• Electronic Materials Letters
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.689-699
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• 2018

Nanostructured Ni doped $Bi_2S_3$ ($Bi_{2-x}Ni_xS_3$, $0{\leq}x{\leq}0.07$) is explored as a candidate for telluride free thermoelectric material, through a combination process of mechanical alloying with subsequent consolidation by cold pressing followed with a sintering process. The cold pressing method was found to impact the thermoelectric properties in two ways: (1) introduction of the dopant atom in the interstitial sites of the crystal lattice which results in an increase in carrier concentration, and (2) introduction of a porous structure which reduces the thermal conductivity. The electrical resistivity of $Bi_2S_3$ was decreased by adding Ni atoms, which shows a minimum value of $2.35{\times}10^{-3}{\Omega}m$ at $300^{\circ}C$ for $Bi_{1.99}Ni_{0.01}S_3$ sample. The presence of porous structures gives a significant effect on reduction of thermal conductivity, by a reduction of ~ 59.6% compared to a high density $Bi_2S_3$. The thermal conductivity of $Bi_{2-x}Ni_xS_3$ ranges from 0.31 to 0.52 W/m K in the temperature range of $27^{\circ}C$ (RT) to $300^{\circ}C$ with the lowest ${\kappa}$ values of $Bi_2S_3$ compared to the previous works. A maximum ZT value of 0.13 at $300^{\circ}C$ was achieved for $Bi_{1.99}Ni_{0.01}S_3$ sample, which is about 2.6 times higher than (0.05) of $Bi_2S_3$ sample. This work show an optimization pathway to improve thermoelectric performance of $Bi_2S_3$ through Ni doping and introduction of porosity.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.16-34
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• 2021

Water supplies are decreasing in comparison to increasing clean water demands. Using nanofiltration is one of the most effective and economical methods to meet the need for clean water. Common methods for desalination are reverse osmosis and nanofiltration. However, pristine membranes lack the essential features which are, stability, economic efficiency, antibacterial and antifouling performances. To enhance the properties of the pristine membranes, graphene oxide (GO) is a promising and widely researched material for thin film composites (TFC) membrane due to their characteristics that help improve the hydrophilicity and anti-fouling properties. Modification of the membrane can be done on different layers. The thin film composite membranes are composed of three different layers, the top filtering active thin polyamide (PA) layer, supporting porous layer, and supporting fabric. Forward osmosis (FO) process is yet another energy efficient desalination process, but its efficiency is affected due to biofouling. Incorporation of GO enhance antibacterial properties leading to reduction of biofilm formation on the membrane surface. Pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) is an excellent process to generate clean energy from sea water and the biofouling of membrane is reduced by introduction of GO into the active layer of the TFC membrane. Different modifications on the membranes are being researched, each modification with its own advantages and disadvantages. In this review, modifications of nanofiltration membranes and their composites, characterization, and performances are discussed.

• Clean Technology
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.154-162
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• 2022

Microstructured Al@Al₂O₃ and Al@Ni-Al LDH (LDH = layered double hydroxide) core-shell metal-ceramic composites are prepared by hydrothermal reactions of aluminum (Al) metal substrates. Controlled hydrothermal reactions of Al metal substrates induce the hydrothermal dissolution of Al ions at the Al-substrate/solution interface and reconstruction as porous metal-hydroxides on the Al substrate, thereby constructing unique metal-ceramic core-shell composite structures. The morphology, composition, and crystal structure of the core-shell composites are affected largely by the ions in the hydrothermal solution; therefore, the critical physicochemical and surface properties of these unique metal-ceramic core-shell microstructures can be modulated effectively by varying the solution composition. A Ni/Al@Al₂O₃ catalyst with highly dispersed catalytic Ni nanoparticles on an Al@Al₂O₃ core-shell substrate was prepared by a controlled reduction of an Al@Ni-Al LDH core-shell prepared by hydrothermal reactions of Al in nickel nitrate solution. The reduction of Al@Ni-Al LDH leads to the exolution of Ni ions from the LDH shell, thereby constructing the Ni nanoparticles dispersed on the Al@Al₂O₃. The catalytic properties of the Ni/Al@Al₂O₃ catalyst were investigated for CO₂ methanation reactions. The Ni/Al@Al₂O₃ catalyst exhibited 2 times greater CO₂ conversion than a Ni/Al₂O₃ catalyst prepared by conventional incipient wetness impregnation and showed high structural stability. These results demonstrate the high effectiveness of the design and synthesis methods for the metal-ceramic composite catalysts derived by hydrothermal reactions of Al metal substrates.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.29-37
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• 1996

Alkaline water electrolysis has been commercialized as the only large-scale method for a long time to produce hydrogen and the technology is superior to other methods such as photochemical, thermochemical water splitting, and thermal decomposition method in view of efficiency and related technical problem. However, such conventional electrolyzer do not have high electric efficiency and productivity to apply to large scale hydrogen production for energy or chemical feedstocks. Solid polymer electrolyte water electrolysis using a perfluorocation exchange membrane as an $H^+$ ion conductor is considered to be a promising method, because of capability for operating at high current densities and low cell voltages. So, this is a good technology for the storage of electricity generated by photovoltaic power plants, wind generators and other energy conversion systems. One of the most important R&D topics in electrolyser is how to minimize cell voltage and maximize current density in order to increase the productivity of the electrolyzer. A commercialized technology is the hot press method which the film type electrocatalyst is hot-pressed to soild polymer membrane in order to eliminate the contact resistance. Various technologies, electrocatalyst formed over Nafion membrane surface by means of nonelectrolytic plating process, porous sintered metal(titanium powder) or titanium mesh coated with electrocatalyst, have been studied for preparation of membrane-electrocatalyst composites. In this study some experiments have been conducted at a solid polymer electrolyte water electrolyzer, which consisted of single cell stack with an electrode area of $25cm^2$ in a unipolar arrangement using titanium mesh coated with electrocatalyst.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.41 no.7
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• pp.528-533
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• 2004

Macroporous SiC with pore size 84∼658 nm and mesoporous SiC with pore size 15∼65 nm were respectively prepared by infiltrating low viscosity preceramic polymer solutions into the various sacrificial templates obtained by natural sedimentation or centrifuge of 20∼700 nm silica sol, which were subsequently etched off with HF after pyrolysis at 1000∼140$0^{\circ}C$ in an argon atmosphere. Three-dimensionally long range ordered macroporous SiC ceramics derived from polymethylsilane (PMS) showed surface area 584.64$m^2$g$^{-1}$ when prepared with 112nm silica sol and at 140$0^{\circ}C$, whereas mesoporous SiC from polycarbosilane (PCS) exhibited the highest surface area 619.4 $m^2$g$^{-1}$ with random pore array when prepared with 20-30 nm silica sol and at 100$0^{\circ}C$. Finally, tile pore characteristics of porous SiC on the types of silica sol, polymers and pyrolytic conditions were interpreted with the analytical results of SEM, TEM, and BET instruments.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.493-500
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• 1999

Squeeze casting was used for fabricating a light metal base composite having high strength and wearresistance. Reactive sintering was used to prepare the preform of Squeeze casting. To utilize Fe-Al intermetallic compounds and SiC particle as a reinforcement, there needs to prepare Fe-Al mixed powder at 50, 60, 70at.%Al, and add SiC powder to the above mixture at 4, 7, 16, 24wt.%. The prepared mixture with SiC was reactive sintered in a tube furnace at $660^{\circ}C$ to get a porous hybrid preform of intermetallic compound and SiC. The preform prepared above was placed in a metal mold, preheated at $660^{\circ}C$ AC4C matrix was injected into the mold with the temperature of the melt at $610^{\circ}C$ After these processes, 66MPa was applied to the mold for 5 minute to finish the whole procedure. The maximum reaction temperature was increased with the increased Al amount, but decreased with the increased SiC amount. The density of the preform was decreased with SiC amount increase in the compacts due to swelling of the preform. An optical microscope was applied to observe the micro structure and the dispersion of the reinforcements. To analyze phases, We utilized XRD, EDS. Hardness test were chosen to get the information of mechanical properties. There were no significant changes in micro structure between the composite and preform. However, it was shown that uniform dispersion of the reinforcers and complete infiltration of the melt into the preform were achieved through the procedure of the squeeze casting. It was observed that the hardness of the composite is decreased with increased SiC amount, resulting from the volumetric expansion of the preform.

• Composites Research
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.33-41
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• 2000

In this research, the mathematical modeling of the formation of SiC layer on the activated carbon was studied to improve the durability and the oxidation resistance of catalyst supports. SiC layer on the activated carbon was formed by permeating SiC from dichlorodimethylsilane(DDS) into pores and depositing while the porous structure was kept. The best conditions of manufacturing the support were found by studying the characteristics of SiC/C which was modelled under various deposition conditions. Changes of the amount of deposition, the pore diameter, the surface area with time were obtained by simulating convection, diffusion and reaction in an isothermal reactor at a steady state. The uniform deposition in the pores of samples was obtained at a lower concentration of the reactant and a lower pressure. Additionally, it was observed that the pore diameter and the surface area have points of inflection at certain times of deposition, because deposition occurred on the inside surface of the pore at first and then on the outside surface of the particle.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.274-281
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• 2009

Nylon 6 and nylon elastomer were prepared by anionic polymerization route. Nylon elastomers, composed of hard segment of polyamide(PA) and soft segment of polyether(PE), were synthesized by use of TDI terminated polyol with caprolactam. The morphology of the electrospun webs of nylon and nylon elastomers, observed by FE-SEM, showed that the porous electrospun web was composed of nanofibers, whose diameter were in the range of 100 to 180 nm. Their behavior of melting and crystallization and the chemical structure of nylon elastomers were investigated by DSC and ATR FT-IR. Result of tensile testing indicated that nylon has higher tensile strength and lower elongation than nylon elastomers. Atmospheric plasma(APP) with $O_2$ and $N_2$ as reactive gas modified the surface of electrospun nylon and electrospun nylon elastomers allowing them higher hydrophilicity, while APP with $CH_4$ as reactive gas modified the surface of polymers allowing higher hydrophobicity.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.434-439
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• 2012

To improve the performance of ionic polymer-metal composite (IPMC) actuators, Nafion films sandwiched with Nafion/conducting nanoparticulate electrospun webs were used as polymer electrolytes of IPMC. Multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWNT) and silver were the conducting nanoparticulates and the nanoparticles dispersed in a Nafion solution were electrospun. IPMCs with the Nafion/conducting nanoparticulate electrospun webs displayed improved displacements, response rates, and blocking forces. MWNT was superior to silver in terms of displacement and blocking force, and the webs without the conducting fillers also caused enhanced performances compared with the conventional IPMCs. These improvements were attributed to an elevated electrolyte flux through highly porous interlayers and capacitance induced by well dispersed conducting fillers, and low interfacial resistance between electrolyte and electrodes.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.75-82
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• 2011

This study was performed to evaluate the water purification properties of bio-composites planting blocks using oyster shell and effective microorganism that have high absorption ability of heavy metals and organics to develop environmentally friendly river embankment technique contained various factors such as oyster shells, effective microorganism, porous concrete and planting embankment block. To maximize greening effect, the seeds were arbitrarily sown. In addition, in order to analyze the effect of water quality purification after the planting, the samples were collected from each designated zone 1, 7 and 30 days after steeping in water. Then, the samples were analyzed in terms of seven test items such as SS, BOD, COD, T-N, T-P, pH, etc. on the basis of the test method for water pollution. The following conclusions were reached from the test result. As a result of analysis for water quality purification for the concrete block containing the effective microorganism, it was found that the values for SS, BOD, T-N and T-P for the sample taken after 30 days were lower than the initial values, which indicated that the water purification effect had been created. The result of the water quality purification analysis for the concrete block containing oyster shell showed that the values for SS, BOD, COD and T-P for the sample taken after 30 days were lower than the initial values which also indicated that it had been effective in water quality purification.