Crystalline heptazine carbon nitride (HCN) is an ideal photocatalyst for photocatalytic ammonia synthesis. However, the limited response to visible light has hindered its further development. As a noble metal, Au nanoparticles (NPs) can enhance the light absorption capability of photocatalysts by the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect. Therefore, a series of Au NPs-loaded crystalline carbon nitride materials (AH) were prepared for photocatalytic nitrogen fixation. The results showed that the AH displayed significantly improved light absorption and decreased recombination rate of photo-generated carriers owing to the introduction of Au NPs. The optimal 2AH (loaded with 2 wt% Au) sample demonstrated the best photocatalytic performance for ammonia production with a yield of 70.3 μmol g− 1 h− 1, which outperformed that of HCN. This can be attributed to the SPR effect of Au NPs and alkali metal of HCN structure. These findings provide a theoretical basis for studying noble metal-enhanced photocatalytic activity for nitrogen fixation and offer new insights into advances in efficient photocatalysts.

The demand for ceramic brackets, which have a high aesthetic purpose due to their high light transmission is increasing due to the application of poly-crystalline alumina material. Brackets using this material require stable properties that should not fracture during the treatment period. In this paper, the fracture strength of a ceramic bracket made of the same material used in clinical practice was checked by applying torque with a square stainless steel wire. The wire used in the test was prepared with cross-section sizes of 017 inch ✕ 025 inch, 018 inch ✕ 025 inch, and 019 inch ✕ 025 inch. There were a total of 150 bracket specimens and after ligating wires in the slots, torque was applied to each of 75 specimens in the gingival and occlusal directions. The torque test used digital torque meter equipment and the torque value at which the bracket slot fractured due to plastic deformation of the ligated wire was confirmed. Based on the resulting data we plan to use the data to recommend stable torque use and develop future bracket design.

A disposal system for spent nuclear fuel mainly divides into two parts; Engineered barriers include spent nuclear fuel, canister, buffer and backfill and natural barriers mean a host rock surrounding engineered barriers. If radionuclides released from a repository, they can migrate to the ecosystem. Sorption plays an important role in retarding the migration of released radionuclides. Hence, the safety assessment for the disposal of a spent nuclear fuel should consider the migration and retardation of radionuclides in geosphere. Distribution coefficient is one of input parameters for the safety assessment. In this work, distribution coefficients for crystalline rock as a natural barrier were collected and evaluated for the purpose of safety assessment for the deep geological disposal of a spent nuclear fuel. The radionuclides considered in this work are as follows; alkali and alkaline earth metals (Cs, Sr, Ba), lanthanides (Sm), actinides (Ac, Am, Cm, Np, Pa, Pu, Th U), transition elements (Nb, Ni, Pd, Tc, Zr), and others (C, Cl, I, Rn, Se, Sn). The sorption of radionuclides is influenced by various geochemical conditions such as pH/carbonates, redox potential, ionic strength, radionuclide concentration, kinds and amounts of minerals, and microbes. For the evaluation of distribution coefficients, the data from Sweden (SKB), Finland (Posiva), Switzerland (Nagra), and Japan (JAEA) were collected, analyzed, and the recommended distribution coefficients have been suggested.

Mesophase pitch is a unique graphitizable material that has been used as an important precursor for highly graphitic carbon materials. In the current study, we propose to consider a spinnable mesophase pitch as a lyotropic liquid crystalline solution composed of solvent components and liquid crystalline components, so-called mesogen or mesogenic components. Among mesophase pitches, the supermesophase pitch is defined as a mesohpase pitch with 100% anisotropy, and can only be observed in pitches with a proportion of mesogenic components exceeding the threshold concentration (TC). We also examined the critical limit of AR synthetic pitch and 5 experimental spinnable mesophase pitches (SMPs). Then, we examined the effect of the solvent component on the minimum required amount of mesogenic component using a selected solvent component instead of their own solvent components. AR pitch showed 100% anisotropy with the least amount of its mesogenic component, THF insoluble components, of 60 wt.%. The solvent component, THF soluble components, extracted from AR-pitch, which has a molecular weight pattern similar to that of the original material but more amount of naphthenic alkyl chains, showed better solvent functionality than those of other THF solubles (THFSs) from other as-prepared spinnable mesophase pitches. This is why a lower amount of AR THFS can produce a supermesophase pitch when combined with the THFI (mesogenic components) of other experimental mesophase pitches. As a result of the current analysis, we define the mesogens as molecules that not only readily stack, but also maintain stacking structures in a fused state in the solution. The solvent component, on the other hand, is defined as molecules with a structure that readily decomposes in a fused state in the solution.

실험 계획법을 활용하여 세라마이드가 고함량으로 함유된 수화 액정형 베시클의 입자 사이즈에 영향을 미치는 인자를 분석하고 혼합물 조성의 최적화를 시도하였다. 베시클 입자 사이즈에 영향을 주는 주요 변수로 제조 온도, 에탄올 양, 초음파 시간을 각각 정하고, 다구찌 방법의 S/N비 산출과 ANOVA 분 석을 통해, 이들 변수들이 입자 사이즈에 미치는 영향을 살펴보았다. 또한 혼합물 실험 계획법의 심플렉스 중심 설계에 따라, 베시클 막을 구성하는 세 지질 성분, 인지질(HPC), 콜레스테롤(Chol), 세라마이드(Cer) 의 혼합 조성 실험을 수행하였다. 실험에서 얻어진 데이터로부터 회귀분석을 실시하여 모델식을 구하고, 베시클 입자 사이즈를 최소로 만들기 위한 세 지질 성분의 최적 혼합 조성은 HPC(0.6), Chol(0.1), Cer(0.3)으로 구해졌다.

Complexation of actinides and lanthanides with carboxylic organic ligands is known to facilitate migration of radionuclides from deep geological disposal systems of spent nuclear fuel. In order to examine the ligand-dependent structures of trivalent actinides and lanthanides, a series of Eu(III)-aliphatic dicarboxylate compounds, Eu2(oxalate)3(H2O)6, Eu2(malonate)3(H2O)6, and Eu2(succinate)3(H2O)2, were synthesized and characterized by using X-ray crystallography and time-resolved laser fluorescence spectroscopy. Powder X-ray diffraction results captured the transition of the coordination modes of aliphatic dicarboxylate ligands from side-on to end-on binding as the carbon chain length increases. This transition is illustrated in malonate bindings involving a combination of side-on and end-on modes. Strongly enhanced luminescence of these solid compounds, especially on the hypersensitive peak, indicates a low site symmetry of these solid compounds. Luminescence lifetimes of the compounds were measured to be increased, which is ascribed to the displacement of water molecules in the innersphere of Eu center upon bindings of the organic ligands. The numbers of remaining bound water molecules estimated from the increased luminescence lifetimes were in good agreement with crystal structures. The excitation-emission matrix spectra of these crystalline polymers suggest that oxalate ligands promote the sensitized luminescence of Eu(III), especially in the UV region. In the case of malonate and succinate ligands, charge transfer occurs in the opposite direction from Eu(III) to the ligands under UV excitation, resulting in weaker luminescence.

The design of the high-level radioactive waste (HLW) repository is made for isolating the HLW from the groundwater system by using artificial and natural barriers. Granite is usually considered to be a great natural barrier for the HLW repository in various countries including Sweden, Canada, and Korea due to its low hydraulic permeability. However, many fractures that can act as conduits for groundwater and radionuclides exist in granite. Furthermore, the decay heat generated by the HLW can induce groundwater acceleration through the fracture. Since the direction, magnitude, and lasting time of the heat-induced groundwater flow can be differed depending on the fracture geometry, the effect of fracture geometry on the groundwater flow around the repository should be carefully analyzed. In this study, groundwater models were conducted with various fracture geometries to quantify the effect of various properties of fractures (or fracture networks) on the heat-induced groundwater flow. In all models, the pressure around the repository only lasted for a short period after it peaked at 0.1 years. In contrast, the temperature lasted for 10,000 years after the disposal inducing the convective groundwater flow. Single fracture models with different orientations were conducted to evaluate the variations in groundwater velocities around the repository depending on the fracture slope. According to the results, the groundwater velocity on the fracture was the fastest when the regional groundwater flow direction and the fracture direction coincided. In double fracture models, various inclined fractures were added to the horizontal fracture. Due to the intersecting, the groundwater flow velocity showed a discontinuous change at the intersecting point. Lastly, the discrete fracture network models were conducted with different fracture densities, length distributions, and orientations. According to the modeling results, the groundwater flow was significantly accelerated when the fracture network density increased, or the average fracture length increased. However, the effect of the fracture orientation was not significant compared to the other two network properties.

With the increase of temporarily-stored spent radioactive fuels, there is an increasing necessity for the safe disposal of high-level radioactive waste (HLW). Among various methods for the disposal of HLW, a deep geological disposal system is adapted as a HLW disposal strategy in many countries. Before the construction of a repository in deep geological condition, a performance assessment, which means the use of numerical models to simulate the long-term behavior of a multi-barrier system in HLW repository, has been widely performed to ensure the isolation of radionuclides from human and related environments for more than a million years. Meanwhile, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) is developing a process-based total system performance assessment framework for a geological disposal system (APro). To improve the reliability of APro, KAERI is participating in DECOVALEX-2023 Task F, which is the international joint program for the comparison of the models and methods used in deep geological performance assessment. As a final goal of Task F, the reference case for a generic repository in fractured crystalline rock is described. The three-dimensional generic repository is located in a domain of 5 km in length, 2 km in width, and 1 km in depth, and contains an engineering barrier system with 2,500 deposition holes in fractured crystalline rock. In this study, a numerical simulation of the reference case is performed with COMSOL Multiphysics as a part of Task F. The fractured crystalline rock is described with the discrete fracture matrix (DFM) model, which expresses major deterministic fractures explicitly in the domain and minor stochastic fractures implicitly with upscaled quantities. As an output of the numerical simulation, fluid flow at steady-state and radionuclide transport are evaluated for ~106 years. The result shows that fractures dominate the transport of radionuclides due to much higher hydraulic properties than rock matrix. The numerical modeling approaches used in this study are expected to provide a basis for performance assessment of nuclear waste disposal repository located in fractured crystalline rock.

Deuterium is a crucial clean energy source required for nuclear fusion and is a future resource needed in various industries and scientific fields. However, it is not easy to enrich deuterium because the proportion of deuterium in the hydrogen mixture is scarce, at approximately 0.016%. Furthermore, the physical and chemical properties of the hydrogen mixture and deuterium are very similar. Therefore, the efficient separation of deuterium from hydrogen mixtures is often a significant challenge when using modern separation technologies. Recently, to effectively separate deuterium, studies utilizing the ‘Kinetic Quantum Sieving Effect (KQS)’ of porous materials are increasing. Therefore, in this review, two different strategies have been discussed for improving KQS efficiency for hydrogen isotope separation performance using nanoporous materials. One is the gating effect, which precisely controls the aperture locally by adjusting the temperature and pressure. The second is the breathing phenomenon, utilizing the volume change of the structure from closed system to open system. It has been reported that efficient hydrogen isotope separation is possible using these two methods, and each of these effects is described in detail in this review. In addition, a specific-isotope responsive system (e.g., 2nd breathing effect in MIL-53) has recently been discovered and is described here as well.

We report a simple procedure to fabricate single crystals 3D C60 having an FCC structure on silicon substrates using a vapour–solid set-up in vacuum conditions. The morphology of the deposited film can be tuned by controlling the temperature and position of the substrate. The as-fabricated samples are extensively characterised by transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscope, X-ray powder diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and nanoindentation, which allow us to shed light on the recrystallization process of the C60. In addition, the growth mechanism of the formation of crystalline 3D structure of the C60 film is discussed in detail. Based on the newly gained knowledge of mechanism and its unique properties, fullerene has shown huge potential as a solid lubricant on various kinds of substrates.

The pH dependence of sorption distribution coefficient (Kd) of Np(IV) on MX-80 in Ca-Na-Cl type solution with the ionic strength of 0.3 M, which was similar to one of the reference groundwaters in crystalline rock, was experimentally investigated under the reducing conditions. The overall trend of Kd on MX-80 was independent of pH at 5 ≤ pH ≤ 10 but increased as pH increased at pH ≤ 5. The 2-site protolysis non-electrostatic surface complexation and cation exchange model was applied to the experimentally measured pH dependence of Kd and the optimized surface complexation constants of Np(IV) sorption on MX-80 were estimated. The values of surface complexation constants in this work agreed relatively well with those in the Na-Ca-Cl solution previously evaluated, suggesting that compared to Na+, the competition of Ca2+ with Np(IV) for surface complexation on MX-80 was not much strong in Ca-Na-Cl solution. The sorption model well predicted the pH dependence of Kd values but slightly overestimated the sorption at the low pH region.

Continuous synthesis of high-crystalline carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is achieved by reconfiguring the injection part in the reactor that is used in the floating catalyst chemical vapor deposition (FC-CVD) process. The degree of gas mixing is divided into three cases by adjusting the configuration of the injection part: Case 1: most-delayed gas mixing (reference experiment), Case 2: earlier gas mixing than Case 1, Case 3: earliest gas mixing. The optimal synthesis condition is obtained using design of experiment (DOE) in the design of Case 1, and then is applied to the other cases to compare the synthesis results. In all cases, the experiments are performed by varying the timing of gas mixing while keeping the synthesis conditions constant. Production rate (Case 1: 0.63 mg/min, Case 2: 0.68 mg/min, Case 3: 1.29 mg/min) and carbon content (Case 1: 39.6 wt%, Case 2: 57.1 wt%, Case 3: 71.6 wt%) increase as the gas-mixing level increases. The amount of by-products decreases stepwise as the gas-mixing level increases. The IG/ID ratio increases by a factor of 7 from 10.3 (Case 1) to 71.7 (Case 3) as the gas-mixing level increases; a high ratio indicates high-crystalline CNTs. The radial breathing mode (RBM) peak of Raman spectrograph is the narrowest and sharpest in Case 3; this result suggests that the diameter of the synthesized CNTs is the most uniform in Case 3. This study demonstrates the importance of configuration of the injection part of the reactor for CNT synthesis using FC-CVD.

이 연구는 피부 각질층의 구조와 동일한 구조를 형성하는 혼합계면활성제 (MimicLipid- MSM1000)로써 수크로오스다이스테아레이트, 폴리글리세릴-2다이올리에이트, 발효스쿠알란, 에르고스테롤, 10-하이드록시스테아릭애씨드로 이루어진 혼합물을 합성하였다. 이 혼합 계면활성제를 2~5wt%를 사용할 경우, 5~30층의 다중층 라멜라구조를 형성하는 인공 피부 모사체를 만들 수 있었다. 이 혼합계면활성제를 사용하여 에멀젼을 만들고, 다중층의 라멜라 상이 형성되는 것을 메커니즘 적으로 해석하였다. 이 계면활성제의 외관은 연한 갈색의 단단한 왁스이었고, HLB(hydrophilic lipophilic balance)는 12.53이었으며, 임계파라미터 값(critical parameter value)은 0.987, 산가는 0.13이었다. pH변화에 따른 안정성은 산성(3.8), 중성(7.2), 알칼리성(10.8)에서도 안정하였다. 액정의 입경은 5~25mm에서 가장 안정한 십자형 모양 (maltese cross) 라멜라액정 드롭플렛(lamellar crystalline droplet)이 형성됨을 알 수 있었다. 호모믹서의 교반속도 변화에 따른 유화입자의 크기는 2500rpm (17.9mm±2.6mm), 3500rpm (12.5mm±2.1mm), 4500rpm (6.2mm±1.8mm) 속도가 높아 질수록 작은 입자가 형성되었다. 편광현미경을 통하여 액정형성 입자를 관찰하였으며, 주사전자현미경(cryo-SEM)으로 액정의 형성 구조를 정밀하게 분석하였다. 응용분야로써, 각질층의 다중 라멜라 동일한 구조를 형성하는 피부모사체 형성 계면활성제를 사용하여 다양한 스킨케어화장료, 메이크업 케어 화장료, 두피보호용 화장료 등 다양한 처방개발에 폭 넓게 응용이 가능할 것으로 기대한다.

In this study, using a wet chemical process, we evaluate the effectiveness of different solution concentrations in removing layers from a solar cell, which is necessary for recovery of high-purity silicon . A 4-step wet etching process is applied to a 6-inch back surface field(BSF) solar cell. The metal electrode is removed in the first and second steps of the process, and the anti-reflection coating(ARC) is removed in the third step. In the fourth step, high purity silicon is recovered by simultaneously removing the emitter and the BSF layer from the solar cell. It is confirmed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy(ICP-MS) and secondary ion mass spectroscopy(SIMS) analyses that the effectiveness of layer removal increases with increasing chemical concentrations. The purity of silicon recovered through the process, using the optimal concentration for each process, is analyzed using inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy(ICP-AES). In addition, the silicon wafer is recovered through optimum etching conditions for silicon recovery, and the solar cell is remanufactured using this recovered silicon wafer. The efficiency of the remanufactured solar cell is very similar to that of a commercial wafer-based solar cell, and sufficient for use in the PV industry.

O-D-mannopyranosyl-(1→4)-O-D-glucopyranosyl-(1→4)-D-Mannopyranose (MGM) was prepared via the enzymatic hydrolysis of konjac glucomannan and the subsequent elimination of monosaccharides from the resultant hydrolysate using yeast. The enzyme system hydrolyzed konjac glucomannan and produced monosaccharides and MGM without other oligomers at the 48 h reaction. Konjac 20 g was hydrolyzed at 60 o C and a pH 6.0 for 48 h with 200 mL crude enzyme solution from Xylogone sphaerospora. By eliminating monosaccharides from the hydrolysis products with yeast (Candida guilliermondii), 3.8 g of crystalline MGM was obtained, without the use of chromatographic techniques. After 48 h of yeast cultivation, the total sugar content fell from 5.2% to 3.7%, while the average degree of polymerization (D.P.) rose from 2.6 to 3.3.