HfO2 etching mechanism in inductively-coupled Cl2/Ar plasma

Etching characteristics and the mechanism of HfO₂ thin films in Cl₂/Ar inductively-coupled plasma were investigated. The etch rate of HfO₂ was measured as a function of the Cl₂/Ar mixing ratio in the range of 0 to 100% Ar at a fixed gas pressure (6 mTorr), input power (700 W), and bias power (300 W). We found that an increase in the Ar mixing ratio resulted in a monotonic decrease in the HfO₂ etch rate in the range of 10.3 to 0.7 nm/min while the etch rate of the photoresist increased from 152.1 to 375.0 nm/min for 0 to 100% Ar. To examine the etching mechanism of HfO₂ films, we combined plasma diagnostics using Langmuir probes and quadrupole mass spectrometry with global (zero-dimensional) plasma modeling. We found that the HfO₂ etching process was not controlled by ion-surface interaction kinetics and formally corresponds to the reaction rate-limited etch regime.     

Occurrence and removal of antibiotics, hormones and several other pharmaceuticals in wastewater treatment plants of the largest industrial city of Korea

Occurrence and removal efficiencies of 20 pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) including antibiotics, hormones, and several other miscellaneous pharmaceuticals (analgesics, antiepileptics, antilipidemics, antihypertensives, antiseptics, and stimulants) were investigated in five wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) of Ulsan, the largest industrial city of Korea. The compounds were extracted from wastewater samples by solid-phase extraction (SPE) and analyzed by High-performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). The results showed that acetaminophen, atenolol and lincomycin were the main individual pollutants usually found in concentrations over 10 μg/L in the sewage influent. In the WWTPs, the concentrations of analgesic acetaminophen, stimulant caffeine, hormones estriol and estradiol decreased by over 99%. On the contrary, the antibiotic sulfamethazine, the antihypertensive metoprolol, and the antiepileptic carbamazepine exhibited removal efficiencies below 30%. Particularly, removal of antibiotics was observed to vary between − 11.2 and 69%. In the primary treatment (physico-chemical processes), the removal of pharmaceuticals was insignificant (up to 28%) and removal of majority of the pharmaceuticals occurred during the secondary treatment (biological processes). The compounds lincomycin, carbamazepine, atenolol, metoprolol, and triclosan showed better removal in WWTPs employing modified activated sludge process with co-existence of anoxic-oxic condition. Further investigation into the design and operational aspects of the biological processes is warranted for the efficient removal of PPCPs, particularly antibiotics, to secure healthy water resource in the receiving downstream, thereby ensuring a sustainable water cycle management.     

Shape design of a tire contour based on approximation model

The basic purpose of a tire is to enhance vehicle performances such as driving performance, rolling resistance, durability, ride comfort, noise, wear resistance, etc. by acting as a flexible cushion. To meet the demand for increased vehicle performances, the design method of a tire has advanced. This study proposes a structural design method for tire contour by considering both the tread contour and the sidewall contour, simultaneously. Existing studies of tire contour optimization have focused on the tread contour and the sidewall, separately. Durability, maneuverability and ride comfort are performances that are commonly investigated in tire contour design. Durability, maneuverability and ride comfort can be measured by the values of the strain energy density, tension and vertical stiffness, respectively. The optimization technique using a metamodel is introduced to maximize durability while satisfying the imposed constraints of tension and ride comfort. To achieve this, the responses defined in the optimization formulation are expressed mathematically in explicit form with respect to the design variables by using the kriging surrogate model, resulting in a simple optimization problem. Then, the simulated annealing algorithm is utilized to find the global optimum.     

The spherical involute bevel gear: its geometry, kinematic behavior and standardization

Bevel gear processing has diversified based on constant technical developments in forging, CNC cutting and hob design. Standardization of bevel gears is in higher demand than ever for different bevel gear systems that have different shapes and forms according to processing methods. With advantages such as excellent compatibility and the ability to absorb assembly errors well, the involute gear is referred to as the spherical involute tooth profile in bevel gear systems. This paper explains the geometrical characteristics and kinematic behavior of spherical involute gears. A spherical involute function is derived to effectively represent tooth profiles, and a common basic rack is developed using the equation of meshing to generate spherical involute gears. This study also analyzes the general characteristics of spherical involute gears and discusses the issue of bevel-gear standardization.     

Experimental study on steady state heating performance of a multi-type heat pump system for finding the optimum control variable

This paper describes the steady state heating performance of a multi-type heat pump system. The operation range of such systems has extended to cover various situations, and there is a requirement for systems that provide sufficient performance in those situations. Thus, many researchers have made efforts to design a controller or develop control logic that ensures optimal operation. In a multi-type heat pump, effective control of individual indoor units is necessary for satisfying heating or cooling demands. In such systems, a successfully designed controller must consider cross-coupling effects among indoor units during alteration of control variables such as expansion valve opening and compressor speed. Thus, we investigated cross-coupling effects among indoor units under various working conditions to help determine an optimum and effective control variable. The heating performance and the relationship among the operating variables of the multi-type heat pump system with R410A indicated that the temperature of the indoor units’ secondary fluid was a suitable control variable.     

A numerical study on extinction and NOx formation in nonpremixed flames with syngas fuel

The flame structure, extinction, and NO_x emission characteristics of syngas/air nonpremixed flames, have been investigated numerically. The extinction stretch rate increased with the increase in the hydrogen proportion in the syngas and with lower fuel dilution and higher initial temperature. It also increased with pressure, except for the case of highly diluted fuel at high pressure. The maximum temperature and the emission index of nitric oxides (EINO_x) also increased in aforementioned conditions. The EINO_x decreased with stretch rate in general, while the decreasing rate was found to be somewhat different between the cases of N₂ and CO₂ dilutions. The reaction paths of NO_x formation were analyzed and represented as NO reaction path diagram. The increase in N radical resulted in larger NO_x production at high initial temperature and pressure. As the pressure increases, EINO_x increases slower due to the third-body recombination. The thermal NO mechanism is weakened for high dilution cases and non-thermal mechanisms prevail. The combustion conditions achieving higher extinction stretch rate can be lead to more NO_x emission, therefore that the selection of optimum operation range is needed in syngas combustion.     

Evaluation of the control performance of hydronic radiant heating systems based on the emulation using hardware-in-the-loop simulation

This study presents an emulation method to evaluate the control performance of a hydronic radiant heating system. Since heat output in the system is dependent on the pressure loss and flow rate in the hydronic network, the interaction between thermal and hydronic models needs to be considered in the evaluation of the control performance. For this reason, many studies apply an integrated simulation to the evaluation; however, the analysis of the hydronic network sometimes leads to unreliable results due to the improper initial values for algebraic loops or the lack of modeling information on the hydronic components. In order to deal with this problem, this study suggests an emulation method, where the hydronic network is replaced by real hardware and the building physics is analyzed by a simulation. In the emulation, the pressure loss and flow rate in the hydronic network were represented by replacing the real pipe with equivalent hydraulic resistance. In addition, by using real control systems that connect the hydronic network and building simulation, the interaction between building physics and hydronic network could be considered in the evaluation. Based on the proposed emulation method, the performance of several control strategies was evaluated in terms of the accuracy and the rise time. The result shows that the individual control needs to be combined with hydronic balancing for more accurate control. Hydronic control devices such as a flow limit valve and a pressure differential control valve also proved to be helpful to the improvement of the control performance.     

韩国首尔圣玛丽医院

首尔圣玛丽医院力争与世界上技术最先进的医院匹敌,成为最大的天主教医疗建筑,并为天主教会树立医疗设施的典范。新建的首尔圣玛丽医院共28层,天主教医学中心邀请了许多重要人士参加其盛大的开业典礼     

Triarylamine-based dual-function coadsorbents with extended π-conjugation aryl linkers for organic dye-sensitized solar cells

Triarylamine-based dual-function coadsorbents containing a carboxylic acid acceptor linked by extended π-conjugation aryl linkers (e.g., phenylene: HC-A3, naphthalene: HC-A4 and anthracene: HC-A5) were newly designed and synthesized. They were used as coadsorbents in organic dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) based on a porphyrin dye (hexyloxy-biphenyl-ZnP-CN-COOH (HOP)). For comparison, the π-conjugated phenyl linker (HC-A3) previously developed by our group was also used as a coadsorbent. The structural effects on the photophysical and electrochemical properties and DSSC performance were systematically investigated. As a result, the DSSCs based on HC-A4 and HC-5 displayed power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of 8.2% and 5.1%, respectively, while the HC-A3-based DSSC achieved a PCE of 7.7%. In the case of HC-A4, both the short-circuit photocurrent densities (J_sc) and open-circuit voltages (V_oc) of DSSCs were simultaneously improved to a large extent due to the more effective prevention of π−π stacking of organic dye molecules and the better light-harvesting effect at short wavelengths. The HC-A5-based DSSC exhibited a much lower short-circuit current (J_sc) and open-circuit voltages (V_oc) compared to the HC-A4-based DSSC, due to the fact that the dihedral angle of the π-conjugated linkers was too high for electron injection into the TiO₂ conduction band (CB) level. This had a reduced effect on preventing the π−π stacking of dye molecules, resulting in lower J_sc and V_oc values.     

Highly Fluorescent and Color‐Tunable Exciplex Emission from Poly(N‐vinylcarbazole) Film Containing Nanostructured Supramolecular Acceptors

Highly fluorescent excited‐state charge‐transfer complexes (exciplexes) formed at the interfacial region between a polymeric donor matrix, here, poly(N‐vinylcarbazole), and embedded nanostructured acceptors are characterized for their photophysical properties. Exciplex‐to‐exciton emission switching is observed after solvent vapor annealing (SVA) due to the size evolution of the nanostructures beyond the exciton diffusion length. Color‐tunable exiplex emission (sky blue, green, and orange) is demonstrated for three different nanostructured acceptors with the same HOMO–LUMO gap (i.e., the same blue excitonic emission) but with different electron affinity. White‐emitting poly(N‐vinylcarbazole) film is also fabricated, simply by incorporating mixed supramolecular acceptors, which provide independent exciplex emissions. This study presents important insights into the excited‐state intermolecular interaction at the well‐defined nanoscale interface and suggests an efficient way to obtain multicolored exciplex emissions.