• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.581-584
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• 2020

The effect of a chemical pretreatment on the surface carbon was investigated using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and electrochemical methods. Primitive carbon has a reducing power likely due to incompletely oxidized functional groups on the surface. We aim to control this reducing power by chemical treatment and apply for the spontaneous deposition of nanoparticles (NPs). Highly ordered pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) was initially treated with a reducing agent, NaBH4 or an oxidizing agent, KMnO₄, for 5 min. Subsequently, the pretreated carbon was immersed in a platinum (Pt) precursor. Unexpectedly, SEM images showed that the reducing agent increased spontaneous PtNPs deposition while the oxidizing agent decreased Pt loading more as compared to that of using bare carbon. However, the amount of Pt on the carbon obviously decreased by NaBH₄ treatment for 50 min. Secondly, spontaneous reduction on pretreated glassy carbon (GC) was investigated using the catalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). GC electrode treated with NaBH4 for a short and long time showed small (onset potential: -640 mV vs. MSE) and large overpotential for the HER, respectively. Although the mechanism is unclear, the electrochemistry results correspond to the optical data. As a proof-of-concept, these results demonstrate that chemical treatments can be used to design the shapes and amounts of deposited catalytic metal on carbon by controlling the surface state.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.163-167
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• 2021

In the present work, we studied a method for the synthesis of uniform gold-peptide hierarchical superstructures using tyrosine rich peptide, Tyr-Tyr-Leu-Tyr-Tyr (YYLYY). Peptide nanoparticles self-assembled by dityrosine bonds were synthesized through the photo-crosslinking reaction of the peptide, and gold-peptide hybrid nanoparticles were synthesized using biomineralization properties of tyrosine in a green synthetic manner. The synthesized gold-peptide hybrid nanoparticles were then characterized by transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering, UV-vis spectroscopy, scanning transmission electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction. Furthermore, the catalytic activity of gold-peptide hybrid nanoparticles was confirmed by the reduction reaction of methylene blue where the catalytic reaction rate constant was 13.4 × 10-3 s-1.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.95-102
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• 2019

In order to investigate the effect of water treatment on activity of WGS catalyst, $Cu/ZnO/MgO/Al_2O_3$ (CZMA) catalysts were synthesized by co-precipitation method. The prepared catalysts were water-treated at two different temperature (250, $350^{\circ}C$). Synthesized catalysts were characterized by using BET, SEM, $N_2O$ chemisorption, XRD, $H_2-TPR$ and XPS analysis. The catalytic activity tests were carried out at a GHSV of $28,000h^{-1}$ and a temperature range of $180-320^{\circ}C$. The reduction temperature decreased with water treatment and CZMA_250 catalyst showed the lowest reduction temperature and retained a large amount of $Cu^+$. Water-treated catalysts showed increased reactivity compared to untreated catalyst and the CZMA_250 catalyst showed higher catalytic activity on WGS reaction.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.15-19
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• 2021

In this study, we studied a facile method for the synthesis of stable and nearly spherical gold nanoparticles using a tyrosine-rich peptide, Tyr-Tyr-Gly-Tyr-Tyr (YYGYY), as both the reducing and capping agent. The peptide coated spherical and polycrystalline gold nanoparticles with diameters from 3 to 15 nm were successfully synthesized by varying the concentration of the peptide and metal precursor under UV irradiation. The nanoparticles were then characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV-Vis spectroscopy, scanning transmission electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (STEM-EDS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Furthermore, the catalytic activity of gold nanoparticles was confirmed by the reduction of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol, in which the catalytic reaction rate constant was 7.3 × 10-3 s-1.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.113-119
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• 2021

In this study, impurity free V^3.5+ electrolytes were prepared using formic acid as a reducing agent and PtD/C as a catalyst and it was applied to VRFB. The well-oriented 3D dendrite structure of the PtD/C catalyst showed high catalytic activity in formic acid oxidation reaction and vanadium reduction reaction. As a result, the conversion ratio of electrolyte using the PtD/C was 2.73 mol g^-1 h^-1, which was higher than that of 1.67 mol g^-1 h^-1 of Pt/C prepared by the polyol method. In addition, in the VRFB charging and discharging experiment, the V^3.5+ electrolyte produced by the catalytic reaction showed the same performance as the standard V^3.5+ electrolyte prepared by the electrolytic method, thus proving that it can be used as an electrolyte for VRFB.

• Clean Technology
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.39-45
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• 2023

To investigate the effects of Mg addition at different aging times and temperatures, Cu/MgO/Al₂O₃ catalysts were synthesized for the low-temperature water gas shift (LT-WGS) reaction. The co-precipitation method was employed to prepare the catalysts with a fixed Cu amount of 30 mol% and varied amounts of Mg/Al. Synthesized catalysts were characterized using XRD, BET, and H₂-TPR analysis. Among the prepared catalysts, the highest CO conversion was achieved by the Cu/MgO/Al₂O₃ catalyst (30/40/30 mol%) with a 60 ℃ aging temperature and a 24 h aging time under a CO₂-rich feed gas. Due to it having the lowest reduction temperature and a good dispersion of CuO, the catalyst exhibited around 65% CO conversion with a gas hourly space velocity (GHSV) of 14,089 h-1 at 300 ℃. However, it has been noted that aging temperatures greater or less than 60 ℃ and aging times longer than 24 h had an adverse impact, resulting in a lower surface area and a higher reduction temperature bulk-CuO phase, leading to lower catalytic activity. The main findings of this study confirmed that one of the main factors determining catalytic activity is the ease of reducibility in the absence of bulk-like CuO species. Finally, the long-term test revealed that the catalytic activity and stability remained constant under a high concentration of CO₂ in the feed gas for 19 h with an average CO conversion of 61.83%.

• KEPCO Journal on Electric Power and Energy
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.437-445
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• 2016

This paper discussed the effect of ammonia concentration adsorbed on fly ash for the ammonia emission as AAFA (Ammonia Adsorbed Fly Ash) produced from coal fired plants due to operation of NOx reduction technologies was landfilled with distilled or sea water at closed and open systems, respectively. Ammonia bisulfate and sulfates adsorbed on fly ash is highly water soluble. The pH of ammonium bisulfate and sulfate solution had significant effect on ammonia odor emission. The effect of temperature on ammonia odor emission from mixture was less than pH, the rate of ammonia emission increased with increased temperature when the pH conditions were kept at constant. Since AAFA increases the pH of solution substantially, $NH_3$ in the ash can release the ammonia order unless it is present at low concentration. $NH_4{^+}$ ion is unstable in fly ash and water mixtures of high pH at open system, which is changed to nitrite or nitrate and then released as ammonia gas. The proper conditions for < 20 ppm of ammonia concentration released from the AAFAs landfilled in ash pond were explored using an open system with sea water. It was therefore proposed that optimal operation to collect AAFA of less than 168 ppm ammonia at the electrostatic precipitator were controlled to ammonia slip with less than 5 ppm at SCR/SNCR installations, and, ammonia odor released from mixture of fly ash of 168 ppm ammonia with sea water under open system has about 20 ppm.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.95-105
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• 2012

The selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system is a highly-effective aftertreatment device for NOx reduction of diesel engines. Generally, the ammonia ($NH_3$) was generated from reaction mechanism of SCR in the SCR system using the liquid urea as the reluctant. Therefore, the precise urea dosing control is a very important key for NOx and $NH_3$ slip reduction in the SCR system. This paper investigated NOx and $NH_3$ emission characteristics of urea-SCR dosing system based on model-based control algorithm in order to reduce NOx. In the map-based control algorithm, target amount of urea solution was determined by mass flow rate of exhaust gas obtained from engine rpm, torque and $O_2$ for feed-back control NOx concentration should be measured by NOx sensor. Moreover, this algorithm can not estimate $NH_3$ absorbed on the catalyst. Hence, the urea injection can be too rich or too lean. In this study, the model-based control algorithm was developed and evaluated on the numerical model describing physical and chemical phenomena in SCR system. One channel thermo-fluid model coupled with finely tuned chemical reaction model was applied to this control algorithm. The vehicle test was carried out by using map-based and model-based control algorithms in the NEDC mode in order to evaluate the performance of the model based control algorithm.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.76-83
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• 2010

Recently, as the current and future emission regulations go stringent, the research of NOx reduction has become a subject of increasing interest and attention in diesel engine. Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) is one of the effective technology to reduce NOx emission from diesel engine. Especially, Urea-SCR that uses urea as a reductant is becoming increasingly popular as a cost effective way of reducing NOx emissions from heavy duty vehicles. In this research, we designed urea injector and DCU (Dosing Control Unit) specially developed for controlling the Urea-SCR process onboard vehicles. As passenger and commercial diesel engine experiment, we grasped characteristics of NOx emission and SCR catalyst temperature level in advance. As a result, highest NOx emission level was shown in condition of low engine speed and high load. On the other hand, SCR catalyst temperature was highest at high engine speed and load. On the basis of these result, we conducted the NOx reduction test at steady engine operating conditions using the urea injector and DCU. It was shown that 74% NOx conversion efficiency on the average and 97% NOx conversion efficiency was obtained at high SCR catalyst temperature.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Applied Microbiology Conference
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• 2000.10a
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• pp.181-188
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• 2000

The electrocatalytic reduction of NAD$^{＋}$ using diaphorase was studied. methyl viologen (MV$^{2＋}$) mediator between an electrode and the enzyme. Steady-state currents could be obtained under the conditions of slow scan rate, low MV$^{2＋}$concentration, and high NAD$^{＋}$ concentration as the electrode reaction was converted to an electrochemical-catalytic (EC') reaction. The biomecular rate constant for the reaction of the reduced methyl viologen with the oxidized diaphorase was estimated as 7.5$\times$10$^3$M$^{-1}$ s$^{-1}$ from the slope of the current versus [MV$^{2＋}$] plot. And the optimal concentrations of diaphorase, MV$^{2＋}$ and NAD$^{＋}$ in the mediated electrocatalytic reduction of NAD$^{＋}$ were decided by applying the cyclic voltammetry. The optimal concentrations of the species were obtained by finding the conditions which gave the highest and steady-state current at a gold-amalgam electrode. The highest and steady-state catalytic current was achieved under the conditions of 1.5 U/ml diaphorase, 0.2 mM MV$^{2＋}$, and 4.8 mM NAD$^{＋}$ at the scan rate of 2 mV s$^{-1}$ , suggesting that the rate of the electrocatalytic reation is the higest under the former conditions. The electrochemical procedure under the conditions of 1.5 U/ml diaphorase,0.2 mM MV$^{2＋}$, and 4.8 mM NAD$^{＋}$ was used favorably to drive an enzymatic reduction of pyruvate to D-lactate.