• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.43 no.9 s.292
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• pp.552-557
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• 2006

A low temperature processing route for fabricating porous SiC ceramics by carbothermal reduction has been demonstrated. Effects of expandable microsphere content, sintering temperature, filler content, and carbon source on microstructure, porosity, compressive strength, cell size, and cell density were investigated in the processing of porous silicon carbide ceramics using expandable microspheres as a pore former. A higher microsphere content led to a higher porosity and a higher cell density. A higher sintering temperature resulted in a decreased porosity because of an enhanced densification. The addition of inert filler increased the porosity, but decreased the cell density. The compressive strength of the porous ceramics decreased with increasing the porosity. Typical compressive strength of porous SiC ceramics with ${\sim}70%$ porosity was ${\sim}13 MPa$.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.43 no.12 s.295
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• pp.839-845
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• 2006

Graphite has hexagonal closed packing structure with two bonding characteristics; (1) van der waals bonding between c axis, and (2) covalent bonding in the a and b axis. The weak van der waals bonds cause self-lubricant property, and the strong covalent bonds cause excellent electric and thermal conductivity. Furthermore, graphite is chemically very inert because of the material composed of only carbon elements. Thus, graphite is very useful for mechanical sealing materials. However, Graphite have porous microstructure because starting materials of graphite produce many volatile during the manufacturing processes. This causes low density of graphite, which is unsuitable for the mechanical sealing materials. Thus, further impregnation process is generally needed to enhance the graphite density. In this work, high density graphite is prepared with the principle of densification when coke and pitch binder, prepared from thermal treatment of coal tar pitch, become dehydrogenation during graphitization or carbonization.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.53.2-53.2
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• 2011

Ti metal has superior mechanical properties along with biocompatibility, but it still has the problem of bio-inertness thus forming weaker bond in bone/implant interface and long term clinical performance as orthopaedic and dental devices are restricted for stress shielding effect. On the other hand, despite the excellent biodegradable behavior as being an integral constituent of the natural bone, the mechanical properties of ${\beta}$-tricalcium phosphate $(Ca_3(PO_4)_2;\;{\beta}-TCP)$ ceramics are not reliable enough for post operative load bearing application in human hard tissue defect site. One reasonable approach would be to mediate the features of the two by making a composite. In this study, ${\beta}$-TCP/Ti ceramic-metal composites were fabricated by spark plasma sintering in inert atmosphere to inhibit the formation of $TiO_2$. Composites of 30 vol%, 50 vol% and 70 vol% ${\beta}$-TCP with Ti were fabricated. Detailed microstructural and phase characteristics were investigated by FE-SEM, EDS and XRD. Material properties like relative density, hardness, compressive strength, elastic modulus etc. were characterized. Cell viability and biocompatibility were investigated using the MTT assay and by examining cell proliferation behavior.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.11-14
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• 2018

$MgB_2$ superconducting properties have been investigated with the surface-treated boron powders using the chemical solvents. Various solvents were used such as acetone, ethanol, methanol, and water to possibly modify the surface condition of raw boron powders as received. This treatment was done at an argon gas environment inside the glove box to reduce the further contamination during and after chemical treatments. It was found that $T_c$ values were increased to 37.58-37.73 K from the pure sample of 37.50 K when they were treated in inert environment. High- fields $J_c$ at both 5 & 20 K was all increased regardless of any kinds of chemical treatments mentioned above. It is also noted that the $J_c$ at low-fields were increased in the order of solvents: ethanol > acetone > pure $MgB_2$ = methanol > water.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.51-51
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• 2012

There is a growing interest in innovative chemical synthesis in microreactors owing to high efficiency, selectivity, and yield. In microfluidic systems, the low-volume spatial and temporal control of reactants and products offers a novel method for chemical manipulation and product generation. Glass, silicon, poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS), and plastics have been used for the fabrication of miniaturized devices. However, these materials are not the best due to either of low chemical durability or expensive fabrication costs. In our group, we have recently addressed the demand for economical resistant materials that can be used for easy fabrication of microfluidic systems with reliable durability. We have suggested the use of various specialty polymers such as silicon-based inorganic polymers and fluoropolymer, flexible polyimide (PI) films that have not been used for microfluidic devices, although they have been used for other areas. And inexpensive lithography techniques were used to fabricate Lab-on-a-Chip type of microreactors with differently devised microchannel design. These microreactors were demonstrated for various synthetic reactions: liquid, liquid-gas organic chemical reactions in heterogeneous catalytic processes, syntheses of polymer and non-trivial inorganic materials. The microreactors were inert, and withstand even harsh conditions, including hydrothermal reaction. In addition, various built-in microstructures inside the microchannels, for example Pd decorated peptide nanowires, definitely enhance the uniqueness and performance of microreactors. These user-friendly Lab-on-a-Chip devices are useful alternatives for chemist and chemical engineer to conventional chemical tools such as glass.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.46 no.5
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• pp.462-466
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• 2009

We investigated the pore properties of inorganic membranes applied for hydrogen separation industry. Inorganic membranes were derived from polysilazanes. The thermal reactions involved were studied using thermogravimetry(TG) and IR spectroscopy(FTIR) of the solids. To determine the thermal effect of pore properties, polysilazanes were pyrolysed in inert atmosphere. Pore volume and BET surface area showed the maximum value at a pyrolysis temperature of $500^{\circ}C$. For amorphous SiCN membrane derived from polysilazanes, selectivity of $H_2/N_2$ was 4.81 at $600^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.114-120
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• 2008

The pyrolysized carbon xerogel and aerogels were prepared from the sol-gel polymerization of resorcinol-formaldehyde(RF) followed by the dry process under ambient pressure and supercritical carbon dioxide condition respectively. The thermal behaviour of RF polymer xerogel was investigated with TGA analyzer to correspond with the pyrolysis process. The surface properties such as particle size, morphology and the point of zero charge of the pyrolysized porous carbon aerogels were studied for the precious metal catalyst supported media. It was found that the volume of the polymer aerogel decreased because of the significant linear shrinkage and weight loss of polymer gel during the carbonization. The point of zero charge of the carbon aerogel pyrolysized at $1050^{\circ}C$ under inert gas flow was about 10.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.3-9
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• 2007

Dismantlement of lithium primary batteries without explosion is required to recycle the lithium primary batteries which could be exploded by heating too much or crushing. In the present study, the optimum discharging condition was investigated to dismantle the batteries without explosion. When the batteries were discharged with $0.5kmol{\cdot}m^{-3}$ sulfuric acid, the batteries became inert after 4 days at $35^{\circ}C$ and after 1 day at $50^{\circ}C$, respectively. This result shows that higher temperature accelerates inert of the batteries. Because loss of metals recycled increases when the batteries are discharged only with the sulfuric acid, discharging process using acid solution and water was newly proposed. When the batteries were discharged with water during 24 hours after discharging with $0.5kmol{\cdot}m^{-3}$ sulfuric acid during 6 hours, the batteries discharged were dismantled without explosion. Because decrease in loss of metals was accomplished by new process, the recycling process of the batteries could become economic by the 2-step discharging process.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.13 no.8
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• pp.550-554
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• 2003

Current nanogold cluster synthesized by chemical routine with 11 or 55 atoms of gold has been widely used for immuno chemistry probe as a form of nanocluster conjugated with biomolecules. It would be an undeveloped region that the 1 nm size of nanogold could be made by materials engineering processing. Therefore, objective of this study is to minimize the size of gold nanocluster as a function of operating temperature and chamber pressure in inert gas condensation (IGC) processing. Evaporation temperature was controlled by input current from 50 A to 65 A. Chamber pressure was controlled by argon gas with a range of 0.05 to 2 torr. The gold nanocluster by IGC was evaluated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The gold nanocluster for TEM analysis was directly sampled with special in-situ method during the processing. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to observe 3-D nanogold layer surfaces on a slide glass for the following biomolecule conjugation step. The size of gold nanoclusters had a close relationship with the processing condition such as evaporation temperature and chamber pressure. The approximately 1 nm size of nanogold was obtained at the processing condition for 1 torr at $1124 ^{\circ}C$.

• Advances in materials Research
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.173-181
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• 2024

Fly ash, plastic waste, and clay are mineral materials and residues commonly found in Malaysia. In this study, these materials were fully utilized as raw materials for synthesizing carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Recycled polypropylene, previously used as a food container, served as a carbon source. Fly ash and clay were explored as potential substrates for CNTs growth. The recycled polypropylene was thermally decomposed at 900 ℃ in an inert environment for 90 minutes. Carbon atoms released during this process were deposited on fly ash and clay substrates, which had been immersed in a ferrocene solution to provide a metal catalyst for CNTs growth. The deposited products were characterized using a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD). Morphological analysis revealed that both fly ash and clay were coated with fiber-like structures, confirmed to be CNTs based on a diffraction peak around 26° from the XRD pattern. In conclusion, clay and fly ash demonstrate the potential to be utilized as substrates for CNTs formation.