An innovative approach to effective breeding blanket design for future fusion reactors

An effective breeding blanket is critical to support tritium self-sufficiency for future fusion reactors.The difficulty is to achieve tritium breeding ratio(TBR)target of 1.05 or more.This paper presents a new design approach to the blanket design process.It indicates that fusion blanket design is affected by universal functions based on iterations.Three aspects are worth more attention from fusion engineers in the future.The first factor is that the iterations on the material fractions affect not only structure scheme but also TBR variation.The second factor is the cooling condition affecting final TBR due to the change of the structure material proportion.The third factor is temperature field related to the tritium release.In particular,it is suggested that the statistical calculation of effective TBR must be under reasonable control of the blanket temperature field.This approach is novel for blanket engineering in development of a fusion reactor.

Development and molecular analysis of a novel acetohydroxyacid synthase rapeseed mutant with high resistance to sulfonylurea herbicides

With the increasing promotion of simplified rapeseed cultivation in recent years,the development of cultivars with high resistance to herbicides is urgently needed.We previously developed M342,which shows sulfonylurea herbicide resistance,by targeting acetohydroxyacid synthase(AHAS),a key enzyme in branched-chain amino acid synthesis.In the present study,we used a progeny line derived from M342 for an additional round of ethyl methane sulfonate mutagenesis,yielding the novel mutant DS3,which harbored two mutations in AHAS genes and showed high sulfonylurea resistance.One mutation was the substitution Trp574 Leu,as in M342,according to Arabidopsis protein sequencing.The other site was a newly recognized substitution,Pro197 Leu.A KASP marker targeting Pro197 Leu was developed and reliably predicted the response to sulfonylurea herbicides in the F2 population.The combination of Trp574 Leu and Pro197 Leu in DS3 produced a synergistic effect that greatly increased herbicide resistance.Analysis of the protein structures of AHAS1 and AHAS3 in wild-type and single-gene mutant plants revealed three-dimensional protein conformational changes that could account for differences in herbicide resistance characteristics including toxicity tolerance,AHAS enzyme activity,and AHAS gene expression.

Field-tuned quantum effects in a triangular-lattice Ising magnet

We report thermodynamic and neutron scattering measurements of the triangular-lattice quantum Ising magnet TmMgGaO_(4)in longitudinal magnetic fields.Our experiments reveal a quasi-plateau state induced by quantum fluctuations.This state exhibits an unconventional non-monotonic field and temperature dependence of the magnetic order and excitation gap.In the high field regime where the quantum fluctuations are largely suppressed,we observed a disordered state with coherent magnon-like excitations despite the suppression of the spin excitation intensity.Through detailed semi-classical calculations,we are able to understand these behaviors quantitatively from the subtle competition between quantum fluctuations and frustrated Ising interactions.

All in one doubly pillared MXene membrane for excellent oil/water separation,pollutant removal,and anti-fouling performance

Given the diversity and complexity of coexisting oil/dyes/heavy metal ions/microorganisms in wastewater and volatile organic compounds(VOCs)in the air,developing separation materials featured in higher separation efficiency and lower energy consumption for oil and water separation,pollutant removal,and anti-fouling is urgently needed,but it remains a major challenge till now.Herein,a multifunctional Ti_(3)C_(2)MXene membrane with unique double pillar support was proposed by liquid phase ultrasonication and vacuum filtration to over-come the above challenge.Introducing cetyl-trimethyl ammonium bromide(CTAB)and calcium chloride/sodium alginate(CaCl_(2)/SA)to the MXene membrane as crossed double pillars and superhydrophilic surface increases the tolerance and wettability of the membrane.The fabricated doubly pillared MXene(d-Ti_(3)C_(2))membrane exhibits superior oil/water(O/W)separation efficiency(99.76%)with flux(1.284 L m^(-2)h^(-1))for canola oil and organic dye removing efficiency for methyl blue(MB)99.85%,malachite green(MG)100%,and methyl violet(MV)99.72%,respectively,which is 1.05,1.44,1.22,and 1.28 fold compared with pre-pillared Ti_(3)C_(2)(p-Ti_(3)C_(2)).The superior anti-oil/dye/fouling is attributed to lower oil conglutination,high hydrophily,and antibacterial activity.The versatile MXene membrane also shows distinguished separation of VOCs(η>99%)from polluted air.The experimental and molecular dynamics(MD)computational simulation results illustrate that the superior sepa-ration efficiency of the Ti_(3)C_(2)MXene membrane is ascribed to the unique doubly pillared space channel.This study paves a new road to further research on one step integration strategy for complex O/W separation,wastewater and VOCs removal,and anti-fouling via tuning nano/macro architecture.