Investigation of cathode spot characteristics in vacuum under transverse magnetic field (TMF) contacts

With the continuous improvement of current levels in power systems, the demands on the breaking capacity requirements of vacuum circuit breakers are getting higher and higher. The breaking capacity of vacuum breakers is determined by cathode spots, which provide electrons and metal vapor to maintain the arc. In this paper, experiments were carried out on two kinds of transverse magnetic field（TMF） contacts in a demountable vacuum chamber, the behavior of the cathode spots was recorded by a high-speed charge-coupled device（CCD） video camera, and the characteristics of the cathode spots were analyzed through the image processing method. The phenomenon of cathode spot groups and the star-shaped pattern of the spots were both discovered in the experiment. The experimental results show that with the condition of TMF contacts the initial expansion speed of cathode spots is influenced by some parameters, such as the tested current, contact gap, the structure of the contact, the contact diameter, the number of slots, etc. In addition, the influence of the magnetic field on the formation of the cathode spot groups, the distribution, and the dynamic characteristics of the cathode spots were analyzed. It is concluded that the characteristics of the cathode spots are due to the effect of the magnetic field on the near-cathode plasma. The study of the characteristics of cathode spots in this paper would be helpful in the exploration of the physical process of vacuum arcs, and would be of guiding significance in optimizing the design of vacuum circuit breakers.

A “cluster bomb” oral drug delivery system to sequentially overcome the multiple absorption barriers

Oral drugs have been widely used in clinical therapy, but their developments were severely limited by the side effects of drug exposure as well as the multiple biological barriers. In this study, we constructed a “cluster bomb” oral drug delivery system (DOX@PFeL@L100) with core-shell structure to overcome the complex absorption barriers. The inner core termed as “bomb” that contains a lot of ultra-small diameter Fe_(3)O_(4) nanoparticles (DOX@PFeL NPs) loaded with doxorubicin (DOX) and modified with l-valine, which can efficiently penetrate the epithelial cells via PePT1 receptor mediated endocytosis. The outer shell of this “cluster bomb” is a layer of pH-sensitive polymer (Eudragit®L100) that can be served as a pH-responsive switch and effectively control the “bomb” release in the intestinal microenvironment to improve the antitumor efficiency by the Fenton like reaction of DOX and Fe^(2+)/Fe^(3+). This study demonstrates that the “cluster comb” oral drug delivery system can sequentially overcome the multiple biological barriers, providing a safe and effective approach for tumor therapy.