Chlorella-derived activated carbon (CDAC) with a high specific surface area and hierarchical pore structure was prepared as a CO2 adsorbent and as a supercapacitor electrode material. During KOH activation of Chlorella-derived carbon, metallic K gas penetrated from the outer walls to the inner cells, and pores formed on the outer frame and the inner surface. Micropores were dominant in CDAC, contributing toward a high specific surface area (> 3500 m2/g) and a hierarchical pore structure owing to the cell walls. Consequently, CDAC exhibited a high CO2 adsorption capacity (13.41 mmol/g at 10 atm and room temperature) and afforded high specific capacitance (142 F/g) and rate capability (retention ratio: 91.5%) in supercapacitors. Compared with woody- and herbaceous-biomass-derived activated carbons, CDAC has a superior specific surface area when the precursors are used without any pretreatment under the same conditions due to their soft components such as lipids and proteins. Furthermore, developing microalgae into high-value-added products is beneficial from both economic and environmental perspectives.

Commercial polystyrene-based ion exchange membranes have simple manufacturing processes, they also possess the poor durability due to their brittleness. Poly(ethylene glycol)methyl ether methacrylate with hydrophilic side chain of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) was used as a co-monomer to make the membranes have improved flexibility. Hydrophilicity of the anion exchange membrane was able to be adjusted by varying the chain lengths of the PEG polymers. For the preparation of the anion exchange membranes, a porous PE substrate was immersed into monomer solutions and thermally polymerized and crosslinked. The prepared membranes were then subsequently post-aminated using trimethylamine(TMA). The prepared pore-filled anion exchange membranes were evaluated in terms of ion exchange capacity(IEC), electric resistance(ER) and water uptake.

Porous metals demonstrate not only excessively low densities, but also novel physical, thermal, mechanical, electrical, and acoustic properties. Thus, porous metals exhibit exceptional performance, which are useful for diesel particulate filters, heat exchangers, and noise absorbers. In this study, SUS316L foam with 90% porosity and 3,000 μm pore size is successfully manufactured using the electrostatic powder coating (ESPC) process. The mean size of SUS316L powders is approximately 12.33 μm. The pore properties are evaluated using SEM and Archimedes. As the quantity of powder coating increases, pore size decreases from 2,881 to 1,356 μm. Moreover, the strut thickness and apparent density increase from 423.7 to 898.3 μm and from 0.278 to 0.840 g/cm3, respectively. It demonstrates that pore properties of SUS316L powder porous metal are controllable by template type and quantity of powder coating.

이온교환막은 고정 전하기를 가지고 있어 반대 극성의 이온만 선택적으로 수송할 수 있는 분리막이다. 최근 이온 교환막을 핵심부품으로 사용하는 탈염 공정 및 에너지 변환 공정의 중요도가 증가함에 따라 이온교환막에 대한 관심도 점차 높아지고 있다. 이온교환막은 상기 공정의 효율을 결정하기 때문에 막의 분리 성능 및 내구성을 향상시켜야 하며 또한 이온 교환막 공정의 확대 적용을 가로막는 걸림돌이 되고 있는 비싼 막 가격도 낮춰야 한다. 따라서 고성능⋅저가 이온교환막의 개발이 시급한 과제라고 할 수 있다. 이온교환막의 다양한 형태 중 다공성 고분자 기재에 이오노머(ionomer)를 충진 시켜 제조되는 세공충진막은 균질막과 불균질막의 중간적인 형태이다. 저렴한 지지체의 사용과 원료 사용량의 감소로 인해 불균질막 처럼 제조 단가가 저렴하며 동시에 균질막에 가까운 우수한 전기화학적 특성을 나타낸다. 본 총설에서는 최근 고성능⋅저가 이온교환막 기술로 주목 받고 있는 세공충진 이온교환막의 주요 연구개발 동향을 응용 분야별로 구분하여 정리 보고하였다.

We fabricated a Li-S battery with post-treated carbon nanotube (CNT) films which offered better support for sulfur, and investigated the effect of the surface properties and pore structure of the post-treated CNT films on Li-S battery performance. Post-treatments, i.e., acid treatment, unzip process and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) treatment, effectively modified the surface properties and pore structure of the CNT film. The modified pore structure impacted the ability of the CNT films to accommodate the catholyte, resulting in an increase in initial discharge capacity.

Commercial polystyrene-based ion exchange membranes have simple manufacturing processes, they also possess the poor durability due to their brittleness. Poly(ethylene glycol)methyl ether methacrylate with hydrophilic side chain of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) was used as a co-monomer to make the membranes have improved flexibility. Hydrophilicity of the anion exchange membrane was able to be adjusted by varying the chain lengths of the PEG polymers. For the preparation of the anion exchange membranes, a porous PE substrate was immersed into monomer solutions and thermally polymerized and crosslinked. The prepared membranes were then subsequently post-aminated using trimethylamine (TMA). The prepared pore-filled anion exchange membranes were evaluated in terms of ion exchange capacity (IEC), electric resistance (ER) and water uptake.

본 연구에서는 막 증류법에 사용되는 PVDF 분리막을 나노입자로 개질하여 젖음 현상에 미치는 영향을 확인하였다. 나노입자를 분리막에 적용하기 위하여 널리 사용되는 dip-coating 방법의 경우, 나노입자에 의한 기공 막힘 현상과 나노입자와 표면과의 부착력이 약하다는 문제점이 있다. 이를 해결하기 위하여, plasma 전처리를 통해 분리막 표면의 기공 크기를 키워주었으며, Fenton 반응을 통해 분리막 표면에 SiO2의 성장 작용기인 OH기를 생성시켜 주었다. 이로부터 SiO2를 성장시켜 준 뒤, fluoroalkylsilanes (FAS)를 이용하여 SiO2 표면의 소수성 처리를 통해 막을 준비하였다. 상기 방법을 통해 준비된 분리막과 처리 전분리막의 젖음 정도를 막증류 법으로 비교하였다.

본 연구에서는 sol-gel법을 이용하여 세라믹 중공사 지지체 표면에 합성된 sol을 dip coating하고 활성층을 형성시켜 한외여과막을 제조하였다. 코팅 횟수 및 코팅 용액의 조성에 따른 코팅층 변화를 확인하여, 결함을 최소화하고 균일하게 제조할 수 있는 조건을 확립하고, 소결 후 투과 특성 측정을 통해 소결 온도의 영향을 고찰하였다. 제조된 한외여과막은 분획분자량(Molecular Weight Cut-Off, MWCO)과 gas-liquid displacement porometer (GLDP), liquid-liquid displacement porometer (LLDP)를 이용하여 기공크기를 측정하고 분리막의 성능과 기공크기의 연관성을 연구하였다.

Various carbon aerogels (CAs) were prepared from polymerization of resorcinol and formaldehyde and applied as the electrode materials of an electric double layer capacitor (EDLC) with the aim of controlling the textural and electrochemical properties of CAs by the type of base catalyst and the ratio of resorcinol to catalyst (R/C). The CAs from NaHCO3 and KHCO3 with H+ ions had higher specific surface areas but exhibited lower electrochemical properties than those from K2CO3 and Na2CO3, which had more uniform pore size distributions. The electrochemical properties of Na2CO3 were superior to those of K2CO3 probably because the polarizing power of Na+ ions was higher than K+ ions. With an increasing R/C ratio, the pore sizes of CA showed a tendency to increase but the uniformity of the pore size distribution got worse. For the four base catalysts, the highest electrochemical property was obtained at the R/C ratio of 500.

While commercial polystyrene-based ion exchange membranes have simple manufacturing processes, they also possess the poor durability due to their brittleness. Poly(ethylene glycol)methyl ether methacrylate with hydrophilic side chain of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) was used as a co-monomer to make the membranes have improved flexibility. Hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity of the anion exchange membrane was able to be adjusted by varying the chain lengths of the PEG. For the preparation of the anion exchange membranes, a porous PE substrate was immersed into monomer solutions and thermally polymerized. The prepared membranes were then subsequently post-aminated using trimethylamine. The prepared pore-filled anion exchange membranes were evaluated in terms of ion exchange capacity, electric resistance and water uptake.

In this work, we studied systematically the effects of NCIF on defouling for a range of solutes that foul (BSA protein) and form cakes (alumina colloids) on the membrane thereby causing severe reduction in the flux. Changing the gravitational orientation of the batch cell induces NCIF in the membrane module and higher inclined angle offers stronger NCIF. This induced NCIF enhances back transport of the deposited solutes away from the membrane surface, therefore gives for the improvement of membrane performance. The flux results according to the inclined angles (from 0° to 180°) of the batch cell were analyzed by the pore blocking filtration model. It was shown that NCIF reduced the fouling of intermediate pore blocking by about 66% at the beginning of UF operation, and thereafter reduced the fouling of cake filtration by about 98%.

수분을 포함한 압축공기는 공압 시스템에서 부식과 관석 등의 여러가지 문 제를 유발하기 때문에 기상 내의 수분을 효율적으로 제거하기 위한 다양한 기술이 개발되어오고 있다. 특히, 분리막을 이용한 제습 방법은 에너지 소비가 작 고, 장치를 소형화할 수 있다는 장점으로 주목받고 있다. 본 연구에서는 제습용 중공사막을 상전이 방적법으로 제조하고, 친수성 또는 소수성으로 표면 개질하였다. 선택도와 투과도 향상을 위하여 기공 구조를 제어하였으며, SEM, 기체 투 과도, 접촉각 측정 등으로 중공사막의 특성을 분석하였다. 또한, 분리막을 모듈 화하여 제습 실험을 수행하였으며, 여러 운전 조건에서의 특성을 확인하였다.

미세 기공을 갖는 세라믹 중공사막의 기공 크기 및 분포도를 분석하기 위해 gas-liquid displacement porometer(GLDP)와 liquid-liquid displacement porometer(LLDP) 두 가지 측정법을 이용하였다. GLDP와 LLDP를 이용한 기공 크기 측정 및 분석과 관련하여 이론적 고찰을 진행하였고, 10-100 nm의 기공 크기를 갖는 세라믹 중공사막의 기공 크기 및 분포도를 비교 분석하였다. 또한, 서로 다른 기공크기를 가질 것으로 예상되는 세 종류의 세라믹 중공사막의 기공 크기 측정 결과와 수투과도, 배제율 측정 결과를 종합하여 분리막 특성의 연계성을 확인하였다.

Ion-exchange membranes which consist of polymer backbones attached with fixed charge groups have been widely used in various electrochemical water treatment and energy processes. A pore-filled ion-exchange membranes (PFIEMs), composed of an inert and tough porous substrate and an ionomer that fills the pores, is considered as a promising candidate for various commercial applications because they can be manufactured via a cheap process and also provide both high ion conductivity and excellent mechanical properties. We will introduce the recent results on the development of high performance PFIEMs for various electrochemical applications such as direct fuel alkaline fuel cells, reverse electrodialysis, and capacitive deionization etc. (Acknowledgements: NRF-2015H1C1A1034436 and MOTIE-10047796)