Prospects of microwave-induced thermoacoustic imaging

Microwave-induced thermoacoustic imaging(MTAI)has advantages including the large imaging depth,high imaging resolution,high imaging contrast,and fast imaging speed.The thermoacoustic(TA)group of South China Normal University has dedicated to developing TA imaging for more than a decade and has made many breakthroughs.This review introduces these breakthroughs from two aspects including the improvement in techniques and the exploration of applications.On the technological level,there are ultrashort microwave pulse(USMP)-inducedTA imaging that can improve the imaging resolution,nonlinear thermoacoustic imaging(NTAI)that can improve the imaging contrast,polarized microwave-inducedthermoacoustic imaging(P-MTAI)that can obtain cellular-level alignment information,and more convenient and accurate handheld and multimodal probes.On the application side,the optimization and expansion have been carried out,mainly concentrating on breast and myocardial imaging.Finally,several current research directions are introduced,including the application of P-MTAI on joint imaging and research on whole-body imaging of small animals.

Developing microwave-induced thermoacoustic tomography:System,application,and reconstruction

A microwave-induced thermoacoustic imaging(MITAT)system is a non-destructive physical medical imaging method that combines the advantages of the high contrast of microwave imaging and the high resolution of ultrasound imaging.It uses the microwave as the excitation source and ultrasound as the information carrier.When different kinds of biological tissue absorb electromagnetic energy,it results in localized temperature rises.The thermal expansion will induce ultrasonic signals(i.e.,thermoacoustic signals),known as the thermoacoustic effect.The microwave absorption image of the sample can be reconstructed by algorithm processing.The MITAT contrast depends on different dielectric parameters of different kinds of tissue.We introduce the developed system and its application.In addition,the challenges and prospects of MITAT for further development are discussed.

Treatment of phenol wastewater by microwave-induced CIO_2-CuO_x/Al_2O_3 catalytic oxidation process

The catalyst of CUOx/Al2O3 was prepared by the dipping-sedimentation method using y-Al2O3 as a supporter. CuO and Cu2O were loaded on the surface of Al2O3, characterized by X-ray diffraction （XRD） and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy （XPS）. In the presence of CuOx/Al2O3, the microwave-induced chlorine dioxide （ClO2） catalytic oxidation process was conducted for the treatment of synthetic wastewater containing 100 mg/L phenol. The factors influencing phenol removal were investigated and the results showed that microwave-induced C102-CuOx/ml203 process could effectively degrade contaminants in a short reaction time with a low oxidant dosage, extensive pH range. Under a given condition （ClO2 concentration 80 mg/L, microwave power 50 W, contact time 5 latin, catalyst dosage 50 g/L, pH 9）, phenol removal percentage approached 92.24%, corresponding to 79.13% of CODcr removal. The removal of phenol by microwave-induced ClO2-CuOx/Al2O3 catalytic oxidation process was a complicated non-homogeneous solid/water reaction, which fitted pseudo-first-order by kinetics. Compared with traditional ClO2 oxidation, ClO2 catalytic oxidation and microwave-induced ClO2 oxidation, microwave-induced ClO2 catalytic oxidation system could significantly enhance the degradation efficiency. It provides an effective technology for the removal of phenol wastewater.

A novel true triaxial test system for microwave-induced fracturing of hard rocks

This study introduces a test system for microwave-induced fracturing of hard rocks under true triaxial stress.The test system comprises a true triaxial stress loading system,an open-ended microwaveinduced fracturing system,a data acquisition system,an acoustic emission(AE)monitoring system,and an auxiliary specimen loading system.Microwave-induced surface and borehole fracturing tests under true triaxial stress were fulfilled for the first time,which overcomes the problem of microwave leakage in the coupling loading of true triaxial stress and microwave.By developing the dynamic monitoring system,the thermal response and fracture evolution were obtained during microwave irradiation.The monitoring system includes the infrared thermometry technique for monitoring rock surface temperature,the distributed optic fiber sensing technique for monitoring temperature in borehole in rock,the AE technique and two-dimensional digital speckle correlation technique for monitoring the evolution of thermal damage and the rock fracturing process.To validate the advantages of the test system and investigate the characteristics of microwave-induced fracturing of hard rocks,the study demonstrates the experimental methods and results for microwave-induced surface and borehole fracturing under true triaxial stress.The results show that thermal cracking presented intermittent characteristics(calm eactiveecalm)during microwave-induced surface and borehole fracturing of basalt.In addition,true triaxial stress can inhibit the development and distribution of thermal cracks during microwave-induced surface fracturing.When microwave-induced borehole fracturing occurs,it promotes the distribution of thermal cracks in rock,but inhibits the width of cracks.The results also prove the reliability of the test system.

AduoLa Fuzhenglin Down-regulates Microwave-induced Expression of β_1-adrenergic Receptor and Muscarinic Type 2 Acetylcholine Receptor in Myocardial Cells of Rats

This paper is aimed to study the effect of ADL on expression of ~z-AR and Mz-AchR in myocardial cells of rats exposed to microwave radiation. Immunohistochemistry, Western blot and image analysis were used to detect the expression of ~I-AR and Mz-AchR in myocardial cells at 7 and 14 d after microwave exposure. The results show that the expression level was higher in microwave exposure group and 0.75 g/（kg.d） ADL group than in sham operation group and significantly lower in 1.5 and 3.0 g/（kg.d） ADL groups than in microwave group. So we have a conclusion that the expression of I^z-AR and Mz-AchR is down-regulated in myocardial cells of rats exposed to microwave radiation. ADL can protect rats against microwave-induced heart tissue injury.

One-Step Synthesis of Nanocrytalline Perovskite LaMnO_3 Powders via Microwave-Induced Solution Combustion Route

Perovskite LaMnO3 powders with an average crystallite size of 12.5 nm were rapidly synthesized via a microwave-induced autocombustion reaction using glycine as a fuel and nitrate as an oxidant. After self-propagating combustion, the desired nanocrystalline perovskite LaMnO3 was obtained and no further calcination was carried out. The possible processes of combustion reaction were discussed according to the principle of propellant chemistry. The autocombustion and thermal decomposition of the precursor were investigated using the TG-DTA and FT-IR techniques. The influences of glycine-nitrate molar ratio and heat-treatment temperature on the perovskite phase formation and crystallite size of as-burnt powder were studied by XRD. The morphology and size of the as-burnt powder before and after milling were characterized and compared by TEM.

Microwave-induced synthesis and characterization of nanometer Ce_(0.5)Zr_(0.5)O_2 solid solution for the acidic catalytic reaction

Ce0.5Zr0.5O2 solid solution was successfully synthesized using cerium nitrate, zirconium nitrate, and urea as raw materials by the microwave irradiation method and characterized by X-ray diffraction, fluorescence spectrum, transmission electron microscopy, and infrared spectrum. Its acid catalytic activity was evaluated in the esterification reaction of acetic acid and n-butyl alcohol. The results show that Ce0.5Zr0.5O2 solid solution has cubic fluorite structure, and its particle diameter is in the nanometer scale. As a sort of solid acid, it possesses a higher acid catalytic activity and can be easily separated from reaction liquids. It can be used for several times, and basically, its activity keeps constant. The proton acid sites and Lewis acid sites exist in the structure of Ce0.5Zr0.5O2 solid solution.

Application of time reversal mirror technique in microwave-induced thermo-acoustic tomography system

Microwave-induced thermo-acoustic tomography (MITAT) is a promising technique with great potential in biomedical imaging. It has both the high contrast of the microwave imaging and the high resolution of the ultrasound imaging. In this paper, the proportional relationship between the absorbed microwave energy distribution and the induced ultrasound source distribution is derived. Further, the time reversal mirror (TRM) technique based on the pseudo-spectral time domain (PSTD) method is applied to MITAT system. The simulation results show that high contrast and resolution can be achieved by the TRM technique based on PSTD method even for the received signals with very low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the model parameter with random fluctuation.

Microwave energy inductive fluidized metal particles discharge behavior and its potential utilization in reaction intensification

Microwave-induced metal discharge(MMD)technology offers a novel methodology for efficient gas-phase catalytic reaction due to its unique heating effect,plasma effect and discharge effect.Herein,we successfully used a special kind of uniformly distributed particles with synergistic microwave-induced fluidized-metal discharge(MFD)effect.A lab-scale atmospheric quartz tube fluidized bed reactor was designed.Apparatus like highspeed camera,fiber spectrometer and infrared thermometer were used to record the discharge phenomena.The effects of operating conditions such as gas velocity,microwave power,carrier gas type,and metal type on the discharge behavior were investigated in detail.Subsequently,the MFD was applied into the methane dry reform reaction(MDR)with excellent conversion compared with the conventional heating conditions.Gratifyingly,the metal particles can both be the converter of microwave and the catalyst of the reaction.The reported conclusion provides a novel way to intensification the reaction process and utilize microwave energy.

Metal reflector-enhanced thermoacoustic imaging as a guidance for puncture biopsy

Puncture biopsy is an important clinical technique to obtain diseased tissue for pathological diagnosis,where imaging guidance is critical.In this paper,we describe a metal reflector-enhanced microwave-induced thermoacoustic imaging(TAI)approach capable of guiding puncture biopsy for detection of breast cancer and joint diseases.Numerical experimentations simulating puncture guidance in breast cancer and knee gout models werefirst conducted using(CST STUDIO SUITE)(CST)software,and then ex-vivo experiments were performed followed by qualitative observations and semi-quantitative analysis.The results of both the simulations and ex-vivo experiments showed that our reflector-enhanced TAI could image the puncture needle in high resolution with a large depth of>12 cm.