• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.52-60
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• 2013

Partially hydrolyzed cellulose acetate (CA) fibers were prepared by treating CA fibers in aqueous $Na_2CO_3$ solutions of various concentrations. The deacetylation of CA fibers was confirmed through FTIR spectra and WAXD patterns. The hydrolysis was confined to the surface part of the CA fiber by controlling the treatment conditions. The resultant fibers had a sheath-core structure with a sheath component of regenerated cellulose and a core of non-hydrolyzed cellulose acetate. The SEM images of the surface-hydrolyzed CA fibers, the core of which was dissolved out using acetone as the solvent, showed that the sheath thickness increased with increasing alkaline concentration, indicating an increase in the hydrolyzed fiber, i.e., regenerated cellulose. Polarized FTIR analysis of the polyimide film rubbed with velvet fabrics of surface-hydrolyzed CA fibers showed that polyimide molecules were preferentially oriented to the rubbing direction.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.40-43
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• 2010

In this study, polyimide(PI) nanofibers mats were prepared by electrospinning and three different fiber morphologies of random, uniaxial, and biaxial orientation were prepared by controlling the speed of drum-shaped collector and other parameters. The SEM studies reveal that the aforesaid morphologies were obtained on the nano-fibrous mats prepared. The ionic conductivity was measured using an in-plane type conductivity tester for the PI mats soaked in the mixture of 1M lithium trifluoro-methane-sulfonate and tetra-ethylene glycol dimethyl ether. The ionic conductivity was surprisingly higher for the biaxial PI mats. For the uniaxially-oriented mats, the ionic conductivity was found to be higher in the parallel direction compared to the perpendicular direction of the fiber orientation. A curious cyclic fluctuation was found in the ionic conductivity with time. The observed behavior was explained by considering the distance between fibers and transport speed of ions used in this study.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.08a
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• pp.297.2-297.2
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• 2013

Scavenging electricity from wasteful energy resources is currently an important issue and piezoelectric nanogenerators (NGs) based on zinc oxide (ZnO) are promising energy harvesters that can be adapted to various portable, wearable, self-powered electronic devices. Although ZnO has several advantages for NGs, the piezoelectric semiconductor material ZnO generate an intrinsic piezoelectric potential of a few volts as a result of its mechanical deformation. As grown, ZnO is usually n-type, a property that was historically ascribed to native defects. Oxygen vacancies (Vo) that work as donors exist in ZnO thin film and usually screen some parts of the piezoelectric potential. Consequently, the ZnO NGs' piezoelectric power cannot reach to its theoretical value, and thus decreasing the effect from Vo is essential. In the present study, c-axis oriented insulator-like sputtered ZnO thin films were grown in various temperatures to fabricate an optimized nanogenerator (NGs). The purity and crystalinity of ZnO were investigated with photoluminescence (PL). Moreover, by introducing a p-type polymer usually used in organic solar cell, it was discussed how piezoelectric passivation effect works in ZnO thin films having different types of defects. Prepared ZnO thin films have both Zn vacancies (accepter like) and oxygen vacancies (donor like). It generates output voltage 20 time lager than n-type dominant semiconducting ZnO thin film without p-type polymer conjugating. The enhancement is due to the internal accepter like point defects, zinc vacancies (VZn). When the more VZn concentration increases, the more chances to prevent piezoelectric potential screening effects are occurred, consequently, the output voltage is enhanced. Moreover, by passivating remained effective oxygen vacancies by p-type polymers, we demonstrated further power enhancement.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.140-145
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• 2006

E-science refers to the large-scale science that will increasingly be carried out through distributed global collaborations enabled by the Internet. The Grid is a service-oriented architecture proposed to provide access to very large data collections, very large scale computing resources and remote facilities. Web services, which are server applications, enable online access to service providers. Web portal interfaces can further hide the complexity of accessing facility's services. The main use of synchrotron radiation (SR) facilities by protein crystallographers is to collect the best possible diffraction data for reasonably well defined problems. Significant effort is therefore being made throughout the world to automate SR protein crystallography facilities so scientists can achieve high throughput, even if they are not expert in all the techniques. By applying the above technologies, the e-HTPX project, a distributed computing infrastructure, was designed to help scientists remotely plan, initiate and monitor experiments for protein crystallographic structure determination. A description of both the hardware and control software is given together in this paper.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.62-69
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• 2011

This paper presents a new simple two-dimensional frame finite element able to accurately estimate the load-carrying capacity of reinforced concrete beams flexurally strengthened externally bonded fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) strips and plates. The proposed analysis model considers distributed plasticity with layer-discretization of the cross-sections and the bond-slip behavior of epoxy layer. The proposed model is used to predict the load-carrying capacity and the applied load-midspan deflection response of RC beams subjected to bending loading. Numerical simulations and experimental measurements are compared based on numerous tests available in the literature and published by different authors. The numerically simulated response agree remarkably well with the corresponding experimental results. Thus, the proposed model is suitable for efficient and accurate modeling and analysis of flexural strengthening of RC beams with externally bonded FRP sheets/plates and for practical use in design-oriented parametric studies.

• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.257-270
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• 2022

Recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) is rarely used in load-carrying structural members. To widen its structural application, the compressive behavior of a promising type of composite column, steel-fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) double-tube confined RAC column, has been experimentally and analytically investigated in this study. The objectives are the different performance of such columns from their counterparts using natural aggregate concrete (NAC) and the different mechanisms of the double-tube and single-tube confined concrete. The single-tube confined concrete refers to that in concrete-filled steel tubular (CFST) columns and concrete-filled FRP tubular (CFFT) columns. The test results showed that the use of recycled coarse aggregates (RCA) affected the axial load-strain response in terms of deformation capacity but such effect could be eliminated with the increasing confinement. The composite effect can be triggered by the double confinement of the steel and carbon FRP (CFRP) tubes but not by the steel and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) FRP tubes. The proposed analysis-oriented stress-strain model is capable to capture the load-deformation history of such steel-FRP double-tube confined concrete columns under axial compression.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.173-184
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• 2023

In this study, the flexural behaviors of one- and two-way reinforced concrete (RC) slabs strengthened with carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) strips under impact loads were investigated. The flexural strengthening of RC slabs under simulated static monotonic loads has been comprehensively studied. However, the flexural behavior of RC slabs strengthened with CFRP strips has not been investigated extensively, particularly those conducted numerically. Nonlinear three-dimensional finite element models were developed, executed, and verified against previous experimental results, producing satisfactory models with approximately 4% error. The models were extended to a parametric study, considering three geometric parameters: the slab rectangularity ratio, CFRP strip width, and CFRP strip configuration. Finally, the main results were used to derive a new formula for predicting the total deflection of RC slabs strengthened with CFRP strips under impact loads with an error of approximately 10%. The proposed equation reflected the slab rectangularity, CFRP strip width, equivalent slab stiffness, and dropped weight. Results indicated that the use of CFRP strips enhanced the overall impact performance, the wider the CFRP width, the better the enhancement. Moreover, the application of diagonally oriented CFRP strips diminished the cracking zone compared to straight strips. Additionally, the diagonal orientation of CFRP strips was more efficient for two-way slabs while the vertical orientation was found to be better in the case of one-way slabs.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.405-415
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• 1999

In general, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is usually used in the investigation of polymer microstructure. Microtoming, solution casting, staining and carbon replica method are frequently introduced to the study of the polymer morphology with TEM, however the sample preparation procedure of those techniques is very difficult, and it takes a long time. The purpose of this study is to develop a new sample preparation technique which is suitable for the investigation of the various shapes and species of polyolefin microstructure by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). By modifying the conventional chemical etching method, we developed a new chemical etching technique and sample preparation procedure that are suitable for SEM study of polymer microstructure. In this study the permanganate etching method is introduced and the optimum etching condition are determined by simply adjusting the etchant formulation, concentration and etching time. This technique has shown good reproducibility and it's morphological results agree well with other works on various types of microstructures such as spherulite characterization of isotatic polypropylene $(\alpha/\beta)$, polyethylene and poly-propylene copolymer characterization, and the study of lamellar growth pattern of unsheared or oriented materials. This technique has also been applied to the industrial fields for characterization of the polyolefin film, automobile products and the others.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.314-320
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• 2004

Soluble aromatic polyimides bearing 4-(4-oxyalkyleneoxystyryl)- pyridines (ethylene and hexylene) as photoreactive side groups were synthesized and characterized. The photoreactive polymers were soluble in various polar organic solvents and their films were easily formed by solution casting. The photoreactivities of the polymers in the film state were approximately 64% at an exposure energy of 1.5 J/$\textrm{cm}^2$. Transmittances of the polymer films were about 85% after annealing at 20$0^{\circ}C$. Therefore, these polymers can be evaluated to be photoreactive polyimides with good transparency and solubility. The dichroic ratios of the polymers with ethylene and hexylene groups as the alkylene spacers were 0.023 and 0.026, respectively. The order parameters of 4'-pentyl-4-bipheny1carbonitrile as a liquid crystal (LC) in the film cells of the former and latter polymers were 0.50 and 0.52, respectively. These results indicate that the polymers show the effect of alkylene spacer on the photoalignments. The LC in the film cells of the polymers was perpendicularly oriented to the electric vector of the linear polarized UV light (LPUVL).

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.744-752
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• 2013

The miscibility between poly(L-lactide) (PLLA) and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) was investigated using thermal analyses for the purpose of developing birefringence-free material at oriented state. The effect of methyl acrylate (MA) units as comonomer of PMMA on the miscibility was also studied. All the blends prepared in this study show composition-dependent single $T_g$'s between those of blend components and high transparency over the visible region, indicating the miscibility at molecular level and no discernible effect of MA units on it. No phase separation was observed at elevated temperature of $280^{\circ}C$, higher than the degradation of PLLA and PMMA. The interaction energy density in PLLA/PMMA blends with 17 mol% of MA was measured to be $-0.74J/cm^3$ from the equilibrium melting temperature depression based on the Hoffman-Weeks method. The blends show zero-${\Delta}$n behavior at a specific mixing ratio and the drawing ratio of 3 due to compensation of intrinsic orientation birefringence. Birefringence dispersion of PLLA/PMMA5 blends was also measured to examine the possibility for quarter-wave plates or polarizer protective films.