• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.12
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• pp.2098-2105
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• 2016

Massive reserves of methane ($CH_4$) remain unexplored as a feedstock for the production of liquid fuels and chemicals, mainly because of the lack of economically suitable and sustainable strategies for selective oxidation of $CH_4$ to methanol. The present study demonstrates the bioconversion of $CH_4$ to methanol mediated by Type I methanotrophs, such as Methylomicrobium album and Methylomicrobium alcaliphilum. Furthermore, immobilization of a Type II methanotroph, Methylosinus sporium, was carried out using different encapsulation methods, employing sodium-alginate (Na-alginate) and silica gel. The encapsulated cells demonstrated higher stability for methanol production. The optimal pH, temperature, and agitation rate were determined to be pH 7.0, $30^{\circ}C$, and 175 rpm, respectively, using inoculum (1.5 mg of dry cell mass/ml) and 20% of $CH_4$ as a feed. Under these conditions, maximum methanol production (3.43 and 3.73 mM) by the encapsulated cells was recorded. Even after six cycles of reuse, the Na-alginate and silica gel encapsulated cells retained 61.8% and 51.6% of their initial efficiency for methanol production, respectively, in comparison with the efficiency of 11.5% observed in the case of free cells. These results suggest that encapsulation of methanotrophs is a promising approach to improve the stability of methanol production.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.125-131
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• 2016

In recent years, thick ta-C coating has attracted considerable interest owing to its existing and potential commercial importance in applications such as automobile accessories, drills, and gears. The thickness of the ta-C coating is an important parameter in these applications. However, the biggest problems are achieving efficient coating and uniformity over a large area with high-speed deposition. Feasibility is confirmed for the ta-C coating thickness of up to 9.0 µm (coating speed: 3.0 µm/h, fixed substrate) using a single FCVA cathode. The thickness was determined using multiple coating cycles that were controlled using substrate temperature and residual stresses. In the present research, we have designed a coating system using FCVA plasma and produced enhanced thick ta-C coating. The system uses a specialized magnetic field configuration with stabilized DC arc plasma discharge during deposition. To achieve quality that is acceptable for use in automobile accessories, the magnetic field, T-type filters, and 10 pieces of a multi-cathode are used to demonstrate the deposition of the thick ta-C coating. The results of coating performance indicate that uniformity is ±7.6 , deposited area is 400 mm, and the thickness of the ta-C coating is up to 5.0 µm (coating speed: 0.3 µm/h, revolution and rotation). The hardness of the coating ranges from 30 to 59 GPa, and the adhesion strength level (HF1) ranges from 20 to 60 N, depending on the ta-C coating.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.313-323
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• 2003

The sliding wear behaviors of Zircaloy-4 nuclear fuel rod were investigated using two support springs with convex and concave shapes in room temperature air and water. The main focus is to compare the wear behavior of various test variables such as slip amplitude, environment, contact contours with different spring shape and a number of cycles. The results indicated that wear volume and maximum wear depth increased with slip amplitude in both air and water, but their trends tended to change according to the spring shapes and test environments. In air condition, the wear volume was controlled by wear debris behavior generated on worn surface. As a result, final wear volume and maximum wear depth decreased if a ratio of protruded wear volume to worn area $(D_p)$ would be saturated to specific value. This is because wear particle layer could accommodate large strain by accumulating and transforming wear particle layer. However, in water condition, metal-to metal contact was more dominant and wear volume was greatly affected by changed mechanical behavior between contact surfaces since wear debris should be generated after repeated plastic deformation and fracture. After wear test, worn surfaces were examined using optical microscope and SEM and details of wear mechanism were discussed using a ratio of wear volume to worn area $(D_e)$ at each test condition.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.08a
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• pp.196-196
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• 2011

Molecular $N_2O$ has bee known to react over oxygen vacancy on a reduced rutile $TiO_2$(110)-1${\times}$1 surface to desorb as molecular $N_2$ leaving oxygen atom behind. In the present study, we investigated the reaction of $N_2O$ on rutile $TiO_2$(110) using temperature-programmed desorption (TPD). Our results indicate that $N_2O$ does not react over the oxygen vacancy under a typical UHV experimental condition. On a rutile $TiO_2$(110)-1${\times}$1 with a well-defined oxygen vacancy concentration of 5% ($2.6{\times}10^{13}/cm^2$), $N_2O$ desorption features show a monolayer peak maximum at 135 K followed by a small peak maximum at 170 K. When the oxygen vacancy is blocked with $H_2O$, the $N_2O$ peak at 170 K disappears completely, indicating that the peak is due to molecular $N_2O$ interacting with oxygen vacancy. The integrated amount of desorbed $N_2O$ plotted against the amount of adsorbed $N_2O$ however shows a straight line with no offset indicating no loss of $N_2O$ during our cycles of TPD measurements. In addition, our $N_2O$ uptake measurements at 70~100 K showed no $N_2$ (as a reaction product) desorption except contaminant $N_2$. Also, $H_2O$ TPD taken after $N_2O$ scattering up to 350 K indicates no change in the vacancy-related $H_2O$ desorption peak at 500 K showing no change in the oxygen vacancy concentration after the interaction with $N_2O$.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.611-615
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• 1995

The design of appropriate chemically modified electrodes should allow development of new voltammetric measurement schemes with enhanced selectivity and sensitivity. Microorganism like algae has high ability to trap toxic and heavy metal ions and different affinities for metal ions. A copper(II) ion-selective carbon paste electrode was constructed by incorporating alga Anabaena into a conventional carbon paste mixture, and then the film of 10% Nafion was coated to avoid the swelling of the electrode surface. Copper ion could be deposited at the 25% algamodified electrode for 15 min without the applied potential while stirring the solution by only immersing the electrode in a buffer (pH 4.0) cot1taining copper(II). Temperature was controlled at $35^{\circ}C$. After preconcentration was carried out the electrode was transferred to a 0.1 M potassium chloride solution and was reduced at -0.6 volt at $25^{\circ}C$. The differential pulse anodic stripping voltammetry was employed. A well-defined oxidation peak could be obtained at -0.1 volt (vs SCE). In five deposition / measurement / regeneration cycles, the responses were reproducible and relative standard deviations were 3.3% for $8.0{\times}10^{-4}M$ copper(II). Calibration curve for copper was linear over the range from $2.0{\times}10^{-4}M$ to $1.0{\times}10^{-3}M$. The detection limit was $7.5{\times}10^{-5}M$. Studies of the effect of diverse ions showed that the coexisting metal ions had little or no effect for the determination of copper. But anions such as cyanide. oxalate and EDTA seriously interfered.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.308-314
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• 2017

$Fe_3O_4$/Fe/graphene nanocomposite powder is synthesized by electrical wire explosion of Fe wire and dispersed graphene in deionized water at room temperature. The structural and electrochemical characteristics of the powder are characterized by the field-emission scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, field-emission transmission electron microscopy, cyclic voltammetry, and galvanometric discharge-charge method. For comparison, $Fe_3O_4$/Fe nanocomposites are fabricated under the same conditions. The $Fe_3O_4$/Fe nanocomposite particles, around 15-30 nm in size, are highly encapsulated in a graphene matrix. The $Fe_3O_4$/Fe/graphene nanocomposite powder exhibits a high initial charge specific capacity of 878 mA/g and a high capacity retention of 91% (798 mA/g) after 50 cycles. The good electrochemical performance of the $Fe_3O_4$/Fe/graphene nanocomposite powder is clearly established by comparison of the results with those obtained for $Fe_3O_4$/Fe nanocomposite powder and is attributed to alleviation of volume change, good distribution of electrode active materials, and improved electrical conductivity upon the addition of graphene.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.183-189
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• 1999

Zinc-based sorbents for $H_2S$ removal were prepared. The reactivity of sorbents was investigated by the successive cycles of sulfidation-regeneration at $650^{\circ}C$ in a fixed bed reactor. The desulfurization sorbents were prepared with granulation method to produce a spherical pellet with good attrition resistance. The fresh and reacted sorbents were characterized by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and the characteristics of sorbents on calcination conditons were analysed by Mercury Porosimetery and BET. The reactivity of sorbents decreased as the number of sulfidation-regeneration cycle increased. It is due to the zinc loss and the increase of the diffusion resistance by sintering, cracking and spalling of sorbents at the high temperature.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.449-453
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• 2007

Synthesis of Sn-GIC (Graphite intercalated compound) and its electrochemical characteristics were investigated to find a method for enhancing the performance of carbon anode of lithium ion battery. The content of Sn intercalated in graphite interlayer increased with increase of concentration of $SnCl_2$ solution and increase of the heat treatment temperature of dried graphite after dipped in $SnCl_2$ solution, respectively. And initial discharge capacity increased upon increase of intercalated Sn content. Sn-GIC with excellent electrochemical performance, which can be synthesized by heat treatment at $900^{\circ}C$ after dipped in 1.0 M $SnCl_2$ solution, showed 356 mAh/g of initial discharge capacity and 13% of capacity decay after 10 cycles.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.394-402
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• 2008

The Effects of Cu or Ni additives co-added with Ce/Zr mixed oxides to Fe-based oxide mediums were investigated for the purpose of the replacement of Rh, a precious metal additive, in terms of hydrogen storage(reduction by hydrogen) and release(water splitting). From the results of temperature programmed reduction(TPR), initial reduction rate of iron oxide in the mediums was greatly increased with the addition of Cu, similar to that of Rh. For isothermal redox reaction of 10 cycles, the total amounts of hydrogen evolved in water splitting steps for the mediums added with Cu or Ni were highly maintained at ca. 7 mmol/g-material, even though the oxidation rates were slightly lower than that for the medium added with Rh. This result suggests that the replacement of Rh to Cu or Ni is possible as a co-additive for Fe-based oxide mediums.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.150-157
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• 2017

Three types of piezoelectric single crystals [PMN-PT (Generation I $[Pb(Mg_{1/3}Nb_{2/3})O_3-PbTiO_3]$), PMN-PZT (Generation II $[Pb(Mg_{1/3}Nb_{2/3})O_3-Pb(Zr,Ti)O_3]$), PMN-PZT-Mn (Generation III)] were grown by the solid-state single crystal growth (SSCG) method, and their dielectric and piezoelectric properties were measured and compared. Compared to (001) PMN-PT and PMN-PZT single crystals, the (001) PMN-PZT-Mn single crystals exhibited a higher transition temperature between the rhombohedral and tetragonal phases ($T_{RT}=144^{\circ}C$), as well as a higher coercive electric field ($E_C=6.3kV/cm$) and internal bias field ($E_I=1.6kV/cm$). The (011) PMN-PZT-Mn single crystals showed the highest coercive electric field ($E_C=7.0kV/cm$), and the highest stability of $E_C$ and $E_I$ during 60 cycles of polarization measurement. These results demonstrate that both Mn doping (for higher electromechanical quality factor ($Q_m$)) and a (011) crystallographic orientation (for higher coercive electric field and stability) are necessary for high power transducer applications of these piezoelectric single crystals. Specifically, the (011) PMN-PZT-Mn single crystal (Gen. III) had the highest potential for application in the fields of SONAR transducers, high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU), ultrasonic motors, and others.