• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.14-21
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• 2006

Tissue engineering techniques require the use of a porous biodegradable/bioresorbable scaffold, which server as a three-dimensional template for initial cell attachment and subsequent tissue formation in both in vitro and in vivo. Small intestinal submucosa (SIS) has been investigated as a source of collagenous tissue with the potential to be used as biomaterials because of its inherent strength and biocompatibility. SIS-loaded poly(L-lactide-co-glicolide)(PLGA) scaffolds were prepared by solvent casting/particle leaching. Characterizations of SIS/PLGA scaffold were carried out by SEM, mercury porosimeter, and so on. Muscle-derived stem cells can be differentiated in culture into osteoblasts, chondrocytes, and even myoblasts by the controlling the culture environment. Cellular viability and proliferation were assayed by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazole-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium-bromide(MTT) test. Osteogenic differential cells were analyzed by alkaline phosphatase(ALP) activity. SIS/PLGA scaffolds were implanted into the back of athymic nude mouse to observe the effect of SIS on the osteoinduction compared with controlled PLGA scaffolds. Thin sections were cut from paraffin embedded tissues and histological sections were conducted hematoxylin and eosin (H&E), Trichrome, and von Kossa. We observed that bone formatioin of SIS/PLGA hybrid scaffold as natural/synthetic scaffold was better thean that of only PLGA scaffold. It canb be explained that SIS contains various kinds of bioactive molecules for osteoinduction.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.224-231
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• 2000

The exfoliation of graphite (layer) was progressed due to the irreversible insertion of PC molecules between graphene layers, when propylene carbonate (PC) solvent was used as the organic solvents. The problem could be mitigated by the replacement of PC by ethylene carbonate (EC). But, the freezing point of EC-based electrolyte increased due to the high freezing point of $EC(36.2^{\circ}C)$. Therefore, EC+PC mixed electrolyte is expected as a good organic electrolyte for lithium ion battery. The EC-based organic electrolyte containing PC within pertinent quantity can be expected to have high molar conductivity and reduced exfoliation of graphite layer. The dielectric constant and molar conductivity of $LiPF_6/PC+EC+DEC$ electrolyte was investigated with a variation in the PC content. The electrochemical properties of carbon electrode in the electrolyte were also investigated. Molar conductivity and dielectric constant increased linearly by increasing the PC volume fraction in the electrolyte. The results of charge-discharge test for carbon/electrolyte/Li cell indicated that the initial irreversible specific capacity(IIC) of MCMB-6-28s and MPCF3000 decreased by the addition of $0.83 vol\%$ of PC, but increased with PC content over than $0.83 vol\%$. In the case of MPCF3000 and PCG100 having less than $10 vol\%$ PC, IIC was lower than 50 mAh/g. The discharge specific capacities varied with carbon material, but did not vary with PC content in the electrolyte.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.382-393
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• 2019

Wound care is a health industry concern affecting millions worldwide. Recent increase in metabolic disorders such as diabetes comes with elevated risk of wound-based complications. Treatment and management of wounds are difficult practices due to complexity of the wound healing process. Conventional wound dressings and treatment applications only provide limited benefits which are mainly aimed to keep wound protected from external factors. To improve wound care, recent developments make biopolymers to be of high interest and importance to researchers and medical practitioners. Biopolymers are polymers or natural origin produced by living organisms. They are credited to be highly biocompatible and biodegradable. Currently, studies reported biopolymers to exhibit various health beneficial properties such as antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, hemostatic, cell proliferative and angiogenic activities which are crucial for effective wound management. Several biopolymers, namely chitosan, cellulose, collagen, hyaluronic acid and alginic acid have been already investigated and applied as wound dressing agents. Different derivatives of biopolymers have also been developed by cross-linking with other molecules, grafting with other polymers, and loading with bioactive agents or drugs which showed promising results towards wound healing without any undesired outcome such as scarring and physiological abnormalities. In this review, current applications of common biopolymers in wound treatment industry are highlighted to be a guide for further applications and studies.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.373-378
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• 2013

The interfacial adhesion strength is very important in $SiO_x$ deposited PC film for the barrier enhanced polycarbonate (PC) flexible substrate. In this study, PC films were treated by undercoating, UV/$O_3$ and low temperature plasma and then the effect of physical and chemical surface modifications on the interfacial adhesion strength between PC film and $SiO_x$ barrier layer were studied. It was found that untreated PC film shows significantly low interfacial adhesion strength due to the smooth surface and low surface free energy of PC. Low temperature plasma treatments resulted in the increase of both surface roughness and surface free energy due to etching and the appearance of polar molecules on the PC surface. However, UV/$O_3$ treatment only shows the increase of surface free energy by developed polar molecules on the surface. These surface modifications caused the enhancement of surface interfacial strength between PC film and $SiO_x$ barrier. In the case of undercoating, it was found that the increase of surface interfacial strength was achieved by adhesion between various acrylic acid on acrylate coated surface and $SiO_x$ without increase of polar surface energy. In addition, the barrier property is also improved by organic-inorganic hybrid multilayer structure.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.59-64
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• 1996

The 7F0→5D0excitation spectra of Eu(Ⅲ) complexed with polyfunctional monocarboxylic acid(glycolic acid, glycine and thioglycolic acid) containing a terminal O, N and S neutral donors and propionic acid were investigated using Eu(Ⅲ) luminescence spectroscopy. In the excitation spectra of Eu(Ⅲ)-propionate system, the stepwise appearance of the peaks was observed at 579.0, 579.2 and 579.5 nm with increasing in the ligand-to-metal ratio, which correspond to the formation of Eu(propionate)2+, Eu(propionate)2+ and Eu(propionate)3 species. Three maximum peaks were also obtained for Eu(Ⅲ)-glycolate, Eu(Ⅲ)-glycinate and Eu(Ⅲ)-thioglycolate systems and were found to be quite similar to those of Eu(Ⅲ)-propionate system. The q values (number of coordinated water molecules of Eu(Ⅲ) ion) obtained from the luminescence decay constants of Eu(Ⅲ)-glycolate and Eu(Ⅲ)-thioglycolate were 7.0 and 7.1, and compare well with 7.3 for Eu(Ⅲ)-propionate: Each ligand units replace around two coordinated water molecules. These results show that the polyfunctional monocarboxylates behaves like the propionate for Eu(Ⅲ) ion coordination.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.52 no.5
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• pp.435-440
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• 2020

Water is a major ingredient and comprises over 98% content of coffee. In this study, coffees prepared with distilled water (L) and waters with medium (M) and high hardness (H) were investigated for organic acid, caffeine, and eugenol contents and analyzed by sensory evaluation. Organic acid content was the highest in H-coffee. The contents of chlorogenic acid and caffeine, the characteristic bitter taste molecules, were the highest in L-coffee. The level of eugenol, one of the representative aroma components, was the lowest in M-coffee but similar between L- and H-coffees. The sensory evaluation test, conducted on a university student group comprising 56 female and 47 male participants, showed that L-coffee was the most preferred (42% or higher), but there was no significant difference in bitterness, acidity, body, and balance. Results suggest that the preference index of coffee taste among university students may be different from that of coffee experts who prefer coffee extracted with water of certain hardness.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.19 no.8
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• pp.951-960
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• 2010

Sediment works as a resource for electric cells. This paper was designed in order to verify how sediment cells work with anodic material such as metal and carbon fiber. As known quite well, sediment under sea, rivers or streams provides a furbished environment for generating electrons via some electron transfer mechanism within specific microbial population or corrosive oxidation on the metal surfaces in the presence of oxygen or water molecules. We experimented with one type of sediment cell using different anodic material so as to attain prolonged, maximum electric power. Iron, Zinc, aluminum, copper, zinc/copper, and graphite felt were tested for anodes. Also, combined type of anodes-metal embedded in the graphite fiber matrix-was experimented for better performances. The results show that the combined type of anodes exhibited sustainable electricity production for ca. 600 h with max. $0.57\;W/m^2$ Al/Graphite. Meanwhile, graphite-only electrodes produced max. $0.11\;W/m^2$ along with quite stationary electric output, and for a zinc electrode, in which the electricity generated was not stable with time, therefore resulting in relatively sharp drop in that after 100 h or so, the maximum power density was $0.64\;W/m^2$. It was observed that the corrosive reaction rates in the metal electrodes might be varied, so that strength and stability in the electric performances(voltage and current density) could be affected by them. In addition to that, COD(chemical oxygen demand) of the sediment of the cell system was reduced by 17.5~36.7% in 600 h, which implied that the organic matter in the sediment would be partially converted into non-COD substances, that is, would suggest a way for decontamination of the aged, anaerobic sediment as well. The pH reduction for all electrodes could be a sign of organic acid production due to complicated chemical changes in the sediment.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.22 no.10
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• pp.1825-1832
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• 2000

Column experiments were conducted by using soil columns, to investigate feasibility and efficiency of in-situ ozone enhanced remediation for diesel-contaminated soil. The injection of gaseous ozone into soil column revealed the enhanced decomposition of ozone due to the catalytic reaction between ozone and metal (e.g., Fe, Mn etc.) oxides as evidenced by as much as 25 times shorter half-life of ozone in a sand packed column than in a glass beads packed column. Substantial retardation in the transport of and the consumption of ozone were observed in the diesel contaminated field soil and sand packed columns. After 16 hrs ozonation, 80% of the initial mass of diesel (as diesel range organic) concentration of $800{\pm}50mg/kg$, was removed under the conditions of the flow rate of 50mL/min and $6mg-O_3/min$. Whereas, less than 30% of diesel was removed in the case of air injection. Analysis of the residual TPH(total petroleum hydrocarbon) and selected 8 aliphatics of diesel compounds in the inlet and the outlet of the column confirmed that diesel nonselectively reacted with ozone and then shifted to lower carbon numbered molecules. Water content also was found to be an important parameter in employing ozone to the hydrocarbon-contaminated soil.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.299-308
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• 2009

We manufactured PVA-derived hydrogels using a foam generation technique that has been widely used to prepare colloidal gas aphrons(CGA). These gels were differentiated to the conventional gels such as for medical or pharmaceutical applications, which have tiny pores and some crystalline structure. Rather these should be used in de-pollution devices or adhesion of cells or biomolecules. The crosslinkers used in this work were amino acid, organic acid, sugars and lipids(vitamins). The structures of the gels were observed in a scanned electron microscope. Amino acids gels showed remarkably higher swelling ratios probably because their typical functional groups help constructing a highly crosslinked network along with hydrogen bonds. Boric acid and starch would catalyze dehydration while structuring to result in much lower water content and accordingly high gel content, leading to less elastic, hard gels. Bulky materials such as ascorbic acid or starch produced, in general, large pores in the matrices and also nicotinamide, having large hydrophobic patches was likely to enlarge pore size of its gels as well since the hydrophobicity would expel water molecules, thus leading to reduced swelling. Hydrophilicity(or hydrophobicity), functional groups which are involved in the reaction or physical linkage, and bulkiness of crosslinkers were found to be more critical to gel's cross linking structure and its density than molecular weights that seemed to be closely related to pore sizes. Microscopic observation revealed that pores were more or less homogeneous and their average sizes were $20{\mu}m$ for methionine, $10-15{\mu}m$ for citric acid, $50-70{\mu}m$ for L-ascorbic acid, $30-40{\mu}m$ for nicotinamide, and $70-80{\mu}m$ for starch. Also a sensory test showed that amino acid and glucose gels were more elastic meanwhile acid and nicotinamide gels turned out to be brittle or non-elastic at their high concentrations. The elasticity of a gel was reasonably correlated with its water content or swelling ratio. In addition, the PVA gel including 20% ascorbic acid showed fair ability of cell adherence as 0.257mg/g-hydrogel and completely degraded phenanthrene(10 mM) in 240 h.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.60 no.4
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• pp.550-556
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• 2022

The performance of enzymatic fuel cells that convert chemical energy contained in various organic molecules such as sugar, alcohol, organic acids, and amino acids into electrical energy is greatly affected by the cathode as well as the anode. This study aimed to develop a laccase-based cathode with high performance. An enzyme composite composed of an laccase, redox mediator, and carbon nanotubes was immobilized on the surface of electrode in multiple layers, and the effect of the number of layers and the presence or absence of carbon nanotubes on electrode performance was investigated. As the number of layers of the enzyme-mediator (Lac-(PVI-Os-dCl)) on the electrode surface increased, the amount of reduction current generated at the electrode increased. The enzyme-carbon nanotube-mediator composite electrode (Lac-SWCNTs-(PVI-Os-dCl)) generated a current 1.7 times greater than that of the Lac-(PVI-Os-dCl). It was found that the largest amount of current (10.1±0.1 µA) was generated in the electrode composed of two layers of Lac-(PVI-Os-dCl) and two layers of Lac-SWCNTs-(PVI-Os-dCl) in the evaluation of electrodes with different ratio of Lac-SWCNTs-(PVI-Os-dCl) and Lac-(PVI-Os-dCl). The maximum power density of the cell using the cathode composed of a single layer of Lac-(PVI-Os-dCl) and the cell using the optimized cathode were 0.46±0.05 and 1.23±0.04 µW/cm², respectively. In this study, it was demonstrated that the performance of cathode and the enzymatic fuel cell using the same can be improved by optimizing the layers of composites composed of laccase, redox mediator, and carbon nanotubes on the electrode surface.