• Macromolecular Research
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• v.17 no.12
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• pp.1032-1038
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• 2009

A polypyrrole (PPy)/alumina composite filler prepared via in-situ polymerization of pyrrole on alumina particles was incorporated into $Nafion^{(R)}$ to improve the performance of ionic polymer-metal composite (IPMC) actuators. The IPMCs with the pristine PPy without alumina support did not show bending displacements superior to that of the bare Nafion-based IPMC, except at a high PPy content of 4 wt%. This result was attributed to the low redox efficiency of the PPy alone in the IPMC and may have also been related to the modulus of the IPMC. However, at the optimized filler contents, the cyclic displacement of the IPMCs bearing the PPy/alumina filler was 2.2 times larger than that of the bare Nafion-based IPMC under an applied AC potential of 3 Vat 1 Hz. Even under a low AC potential of 1.5 V at 1 Hz, the displacement of the PPy/alumina-based IPMCs was a viable level of performance for actuator applications and was 2.7 times higher than that of the conventional Nafion-based IPMC. The generated blocking force was also improved with the PPy/aiumina composite filler. The greatly enhanced performance and the low-voltage-operational characteristic of the IPMCs bearing the PPy/alumina filler were attributed to the synergic effects of the neighboring alumina moiety near the PPy moiety involving electrochemical redox reactions.

• Toxicological Research
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.373-382
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• 2007

This study was conducted to obtain acute information of the oral dose toxicity of PGB-1, a novel polyglucosamine polymer produced from a new strain Enterobacter sp. BL-2 in male and female mice. In order to calculated 50% lethal dose ($LD_{50}$) and approximate lethal dose (LD), test material was once orally administered to male and female ICR mice at dose levels of 2000, 1000, 500, 250, 125 and 0 (vehicle control) ml/kg (body wt.). The mortality and changes on body weight, clinical signs, gross observation and organ weight and histopathology of principle organs were monitored 14 days after dosing with PGB-1. We could not find any mortalities, clinical signs, body weight changes and gross findings. In addition, significant changes in the organ weight and histopathology of principal organs were not observed except for some sporadic findings. The results obtained in this study suggest that PGB-1 may not be toxic in mice and may be therefore safe for clinical use. The $LD_{50}$ and approximate LD in mice after single oral dose of PGB-1 were considered over 2000 mg/kg in both female and male mice.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.58 no.2
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• pp.171-175
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• 2020

In the proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC), the development of a reinforced membrane with improved durability by a support is actively in progress in Korea. In this study, the initial performance and characteristics of four types of reinforced membranes were compared. Reinforced membranes with higher amounts of C-F chains in the polymer membrane showed lower water diffusion coefficients due to the hydrophobicity of the C-F chains. The thicker the polymer membrane, the more the hydrogen permeability decreased and the higher the OCV. Membrane with short resistance below 1.5 Ωcm² showed OCV below 0.9 V and the lowest performance, so short resistance should be above 3.0 Ωcm². Compared with the current standard membrane, there was a similar domestic membrane, which could confirm the possibility of localization of PEMFC polymer membrane.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.28 no.11
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• pp.1945-1950
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• 2007

Two fluorene-based conjugated copolymers containing hexyl-thiophene derivatives, PF-1T and PF-4T, were synthesized via the palladium-catalyzed Suzuki coupling reaction. The number-average molecular weights (Mn) of PF-1T and PF-4T were found to be 19,100 and 13,200, respectively. These polymers were soluble in common organic solvents such as chloroform, chlorobenzene, toluene, etc. The UV-vis absorption maximum peaks of PF-1T and PF-4T in the film state were found to be 410 nm and 431 nm, respectively. Electrochemical characterization revealed that these polymers have low highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) levels, indicating good resistance against oxidative doping. Thin film transistor devices were fabricated using the top contact geometry. PF-1T showed much better thin-film transistor performance than PF-4T. A thin film of PF- 1T gave a saturation mobility of 0.001-0.003 cm2 V?1 s?1, an on/off ratio of 1.0 × 105, and a small threshold voltage of ?8.3 V. To support TFT performance, we carried out DSC, AFM, and XRD measurements.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.198-205
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• 2005

Double-layered polymer films to assay the radioactive contamination were formulated using polysulfone (PSF) and cerium activated yttrium silicate (CAYS), consisting of a dense support layer and a CAYS-holding top layer prepared via the diffusion-induced phase inversion. As the vapor exposure process was omitted, the CAYS-holding layer showed a typical asymmetric structure, with CAYS being transfixed into the polymer network spread with large macropores. With the increase in vapor exposure time before immersion, morphology of the films transformed from asymmetric to sponge-like structures, with CAYS being localized in cellular structure. The border structure between the two layers reflects the phase inversion behavior of a cast solution during the coagulation. In the radioactive detection, the polymer phase in a film holding a sponge-like structure is so dense that the radionuclides, deposited on the film, could not filter through the phase, consequently resulting in the loss in the detection efficiency of the film.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.358-358
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• 2010

Ion beam bombardment at low energy forms nanosize patterns such as ripples, dots or wrinkles on the surface of polymers in ambient temperature and pressure. It has been known that the ion beam can alter the polymer surface that induces skins stiffer or the density higher by higher compressive stress or strain energies associated with chain scissions and crosslinks of the polymer. Atomic scale structure evolution in polymers is essential to understand a stress generation mechanism during the ion beam bombardment, which governs the nanoscale surface structure evolution. In this work, Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations are employed to characterize the phenomenon occurred in bombardment between the ion beam and polymers that forms nanosize patterns. We investigate the structure evolution of Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) at 300 K as the polymer is bombarded with Argon ions having various kinetic energies ranging from 100 eV to 1 KeV with 50 eV intervals having the fluence of $1.45\;{\times}\;1014 #/cm2$. These simulations use the Reactive Force Field (ReaxFF), which can mimic chemical covalent bonds and includes van der Waals potentials for describing the intermolecular interactions. The results show the details of the structural evolution of LDPE by the low energy Ar ion bombardment. Analyses through kinetic and potential energy, number of crosslinks and chain scissions, level of local densification and motions of atoms support that the residual strain energies on the surface is strongly associated with the number of crosslinks or scissored chains. Also, we could find an optimal Ar ion beam energy to make crosslinks well.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.16-21
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• 2022

The reaction rate of a catalyst for producing hydrogen using the methanol steam reforming reaction was studied. It was prepared by impregnating copper, which is often used in methanol synthesis, as the main active metal, using hydrotalcite, which has excellent porosity and thermal stability, high specific surface area, weak Lewis acid point, and basicity, as a support. Activation energy and Pre-exponential factors were identified. In this study, the activation energy of the hydrotalcite catalyst impregnated with 20 wt% copper was calculated to be 97.4 kJ/mol and the Pre-exponential was 5.904 × 10¹⁰. Process simulation was performed using the calculated values and showed a similar tendency to the experimental results.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.93-102
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• 2018

A sprayable waterproofing membrane which is composed of polymer-based material is relatively easy to install due to its construction method comparing with sheet-type membranes. And a sprayable waterproofing membrane has very similar material composition to the TSL which is for a permanent support. In this study, material composition of the sprayable waterproofing membrane was changed to enhance structural properties of membrane while maintaining waterproofing performance. In order to compare with a previous research for the TSL, series of tests were performed according to the performance criteria used for permanent support material (TSL) by EFNARC (2008). From the test result, the structural performance of the sprayable waterproofing membrane considered in this study showed a performance that could be used as a permanent support material.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.571-583
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• 2013

The use of Thin Spray-on Liner (TSL) as an alternative to shotcrete has drastically increased since 1990s when it was first developed and introduced to mines. In this study, tensile strength test, bond strength test, compression test with specimens coated by TSL, and two kinds of bending tests proposed by EFNARC (2008) were performed with two kinds of TSLs with different material compositions in order to evaluate their support capacities. As a result, both TSLs were shown to be satisfactory for the minimum performance requirements for a structural rock support suggested by EFNARC (2008) and tensile strength of a TSL was shown to increase as its content of polymer was higher. In contrast, its bond strength was shown to increase proportional to the content of a cementitious component especially at the early age.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.443-455
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• 2021

In this study, polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) was used as a support and a separator was manufactured using polysulfone and inorganic additives to manufacture a separator with low membrane resistance for application of an alkali water electrolysis system, and then the effect on the thickness and porosity of the support was analyzed. The PPS felt used as a support was compressed with variables of temperature (100℃, 150℃, 200℃) and pressure (1 ton, 2 tons, 3 tons, 5 tons) to adjust the thickness. A porous separator could be manufactured by preparing a slurry with polysulfone using BaTiO₃ and ZrO₂ which have high hydrophilicity and excellent alkali resistance as inorganic particles and casting the slurry on a compressed PPS felt. Changes in morphology of the separator according to compression conditions were confirmed through an electron scanning microscope (SEM). After that, the porosity was calculated, and the thickness and porosity tended to decrease as the compression conditions increased. Various characteristics were evaluated to confirm whether it could be used as a separator for water electrolysis. As a result of measuring the mechanical strength, it was confirmed that the tensile strength gradually increased as the compression conditions (temperature and pressure) increased. Finally, it was confirmed that the porous separator manufactured through the alkali resistance test has excellent alkali resistance, and through the IV test, it was confirmed that the membranes compressed at 100℃ and 150℃ had a lower voltage and improved performance than the existing uncompressed membrane.