• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.52-58
• /
• 2013

In order to overcome the cost issue for commercialization of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), this research was conducted for replacing platinum cathode catalyst with non-precious metal catalyst. The non-precious metal catalyst (Co-PANI-C) was synthesized by the simple reduction method with polyaniline (PANI), carbon black, and cobalt precursor without any heat treatment. Characterization of new Co-PANI-C composite catalysts was done by the measurement of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) for structure analysis and performed by rotating disk electrode (RDE) and rotating ring disk electrode (RRDE) for electrochemical analysis. As a result, Co-PANI-C catalyst showed 60 mV lower on-set potential for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) than Pt/C catalyst, but the overall reduction current of Co-PANI-C catalysts by ORR was still smaller than that of Pt/C. In addition, the ORR behavior of Co-PANI-C catalysts depending on the rotation speed of electrode and the stability of Co-PANI-C catalyst under potential cycling and the performance of fuel cell conditions are also discussed.

• Polymer(Korea)
• /
• v.39 no.3
• /
• pp.453-460
• /
• 2015

Engineering the polylactide via stereocomplexation with supercritical fluid (SCF) technology paved way to fabricate polymers with enhanced thermal and mechanical properties. We aimed to establish a SCF medium with excellent solubility for PLA without any additional solvent/co-solvent. We, therefore, employed supercritical dimethyl ether to synthesize 100% stereocomplex polylactide from high molecular weight homopolymers with an excellent yield. The remarkable solubility of the homopolymers in dimethyl ether is the key for quick conversion to s-PLA. This study proves a rapid synthesis route of dry s-PLA powder with sc-DME at 250 bar, $70^{\circ}C$ and 1.5 h, which are reasonably achievable processing parameters compared to the conventional methods. The degree of stereocomplexation was evaluated under the effect of pressures, temperatures, times, homopolymer-concentrations and molecular weights. An increment in the degree of stereocomplexation was observed with increased temperature and pressure. Complete conversion to s-PLA was obtained for PLLA and PDLA with $M_n{\sim}200kg{\cdot}mol^{-1}$ with a total homopolymer to total DME ratio of 6:100% w/w at prescribed reaction conditions. The degree of stereocomplexation was determined by DSC and confirmed by XRD. Considerable improvement in thermo-mechanical properties of s-PLA was observed. DSC and TGA analyses proved a $50^{\circ}C$ enhancement in melting transition and a high onset temperature for thermal degradation of s-PLA respectively.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.48 no.5
• /
• pp.643-648
• /
• 2010

Production of biodiesel from soybean oil catalyzed by Lewis acidic ionic liquids(ILs) containing metal chloride salts was investigated in this study. Metal chloride salts, such as $SnCl_2$, $ZnCl_2$, $AlCl_3$, $FeCl_3$ and CuCl, were screened for oil transesterification in the range of 363-423 K. Among these metal chlorides, tin chloride showed particularly high catalytic property for the oil transesterification. Similarly, among these Lewis acidic ionic liquid catalysts, $[Me_3NC_2H_4OH]Cl-2SnCl_2$ resulted in a high fatty acid methyl esters(FAMEs) content of 91.1% under the following reaction conditions: 403 K, 14 h, and a molar ratio of 1:12:0.9 (oil:methanol:catalyst). Unlike the pure tin chloride catalysts, Lewis acidic ILs containing tin chloride $[Me_3NC_2H_4OH]Cl-2SnCl_2$ catalyst could be recycled up to five times without any significant loss of activity by separating from the FAMEs with simple decantation. The Lewis acidity and high moisture-stability of this catalyst appeared to be responsible for the excellent catalytic performance. The effects of reaction time and the molar ratio of methanol/catalyst to oil on the FAMEs production were also studied in this work.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.53 no.5
• /
• pp.603-608
• /
• 2015

Alumina powder have been expanded its application in industry and required to control its morphology such as powder size and aspect ratio of single particle. It can be synthesized by molten - salt method which is possible to obtain various shapes of ceramic particles by controlling the growth direction because each crystal face has different growth rate. In this study, various combinations of salts such as NaCl, $Na_2SO_4$, $Na_3PO_4$ and their mixture were used for control the growth of plate like alumina particle from the initial stage of synthesis because salt having different ionic strength can control the growth direction of ceramic particle under its melting condition around $800{\sim}900^{\circ}C$, and growth behavior of plate-like alumina particle with different reaction conditions such as temperature and concentration on the crystal size and shape was studied.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.51 no.2
• /
• pp.178-185
• /
• 2007

Intermediate pentasil borosilicate zeolite-like materials have been crystallized by a novel method named steam-assisted conversion, which involves vapor-phase transport of water. Indeed, amorphous powders obtained by drying Na2O.SiO2.B2O3.TBA2O gels of various compositions using different boron sources are transformed into crystalline borosilicate zeolite belonging to pentasil family structure by contact with vapors of water under hydrothermal conditions. Using a variant of this method, a new material which has an intermediate structure of MFI/MEL in the ratio 90:10 was crystallized. The results show that steam and sufficiently high pH in the reacting hydrous solid are necessary for the crystallization to proceed. Characterization of the products shows some specific structural aspects which may have its unique catalytic properties. X-ray diffraction patterns of these microporous crystalline borosilicates are subjected to investigation, then, it is shown that the product structure has good crystallinity and is interpreted in terms of regular stacking of pentasil layers correlated by inversion centers (MFI structure) but interrupted by faults consisting of mirror-related layers (MEL structure). The products are also characterized by nitrogen adsorption at 77 K that shows higher microporous volume (0.160 cc/g) than that of pure MFI phase (0.119 cc/g). The obtained materials revealed high surface area (~600 m2/g). The infrared spectrum reveals the presence of an absorption band at 900.75 cm-1 indicating the incorporation of boron in tetrahedral sites in the silicate matrix of the crystalline phase.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.28 no.2
• /
• pp.257-264
• /
• 2018

The YrdC superfamily is a group of proteins that are highly conserved in almost all organisms sequenced so far. YrdC in Escherichia coli was suggested to be involved in ribosome biogenesis, translation termination, cold adaptation, and threonylcarbamoyl adenosine formation in tRNA. In this study, to unambiguously demonstrate that yrdC is essential in E. coli, we constructed two yrdC mutant strains of E. coli and examined their phenotypes. In the temperature-sensitive yrdC mutant strain, cell growth stopped almost immediately under nonpermissive conditions and it appeared to accumulate 16S ribosomal RNA precursors without significant accumulation of 30S ribosomal subunits. We also cloned yeast and human homologs and demonstrated that they complement the E. coli yrdC-deletion strain. By mutational study, we demonstrated that the concave surface in the middle of the YrdC protein plays an important role in E. coli, yeast, and human versions. By comparison of two yrdC-deletion strains, we also unambiguously demonstrated that yrdC is essential for viability in E. coli and that the functions of its yeast and human homologs overlap with that of E. coli YrdC.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
• /
• v.25 no.6
• /
• pp.245-251
• /
• 2015

We have applied mechanical alloying (MA) to produce soft magnetic composite material using a mixture of elemental $Fe_2O_3$-Mg powders. An optimal milling and heat treatment conditions to obtain soft magnetic ${\alpha}$-Fe/MgO composite with fine microstructure were investigated by X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) measurement. It is found that ${\alpha}$-Fe/MgO composite powders in which MgO is dispersed in ${\alpha}$-Fe matrix are obtained by MA of $Fe_2O_3$ with Mg for 30 min. The saturation magnetization of ball-milled powders increases with increasing milling time and reaches to a maximum value of 69.5 emu/g after 5 h MA. The magnetic hardening due to the reduction of the ${\alpha}$-Fe grain size by MA was also observed. Densification of the MA powders was performed in a spark plasma sintering (SPS) machine at $800{\sim}1000^{\circ}C$ under 60 MPa. X-ray diffraction result shows that the average grain size of ${\alpha}$-Fe in ${\alpha}$-Fe/MgO nanocomposite sintered at $800^{\circ}C$ is in the range of 110 nm.

• Applied Microscopy
• /
• v.45 no.4
• /
• pp.242-248
• /
• 2015

In this paper, three carbon sources, i.e., solid graphite, gaseous CH4 and liquid ethanol, and one solid silicon source were employed to synthesize SiC/C nanocomposite powders by arc-discharge plasma. The processing conditions such as the component ratios of raw materials, atmospheric gases, etc. were adjusted for controllable synthesis of the nanopowders. It is indicated that both of solid graphite and silicon can be co-evaporated and reacted to form nanophases of cubic ${\beta}$-SiC with ~50 nm in mean size and a little free graphite; the carbon atoms decomposed from gaseous $CH_4$ favor to combine with the evaporated silicon atoms to form the dominant SiC nanophase; liquid carbon source of ethanol can also be used to harvest the main ${\beta}$-SiC and minor 6H-SiC phases in the assembly of nanoparticles. The as-prepared SiC/C nanocomposite powders were further purified by a heat-treatment in air and their photocatalytic performances were then greatly improved.

• Journal of Life Science
• /
• v.25 no.10
• /
• pp.1176-1183
• /
• 2015

Ulmus macrocarpa has been used in Korean medicinal food material to physical disorder or tonic material. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate splenocyte life span expansion effects of Ulmus macrocarpa water extract (UMWE) in general cell culture condition. Splenocytes were handled in the presence of 100 μg/ml UMWE for several different time conditions. Live cells were detected with Hoechst 33,342 dye and cell survival molecules were identified through Western blot. Changes in level of cytokine synthesis were evaluated by ELISA. UMWE showed an effect on increased splenocyte survival. UMWE elevated slightly PI3K phosphorylation and ERK1/2 phosphorylation used at 48 hr and 96 hr. Moreover, Bcl-2 was elevated at 48 hr and 96 hr in UMWE-treated splenocytes. UMWE decreased caspase-3 level at 48 hr and 96 hr. ICAD protein increased at 48 hr culturing time. Hematopoietin IL-2 cytokine was down-regulated, however IL-4 hematopoietin cytokine was up-regulated in UMWE treated cell culture media. Increased IFN-γ levels were verified in the supernatant of UMWE-treated cells in all periods (48 hr and 96 hr). Increased patterns in the production of IL-12 cytokine occurred as compared with control after 48 and 96 hr in UMWE-treated-cell cultures. These results suggested that UMWE can prolong splenocyte life span by controlling various signal factors and cytokines.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.61-67
• /
• 2009

Electrolessly deposited Co (Re,P) was investigated as a possible capping layer for Cu wires. 50 nm Co (Re,P) films were deposited on Cu/Ti-coated silicon wafers which acted as a catalytic seed and an adhesion layer, respectively. To obtain the optimized bath composition, electroless deposition was studied through an electrochemical approach via a linear sweep voltammetry analysis. The results of using this method showed that the best deposition conditions were a $CoSO_4$ concentration of 0.082 mol/l, a solution pH of 9, a $KReO_4$ concentration of 0.0003 mol/l and sodium hypophosphite concentration of 0.1 mol/L at $80^{\circ}C$. The thermal stability of the Co (Re,P) layer as a barrier preventing Cu was evaluated using Auger electron spectroscopy and a Scanning calorimeter. The measurement results showed that Re impurities stabilized the h.c.p. phase up to $550^{\circ}C$ and that the Co (Re,P) film efficiently blocked Cu diffusion under an annealing temperature of $400^{\circ}C$ for 1hr. The good barrier properties that were observed can be explained by the nano-sized grains along with the blocking effect of the impurities at the fast diffusion path of the grain boundaries. The transformation temperature from the amorphous to crystal structure is increased by doping the Re.