• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.10-15
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• 2010

Intensive works have been carried out to develop more efficient solid catalysts for biodiesel production from various feedstocks including refined oils and waste fats. Among many catalysts, metal oxides and ion exchange resins are the most intensively studied ones. With regard to metal oxide catalysts, major research activities have focused on the identification of the active compounds and their immobilizing methods on the supports. As metal oxide catalysts have strong thermal stability, they may be used in simultaneous transesterification and esterification of waste fats. However, ion exchange resin catalysts were mainly applied in the esterification of the free fatty acids in waste fats because of their lower thermal stability. For both solid catalysts, further works are needed to make them to be used in commercial process. Especially fast deactivation of the solid catalyst would be the most challenging problem.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.556-556
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• 2012

Transition metal-based organometallic complexes have shown great talents as a catalyst in various reactions. Designing organic molecules and coordinating them to such active centers have been a promising route to control the catalytic natures. Metallocene, which has transition metal atoms sandwiched by aromatic rings, is one of the representative systems for organometallic catalysts. Group 4-based metallocene catalysts have been most commonly used for the production of polyolefins, which have great world-wide markets in the real life. Graphenes and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were composed of extended $sp^2$ carbon networks, showing high electron mobility as well as have extremely large steric bulkiness relative to metal centers. We were inspired by these characteristics of such carbon-based nano-materials and assumed that they could intimately interact with active centers of metallocene catalysts. We examined this hypothesis and, recently, reported that CNTs dramatically changed catalytic natures of group 4-based catalysts when they formed hybrid systems with such catalysts. In conclusion, we produced hybrid materials composed of group-4 based metallocenes, $Cp_2ZrCl_2$ and $Cp_2TiCl_2$, and carbon-based nano-materials such as RGO and MWCNT. Such hybrids were generated via simple adsorption between Cp rings of metallocenes and graphitic surfaces of graphene/CNT. The hybrids showed interesting catalytic behaviors for ethylene polymerizations. Resulting PEs had significantly increased Mw relative to those produced from free metallocene-based catalytic systems, which are not adsorbed on carbon-based nano-materials. UHMWPEs with extremely high Mw were obtained at low Tp.

• Clean Technology
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.88-94
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• 2014

During the past decades much attention has been paid to the desulfurization of diesel oil which is important as a source for the fuel cells to prevent the sulfur poisoning of both diesel steam reforming catalyst and electrode of fuel cell. Although alternative desulfurization techniques have been investigated, desulfurization for ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) is still challenged. Therefore, this research focuses on the desulfurization of commercial ULSD for the application to molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC). Herein, the performances of several kinds of commercial adsorbents based on activated carbons, zeolites, and metal oxides for desulfurization of ULSD were screened. The results showed that metal oxides based materials can feasibly reduce sulfur concentration in ULSD to a level of 0.1 ppmw while activated carbons and zeolites did not reach this level at current conditions.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.11 no.2 s.35
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• pp.25-30
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• 2007

The catalysts for decomposition reaction of acetaldehyde were investigated. The catalysts were prepared with transition metal Ni, Mo, Al on ${\gamma}-Al_2O_3$ support by impregnation method. Physio-chemical properties of catalysts were characterized by SEM-EDS, XRD, XPS, BET and TPR techniques. The conversion efficiency of catalysts for acetaldehyde was measured in the temperature range of $150{\sim}500^{\circ}C$ by GC through the micro reactor system. The 8 wt% $Ni/{\gamma}-Al_2O_3$ was found to be the most active catalyst of mono-metal catalysts tested, and the 1-3 wt% $Ni-Al/{\gamma}-Al_2O_3$ showed higher conversion efficiency than other bimetallic catalysts.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.08a
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• pp.304-304
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• 2010

The study on the catalytic oxidation of carbon monoxide (CO) to carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) using the noble metals has long been the interest subject and the recent progress in nanoscience provides the opportunity to develop new model systems of catalysts in this field. Of the noble metal catalysts, we selected ruthenium (Ru) as metal catalyst due to its unusual catalytic behavior. The size of colloid Ru NPs was controlled by the concentration of Ru precursor and the final reduction temperatures. For catalytic activity of CO oxidation, it was found that the trend is dependent on the size of Ru NPs. In order to explain this trend, the surface oxide layer surrounding the metal core has been suggested as the catalytically active species through several studies. In this poster, we show the influence of surface oxide on Ru NPs on the catalytic activity of CO oxidation using chemical treatments including oxidation, reduction and UV-Ozone surface treatment. The changes occurring to UV-Ozone surface treatment will be characterized with XPS and SEM. The catalytic activity before and after the chemical modification were measured. We discuss the trend of catalytic activity in light of the formation of core-shell type oxide on nanoparticles surfaces.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.244-255
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• 2019

Xylose isomerase (XI; E.C. 5.3.1.5) catalyzes the isomerization of xylose to xylulose, which can be used to produce bioethanol through fermentation. Therefore, XI has recently gained attention as a key catalyst in the bioenergy industry. Here, we identified, purified, and characterized a XI (PbXI) from the psychrophilic soil microorganism, Paenibacillus sp. R4. Surprisingly, activity assay results showed that PbXI is not a cold-active enzyme, but displays optimal activity at $60^{\circ}C$. We solved the crystal structure of PbXI at $1.94-{\AA}$ resolution to investigate the origin of its thermostability. The PbXI structure shows a $({\beta}/{\alpha})_8$-barrel fold with tight tetrameric interactions and it has three divalent metal ions (CaI, CaII, and CaIII). Two metal ions (CaI and CaII) located in the active site are known to be involved in the enzymatic reaction. The third metal ion (CaIII), located near the ${\beta}4-{\alpha}6$ loop region, was newly identified and is thought to be important for the stability of PbXI. Compared with previously determined thermostable and mesophilic XI structures, the ${\beta}1-{\alpha}2$ loop structures near the substrate binding pocket of PbXI were remarkably different. Site-directed mutagenesis studies suggested that the flexible ${\beta}1-{\alpha}2$ loop region is essential for PbXI activity. Our findings provide valuable insights that can be applied in protein engineering to generate low-temperature purpose-specific XI enzymes.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.67-70
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• 2001

Nanosize $SiO_2$composite particles have been synthesized within reverse micelle via metal alkoxide hydrolysis and condensation. The size of the particles can be controlled by manipulating the relative rates of the hydrolysis and condensation reactions of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) within the microemulsion. The average size of synthesized particles was about in the size range 14~30nm. The effects of synthesis parameters, such as the molar ratio of water to TEOS, the molar ratio of water to surfactant, and the amount of base catalyst, are discussed.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.33 no.8
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• pp.2748-2752
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• 2012

Cr(III) and Co(III) complexes with acetylacetonate were anchored onto a mesoporous MCM-41 through Schiff condensation. The materials were characterized by XRD, FT-IR, BET, CHN and ICP techniques. Elemental analysis of samples revealed that one C=N bond was formed through Schiff condensation on MCM-41 surface. The catalysts were tested for the alcohol oxidations using t-butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP) and $H_2O_2$ as oxidant. The catalytic experiments were carried out at both room temperature and reflux condition. Various solvents such as dichloromethane, acetonitrile and water were examined in the oxidation of alcohols. Among the different solvents, catalytic activity is found more in acetonitrile. Further, the catalysts were recycled three times in the oxidation of alcohols and no major change in the conversion and selectivity is observed, which shows that the immobilized metal-acetylacetonate complexes are stable under the present reaction conditions.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.339-343
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• 2010

A series of $Ce_1Mg_xZr_{1-x}O_2$ (CMZO) mixed metal oxide with different molar ratio were prepared by simple co-precipitation method. The prepared materials were tested for their catalytic activity performance using Knoevenagel condensation of various aromatic aldehydes with barbituric acid under solvent-free condition in microwave. The best catalytic activity was obtained with CMZO (1:0.6:0.4). The synthesized materials were characterized by using XRD, FT-IR, SEM-EDS techniques.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.26 no.12
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• pp.2017-2020
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• 2005

The supported bimetallic Co-containing catalysts promoted by the different amount of noble metal (Pd) have been studied in the dry reforming of methane. The activity, selectivity, stability and resistance to the carbon deposition of Co-Pd/$Al_2O_3$ catalysts depend on both the catalyst composition and process conditions. It has been observed that the Co-Pd/$Al_2O_3$ catalysts produce the various oxygenates from $CO_2$ + $CH_4$ at moderate pressures.