• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.244-249
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• 2006

Electrostatic spray pyrolysis, a novel fabrication technique, has been used in this study to prepare calcium phosphate nano powders. Final annealing was done at $400^{\circ}C$ for 30min in air. The hydroxyapatite - forming ability of the annealed powder has been evaluated in Eagle's minimum essential medium solution (MEM). X-ray diffraction analysis, field emission - scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscope, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscope were used to characterized the annealed powders after immersion in MEM. The powder with an amorphous structure induced hydroxyapatite formation on their surfaces after immersion fer 15 days.

• Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering
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• v.35 no.12
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• pp.2384-2393
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• 2018

Porous alginate-based hydrogel beads (porous ABH) have been prepared through a facile and sustainable template-assisted method using nano-calcium carbonate and nano-$CaCO_3$ as pore-directing agent for the efficient capture of methylene blue (MB). The materials were characterized by various techniques. The sorption capacities of ABH towards MB were compared with pure sodium alginate (ABH-1:0) in batch and fixed-bed column adsorption studies. The obtained adsorbent (ABH-1:3) has a higher BET surface area and a smaller average pore diameter. The maximum adsorption capacity of ABH-1:3 obtained from Langmuir model was as high as $1,426.0mg\;g^{-1}$. The kinetics strictly followed pseudo-second order rate equation and the adsorption reaction was effectively facilitated, approximately 50 minutes to achieve adsorption equilibrium, which was significantly shorter than that of ABH-1:0. The thermodynamic parameters revealed that the adsorption was spontaneous and exothermic. Thomas model fitted well with the breakthrough curves and could describe the dynamic behavior of the column. More significantly, the uptake capacity of ABH-1:3 was still higher than 75% of the maximum adsorption capacity even after ten cycles, indicating that this novel adsorbent can be a promising adsorptive material for removal of MB from aqueous solution under batch and continuous systems.

• Molecules and Cells
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.390-396
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• 2008

Calreticulin (CRT) is one of the major $Ca^{2+}$ binding chaperone proteins of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and an unusual luminal ER protein. Postnatally elevated expression of CRT leads to impaired development of the cardiac conductive system and may be responsible for the pathology of complete heart block. In this study, the molecular mechanisms that affect $Ca^{2+}$-dependent signal cascades were investigated using CRT-overexpressing cardiomyocytes. In particular, we asked whether calreticulin plays a critical role in the activation of $Ca^{2+}$-dependent apoptosis. In the cells overexpressing CRT, the intracellular calcium concentration was significantly increased and the activity of PKC and level of SECAR2a mRNA were reduced. Phosphorylation of Akt and ERKs decreased compared to control. In addition the activity of the anti-apoptotic factor, Bcl-2, was decreased and the activities of pro-apoptotic factor, Bax, p53 and caspase 8 were increased, leading to a dramatic augmentation of caspase 3 activity. Our results suggest that enhanced CRT expression in mature cardiomyocytes disrupts intracellular calcium regulation, leading to calcium-dependent apoptosis.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.346-351
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• 2002

Pure and fine, two-component titanate powders (barium titanate, calcium titanate etc.) were synthesized by an ethylene glycol method. Titanium isopropoxide and other metal ionic salts were dissolved in liquid-type ethylene glycol without any precipitation. In non-aqueous system, the amount of ethylene glycol affected the solubility and homogeneity of metal cation sources in the solution. At the optimum amount of the polymer, the metal ions were dispersed effectively in solution and a homogeneous polymeric network was formed. Most of the synthesized powders had sub-micron or nano-size primary particles after calcination and the agglomerated calcined powders were easily ground by ball milling process. All synthesized titanate powders had stable crystallization behavior at low temperature and high specific surface area after ball milling. The crystallization behavior and the microstructures of the calcined powders were affected on the ethylene glycol content.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.3-10
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• 2011

Theoretical models for prediction of the mechanical properties of cement mortar are developed based on the morphology and interactions of cement hydration products, capillary pores and microcracks. The models account for intermolecular interactions involving the nano-scale calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H) constituents of hydration products, and consider the effects of capillary pores as well as the microcracks within the hydrated cement paste and at the interfacial transition zone (ITZ). Cement mortar was modeled as a three-phase material composed of hydrated cement paste, fine aggregates and ITZ. The Hashin's bound model was used to predict the elastic modulus of mortar as a three-phase composite. Theoretical evaluation of fracture toughness indicated that the frictional pullout of fine aggregates makes major contribution to the fracture energy of cement mortar. Linear fracture mechanics principles were used to model the tensile strength of mortar. The predictions of theoretical models compared reasonably with empirical values.

• Proceedings of the Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute Conference
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• 2006.09b
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• pp.1082-1083
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• 2006

Carbon nanotube (CNT) reinforced hydroxyapatite (HAp) composites were fabricated by using the spark plasma sintering process with surfactant modified CNT and HAp nano powder. Without the dependency on sintering temperature, the main crystal phase existed with the HAp phase although a few contents of ${\beta}-TCP$ (Tri calcium phosphate) phase were detected. The maximum fracture toughness, $(1.27\;MPa.m^{1/2})$ was obtained in the sample sintered at $1100^{\circ}C$ and on the fracture surface a typical intergranular fracture mode, as well as the pull-out pmhenomenon of CNT, was observed.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.305-317
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• 2016

Porous materials such as concrete could be subjected to aggressive ions transport. Durability of cement paste is extremely depended on water and ions penetration into its interior sections. These ions transport could lead different damages depending on reactivity of ions, their concentrations and diffusion coefficients. In this paper, chloride diffusion process in cement hydrates is simulated at atomistic scale using molecular dynamics. Most important phase of cement hydrates is calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H). Tobermorite, one of the most famous crystal analogues of C-S-H, is used as substrate in the simulation model. To conduct simulation, a nanopore is considered in the middle of simulation cell to place water molecules and aggressive ions. Different chloride salts are considered in models to find out which one is better for calculation of the transport properties. Diffusion coefficients of water molecules and chloride ions are calculated and validated with existing analytical and experimental works. There are relatively good agreements among simulation outputs and experimental results.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.460-466
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• 2002

Titanium oxide film was deposited on the commercially pure titanium (cp-Ti) by thermal oxidation method for its medical application. The cp-Ti disks were cleaned and then heat-treated at the temperatures of 500, 550, 600, 650, and 700${\circ}C$, respectively, for 10 min in air or Ar. To test the ability of calcium phosphate formation, the specimens were immersed in the Eagle's minimum essential medium solution at 36.5${\circ}C$ for 15 days. The morphology and chemical composition of the surfaces before and after soaking were analyzed by using FE-SEM and EDS. The in-vitro formation of carbonated calcium phosphate on the thin films containing nano-sized $TiO_2$ crystals was identified.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.454-458
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• 2014

In this study, we examined the ionization rate and permeability of nanocalcium prepared from oyster shells with various particle sizes. Four particle sizes of the calcium samples were prepared by centrifugation according to their density disparity in alcoholic solution: NC (normal calcium), C-1 (supernatant of 1,000 rpm), C-2 (supernatant of 2,000 rpm), and C-3 (supernatant of 3,000 rpm). Particle sizes of NC, C-1, C-2, and C-3 were $2,280.3{\pm}64.3nm$, $521.3{\pm}83.3nm$, $313.9{\pm}29.5nm$, and $280.0{\pm}3.4nm$, respectively. C-3 showed a slight increase in ionization rate compared with the other calcium samples, but their differences were not significant. Dialysis membrane-employed analysis showed that nanocalcium permeability increased as its particle size smaller; 32% of C-3 nanocalcium was transported to the outside of the membrane, whereas C-1 showed a 25% transport rate. We determined the permeability of the nanocalciums by using rat intestinal sacs, in order to provide different intestinal environments depending on pH level. Nanocalcium generally showed a higher permeability at pH 7, which represents an ileum environments compared to the duodenum and jejunum environments at pH 4.2 and pH 6.2, respectively. However, C-3 calcium showed the highest permeability, followed by C-2, C-1 and NS calciums. This result shows that the size of calcium positively affected its permeability in the intestinal sac. Taken together, nano-sized calcium derived from discarded oyster shell shows improved permeability in intestinal environments.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.382-387
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• 2015

The dispersion of calcium carbonate ($CaCO_3$) in polypropylene (PP) and the effect of $CaCO_3$ size on the crystallinity of PP were studied. Polymer composite usually suffers from the brittleness when reinforced with inorganic fillers. The problem is generally related to the size and dispersion of fillers. First, the dispersion was studied for the nanosize $CaCO_3$ with 15~40 nm average diameter. To enhance the dispersibility in PP, the surface of the $CaCO_3$ was treated with sodium lignosulfonate (SLS). $CaCO_3$/PP composites were prepared via melt compounding. The $CaCO_3$ coated with more than 3 wt% SLS was uniformly distributed within the PP matrix, while the uncoated $CaCO_3$ formed aggregated structures in the PP. Even with 30 wt%, the SLS-$CaCO_3$ was well dispersed in the PP matrix. Also, the transition enthalpy of $CaCO_3$/PP increased and the full-width of half maximum of the crystallization peak decreased regardless of SLS coating and size of $CaCO_3$. However, the crystallinity of PP was more influenced by nano $CaCO_3$. These results imply that the nano $CaCO_3$ coated with SLS may reduce the brittleness of polymer composites.