• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.372-385
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• 2014

Lignin is an abundant natural polymer in the biosphere and second only to cellulose; however, it is under-utilized and considered a waste. In this study, lignin was fabricated into nanofibers via electrospinning. The critical parameters that affected the electrospinnability and morphology of the resulting fibers were examined with the aim to utilize lignin as a resource for a new textile material. Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) was added as a carrier polymer to facilitate the fiber formation of lignin, and the electrospun fibers were deposited on polyester (PET) nonwoven substrate. Eleven lignin/PVA hybrid solutions with a different lignin to PVA mass ratio were prepared and then electrospun to find an optimum concentration. Lignin nano-fibers were electrospun under a variety of conditions such as various feed rates, needle gauges, electric voltage, and tip-to-collector distances in order to find an optimum spinning condition. We found that the optimum concentration for electrospinning was a 5wt% PVA precursor solution upon the addition of lignin with the mass ratio of PVA:lignin=1:5.6. The viscosity of the lignin/PVA hybrid solution was determined as an important parameter that affected the electrospinning process; in addition, the interrelation between the viscosity of hybrid solution and the electrospinnability was examined. The solution viscosity increased with lignin loading, but exhibited a shear thinning behavior beyond a certain concentration that resulted in needle clogging. A steep increase in viscosity was also noted when the electrospun system started to form fibers. Consequently, the viscosity range to produce bead-free lignin nanofibers was revealed. The energy dispersive X-ray analysis confirmed that lignin remained after being transformed into nanofibers. The results indicate the possibility of developing a new fiber material that utilizes biomass with resulting fibers that can be applied to various applications such as filtration to wound dressing.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.230-234
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• 2006

This study discusses an esterification of trifluoroethanol (TFEA) with methacrylic acid (MA) using acid-resistant PVA pervaporation membrane. The acid-resistant PVA membranes, which were prepared via a thermal cross-linking reaction of PVA and EGDE were adopted in the esterification reaction. The effect of reaction conditions such as temperature, acid catalyst content, and initial molar ratio of TFEA/MA was investigated on the conversion of trifluoroethyl-methacrylate (TFEMA). It was found that TFEMA conversion increased with increasing the reaction temperature, the catalyst content, and the initial molar ratio. The economical conversion of TFEMA more than about 90% was obtained at the following reaction conditions: reaction temperature of $90^{\circ}C$, 2.5 wt% of catalyst and initial molar ratio of 1.7.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.134-141
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• 2017

Many studies have been conducted with respect to the materials to replace the cement in order to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions during the cement production. Activated hwangtoh as cement replacement material goes through calcination process of $850^{\circ}C$. PVA fibers and GFRP bars are used in order to compensate for the cracks of activated hwangtoh concrete(AHC). This paper presents an experimental study investigating the bond characteristic of GFRP bars in PVA fiber reinforced AHC under tensile loads. Experimental results showed that average bond strength factor of specimens with and without PVA fiber was 2.27~2.48 and was not significantly affected by the ratio of PVA fiber andactivated hwangtoh. In addition, as the bond length was increased, the bond strength was reduced.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.22 no.11
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• pp.609-614
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• 2012

We report on the NO gas sensing properties of non-directional ZnO nanofibers synthesized using a typical electrospinning technique. These non-directional ZnO nanofibers were electrospun on an $SiO_2$/Si substrate from a solution containing poly vinyl alcohol (PVA) and zinc nitrate hexahydrate dissolved in distilled water. Calcination processing of the ZnO/PVA composite nanofibers resulted in a random network of polycrystalline ZnO nanofibers of 50 nm to 100 nm in diameter. The diameter of the nanofibers was found to depend primarily on the solution viscosity; a proper viscosity was maintained by adding PVA to fabricate uniform ZnO nanofibers. Microstructural measurements using scanning electron microscopy revealed that our synthesized ZnO nanofibers after calcination had coarser surface morphology than those before calcination, indicating that the calcination processing was sufficient to remove organic contents. From the gas sensing response measurements for various NO gas concentrations in dry air at several working temperatures, it was found that gas sensors based on electrospun ZnO nanofibers showed quite good responses, exhibiting a maximum sensitivity to NO gas in dry air at an operating temperature of $200^{\circ}C$. In particular, the non-directional electrospun ZnO nanofiber gas sensors were found to have a good NO gas detection limit of sub-ppm levels in dry air. These results illustrate that non-directional electrospun ZnO nanofibers are promising for use in low-cost, high-performance practical NO gas sensors.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.550-555
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• 2006

The coating material for the ink-jet printing paper tends to be waterbase as the waterbase ink-jet ink is used more widely. Waterbase coating material consists of alumina sol as a pigment, poly(vinyl alcohol) as a main binder and polymeric additive for improving properties. In this study, polymeric auditive was synthesized by combining one or toto monomers among methacrylic acid, acrylic acid and acrylamide to the basic monomers, styrene and n-butylacrylate. The properties of printability such as ink absorption, ink spreading, and optical density, glossiness and water resistance were investigated by changing the kinds of surfactants, the composition of monomers and the structure of polymer particles. Results showed that materials containing anionic surfactant and/or acrylic acid had problems in com-patibility with alumina sol. Also, coating materials containing acrylamide had good printability and lout glossiness while those containing methacrylic acid did not have good printability and high glossiness.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.47 no.4
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• pp.292-296
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• 2012

An electric double-layer capacitor (ELDC) of activated carbon electrode is prepared using a proton-conducting hydrogel polymer electrolyte, which is composed of poly(vinyl alcohol), silicotungstic acid, $H_3PO_4$, and deionized water. A solid film by evaporating the hydrogel polymer electrolyte is also prepared for comparison. The hydrogel polymer electrolyte also acts as a separator with the thickness of about $80{\mu}m$ and the room-temperature ionic conductivity of $10^{-2}S\;cm^{-1}$. The EDLC containing the symmetric electrodes of activated carbon shows the specific capacitance of $58F\;g^{-1}$ at $100mV\;s^{-1}$ with a good cycle life, implying that the hydrogel polymer electrolyte is very promising for use in EDLCs.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.36-36
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• 1992

This paper deals with the separation of MTBE-methanol mixtures using crosslinked Poly(vinyl alcohol)(PVA) membranes with sulfur-succinic acid(SSA) as a crosslinking agent by pervaporation and vapor permeation technique. The operating temperatures, methanol concentration in feed mixtures, and SSA concentrations in PVA membranes were varied to investigate the separation performance of PVA/SSA membranes and the optimum separation characteristics by pervaporation and vapor permeation. And also, for PVA/SSA membranes, the swelling measurements were carried out to study the transport phenomena. The swelling measurements were carried out for pure MTBE and methanol, and MTBE/methanol=90/10, 80/20 mixtures using PVA/SSA membranes with varying SSA compositions. There are two factors of the membrane network and the hydrogen bonding. In pervaporation separation was also carried out for MTBE/methanol=90/10, 80/20 mixtures at various temperatures. The sulfuric acid group in SSA took an important role in the membrane performance. The crosslinking effect might be over the hydrogen bonding effect due to the sulfuric acid group at 3 and 5% SSA membranes, and this two factors act vice versa on 7% SSA membrane. In this case, the 5% SSA membrane shows the highest separation factor of 2,095 with the flux of 12.79g/㎡·hr for MTBE/methanol=80/20 mixtures at 30℃ which this mixtures show near the azeotopic composition. Compared to pervaporation, vapor permeation showed less flux and similar separation factor. In this case, the flux decreased significantly because of compact structure and the effect of hydrogen bonding. In vapor permeation, density or concentration of methanol in vaporous feed is lower than that of methanol in liquid feed, as a result, the hydrogen bonding portion between the solvent and the hydroxyl group in PVA is reduced in vapor permeation. In this case, the 7% SSA membranes shows the highest separation factor of 2,187 with the flux of 4.84g/㎡·hr for MTBE/methanol=80/20 mixtures at 30℃.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.35 no.11
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• pp.1297-1308
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• 2011

This research investigates the application of ZnO (zinc oxide) nanoparticles and $TiO_2$ (titanium dioxide) nanoparticles to polypropylene nonwoven fabrics via an electrospinning technique for the development of textile materials that can decompose harmful gases. To fabricate uniform ZnO nanocomposite fibers, two types of ZnO nanoparticles were applied. Colloidal $TiO_2$ nanoparticles were chosen to fabricate $TiO_2$ nano- composite fibers. ZnO/poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and $TiO_2$/PVA nanocomposite fibers were electrospun under a variety of conditions that include various feed rates, electric voltages, and capillary diameters. The morphology of electrospun nanocomposite fibers was examined with a field-emission scanning electron micro- scope and a transmission electron microscope. Decomposition efficiency of gaseous materials (formaldehyde, ammonia, toluene, benzene, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide) by nanocomposite fiber webs with 3wt% nano-particles (ZnO or $TiO_2$) and 7$g/m^2$ web area density was assessed. This study shows that ZnO nanoparticles in colloid were more suitable for fabricating nanocomposite fibers in which nanoparticles are evenly dispersed than in powder. A heat treatment was applied to water-soluble PVA nanofiber webs in order to stabilize the electrospun nanocomposite fibrous structure against dissolution in water. ZnO/PVA and $TiO_2$/PVA nanofiber webs exhibited a range of degradation efficiency for different types of gases. For nitrogen dioxide, the degradation efficiency was 92.2% for ZnO nanocomposite fiber web and 87% for $TiO_2$ nanocomposite fiber web after 20 hours of UV light irradiation. The results indicate that ZnO/PVA and $TiO_2$/PVA nano- composite fiber webs have possible uses in functional textiles that can decompose harmful gases.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.64-75
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• 1998

The purpose of this study is to produce high putity composite powder composed of Fe-oxide, Mn-oxide and Mn-ferrite having superior homogencity in composition and particle size distribution by co-roasting process. Binary component metal (Fe, Mn) chloride solutions were produced by dissolving mill scale and ferro-mangancse alloy in hydrochloric acid. These chloride solutions contained the impurities such as SiO$_{2}$, P, Al, Ca and Na, which were originated from the Fe/Mn source materials. The neutralization and polymeric coagulant method were adoped to refine the hydrochloric liquor. When pH is far below the isoelectric point (pH 2-3), the SiO$_{2}$ was the most effectively reduced element, while other impurities remained unchanged. By increasing pH above 3, most of the impurities could be reduced effectively due to the coprecipitation reaction. The polymeric coagulants such as poly vinyl alcohol, resin amine and ammonium molybdate were found to have no effect on the spray roaster designed by the authors. The produced oxide powders were confirmed to be mixtures of Fe-oxide, Mn-oxide and mn-ferrite. the powders were homogeneously mixed and the particle size increased sleeply with increasing co-roasting temperature.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.326-332
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• 2000

The effects of sizing agent on the final mechanical properties of the glass fiber/unsaturated polyester composites were investigated by contact angle measurements at room temperature. In this work, glass fibers were coated by poly(vinyl alcohol), polyester, and epoxy type sizing agent and each property was compared. Contact angles of the sized glass fiber were measured by the wicking method based on Washburn equation using deionized water and diiodomethane as testing liquids. As an experimental result, the surface free energy calculated from contact angle showed the highest value in case of the glass fiber coated by epoxy sizing agent. From measurements of interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) and fracture toughness ( $K_{IC}$ ) of the composites, it was found that the sizing treatment on fibers could improve the fiber/matrix interfacial adhesion, resulting in growing the final mechanical properties. This was due to the enhanced surface free energy of glass fibers in a composite system.