures and has high strength. In order to secure these advantages, it is important to maintain the Cr thickness of the rods and properly inspect the rods before and during their use in power generation. Eddy current testing is a typical means of evaluating the thickness of thin metals and detecting surface defects. Depending on the size and shape of the inspected object, various eddy current sensors can be applied. In particular, because pancake sensors can be manufactured in very small sizes, they can be used for inspections even in narrow spaces, such as a nuclear fuel assembly. In this study, an eddy current technique was developed to confirm the feasibility of Cr coating thickness evaluations. After determining the design parameters of the pancake sensor by means of a FEM simulation, a FPCB pancake sensor was manufactured and the optimal frequency was selected by measuring minute changes in the Cr-coating thickness using the developed sensor.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.213-213
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• 2012

In this study, effect of EB-PVD coated Si/HA film thickness on surface characteristics of Ti-35Nb-10Zr alloy was investigated. The Ti-35Nb-10Zr alloy was fabricated by arc melting method. The Si/HA layers were coated with 0.8 wt.% of Si in pure HA by EB-PVD method. The coating thickness was consisted with 100 - 300 nm for each group, the surface characteristics was analyzed by FE-SEM, EDS, XRD, XRF and corrosion test. The Si/HA coating layer was well deposited on the alloy surface by EB-PVD, the thickness was correlative factor with HA peaks and corrosion resistance value.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2017.05a
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• pp.152-152
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• 2017

Titanium and its alloys have been widely used for biomedical applications. However, the use of the Ti-6Al-4V alloy in biomaterial is then a subject of controversy because aluminum ions and vanadium oxide have potential detrimental influence on the human body due to vanadium and aluminum. Hence, recent works showed that the synthesis of new Ti-based alloys for implant application involves more biocompatible metallic alloying element,such as, Nb, Hf, Zr and Mo. In particular, Nb and Hf are one of the most effective Ti ${\beta}$-stabilizer and reducing the elastic modulus. Plasma electrolyte oxidation (PEO) is known as excellent method in the biocompatibility of biomaterial due to quickly coating time and controlled coating condition. The anodized oxide layer and diameter modulation of Ti alloys can be obtained function of improvement of cell adhesion. Silicon (Si) and magnesium (Mg) has a beneficial effect on bone. Si in particular has been found to be essential for normal bone and cartilage growth and development. In vitro studies have shown that Mg plays very important roles in essential for normal growth and metabolism of skeletal tissue in vertebrates and can be detected as minor constituents in teeth and bone. Therefore, in this study, Si and Mg coatings on the hydroxyapatite film formed Ti-29Nb-xHf alloys by plasma electrolyte oxidation has been investigated using several experimental techniques. Ti-29Nb-xHf (x= 0, 3, 7 and 15wt%, mass fraction) alloys were prepared Ti-29Nb-xHf alloys of containing Hf up from 0 wt% to 15 wt% were melted by using a vacuum furnace. Ti-29Nb-xHf alloys were homogenized for 2 hr at $1050^{\circ}C$. The electrolyte was Si and Mg ions containing calcium acetate monohydrate + calcium glycerophosphate at room temperature. The microstructure, phase and composition of Si and Mg coated oxide surface of Ti-29Nb-xHf alloys were examined by FE-SEM, EDS, and XRD.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.136-141
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• 2015

The paper presents the comparative results of NbN coatings deposited by DC and pulsed DC asymmetric bipolar magnetron sputtering systems. The results show that, with the decreasing duty cycle and increasing pulse frequency, the coating morphology changes from a columnar to a dense structure, with finer grains. The Pulsed sputtered NbN coatings showed higher hardness, higher residual stress, and smaller grain sizes than those of DC prepared NbN coatings. Moreover residual stress of pulsed sputtered NbN coatings increased on increasing pulse frequency. Meanwhile, the surface roughness decreased continuously with increasing pulsed DC frequency up to 50 kHz.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2015.11a
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• pp.139-140
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• 2015

Zn/HA coating on the Ti-xNb alloys after nanotube formation for dental lmplant was researched using various experimental methods. Due to g ood biocompatibility and osteoconductivity, hydroxyapatite (HA) coating s on metallic biomedical implants were widely employed in orthopedic and dental applications. To improve biocompatibilities, Zinc (Zn) plays very important roles in the bone formation and immune reg ulations. The nanotube formed Zn-HA films were characterized with X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS).

• Proceedings of the Korean Magnestics Society Conference
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• 1995.10a
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• pp.62-63
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• 1995

• Proceedings of the Korean Magnestics Society Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.142-143
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• 2005

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.23 no.7
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• pp.353-358
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• 2013

To improve coating ability and the life of the coating, Ti based composite materials with hydroxyapatite(HA) should be developed. The raw materials of Ti-26wt%, Nb-1wt%, and Si with 10wt% HA were mixed for 24 h by a mixing machine and milled for 1 h to 6 h by planetary mechanical ball milling. Ti-26%Nb-1%Si-(10%HA) composites, composed of nontoxic elements, were fabricated successfully by spark plasma sintering(SPS) at $1000^{\circ}C$ under 70MPa. The relative density of the sintered Ti-Nb-Si-HA composites using the 24 h mixed powder, and the 6 h milled powder, was 91% and 97 %, respectively. The effects of HA contents and milling time on microstructure and mechanical properties were investigated by SEM and hardness tester, respectively. The Vickers hardness of the composites increased with increasing milling time and higher HA content. The Young's modulus of the sintered Ti-26%Nb-1%Si-10%HA composite using the 6 h-milled powder was 55.6 GPa, as obtained by compression test. Corrosion resistance of the Ti-26wt%Nb-1wt%Si composite was increased by milling and by the addition of 10wt%HA. Wear resistance was improved with increasing milling time. Biocompatibility of the Ti-Nb-Si alloys was improved by the addition of HA.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.33-37
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• 2017

Single phase niobium nitride (NbN) coatings were deposited using asymmetric bipolar pulsed dc sputtering by varying pulse frequency and duty cycle of pulsed plasmas. Crystal structure, microstructure, morphology and mechanical properties were examined using XRD, FE-SEM, AFM and nanoindentation. Upon increasing pulse frequencies and decreasing duty cycles, the coating morphology was changed from a pyramidal-shaped columnar structure to a round-shaped dense structure with finer grains. Asymmetric bipolar pulsed dc sputtered NbN coatings deposited at pulse frequency of 25 kHz is characterized by higher hardness up to 17.4 GPa, elastic modulus up to 193.9 GPa, residual compressive stress and a smaller grain size down to 27.5 nm compared with dc sputtered NbN coatings at pulse frequency of 0 kHz. The results suggest that the asymmetric bipolar pulsed dc sputtering technique is very beneficial to reactive deposition of transition-metal nitrides such as NbN coatings.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.245-251
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• 2017

Niobium doped zirconium oxide (Nb-Zr-O:NZO) thin films were fabricated on Si substrates by a sol-gel technique with an annealing temperatures of $500{\sim}1000^{\circ}C$ in air ($N_2:O_2=3:1$) for 20 minutes. It was found that the NZO film is based on tetragonal $ZrO_2$ polycrystalline structure with the Nb 5+ ion state and there is almost no diffusion of Nb or Zr to Si substrate. The relative dielectric constant for the NZO film with the Nb composition of 30 mol% and annealed at $800^{\circ}C$ was around 40. The root mean roughness was 1.02 nm. In addition, the leakage current of NZO films was as low as $10^{-6}A/cm^2$ at 4.4 V.