• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.99-115
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• 2020

This article deals with the dynamic analysis in pad concrete foundation containing Silica nanoparticles (SiO₂) subject to seismic load. In order to control the foundation smartly, a piezoelectric layer covered the foundation. The weight of the building by a column on the foundation is assumed with an external force in the middle of the structure. The foundation is located in soil medium which is modeled by spring elements. The Mori-Tanaka law is utilized for calculating the equivalent mechanical characteristics of the concrete foundation. The Kevin-Voigt model is adopted to take into account the structural damping. The concrete structure is modeled by a thick plate and the governing equations are deduced using Hamilton's principle under the assumption of higher-order shear deformation theory (HSDT). The differential quadrature method (DQM) and the Newmark method are applied to obtain the seismic response. The effects of the applied voltage to the smart layer, agglomeration and volume percent of SiO₂ nanoparticles, damping of the structure, geometrical parameters and soil medium of the structure are assessed on the dynamic response. It has been demonstrated by the numerical results that by applying a negative voltage, the dynamic deflection is reduced significantly. Moreover, silica nanoparticles reduce the dynamic deflection of the concrete foundation.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.12-18
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• 2018

Cost-effective functional phosphor nanoparticles are prepared by introducing low-cost $SiO_2$ spheres to rare-earth phosphor ($YVO_4:Eu^{3+}$, $YVO_4:Er^{3+}$, and $YVO_4:Nd^{3+}$) shells using a sol-gel synthetic method. These functional nanoparticles are characterized by X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and general photoluminescence spectra. The $SiO_2$ sphere occupying the interior of the conventional phosphor is advantageous in significantly reducing the cost of expensive rare-earth phosphor nanoparticles. The sol-gel process facilitates the core-shell structure formation; the rare-earth shell phosphor has strong interactions with chelating agents on the surfaces of $SiO_2$ nanoparticles and thus forms layers of several nanometers in thickness. The photoluminescence wavelength is simply tuned by replacing the active materials of $Eu^{3+}$, $Er^{3+}$, and $Nd^{3+}$. Moreover, the photoluminescent properties of the core-shell nanoparticles can be optimized by manipulating the specific contents of active materials in the phosphors. Our simple approach substitutes low-cost $SiO_2$ for expensive rare-earth-based phosphor materials to realize cost-effective phosphor nanoparticles for various applications.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.39-42
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• 2011

The composite electroplating is accomplished by adding inert materials during the electroplating. Permalloy is the term for Ni-Fe alloy and it is used for industrial applications due to its high magnetic permeability, surface wear resistance, corrosion protection. Microhardness for microdevices is enhanced after composite coating and it increases the life cycle. However, the hydroxyl group on the silica makes their surface susceptible to moisture and it causes the silica nanoparticles to be agglomerated in the aqueous solution. The agglomeration problem causes poor dispersion which eventually interrupts uniform deposition of silica nanoparticles. In this study, the dispersion of silica nanoparticles in the permalloy electroplated layer is reported with variation of additives and current densities. The optimum current density was 20 $mA/cm^2$ and the silica content was 9 at% at $50^{\circ}C$. The amount of silica nanopowder codeposition and surface morphologies were influenced with variation of additives. In the bath, smooth surface morphology and relatively high contents of silica nanopowder codeposition were obtained with addition of sodium lauryl sulfate.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.207-217
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• 2015

The influence of powdered and colloidal nano-silica (NS) on the mechanical properties of cement mortar has been investigated. Powdered-NS (~40 nm) was synthesized by employing the sol-gel method and compared with commercially available colloidal NS (~20 nm). SEM and XRD studies revealed that the powdered-NS is non-agglomerated and amorphous, while colloidal-NS is agglomerated in nature. Further, these nanoparticles were incorporated into cement mortar for evaluating compressive strength, gel/space ratio, portlandite quantification, C-S-H quantification and chloride diffusion. Approximately, 27 and 37 % enhancement in compressive strength was observed using colloidal and powdered-NS, respectively, whereas the same was up to 19 % only when silica fume was used. Gel/space ratio was also determined on the basis of degree of hydration of cement mortar and it increases linearly with the compressive strength. Furthermore, DTG results revealed that lime consumption capacity of powdered-NS is significantly higher than colloidal-NS, which results in the formation of additional calcium-silicate-hydrate (C-S-H). Chloride penetration studies revealed that the powdered-NS significantly reduces the ingress of chloride ion as the microstructure is considerably improved by incorporating into cement mortar.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.29 no.7
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• pp.425-431
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• 2019

Generally, ceramic tiles for building construction are manufactured by dry forming process using granular powders prepared by spray drying process after mixing and grinding of mineral raw materials. In recent years, as the demand for large ceramic tiles with natural texture has increased, the development of granule powders with high packing ratio and excellent flowability has become more important. In this study, ceramic tile granule powders are coated with hydrophobically treated silica nanoparticles. The effects of hydrophobic silica coating on the flowability of granule powders and the strength of the green body are investigated in detail. Silica nanoparticles are hydrophobically treated with GPTMS(3-glycidoxypropyl trimethoxy silane), which is an epoxy-based silane coupling agent. As the coating concentration increases, the angle of repose and the compressibility decrease. The tap density and flowability index increase after silica coating treatment. These results indicate that hydrophobic treatment can improve the flowability of the granular powder, and prevent cracking of green body at high pressure molding.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.173-182
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• 2018

As part of planning for waste minimization, decontamination foam has been considered as a potential application for the cleaning of radioactive contaminant. In this study, we synthesized silica particles to improve foam stability by varying synthesis parameters. Cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) was found to influence the stability of the decontamination foam. The reason was that higher interaction between $SiO_2$ nanoparticles and surfactant at the air-water interface in aqueous solution is beneficial for foam stability. CTAB can also be used as an additive for the aggregation of silica nanoparticles. In the separation of $SiO_2$ nanoparticles, CTAB plays a critical role in the nanoparticles flocculation because of the charge neutralization and hydrophobic effects of its hydrocarbon tails.

• Computers and Concrete
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.333-338
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• 2017

In this paper, nonlinear vibration of embedded nanocomposite concrete is investigated based on Timoshenko beam model. The beam is reinforced by with agglomerated silicon dioxide (SiO2) nanoparticles. Mori-Tanaka model is used for considering agglomeration effects and calculating the equivalent characteristics of the structure. The surrounding foundation is simulated with Pasternak medium. Energy method and Hamilton's principal are used for deriving the motion equations. Differential quadrature method (DQM) is applied in order to obtain the frequency of structure. The effects of different parameters such as volume percent of SiO2 nanoparticles, nanoparticles agglomeration, elastic medium, boundary conditions and geometrical parameters of beam are shown on the frequency of system. Numerical results indicate that with increasing the SiO2 nanoparticles, the frequency of structure increases. In addition, considering agglomeration effects leads to decrease in frequency of system.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.727-732
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• 2012

Baroplastic poly(butyl acrylate) (PBA)/polystyrene (PS) blends were prepared by mixing PBA and PS emulsions synthesized by cationic and anionic surfactant, respectively. Interestingly, the heterocoagulation of nanoparticles have found to be affected strongly by emulsion concentration but the blends have been prepared with almost same compositions regardless of the amount of reactants. Utilizing this method, PBA/PS/Si hybrid nano-blends were prepared successfully via electrostatic attraction forces between PBA, PS and silica nanoparticles. The hybrid nano-blend having 2 or 5 wt% of silica was then processed to a semi-transparent film at $25^{\circ}C$ under 13.8 MPa for 10 min, which showed 3.0 MPa of tensile strength and 25 MPa of elastic modulus. Therefore, the heterocoagulation technique can be used for preparing baroplastics with uniform compositions of polymer and silica nanoparticles.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.301-310
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• 2014

In this study, the silica nanoparticles were considerably chosen to improve a dimensional stability, proton transport and electrochemical performance of the resulting inorganic-organic nanocomposite membranes. For this purpose, hydrophobic silica (Aerosil$^{(R)}$ 812, Degussa) and hydrophilic silica (Aerosil$^{(R)}$ 380, Degussa) nanoparticles were, respectively, introduced into a Sulfonated poly(arylene ether sulfone) (SPAES) polymer matrix. The $SiO_2$ particles are evenly dispersed in a SPAES matrix by the aid of a non-ionic surfactant (Pluronics$^{(R)}$ L64). A $SiO_2$ content plays an important role in membrane microstructures and membrane properties such as proton conductivity and water uptake. Therefore, to study nanocomposite membranes with excessive amount of silica, the content of silica nanoparticles were increased up to 5 wt%. Interestingly, a hydrophobic $SiO_2$ containing nanocomposite membrane showed better electrochemical performance (29% higher than pristine SPAES) despite of low proton conductivity due to its adhesive properties with a catalyst layer in a single cell test. All the silica-SPAES membranes exhibited better performance than a pristine SPAES membrane.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.356-368
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• 2008

The effects of cosurfactant on silica nanoparticles were investigated in systems containing surfactant, oil and aqueous ammonia solution where nanoparticles were prepared using a single phase water-in-oil (W/O) microemulsion. For the same oil phase, a single phase region was dependent on the interaction between surfactant and oil. For the cyclohexane system, NP-5 surfactant showed a wider single phase region than NP-4. The addition of n-propanol as a cosurfactant resulted in an increase or a decrease of a single phase W/O microemulsion region depending on the continuous oil phase. For both cyclohexane and isooctane systems, the addition of n-propanol resulted in a decrease in the single phase region. On the other hand, for n-heptane system, the addition of n-propanol expanded a single phase W/O microemulsion region. Silica nanoparticles prepared within a single phase region showed that relatively large number of particles of irregular shape were obtained with the addition of n-propanol to NP surfactant system. The addition of n-propanol to LA-5 surfactant and n-heptane system produced a decrease in average particle size and an increase in the number of particles formed due to a decrease in the intermicellar exchange rate among microemulsion droplets.