Graduate
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Principle behind increasing the catalytic property of nanocatalysts proven
The technology that allows full control of the catalytic property of nanocatalysts using oxide formation on nanocatalysts has been developed by KAIST researchers. The breakthrough opens up the possibility of the development of a new kind of catalysts that maximizes catalytic property and minimizes waste.
*nanocatalyst is a material that catalyzes gas reactions on its surface. It is composed of a high surface area oxide scaffold with nano-sized metal particles dispersed.
The team was led by Professor Park Jeong Young of the KAIST EEWS Graduate School and consists of Kamran Qadir Ph.D. candidate (1st Author), Professor Joo Sang Hoon of UNIST, Professor Moon Bong Jin of Hanyang University, and Professor Gabor Somorajai of UC Berkeley. Support for the research was provided from Ministry of Education Science and Technology, National Research Foundation, and Ministry of Knowledge Economy. The results were published as the online edition of Nano Letters: “Intrinsic Relation between Catalytic Activity of CO Oxidation on Ru Nanoparticles and Ru Oxides Uncovered with Ambient Pressure XPS”.
Catalysts are included in above 80% of all the products used in everyday life and are therefore included in most aspects of our lives.
The focus on nanocatalysts is based on finding solutions to increasing the efficiency for application to energy production and for solving environmental issues.
Most nanocatalysts are composed of nanoparticles and oxides where the nanoparticles increase the surface area of the catalyst to increase its activity.
The efficiency of a nanocatalyst is affected by the surface oxide of the nanoparticles. However the proving of this assumption remained difficult to do as it required in-situ measurement of the oxide state of the nanoparticles in the specific environment. Thus far, the experiments were conducted in a vacuum and therefore did not reflect the actual behavior in real life. The recently developed X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy allows for measurement of the oxidization state at standard atmospheric pressure.
Professor Park’s research team successfully measured the oxidization state of the nanoparticle using the atmospheric pressure X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy in the specified environment.
They confirmed the effect the oxidization state on the catalytic effect of the nanoparticles and additionally found that a thin layer of oxide can increase the catalytic effect and the effectiveness of the nanoparticle can controlled by the oxidation state.
2012.11.29 View 9513 -
3D contents using our technology
Professor Noh Jun Yong’s research team from KAIST Graduate School of Culture Technology has successfully developed a software program that improves the semiautomatic conversation rate efficiency of 3D stereoscopic images by 3 times.
This software, named ‘NAKiD’, was first presented at the renowned Computer Graphics conference/exhibition ‘Siggraph 2012’ in August and received intense interest from the participants.
The ‘NAKiD’ technology is forecasted to replace the expensive imported equipment and technology used in 3D filming.
For multi-viewpoint no-glasses 3D stereopsis, two cameras are needed to film the image. However, ‘NAKiD’ can easily convert images from a single camera into a 3D image, greatly decreasing the problems in the film production process as well as its cost.
There are 2 methods commonly used in the production of 3D stereoscopic images; filming using two cameras and the 3D conversion using computer software.
The use of two cameras requires expensive equipment and the filmed images need further processing after production. On the other hand, 3D conversion technology does not require extra devices in the production process and can also convert the existing 2D contents into 3D, a main reason why many countries are focusing on the development of stereoscopic technology.
Stereoscopic conversion is largely divided in to 3 steps; object separation, formation of depth information and stereo rendering. Professor Noh’s teams focused on the optimization of each step to increase the efficiency of the conversion system.
Professor Noh’s research team first increased the separation accuracy to the degree of a single hair and created an algorithm that automatically fills in the background originally covered by the separated object.
The team succeeded in the automatic formation of depth information using the geographic or architectural characteristic and vanishing points. For the stereo rendering process, the team decreased the rendering time by reusing the rendered information of one side, rather than the traditional method of rendering the left and right images separately.
Professor Noh said that ‘although 3D TVs are becoming more and more commercialized, there are not enough programs that can be watched in 3D’ and that ‘stereoscopic conversion technology is receiving high praise in the field of graphics because it allows the easy production of 3D contents with small cost’.
2012.10.20 View 10811 -
3rd EEWS CEO Forum Held
KAIST EEWS (Energy Environment Water and Sustainability) held the 3rd EEWS CEO Forum at KAIST Seoul Campus.
EEWS is a research/education project initiated by KAIST to solve the global issues that the world faces including issues such as: energy depletion, global warming, water shortage, and sustainable development.
The 3rd EEWS CEO Forum is dedicated to providing the opportunity to share the vision and experience on technology and policy for green growth. The forum was founded in 2011 with active participation from Woo Ki Jeong (Director of Statistics), Choi Kwang Sik (Korea City Airport, Logistics and Travel, CEO), Kang Young Joong (Daekyo Group, CEO), Yoo Kyung Sun (Eugene Group, CEO), all experts in the field of green growth.
The forum consisted of presentations and debate on topics such as: international outlook on green growth, development projects based on new renewable energy, battery of electric vehicles, and development of solar cells.
Kim Sang Hyup member of the Presidential Committee on Green Growth started off the series of lectures with the topic of ‘International Outlook on Green Growth’. Kim Joong Gyum CEO of KEPCO followed up with ‘the Future of Electricity Generation Industry and Renewable Energy’, Kim Soo Ryung Director of LG Chemicals gave a talk on ‘Electric Vehicles and the Future of the Battery Industry’, and finally Choi Gi Hyuk CEO of SDN Ltd. gave the final lecture on ‘the Inflection Point of Solar Cell Industry’.
2012.10.16 View 10665
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College of Cultural Sciences Announces Results for 6th Best Paper Award
The College of Cultural Sciences cohosts with the EFL Program the Best Paper Award each semester. The Best Paper Awards went to Jo Hyeong Chan and Oh Shin Ah undergraduate students. The Best Paper Award was established in 2009 in order to encourage and improve the English writing skills of undergraduate students.
The College of Humanities and Social Sciences opened up 69 English courses in Spring of 2012 and 14 papers were recommended by the respective professors as ‘best papers’. Out of these papers 2 were selected for First Prize and 4 were selected as Honorable Mentions. The two recipients’ papers were recommended by Professor Park Woo Seok (Topics in Philosophy).
2012.10.16 View 8237
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2012 Intellectual Property Rights Award Ceremony Held
The 2012 Intellectual Property Rights Award Ceremony was held at Seoul KAIST Campus.
Recipients of the award included former congressmen Kim Young Sun and Lee Jeong Hyuk, and Kim Boo Kyung researcher at Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute also representing Vooz Ltd. that created the character POOCA.
The Intellectual Property Rights Award is given to an individual or a group that succeeded in utilizing, protecting, creating, and establishment of its foundation including patent, copyright, and brand. Intellectual Property Rights is viewed as of importance for future national competitiveness.
The Award is organized by the Korea Patent Attorneys Association, the Korea Association of Intellectual Property Services, and KAIST and are respectively core institutions in the training of Intellectual Property Rights Experts and the creation, utilization, and the protection of intellectual property.
In addition the Award is also co-organized by the KAIST Graduate School of Intellectual Property Rights (established in cooperation with KAIST and the Korean Intellectual Property Office) and the total 20 million Won of prize money is funded by Korea Institute of Intellectual Strategy and Kim Ok Lan Foundation.
The Award Ceremony was held with a special lecture by the recipients.
It was stressed that the evaluation process was carried out with that the decision is a silent message to the society and is also a type of market signal.
Director Ko Gi Seok (Presidential Council on Intellectual Property) revealed that the candidates’ impact on the strength of national intellectual property rights was thoroughly scrutinized.
In the criteria of Creation of Intellectual Property, ETRI received the award in recognition of the institution’s successful patenting and commercializing of products of Korean R&D.
ETRI created a total of 251 International Patents in cooperation with ITU, ISO, IEE, etc. and also participated in a total of 9 International Standard Patent Pool, showing its active Intellectual Property management.
Such efforts ranked ETRI 1st in the United States Patent Evaluation performed by the US Patent Board in 2011 out of 237 institutions.
In addition Recipient of the Intellectual Property Utilization criteria, VOOZ ltd.’s Kim Boo Kyung promised the free use of their character POOCA in ETRI’s automated Korean-English translator. Researcher Kim Boo Kyung was rewarded with the award in recognition of his contribution to the domestic economy and realization of the commercialization of a copy right through licensing.
Former congressman Kim Young Son received an Award in the Foundation criteria in recognition of his efforts in the establishment of the Presidential Council on Intellectual Property and the Basic Blueprints for the Intellectual Property Law.
Former congressman Lee Jeong Hyuk received the same award in recognition of standardization and streamlining Intellectual Property Rights Policies. His realization and pursuit of the establishment of a balanced growth based on law for the competitiveness of businesses was the driving force behind his accomplishments.
2012.10.16 View 12423
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Lee Su Young President of Gwang Won Industries Donates Real Estate worth 7 Million USD
On the 14th of September Lee Su Young President of Gwang Won Industries (since 1988) donated her entire personal real estate in Los Angeles worth 7 million USD.
President Lee commented that “the strength of Science and Technology is the strength behind the development of Korea and I am certain that KAIST is the driving force” and the she “wishes to help out on the nurture of excellent intellectuals”.
“I have led a frugal life, working hard and buying real estate in America. Wealth is not something that you can take beyond death so I always spent rationally in order to return my accumulated wealth back to society. I pondered what would be best for the development of Korea and without a moment’s hesitation I chose KAIST.”
President Lee was touched by the drive for innovation by President Seo and the members of KAIST working day and night for the development of KAIST.
“It was very moving to see a world renowned scholar like President Seo working tirelessly for the past six years to resurrect and develop KAIST. If KAIST continues to develop at such a pace then I am sure that KAIST will become a world class university. Donating to KAIST was sure to be equivalent to donating the Korea.”
President Lee led a life more frugal and most and yet she did not have even a moment’s hesitation in donating her entire fortune.
“My only wish is to see my donation help the students of KAIST with their studies. What more could I expect from them if they become outstanding servants of Korea.”
President Lee graduated from Gyungi Girl’s High School and majored Law in Seoul National University and worked as a newspaper reporter from 1963 to 1980.
She is the President of Gwang Won Industries which began as Gwang Won Ranch in 1971, and is also the Head Board Member at Seoul National University’s Scholarship Foundation for the College of Law.
The donation will be used to fund the ‘KAIST-Lee Su Young International Education Program’ which encompasses the currently under test Education 3.0 program which will allow for the next generation student led education system using multimedia services.
2012.09.22 View 8269
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Professor Yoon Dong Ki becomes first Korean to Receive the Michi Nakata Prize
Professor Yoon Dong Ki (Graduate School of Nano Science and Technology) became the first Korean to receive the Michi Nakata Prize from the International Liquid Crystal Society.
The Awards Ceremony was held on the 23rd of August in Mainz, Germany in the 24th Annual International Liquid Crystal Conference.
The Michi Nakata Prize was initiated in 2008 and is rewarded every two years to a young scientist that made a ground breaking discovery or experimental result in the field of liquid crystal. Professor Yoon is the first Korean recipient of the Michi Nakata Prize.
Professor Yoon is the founder of the patterning field that utilizes the defect structure formed by smectic displays. He succeeded in large scale patterning complex chiral nano structures that make up bent-core molecules.
Professor Yoon’s experimental accomplishment was published in the Advanced Materials magazine and the Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. and also as the cover dissertation of Liquid Crystals magazine.
Professor Yoon is currently working on Three Dimensional Nano Patterning of Supermolecular Liquid Crystal and is part of the World Class University organization.
2012.09.11 View 13498
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Professor Kim Eun Joon receives In Chon Award
Professor Kim Eun Joon (Department of Biological Sciences) received the In Chon Awarded hosted by In Chon Memorial and Dong Ah Newspaper.
The Award Ceremony will be held on the 8th of October in Seoul Lotte Hotel and Professor Kim will be given a medal and prize money amounting 100million Korean Won.
Professor Kim is a world renowned research in the field of Synapses. Professor Kim graduated from the Department of Pharmacy in Pusan University, B.A. at KAIST, and Ph.D at Michigan University. He has been a Professor at KAIST since 2000.
2012.09.11 View 8921
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Liver Damage Mechanism of Hepatitis C Proven
KAIST researchers found mechanics behind a Hepatitis C virus, thereby taking a step closer to the development of a cure for Hepatitis C.
Professor Choi Chul Hui (Department of Biological and Brain Engineering) and Professor Shin Eui Chul (Graduate School of Medical Sciences) proved, for the first time in the world, the mechanism behind liver damage of a patient with Hepatitis C.
It is anticipated that this discovery will allow for the development of a Hepatitis C cure that has no side effects and little Liver damage.
Hepatitis C is an immune response of the body to the Hepatitis C virus and causes liver irritation.
Around 170million people are infected with Hepatitis C worldwide including 1% of the Korean population. Once infected, most cases turn into chronic cases and may lead to liver cancer.
However it was impossible to infect Hepatitis C within a test tube cell environment until 2005 and up till then Chimpanzees were used to study the virus which proved to be a huge barrier to research.
The research team used cells infected with Hepatitis C virus and found out that the virus works by increasing the destruction of cells by the TNF-a protein responsible for the cell’s immune response.
In addition the protein structure of the virus that causes this reaction was successfully found.
Conventionally the Hepatitis C medication focused on the suppressing the growth of the virus and therefore had many side effects.
The experimental results allow new medication aimed at suppressing the actual mechanism of liver damage to be discovered.
The result was selected as the cover dissertation of the September Edition of the Hepatolog magazine.
2012.09.11 View 13746
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Successful development and analysis of mesoporous quasicrystal structures
Professor Osamu Terasaki’s research team from the EEWS Graduate School at KAIST successfully synthesized mesoporous quasicrystalline silica and developed a new method of analyzing its growth. The theory proposed by the team laid the foundation for the scientific examination of quasicrystal phenomena during the formation of micelles particles, a type of soft matter. The paper was published in the July edition of Nature magazine.
Scientists have faced difficulty in systematically explaining the mesoporous quasicrystal structures that are found in solidified versions of soft matter systems. However, the theoretical foundation from this research is expected to help promote the research and development of new nano-structured materials.
Mesoporous quaicrystals are soft matters that have high symmetry and a larger characteristic length scale than the nanoscale, thereby making it possible to develop materials that have controllable optical properties. This technology can be applied to the sustainable storage, use, and reproduction of energy.
Professor Terasaki’s team succeeded in synthesizing mesoporous quasicrystalline silica and proved the formation of dodecagonal column-shaped crystals as well as dodecagonal, rotationally symmetric electron diffraction patterns near the crystals using Transmission Electron Microscopy.
Quasicrystals are an abbreviation of ‘quasiperiodic crystals’ and have what is called the ‘third solid’ property; they have a structural arrangement that is between arranged crystal structures, such as metals, and non-crystalline structures, such as glass. This crystalline structure was only recently found, and the 2011 Nobel Chemistry Award was given to research in this field.
When porous materials are synthesized into quasicrystals, the crystalline structures of the pores can be designed and controlled in any way, making it possible to create new materials for a wide range of fields.
Professor Terasaki said that ‘The discovery of highly symmetric quasicrystals can lead to the alteration of a material’s optical properties, allowing the development of photonic crystals in the visible spectra.’ He also explained that this control of a material’s optical energy absorption could be the core technology behind energy harvesting.
This research was jointly conducted by Professor Terasaki from the EEWS Graduate School at KAIST and Stockholm University in Sweden.
2012.08.01 View 9448
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Graduate School of Culture and Technology Begins Mobile Science Classroom
KAIST Graduate School of Culture and Technology plans visits to elementary schools without the facilities to facilitate hands on science education.
The Graduate School of Culture and Technology planned the ‘STEAM Creative Camp’ involving three elementary schools during the summer holidays.
The ‘STEAM Creative Camp’ involves increasing interest and artistic sensitivity through experience based science education.
The program is composed of two separate programs in consideration to the level of participating students.
The beginner level program includes: code making, writing secret letters, sticker decorating program and the moderate level program includes: making wipers using complex pulley system, catapult design using elasticity, and puppet show using joints to animate.
The programs will be taught by masters and doctorate program candidates from the KAIST Youth Culture and Technology Experience Center.
*STEAM: And integrated education system including Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics.
2012.07.26 View 9676
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KAIST researchers verify and control the mechanical properties of graphene
KAIST researchers have successfully verified and controlled the mechanical properties of graphene, a next-generation material. Professor Park Jung Yong from the EEWS Graduate School and Professor Kim Yong Hyun from the Graduate School of Nanoscience and Technology have succeeded in fluorinating a single atomic-layered graphene sample and controlling its frictional and adhesive properties. This is the first time the frictional properties of graphene have been examined at the atomic level, and the technology is expected to be applied to nano-sized robots and microscopic joints.
Graphene is often dubbed “the dream material” because of its ability to conduct high amounts of electricity even when bent, making it the next-generation substitute for silicon semiconductors, paving the way for flexible display and wearable computer technologies. Graphene also has high potential applications in mechanical engineering because of its great material strength, but its mechanical properties remained elusive until now.
Professor Park’s research team successfully produced individual graphene samples with fluorine-deficiency at the atomic level by placing the samples in Fluoro-xenon (XeF2) gas and applying heat. The surface of the graphene was scanned using a micro probe and a high vacuum atomic microscope to measure its dynamic properties.
The research team found that the fluorinated graphene sample had 6 times more friction and 0.7 times more adhesiveness than the original graphene. Electrical measurements confirmed the fluorination process, and the analysis of the findings helped setup the theory of frictional changes in graphene.
Professor Park stated that “graphene can be used for the lubrication of joints in nano-sized devices” and that this research has numerous applications such as the coating of graphene-based microdynamic devices.
This research was published in the online June edition of Nano Letters and was supported by the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Education and the National Research Foundation as part of the World Class University (WCU) program.
2012.07.24 View 17423