• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.392-400
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• 2019

Chondroitin, the precursor of chondroitin sulfate, which is an important polysaccharide, has drawn significant attention due to its applications in many fields. In the present study, a heterologous biosynthesis pathway of chondroitin was designed in a GRAS (generally recognized as safe) strain C. glutamicum. CgkfoC and CgkfoA genes with host codon preference were synthesized and driven by promoter Ptac, which was confirmed as a strong promoter via GFPuv reporter assessment. In a lactate dehydrogenase (ldh) deficient host, intracellular chondroitin titer increased from 0.25 to 0.88 g/l compared with that in a wild-type host. Moreover, precursor enhancement via overexpressing precursor synthesizing gene ugdA further improved chondroitin titers to 1.09 g/l. Chondroitin production reached 1.91 g/l with the engineered strain C. glutamicum ${\Delta}L-CgCAU$ in a 5-L fed-batch fermentation with a single distribution $M_w$ of 186 kDa. This work provides an alternative, safe and novel means of producing chondroitin for industrial applications.

• Carbon letters
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• v.19
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• pp.57-65
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• 2016

Isroaniso matrix precursor synthesized from commercially available petroleum pitch was stabilized in air. The influence of oxygen mass gain during stabilization on the yield of matrix precursor was studied. Additionally, the influence of pressure on the yield of the stabilized matrix precursor in a real system was studied. The fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), yield, yield rate, and yield impact were used to check the effect of stabilization and pressure on the yield of the matrix precursor and the end properties of the composite thereafter. The results showed that the yield increased with stabilization duration up to 20 h whereas it decreased for stabilization duration beyond 20 h. Further results showed that the stabilized matrix precursor for a duration of 5 h could withstand almost two-fold greater hot-pressing pressure without resulting in exudation as compared to that of a 1 h stabilized matrix precursor. The enhanced hot-pressing pressure significantly improved the yield of the matrix precursor. As a consequence, the densification and mechanical properties were increased significantly. Further, the matrix precursor stabilized for a duration of 20 h or more failed to provide proper and uniform binding of the reinforcement.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.215-222
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• 2009

Jets issuing through small holes in a wall into a freestream has proven effective in the control of flow separation. This technique is known as the vortex generator jet (VGJs) method. If a precursor signal of separation is found, the separation control system using VGJs can be operated just before the onset of separation and the flow field with no separation is always attained. In this study, we measured the flow field and the wall static pressure in a two-dimensional diffuser to find a precursor signal of flow separation. The streamwise velocity measurements were carried out in the separated shear layer and spectral analysis was applied to the velocity fluctuations at some angles with respect to the diffuser. The pattern of peaks in the spectral analysis changes as the divergence angle increases over the angle of which the whole separation occurs. This change in the spectral pattern is related to the enhancement of the growth of shear layer vortices and appears just before the onset of separation. Therefore, the growth of shear layer vortices can be regarded as a precursor signal to flow separation.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.391-396
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• 2004

In order to overcome drawbacks in the conventional preparation of epoxy/silica nanocomposites, such as formation of micro voids and dimensional instability caused by evolution of volatile by-products during curing reaction, a novel preparation method using Si-N precursor has been proposed. When prepared through in-situ reaction of epoxy curing reaction with sol-gel reaction of Si-N precursor, methyltripiperidinylsilane (MTPS) which does not produce by-products during reaction, epoxy/silica nanocomposites of extremely even dispersion of inorganic phase could be successfully prepared, resulting in high enhancement of mechanical and thermal properties as well as outstanding transparency.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.33 no.10
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• pp.3331-3337
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• 2012

Ru-modified Pt nanoparticles of various sizes on platelet carbon nanofiber toward methanol oxidation were investigated in terms of particle size effect. The sizes of Pt nanoparticles, prepared by polyol method, were in the range of 1.5-7.5 nm and Ru was spontaneously deposited by contacting Pt nanoparticles with the Ru precursor solutions of 2 and 5 mM. The Ru-modified Pt nanoparticles were characterized using transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry. The methanol oxidation activities of Ru-modified Pt nanoparticles, measured using cyclic voltammetry and chronoamperometry, revealed that when the Pt particle size was less than 4.3 nm, the mass specific activity was fairly constant with an enhancement factor of more than 2 at 0.4 V. However, the surface area specific activity was maximized on Pt nanoparticles of 4.3 nm modified with 5 mM Ru precursor solution. The observations were discussed in terms of the enhancement of poison oxidation by Ru and the population variation of Pt atoms at vertices and edges of Pt nanoparticles due to selective deposition of Ru on the facets of (111) and (100).

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.96-102
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• 2023

Sn-Pb narrow-bandgap perovskite solar cells, which is a light-harvesting layer thicker than 1.3 micrometers, is needed to enhance the low photocurrent. The fabrication of such a thick film through solution processing is a key challenge. Here, we studied and characterized the film by using a precursor solution of increased concentration, comparing it with the universally used 1-micrometer Sn-Pb perovskite film. The increase in molar concentration clearly induced thickness enhancement, but we observed that it also created numerous voids at the interface with bottom charge transporting layer. We hypothesized that these voids might hinder the increase in photocurrent associated with thickness enhancement. By introducing methylammonium chloride (MACl), we successfully fabricated Sn-Pb perovskite film with a thickness of 1.3 micrometer and no voids. Void-controlled Sn-Pb perovskite solar cells not only demonstrated superior short-circuit current density compared to those with voids but also operated smoothly under light exposure.

• Carbon letters
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.198-201
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• 2009

Among other filters such as light filter, wave filter, air filter, ultra filter and filter paper, a novel adsorption filter from thermostable polyester nonwoven fabrics immobilized with functional super activated carbon by means of quinoline soluble, activateable isotropic pitch binder were developed in this study. The activated carbon precursor is available in the market branded as coconut shell based activated carbon(CCS-AC) produced by Dongyang Carbon Co. Ltd. BET-surface area of this precursor was $1,355\;m^2/g$, after KOH-activation it increased over $2,970\;m^2/g$ and was named as super activated carbon. In the preliminary research, this precursor was impregnated with $PdCl_2$(0.188 wt%) $KMnO_4$(3 wt%) and redox-agent(CuCl2, 0.577 wt%) in order to promote TOF up to 100/h and Selectivity up 99% and patented as a functional AC for the ethylene adsorption. The enhancement of the isotropic pitch binder to the AC-immobilized adsorption filter was BET-surface area upgraded by $266\;m^2/g$ and promoted the Iodine- and MB-adsorption by 1.4 times, respectively and also micro pore wide ranges < $5{\AA}{\sim}30\;{\AA}$ >.

• Korean Journal of Medicinal Crop Science
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.91-94
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• 2005

Plants have been known to accumulate a very diverse range of triterpene saponins. We have investigated the regulation of saponin biosynthesis in higher plants using Centella asiatica (L.) Urban as a model plant. Effects of a feeding precursor on asiaticoside production from leaves and on the level of two-type OSCs mRNA were investigated. As a feeding precursor, squalene negatively affected the levels of CYS and bAS mRNA, but it also decreased the production of asiaticoside from whole plants. Plant hormones regulate secondary metabolism, and in plant tissue cultures they could affect both culture growth and secondary metabolite production. Although enhancement of asiaticoside production from whole plant cultures by addition of TDZ (thidiazuron) has been reported, the positive effect of TDZ on the levels of OSCs transcripts was not observed.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 2008

The effect of $BaCeO_3$ doping on the critical current density of YBCO film by TFA-MOD method was studied. $BaCeO_3$ doping was made by two method; one is direct addition of $BaCeO_3$ nano-sized powder prepared by citrate process followed by grinding with planetary ball mill for 10 hours. Another is addition of Ba-Ce precursor solution prepared with Ba-acetate and Ce acetate dissolved in TFA to the YBCO-TFA precursor solution. The film was made by standard dip coating and heat treatment process with conversion temperature of $790^{\circ}C$ in 1000 ppm oxygen containing moisturized Ar gas atmosphere. The direct addition of $BaCeO_3$ powder resulted in YBCO film with good epitaxial growth and no evidence of second phase formation. The addition through precursor solution resulted in the increase of critical current density upto 30 at% doping and uniform dispersion of $BaCeO_3$ fine inclusion was confirmed by SEM-EDX.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.471.2-471.2
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• 2014

We demonstrate here that an improvement in precursor film density (green density) leads to a great enhancement in the photovoltaic performance of CuInSe2 (CISe) thin film solar cells fabricated with Cu-In nanoparticle precursor films via chemical solution deposition. A cold-isostatic pressing (CIP) technique was applied to uniformly compress the precursor film over the entire surface (measuring 3~4 cm2) and was found to increase its relative density (particle packing density) by ca. 20%, which resulted in an appreciable improvement in the microstructural features of the sintered CISe film in terms of lower porosity, reduced grain boundaries, and a more uniform surface morphology. The low-bandgap (Eg=1.0 eV) CISe PV devices with the CIP-treated film exhibited greatly enhanced open-circuit voltage (VOC, from 0.265 V to 0.413 V) and fill factor (FF, from 0.34 to 0.55), as compared to the control devices. As a consequence, an almost 3-fold increase in the average power conversion efficiency, 3.0 to 8.2% (with the highest value of 9.02%), was realized without an anti-reflection coating. A diode analysis revealed that the enhanced VOC and FF were essentially attributed to the reduced reverse saturation current density (j0) and diode ideality factor (n). This is associated with the suppressed recombination, likely due to the reduction in recombination sites such as grain/air surfaces (pores), inter-granular interfaces, and defective CISe/CdS junctions in the CIP-treated device. From the temperature dependences of VOC, it was confirmed that the CIP-treated devices suffer less from interface recombination.