• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.87-92
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• 2013

Nonthermal plasma hybridized with photocatalysts is proven to be an effective tool to degrade toxic organics in wastewater. In this study, a specially designed dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma system combined with photocatalysts was applied to decompose pestiticides such as dichlorovos, carbofuran and methidathon, which are frequently used in the golf courses and the orange plantations. The degradations of the pesticides in single and coupled systems were evaluated. The single system was used with ozone plasma which consisted of electrons, radicals, ions produced by oxygen gas and air, with and without ultra-violet (UV) irradiation, respectively. The coupled systems utilized the air-derived ozone plasma combined with zinc oxide, titanium dioxide and graphite oxide photocatalyst activated by UV. The graphite oxide was synthesized by a modified Hummer's method and characterized using FTIR spectrometer. It was elucidated that the plasma reaction with graphite oxide (0.01 g/L) brought about almost 100% of degradation degrees for dichlorovos and carbofuran in 60 min, as compared with the performances showed by no catalyst condition. The photocatalyst-hybridized plasma in the presence of UV irradiation was proven to be an effective alternative for degrading pesticides.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.34 no.11
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• pp.3227-3232
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• 2013

A novel Cu-Co-O composite nanocatalyst was designed and prepared for the ozonation of phenol. A synergistic effect of copper and cobalt was observed over the Cu-Co-O composite nanocatalyst, which showed higher activity than either copper or cobalt oxide alone. In addition, the Cu-Co-O composite revealed good activity in a wide initial pH range (4.11-8.05) of water. The fine dispersion of cobalt on the surface of copper oxide boosted the interaction between catalyst and ozone, and the surface Lewis acid sites on the Cu-Co-O composite were determined as the active sites. The Raman spectroscopy also proved that the Cu-Co-O composite was quite sensitive to the ozone. The trivalent cobalt in the Cu-Co-O composite was proposed as the valid state.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.08a
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• pp.304-304
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• 2010

The study on the catalytic oxidation of carbon monoxide (CO) to carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) using the noble metals has long been the interest subject and the recent progress in nanoscience provides the opportunity to develop new model systems of catalysts in this field. Of the noble metal catalysts, we selected ruthenium (Ru) as metal catalyst due to its unusual catalytic behavior. The size of colloid Ru NPs was controlled by the concentration of Ru precursor and the final reduction temperatures. For catalytic activity of CO oxidation, it was found that the trend is dependent on the size of Ru NPs. In order to explain this trend, the surface oxide layer surrounding the metal core has been suggested as the catalytically active species through several studies. In this poster, we show the influence of surface oxide on Ru NPs on the catalytic activity of CO oxidation using chemical treatments including oxidation, reduction and UV-Ozone surface treatment. The changes occurring to UV-Ozone surface treatment will be characterized with XPS and SEM. The catalytic activity before and after the chemical modification were measured. We discuss the trend of catalytic activity in light of the formation of core-shell type oxide on nanoparticles surfaces.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.433-437
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• 2013

Electrical discharge plasma created in a multi-channel porous ceramic membrane-supported catalyst was applied to the decomposition of a volatile organic compound (VOC). For the purpose of improving the oxidation capability, the ceramic membrane used as a low-pressure drop catalyst support was loaded with zinc oxide photocatalyst by the incipient wetness impregnation method. Alternating current-driven discharge plasma was created inside the porous ceramic membrane to produce reactive species such as radicals, ozone, ions and excited molecules available for the decomposition of VOC. As the voltage supplied to the reactor increased, the plasma discharge gradually propagated in the radial direction, creating an uniform plasma in the entire ceramic membrane above a certain voltage. Ethylene was used as a model VOC. The ethylene decomposition efficiency was examined with experimental variables such as the specific energy density, inlet ethylene concentration and zinc oxide loading. When compared at the identical energy density, the decomposition efficiency obtained with the zinc oxide-loaded ceramic membrane was substantially higher than that of the bare membrane case. Both nitrogen and oxygen played an important role in initiating the decomposition of ethylene. The rate of the decomposition is governed by the quantity of reactive species generated by the plasma, and a strong dependence of the decomposition efficiency on the initial concentration was observed.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.302-307
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• 2012

Advanced oxidation processes (AOP) such as O3/activated carbon process and O3/catalysts process were used to compare the decomposition of phenol. Catalysts such as Pd/activated carbon (Pd/AC), Mn/activated carbon (Mn/AC), Co/activated carbon (Co/AC) and Fe/activated carbon (Fe/AC) were prepared by impregnation of Pd, Mn, Co and Fe into the activated carbon of pellet form, respectively. Based on an hour of reactions, the following descending order for the decomposition ratios of dissolved O3 to the 1.48 mg/L of saturated dissolved O3 was observed: Mn/AC (45%) > Pd/AC (42%) > Co/AC (33%) > AC (31%) > Fe/AC (27%). The removal efficiencies of phenol were also arranged in the descending order of AOP as follows: Mn/AC (89%) > Pd/AC (85%) > Co/AC (77%) > AC (76%) > Fe/AC (71%). The remaining ratios (C/Co) of TOC (total organic carbon) after an hour of experiments were arranged in the ascending order of AOP as follows : Pd/AC (0.29) < Mn/AC (0.36) < AC (0.40) < Co/AC (0.49) < Fe/AC (0.51). However, the catalytic effects in the Co/AC and the Fe/AC processes were little in comparison with O3/AC process. The maximum concentrations of intermediates such as hydroquinone and catechol formed from the decomposition of phenol were arranged in the ascending order of AOP as follows: Pd/AC < Fe/AC < Co/AC < AC < Mn/AC. In the case of Pd/AC process, these intermediates were almost disappeared after an one hour of reaction.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.132-132
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• 2013

Colloidal synthesis of nanoparticles with well-controlled size, shape, and composition, together with development of in situ surface science characterization tools, such as ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (APXPS), has brought new opportunities to unravel the surface structure of working catalysts. Recent studies suggest that surface oxides on transition metal nanoparticles play an important role in determining the catalytic activity of CO oxidation. In this talk, I will outline the recent studies on the influence of surface oxides on Rh, Pt, Ru and Co nanoparticles on the catalytic activity of CO oxidation [1-3]. Transition metal nanoparticle model catalysts were synthesized in the presence of poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) polymer capping agent and deposited onto a flat Si support as two-dimensional arrays using the Langmuir-Blodgett deposition technique. APXPS studies exhibited the reversible formation of surface oxides during oxidizing, reducing, and CO oxidation reaction [4]. General trend is that the smaller nanoparticles exhibit the thicker surface oxides, while the bigger ones have the thin oxide layers. Combined with the nature of surface oxides, this trend leads to the different size dependences of catalytic activity. Such in situ observations of metal nanoparticles are useful in identifying the active state of the catalysts during use and, hence, may allow for rational catalyst designs for practical applications. I will also show that the surface oxide can be engineered by using the simple surface treatment such as UV-ozone techniques, which results in changing the catalytic activity [5]. The results suggest an intriguing way to tune catalytic activity via engineering of the nanoscale surface oxide.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.68-74
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• 2015

NOx emission has been controlled because it is a major cause of the acid rain and effects considerably on formation and destruction of ozone. A SCR system on diesel engine is necessary to clear TierIII, because IMO(International Maritime Organization) plans on tightening regulations to TierIII at $1^{st}$ January 2016. In this study, flow analysis was accomplished with ANSYS Fluent program so that the SCR system would be retrofitted in training ship KAYA and the temperature distributions of exhaust gas in SCR sytem were investigated after it was installed. As a result, it was confirmed that pressure and velocity distributions in SCR system were depended on pipe line shapes, then it was designed as the pressure was lower. The temperature differential between 1 and 3 point was $15^{\circ}C$ because of evaporative latent heat of urea and the temperature of 4 point after catalyst was increased by $5^{\circ}C$ than 3 point because of exothermic reaction.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.653-657
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• 2009

Nitrous oxide is a typical greenhouse gas which is produced from various organic or fossil fuel combustion processes as well as chemicals producing plants. $N_2O$ has a global worming potential of 310 times that of $CO_2$ on per molecule basis, and also acts as an ozone depleting material in the stratosphere. However, its removal is not easy for its chemical stability characteristics. Most SCR processes with several effective reducing agents generally require the operation temperature higher than $450^{\circ}C$, and the catalytic conversion becomes decreased significantly when NOx is present in the stream. Present experiments have been performed to obtain basic design data of actual application concerning the effects of $SO_2$ and $NH_3$ on the interim and long term activities of $N_2O$ reduction with CO over the mixed metal oxide (MMO) catalyst derived from a hydrotalcite-like compound precursor. The MMO catalysts used in the experiments, have shown prominent activities displaying full conversions of $N_2O$ near $200^{\circ}C$ when CO is introduced. The presence of $SO_2$ is considered to show no critical behavior as can be met in the $NH_3$ SCR DeNOx systems and the effect of $NH_3$ is considered to play as mere an impurity to share the active sites of the catalysts.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.215-223
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• 2005

Non-thermal plasma decomposition of gas-phase styrene was investigated in this study using three different types of plasma reactors; dielectric-barrier discharge (DBD) reactor, surface discharge (SD) reactor and plasma-driven catalyst (PDC) reactor packed with 2.0 wt% $Ag/TiO_2$ catalysts. The main parameters used for the comparative assessment of the plasma reactors include the decomposition efficiency, carbon balance, byproduct distribution, COx ($CO+CO_2$) selectivity and COx yield. The SD and the DBD reactors showed better conversion efficiency of styrene than that of the PDC reactor due to their larger capability in ozone formation. On the other hand, the PDC reactor showed better carbon balance, the yield and the selectivity of COx. The required specific input energies to achieve 100% carbon balance from the decomposition of 100 ppmv styrene using the plasma alone reactors and the PDC reactor were 420 J/L and 110 J/L, respectively. The major decomposition products in gas-phase were CO, $CO_2$ and HCOOH regardless of the types of plasma reactors. In the case of SD and DBD reactors, the $CO_2$ selectivity ranged in $39.5{\sim}60%$. The $CO_2$ selectivity in the PDC reactor was in range of $68.5{\sim}75.5%$.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.547-555
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• 2021

A catalyst-plasma reactor was applied to the storage of agricultural products, e.g., apple and kiwi, to remove the ethylene generated during the storage. Two 1-m³ unit containers were prepared, and the long-term storage stability of the control group at room temperature was compared with that of the experimental group of which the produced ethylene was treated by the catalyst-plasma reactor. In case of the experimental group, a small amount of ozone was injected to the unit container to suppress the growth of microorganisms such as mold. The apples and kiwis were stored at room temperature for 50 and 57 days, respectively, and the changes in ethylene concentration, hardness, sugar content, acidity, and loss rate were compared. The ethylene concentration during the storage for the control group was higher than that for the experimental group, indicating that the ethylene was effectively removed. Hardness, sugar content, and sugar acid ratio after the storage were better than before the storage, and in particular, the storage stability of kiwifruit was improved significantly. In addition, after the storage, the loss rates of apples and kiwis in the control group were 10 and 54.1%, respectively, but the loss rates in the experimental group were 6 and 34.8%, respectively. Therefore, the storage stability of the experimental group was a lot better than that of the control group.