• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.375-381
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• 2002

N-type ${\beta}-FeSi_2$ with a nominal composition of $Fe_{0.98}Co_{0.02}Si_2$ powders has been produced by mechanical alloying process and consolidated by vacuum hot pressing. As-milled powders were of metastable state and fully transformed to ${\beta}-FeSi_2$ phase by subsequent isothermal annealing. However, as-consolidated $Fe_{0.98}Co_{0.02}Si_2$ consisted of untransformed mixture of ${\alpha}-Fe_2Si_ 5$ and $\varepsilon$-FeSi phases. Isothermal annealing has been carried out to induce the transformation to a thermoelectric semiconducting ${\beta}-FeSi_2$ phase. The transformation behavior of ${\beta}-FeSi_2$ was investigated by utilizing DTA, a modified TGA under magnetic field, SEM, and XRD analyses. Isothermal annealing at $830^{\circ}C$ in vacuum led to the thermoelectric semiconducting ${\beta}-FeSi_2$ phase transformation, but some residual metallic $\alpha$ and $\varepsilon$ phases were unavoidable even after prolonged annealing. Thermoelectric properties were remarkably improved by isothermal annealing due to the transformation from metallic $\alpha$ and $\varepsilon$ phases to semiconducting phases.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.104-112
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• 2012

Chemically stable Polyvinylidene fluoride-hexa-fluoropropane (PVDF-HFP) copolymer asymmetric membranes were prepared by the conventional phase inversion process, using Dimethyacetamide (DMAc) as a solvent and water as a non-solvent. To control the pore size and porosity of the PVDF-HFP membranes, tetra-ethoxysilane (TEOS) was used as a pore-forming agent. The prepared membranes were characterized, using several analytical methods such as Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Thermo-gravimetric analyzer (TGA), Field Emission Scanning Electronic Microscopy (FESEM). TEOS turned out to increase porosity and make homogeneous pores on the membranes. Depending on the composition of the dope solutions, the pore size was ranged from 0.1 to 1.0 ${\mu}m$. The flux of the PVDF-HFP membranes prepared by using TEOS as a pore forming agent was increased substantially without much decrease in the rejection. When 15 wt% PVDF-HFP solution was blended with 13 wt% TEOS solution at composition ratio of 70/30 in wt%, the water flux at 2 bars was about 2 $m^3/m^2day$.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.121-137
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• 2010

This work presents inexpensive inorganic precursor formulations to yield submicron range symmetric ceramic microfiltration (MF) membranes whose average pore sizes were between 0.1 and $0.4{\mu}m$. Incidentally, the sintering temperature used in this work was about 800 to $950^{\circ}C$ instead of higher sintering temperatures ($1100^{\circ}C$) that are usually deployed for membrane fabrication. Thermogravimetric (TGA) and X-Ray diffraction (XRD) analysis were carried out to evaluate the effect of temperature on various phase transformations during sintering process. The effect of sintering temperature on structural integrity of the membrane as well as pore size distribution and average pore size were evaluated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis. The average pore sizes of the membranes were increased from 0.185 to $0.332{\mu}m$ with an increase in sintering temperature from 800 to $950^{\circ}C$. However, a subsequent reduction in membrane porosity (from 34.4 to 19.6%) was observed for these membranes. Permeation experiments with both water and air were carried out to evaluate various membrane morphological parameters such as hydraulic pore diameter, hydraulic permeability, air permeance and effective porosity. Later, the membrane prepared with a sintering temperature of $950^{\circ}C$ was tested for the treatment of synthetic oily waste water to verify its real time applicability. The membrane exhibited 98.8% oil rejection efficiency and $5.36{\times}10^{-6}\;m^3/m^2.s$ permeate flux after 60 minutes of experimental run at 68.95 kPa trans-membrane pressure and 250 mg/L oil concentration. Based on retail and bulk prices of the inorganic precursors, the membrane cost was estimated to be $220 /$m^2$ and $1.53 /$m^2$, respectively.