Jeongsoo Kim

An amorphous red phosphorus/carbon composite as a promising anode material for sodium ion batteries.

An amorphous red phosphorus/carbon composite is obtained through a facile and simple ball milling process, and its electrochemical performance as an anode material for Na ion batteries is evaluated. The composite shows excellent electrochemical performance including a high specific capacity of 1890 mA h g(-1), negligible capacity fading over 30 cycles, an ideal redox potential (0.4 V vs. Na/Na(+)), and an excellent rate performance, thus making it a promising candidate for Na ion batteries.

Analysis of the Factors for Decrease of Rice Stripe Disease in Chungnam Province

The incidence factors of Rice stripe virus (RSV) were analyzed by studying the population density and the viruliferous insect rate (VIR) of small brown planthopper (SBPH), the incidence of stripe disease, alternate host, and susceptible cultivar in Chungnam Province. The population of overwintering SBPH had been decreasing, but the VIR of overwintering SBPH had not been differing for three years, 2008 to 2010. No RSV was detected in the natural host plants, such as short awn, annual bluegrass, and barley. In 2009, relatively large population of SBPH with the VIR of 5.4% migrated from China. However, there was no evidence relating of migration large amount of SBPH from China in 2008 and 2010. Also the infection rate of RSV in rice was less than 1% in these periods. The cultivation area of the susceptible varieties had steadily decreased from 41% to 19% from 2007 to 2009. Therefore, the reduction factors of rice stripe disease in Chungnam Province with higher influx of inoculum could be with an appropriate forecasting and chemical control, cultivation of resistant varieties, changes in the cropping system, and the low winter-spring temperature.

Investigation of Al-Ni Alloys Deposition during Over-discharge Reaction of Na-NiCl 2 Battery

The over-discharging phenomena in sodium-nickel chloride batteries were investigated in relation to decomposition of molten salt electrolyte and consequent metal co-deposition. From XRD analysis, the material deposited on graphite cathode current collector was revealed to be by-product of molten salt electrolyte decomposition. In particular, the result showed that the Ni-Al alloys (Al3Ni2, Ni3Al and Al3Ni) were electrochemically deposited on graphite current collectors in line with over-discharging behaviors. It is assumed that the NiCl2 solubility in molten salt electrolytes leads to the co-deposition of Ni-Al alloys by increasing metal deposition potential above 1.6 V (vs. Na/Na). The cell tests have revealed that the composition of molten salt electrolytes modified by various additives makes a decisive influence on the over-discharging behaviors of the cells. It was revealed that NaOCN addition to molten salt electrolytes was advantageous to suppress over-discharge reactions by modifying the characteristics of molten salt electrolytes. NaOCN addition into molten salt electrolytes seems to suppress Ni solubility by maintaining basic melts. The cell using modified molten salt electrolyte with NaOCN (Cell D) showed relatively less cell degradation compared with other cells for long cycles.

Simple and Rapid Detection for Rice stripe virus Using RT-PCR and Porous Ceramic Cubes

A rapid and simple RT-PCR diagnosis method for detection of Rice stripe virus (RSV), one of major virus infecting rice, was developed using porous ceramic cubes in this study. The porous ceramic cube can rapidly absorb biological molecules such as small-sized proteins and nucleic acid fragments into its pores. We examined whether this ability of porous ceramic cubes could be applied for isolating viral nucleic acids or particles from the RSVinfected plant tissues. In this study, we found that the porous ceramic cube was capable of absorbing a detection level of viruses from the rice tissues infected with RSV and established RT-PCR-based RNA diagnosis method using porous ceramic cubes.