Education
Yoon received his Bachelor of Surgery in chemistry from Seoul National University in 1979 and his Master of Surgery in chemistry from the of Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology), Seoul in 1981. From 1981 to 1984 he was employed by Chon Engineering in Seoul. There he gained experience in catalyst design and the engineering of chemical process plants.
In 1989, he earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree in inorganic chemistry from the, Texas, where his research advisor was Professor Jay K. Kochi.
Career
In the early stage of his study, Yoon contributed to the field of charge transfer complexes formation and charge transfer phenomenon in the nanopores of zeolite. Since 2000, he has showed that a new functional material can be produced through 2D and 3D arrays of silica nanobeads and zeolite microcrystals by using them as nano and micrometer building blocks. This finding not only shows that nanoand micro-sized particles can be included as a new class of building blocks but also means that organization of zeolite microcrystals has been settled down as a field of study in the future of material chemistry(Acc Chem Resident 2007, 40, 29-40).
He also showed diversity in the field of organization of microparticles, indicating that in the case of microcrystals synthesis, they are synthesized and self-assembled, similar to the 2D and 3D aligned supercrystals made up of atoms and molecules.
Furthermore, he raised awareness about the importance of organization of micro particles by showing that microcrystals can be synthesized and any axes of microcrystals can be oriented in a certain direction (Science, 2003, 301, 818-821). Yoon developed an innovative method named "Forced Manual Assembly" which significantly contributed to a very simple, time saving, and highly precise organization of nano and microparticles into monolayers on flat substrates (Angew Chem International Editor 2007, 46, 3087-3090 J Am Chem Social 2009, 131, 14228–14230).
Besides, he developed a new method to prepare zeolite separation membrane which can perfectly separate para-xylenes with a purity of 99.99 percent or higher from a small molecule mixture of orthoand para-xylenes (Science, 2011, 334, 1533-1538). Since the opening of the of Korea Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (KCAP) at Sogang University in 2009, he has been working to develop this field
