• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.422-429
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• 2000

To investigate the effect of annealing temperature and time on the recrystallization behavior and microstructure of Zr-based alloys, the specimens of Zr-0.8Sn-0.4Nb-0.4Fe-0.2Cu, Zr-1Nb, Zircaloy-4, and unalloyed Zr were cold-worked and annealed at 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, $900^{\circ}C$ for 30 to 5000 minutes. The hardness, microstructure and precipitate of the specimens were investigated by using micro-hardness tester, optical microscope and transmission electron microscope, respectively. The recrystallization of Zr-based alloys occurred between $400^{\circ}C$ and $600^{\circ}C$. As the content of alloying elements increased, the hardness and recrystallization temperature of the alloys increased though the grain sizes after recrystallization decreased. It was supposed that the hardness of Zr-based alloy with Fe or Cu increased during recovery by the formation of Fe or Cu precipitates.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.21 no.11
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• pp.617-622
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• 2011

The effect of oxygen on the shape memory characteristics in Ti-18Nb-6Zr-XO (X = 0-1.5 at%) biomedical alloys was investigated by tensile tests. The alloys were fabricated by an arc melting method at Ar atmosphere. The ingots were cold-rolled to 0.45 mm with a reduction up to 95% in thickness. After severe cold-rolling, the plate was solution-treated at 1173 K for 1.8 ks. The fracture stress of the solution-treated specimens increased from 450 Mpa to 880 MPa with an increasing oxygen content up to 1.5%. The fracture stress increased by 287MPa with 1 at% increase of oxygen content. The critical stress for slip increased from 430 MPa to 695 MPa with an increasing oxygen content up to 1.5 at%. The maximum recovery strain of 4.1% was obtained in the Ti-18Nb-6Zr-0.5O (at%) alloy. The martensitic transformation temperature decreased by 140 K with a 1.0 at% increase in O content, which is lower than that of Ti-22Nb-(0-2.0)O (at%) by 20 K. This may have been caused by the effect of the addition of Zr. This study confirmed that addition of oxygen to the Ti-Nb-Zr alloy increases the critical stress for slip due to solid solution hardening without being detrimental to the maximum recovery strain.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.9 no.11
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• pp.1123-1128
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• 1999

To investigate the effect of Sn on the recrystallization of Zr-based alloys. Zr-xSn (x=0.5, 0.8, 1.5, 2.0wt.%) alloys were manufactured to be the sheets through the defined manufacturing procedure. The specimens were annealed at $300^{\circ}C$ to $800^{\circ}C$ for 1 hour. The hardness, microstructure and precipitate of the alloys with the annealing temperature were investigated by using micro- knoop hardness tester, optical microscope(O/M) and transmission electron microscope(TEM), respectively. The cold-worked Zr-xSn alloys showed the typical behavior of the recovery. recrystallization, and grain growth. The recrystallization of Zr-xSn alloys occurred between $500^{\circ}C$ and $700^{\circ}C$. As the Sn content increased. the recrystallization temperature of the cold-worked alloys increased but their grain sizes after recrystallization decreased. It is suggested that the recrystallization of the cold- worked Zr alloys be occurred by the subgrain coalescence and growth mechanism.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.186-192
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• 1987

ZrO2 powders having high purity were prepared from domestic zircon sand using the caustic fusion method and the soda ash sintering process. In the caustic fusion method, ZrO2 recovery was reached to 96% when 100/140 mesh zircon was reacted with NaOH at the NaOH/Zircon mole ratio 6 and at 650$^{\circ}C$ for 2 hours. And in the soda ash sintering process, ZrO2 was recovered to 88.5% when -325 mesh zircon was reacted with Na2CO3 at the Na2CO3/Zircon mole ratio 1.1 and 1050$^{\circ}C$ for 2 hours. In both cases, Zr component was extracted to ZrOCl2, subsequently crystallized to ZrOCl2$.$8H2O to increase the purity, and converted to ZrO2 by precipitation. And to increase the sinter ability of powder, Cl- ion was removed and strong agglomeration was avoided by methanol distribution of Zr(OH)4 precipitates.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.27-37
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• 2017

In this study, an artificial solar simulator composed of a 2.5 kW Xe-Arc lamp and mirror reflector was used to carry out the solar thermal two step thermochemical water decomposition cycle which can produce high efficiency continuous hydrogen production. Through various operating conditions, the change of hydrogen production due to the possibility of a dual-zone reactor and heat recovery were experimentally analyzed. Based on the reaction temperature of Thermal-Reduction step and Water-Decomposition step at $1,400^{\circ}C$ and $1,000^{\circ}C$ respectively, the hydrogen production decreased by 23.2% under the power off condition, and as a result of experiments using heat recovery technology, the hydrogen production increased by 33.8%. Therefore, when a thermochemical two-step water decomposition cycle is conducted using a dual-zone reactor with heat recovery, it is expected that the cycle can be operated twice over a certain period of time and the hydrogen production amount is increased by at least 53.5% compared to a single reactor.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.127-137
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• 2019

Zr electrorefining is demonstrated herein using Zirlo tubes in a chloride-fluoride mixed molten salt in the presence of $AlF_3$. Cyclic voltammetry reveals a monotonic shift in the onset of metal reduction kinetics towards positive potential and an increase in intensity of the additional peaks associated with Zr-Al alloy formation with increasing $AlF_3$ concentration. Unlike the galvanostatic deposition mode, a radial plate-type Zr growth is evident at the top surface of the salt during Zr electrorefining at a constant potential of -1.2 V. The diameter of the plate-type Zr deposit gradually increases with increasing $AlF_3$ concentration. Scanning electron microscopy-energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses for the plate-type Zr deposit show that trace amount of Al is incorporated as Zr-Al alloys with different chemical compositions between the top and bottom surface of the deposit. Addition of $AlF_3$ is effective in lowering the residual salt content in the deposit and in improving the current efficiency for Zr recovery.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.421-428
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• 1998

A method has been studied to separate Zr from various fission products in PWR spent nuclear fuels. A solution containing metal ions in place of radioactive fission products was prepared. The Zr was separated with 5 M HCl followed by eluting metal ions such as Ce, Nd, Cs, Rb, Ba, Sr, Ru, Rh, Pd, Ag and Cd with 12 M HCl on Dowex $1{\times}8$, anion exchange resin. The recovery of Zr was more than 95%. The purification of Zr was carried out on anion exchange resin, Dowex $1{\times}8$, in 5 M HCl in order to remove Mo causing isobaric effect during mass spectrometry. The method was applied to separate Zr from a spent PWR fuel. From mass spectrometric measurement, the purified Zr portion was not showed the isobars from other elements such as Mo and Sr.

• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.131-135
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• 1999

The HDDR characteristics of the Nd-Fe-B-type isotropic and anisotropic HDDR alloys were investigated using three types of alloys: alloy A $(Nd_{12.6}Fe_{81.4}B_6), alloy B (Nd_{12.6}Fe_{81.3}B_6Zr_{0.1}), and alloy C (Nd_{12.6}Fe_{68.8}Co_{11.5}B_6Ga_{1.0}Zr_{0.1}$). The alloy A is featured with the isotropic HDDR character, while alloy B and C are featured with the anisotropic HDDR character. Hydrogenation and disproportionation characteristics of the alloys were examined using DTA under hydrogen gas. Recombination characteristics of the alloys were examined by observing the coercivity variation as a function of recombination time. The present study revealed that the alloy C exhibits slightly higher hydrogenation and disproportionation temperatures compared to the alloy A and B. Recombination of the anisotropic alloy B and C takes place more rapidly with respect to the isotropic alloy A. The intrinsic coercivities of the recombined materials rapidly increased with increasing the recombination time and then showed a peak, after which the coercivities decreased gradually. The degraded coercivity was, however, recovered significantly on prolonged recombination treatment. Compared with the isotropic HDDR alloy A the anisotropic HDDR alloy B and C are notable for their greater recovery of coercivity. The significant recovery of coercivity was accounted for the in terms of the development of well-defined smooth grain boundary between the recombined grains on prolonged recombination.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.26 no.12
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• pp.681-687
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• 2016

Zirconium(Zr) nuclear fuel cladding tubes are made using a three-time pilgering and annealing process. In order to remove the oxidized layer and impurities on the surface of the tube, a pickling process is required. Zr is dissolved in HF and $HNO_3$ mixed acid during the process and pickling waste acid, including dissolved Zr, is totally discarded after being neutralized. In this study, the waste acid was recycled by adding $BaF_2$, which reacted with the Zr ion involved in the waste acid; $Ba_2ZrF_8$ was subsequently precipitated due to its low solubility in water. It is very difficult to extract zirconium from the as-recovered $Ba_2ZrF_8$ because its melting temperature is $1031^{\circ}C$. Hence, we tried to recover Zr using an electrowinning process with a low temperature molten salt compound that was fabricated by adding $ZrF_4$ to $Ba_2ZrF_8$ to decrease the melting point. Change of the Zr redox potential was observed using cyclic voltammetry; the voltage change of the cell was observed by polarization and chronopotentiometry. The structure of the electrodeposited Zr was analyzed and the electrodeposition characteristics were also evaluated.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.287-293
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• 1999

Effect of heat-treatment on the microstructure and recrystallization behavior of pure Zr was studied. The specimens were prepared under the various annealing temperatures from $400^{\circ}C$ to $800^{\circ}C$ and times from 300 to 5000 minutes after vacuum arc remelting. The recrystallization behavior was observed by a polarized optical microscope, TEM and micro-vickers hardness tester. With increasing the annealing time, the temperature region of hardness drop moved to the lower temperature region due to the recovery and recrystallization behaviors at the lower temperature. The recrystallization of cold-worked pure Zr was completed between 450 and $600^{\circ}C$. The size of recrystallized grain increased at $700^{\circ}C$ for 600min. Activation energy(Q) of pure Zr measured by the time for constant fraction technique was 78 KJ/mol.