Chemiluminescence Determination of Benzoic Acid Using A Solid-Phase Verdigris Reactor

A new chemiluminescence flow system has been developed for sequential determina-tion of benzoic acid based on the reaction of the compound with copper carbonate entrapped in a solid-phase reactor. It was found that the unsaturated complex of Cu(II) and benzoic acid (1:1) has strong catalytic effect on the luminol-H2O2 chemiluminescence reaction. The calibration graph is linear over the range of 0.025 ~ 60 g/mL of benzoic acid, with a relative standard deviation of less than 3.0 %, and the detection limit is 0.01礸穖L-1. The proposed method was applied to the determination of benzoic acid content in different pharmaceutical formulations.

Solid-phase microextraction of endogenous metabolites from intact tissue validated using a Biocrates standard reference method kit

Improved analytical methods for the metabolomic profiling of tissue samples are constantly needed.Currently,conventional sample preparation methods often involve tissue biopsy and/or homogenization,which disrupts the endogenous metabolome.In this study,solid-phase microextraction(SPME)fibers were used to monitor changes in endogenous compounds in homogenized and intact ovine lung tissue.Following SPME,a Biocrates AbsoluteIDQ assay was applied to make a downstream targeted metabolomics analysis and confirm the advantages of in vivo SPME metabolomics.The AbsoluteIDQ kit enabled the targeted analysis of over 100 metabolites via solid-liquid extraction and SPME.Statistical analysis revealed significant differences between conventional liquid extractions from homogenized tissue and SPME results for both homogenized and intact tissue samples.In addition,principal component analysis revealed separated clustering among all the three sample groups,indicating changes in the metabolome due to tissue homogenization and the chosen sample preparation method.Furthermore,clear differences in free metabolites were observed when extractions were performed on the intact and homogenized tissue using identical SPME procedures.Specifically,a direct comparison showed that 47 statistically distinct metabolites were detected between the homogenized and intact lung tissue samples(P<0.05)using mixed-mode SPME fibers.These changes were probably due to the disruptive homogenization of the tissue.This study's findings highlight both the importance of sample preparation in tissue-based metabolomics studies and SPME's unique ability to perform minimally invasive extractions without tissue biopsy or homogenization while providing broad metabolite coverage.

Scalable solid-phase synthesis of defect-rich graphene for oxygen reduction electrocatalysis

Defect-engineered carbon materials have been emerged as promising electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction(ORR)in metal-air batteries.Developing a facile strategy for the preparation of highly active nanocarbon electrocatalysts remains challenging.Herein,a low-cost and simple route is developed to synthesize defective graphene by pyrolyzing the mixture of glucose and carbon nitride.Molecular dynamics simulations reveal that the graphene formation is ascribed to two-dimensional layered feature of carbon nitride,and high compatibility of carbon nitride/glucose systems.Structural measurements suggest that the graphene possesses rich edge and topological defects.The graphene catalyst exhibits higher power density than commercial Pt/C catalyst in a primary Zn-air battery.Combining experimental results and theoretical thermodynamic analysis,it is identified that graphitic nitrogen-modified topological defects at carbon framework edges are responsible for the decent ORR performance.The strategy presented in this work can be can be scaled up readily to fabricate defective carbon materials.

Carbon Doping Triggered Efficient Electrochemical Hydrogen Evolution of Cross-Linked Porous Ru-MoO_(2) Via Solid-Phase Reaction Strategy

The defect-free structure of Mo-based materials is a“double-edged sword”,which endows the material with excellent stability,but limits its chemical versatility and application in electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction(HER).Carbon doping engineering is an attractive strategy to effectively improve the performance of Mo-based catalyst and maintain their stability.Herein,we report a cross-linked porous carbon-doped MoO_(2)(C–MoO_(2))-based catalyst Ru/C–MoO_(2) for electrochemical HER,which is prepared by the convenient redox solid-phase reaction(SPR)of porous RuO_(2)/Mo_(2)C composite precursor.Theoretical studies reveal that due to the presence of carbon atoms,the electronic structure of C–MoO_(2) has been properly adjusted,and the loaded small Ru nanoparticles provide a fast water dissociation rate and moderate H adsorption strength.In electrochemical studies under a pH-universal environment,Ru/C–MoO_(2) electrocatalyst exhibits a low overpotential at a current density of 10 mA cm^(-2) and has a low Tafel slope.Meanwhile,Ru/C-MoO_(2) has excellent stability for more than 100 h at an initial current density of 100 mA cm^(-2).

Comparison of different approaches for direct coupling of solid-phase microextraction to mass spectrometry for drugs of abuse analysis in plasma

The direct coupling of solid-phase microextraction(SPME)to mass spectrometry(MS)(SPME-MS)has proven to be an effective method for the fast screening and quantitative analysis of compounds in complex matrices such as blood and plasma.In recent years,our lab has developed three novel SPME-MS techniques:SPME-microfluidic open interface-MS(SPME-MOI-MS),coated blade spray-MS(CBS-MS),and SPME-probe electrospray ionization-MS(SPME-PESI-MS).The fast and high-throughput nature of these SPME-MS technologies makes them attractive options for point-of-care analysis and anti-doping testing.However,all these three techniques utilize different SPME geometries and were tested with different MS instruments.Lack of comparative data makes it difficult to determine which of these methodologies is the best option for any given application.This work fills this gap by making a comprehensive comparison of these three technologies with different SPME devices including SPME fibers,CBS blades,and SPME-PESI probes and SPME-liquid chromatography-MS(SPME-LC-MS)for the analysis of drugs of abuse using the same MS instrument.Furthermore,for the first time,we developed different desorption chambers for MOI-MS for coupling with SPME fibers,CBS blades,and SPME-PESI probes,thus illustrating the universality of this approach.In total,eight analytical methods were developed,with the experimental data showing that all the SPME-based methods provided good analytical performance with R^(2)of linearities larger than 0.9925,accuracies between 81%and 118%,and good precision with an RSD%≤13%.

Reactor field reconstruction from sparse and movable sensors using Voronoi tessellation-assisted convolutional neural networks

The aging of operational reactors leads to increased mechanical vibrations in the reactor interior.The vibration of the incore sensors near their nominal locations is a new problem for neutronic field reconstruction.Current field-reconstruction methods fail to handle spatially moving sensors.In this study,we propose a Voronoi tessellation technique in combination with convolutional neural networks to handle this challenge.Observations from movable in-core sensors were projected onto the same global field structure using Voronoi tessellation,holding the magnitude and location information of the sensors.General convolutional neural networks were used to learn maps from observations to the global field.The proposed method reconstructed multi-physics fields(including fast flux,thermal flux,and power rate)using observations from a single field(such as thermal flux).Numerical tests based on the IAEA benchmark demonstrated the potential of the proposed method in practical engineering applications,particularly within an amplitude of 5 cm around the nominal locations,which led to average relative errors below 5% and 10% in the L_(2) and L_(∞)norms,respectively.

Proposal of a Deuterium-Deuterium Fusion Reactor Intended for a Large Power Plant

This article looks for the necessary conditions to use Deuterium-Deuterium (D-D) fusion for a large power plant. At the moment, for nearly all the projects (JET, ITER…) only the Deuterium-Tritium (D-T) fuel is considered for a power plant. However, as shown in this article, even if a D-D reactor would be necessarily much bigger than a D-T reactor due to the much weaker fusion reactivity of the D-D fusion compared to the D-T fusion, a D-D reactor size would remain under an acceptable size. Indeed, a D-D power plant would be necessarily large and powerful, i.e. the net electric power would be equal to a minimum of 1.2 GWe and preferably above 10 GWe. A D-D reactor would be less complex than a D-T reactor as it is not necessary to obtain Tritium from the reactor itself. It is proposed the same type of reactor yet proposed by the author in a previous article, i.e. a Stellarator “racetrack” magnetic loop. The working of this reactor is continuous. It is reminded that the Deuterium is relatively abundant on the sea water, and so it constitutes an almost inexhaustible source of energy. Thanks to secondary fusions (D-T and D-He3) which both occur at an appreciable level above 100 keV, plasma can stabilize around such high equilibrium energy (i.e. between 100 and 150 keV). The mechanical gain (Q) of such reactor increases with the internal pipe radius, up to 4.5 m. A radius of 4.5 m permits a mechanical gain (Q) of about 17 which thanks to a modern thermo-dynamical conversion would lead to convert about 21% of the thermal power issued from the D-D reactor in a net electric power of 20 GWe. The goal of the article is to create a physical model of the D-D reactor so as to estimate this one without the need of a simulator and finally to estimate the dimensions, power and yield of such D-D reactor for different net electrical powers. The difficulties of the modeling of such reactor are listed in this article and would certainly be applicable to a future D-He3 reactor, if any.

Application of the CatBoost Model for Stirred Reactor State Monitoring Based on Vibration Signals

Stirred reactors are key equipment in production,and unpredictable failures will result in significant economic losses and safety issues.Therefore,it is necessary to monitor its health state.To achieve this goal,in this study,five states of the stirred reactor were firstly preset:normal,shaft bending,blade eccentricity,bearing wear,and bolt looseness.Vibration signals along x,y and z axes were collected and analyzed in both the time domain and frequency domain.Secondly,93 statistical features were extracted and evaluated by ReliefF,Maximal Information Coefficient(MIC)and XGBoost.The above evaluation results were then fused by D-S evidence theory to extract the final 16 features that are most relevant to the state of the stirred reactor.Finally,the CatBoost algorithm was introduced to establish the stirred reactor health monitoring model.The validation results showed that the model achieves 100%accuracy in detecting the fault/normal state of the stirred reactor and 98%accuracy in diagnosing the type of fault.

Dynamic simulation analysis of molten salt reactor-coupled air-steam combined cycle power generation system

A nonlinear dynamic simulation model based on coordinated control of speed and flow rate for the molten salt reactor and combined cycle systems is proposed here to ensure the coordination and stability between the molten salt reactor and power system.This model considers the impact of thermal properties of fluid variation on accuracy and has been validated with Simulink.This study reveals the capability of the control system to compensate for anomalous situations and maintain shaft stability in the event of perturbations occurring in high-temperature molten salt tank outlet parameters.Meanwhile,the control system’s impact on the system’s dynamic characteristics under molten salt disturbance is also analyzed.The results reveal that after the disturbance occurs,the controlled system benefits from the action of the control,and the overshoot and disturbance amplitude are positively correlated,while the system power and frequency eventually return to the initial values.This simulation model provides a basis for utilizing molten salt reactors for power generation and maintaining grid stability.

Review on synergistic damage effect of irradiation and corrosion on reactor structural alloys

The synergistic damage effect of irradiation and corrosion of reactor structural materials has been a prominent research focus.This paper provides a comprehensive review of the synergistic effects on the third-and fourth-generation fission nuclear energy structural materials used in pressurized water reactors and molten salt reactors.The competitive mechanisms of multiple influencing factors,such as the irradiation dose,corrosion type,and environmental temperature,are summarized in this paper.Conceptual approaches are proposed to alleviate the synergistic damage caused by irradiation and corrosion,thereby promoting in-depth research in the future and solving this key challenge for the structural materials used in reactors.

Induction System for a Fusion Reactor: Quantum Mechanics Chained up

In the quest for a sustainable and abundant energy source, nuclear fusion technology stands as a beacon of hope. This study introduces a groundbreaking quantum mechanically effective induction system designed for magnetic plasma confinement within fusion reactors. The pursuit of clean energy, essential to combat climate change, hinges on the ability to harness nuclear fusion efficiently. Traditional approaches have faced challenges in plasma stability and energy efficiency. The novel induction system presented here not only addresses these issues but also transforms fusion reactors into integrated construction systems. This innovation promises compact fusion reactors, marking a significant step toward a clean and limitless energy future, free from the constraints of traditional power sources. This revolutionary quantum induction system redefines plasma confinement in fusion reactors, unlocking clean, compact, and efficient energy production.

Transient Analysis of a Reactor Coolant Pump Rotor Seizure Nuclear Accident

The reactor coolant pump(RCP)rotor seizure accident is defined as a short-time seizure of the RCP rotor.This event typically leads to an abrupt flow decrease in the corresponding loop and an ensuing reactor and turbine trip.The significant reduction of core coolant flow while the reactor is being operated at full load can have very negative consequences.This potentially dangerous event is typically characterized by a complex transient behavior in terms of flow conditions and energy transformation,which need to be analyzed and understood.This study constructed transient flow and rotational speed mathematical models under various degrees of rotor seizure using the test data collected from a dedicated transient rotor seizure test system.Then,bidirectional fluid-solid coupling simulations were conducted to investigate the flow evolution mechanism.It is found that the influence of the impeller structure size and transient braking acceleration on the unsteady head(Hu)is dominant in rotor seizure accident events.Moreover,the present results also show that the rotational acceleration additional head(Hu1)is much higher than the instantaneous head(Hu2).

High-resolution neutronics model for ^(238)Pu production in high-flux reactors

We proposed and compared three methods(filter burnup,single energy burnup,and burnup extremum analysis)to build a high-resolution neutronics model for 238Pu production in high-flux reactors.The filter burnup and single energy burnup methods have no theoretical approximation and can achieve a spectrum resolution of up to~1 eV,thereby constructing the importance curve and yield curve of the full energy range.The burnup extreme analysis method combines the importance and yield curves to consider the influence of irradiation time on production efficiency,thereby constructing extreme curves.The three curves,which quantify the transmutation rate of the nuclei in each energy region,are of physical significance because they have similar distributions.A high-resolution neutronics model for ^(238)Pu production was established based on these three curves,and its universality and feasibility were proven.The neutronics model can guide the neutron spectrum optimization and improve the yield of ^(238)Pu by up to 18.81%.The neutronics model revealed the law of nuclei transmutation in all energy regions with high spectrum resolution,thus providing theoretical support for high-flux reactor design and irradiation production of ^(238)Pu.

Preliminary safety analysis for heavy water-moderated molten salt reactor

The heavy water-moderated molten salt reactor(HWMSR)is a newly proposed reactor concept,in which heavy water is adopted as the moderator and molten salt dissolved with fissile and fertile elements is used as the fuel.Issues arising from graphite in traditional molten salt reactors,including the positive temperature coefficient and management of highly radio-active spent graphite waste,can be addressed using the HWMSR.Until now,research on the HWMSR has been centered on the core design and nuclear fuel cycle to explore the viability of the HWMSR and its advantages in fuel utilization.However,the core safety of the HWMSR has not been extensively studied.Therefore,we evaluate typical accidents in a small modular HWMSR,including fuel salt inlet temperature overcooling and overheating accidents,fuel salt inlet flow rate decrease,heavy water inlet temperature overcooling accidents,and heavy water inlet mass flow rate decrease accidents,based on a neutronics and thermal-hydraulics coupled code.The results demonstrated that the core maintained safety during the investigated accidents.

Control system design for a pressure-tube-type supercritical water-cooled nuclear reactor via a higher order sliding mode method

Nuclear power plants exhibit non-linear and time-variable dynamics.Therefore,designing a control system that sets the reactor power and forces it to follow the desired load is complicated.A supercritical water reactor(SCWR)is a fourth-generation conceptual reactor.In an SCWR,the non-linear dynamics of the reactor require a controller capable of control-ling the nonlinearities.In this study,a pressure-tube-type SCWR was controlled during reactor power maneuvering with a higher order sliding mode,and the reactor outgoing steam temperature and pressure were controlled simultaneously.In an SCWR,the temperature,pressure,and power must be maintained at a setpoint(desired value)during power maneuvering.Reactor point kinetics equations with three groups of delayed neutrons were used in the simulation.Higher-order and classic sliding mode controllers were separately manufactured to control the plant and were compared with the PI controllers speci-fied in previous studies.The controlled parameters were reactor power,steam temperature,and pressure.Notably,for these parameters,the PI controller had certain instabilities in the presence of disturbances.The classic sliding mode controller had a higher accuracy and stability;however its main drawback was the chattering phenomenon.HOSMC was highly accurate and stable and had a small computational cost.In reality,it followed the desired values without oscillations and chattering.

Comparison of Headspace Solid-Phase Microextraction with Simultaneous Steam Distillation Extraction for the Analysis of the Volatile Constituents in Chinese Apricot

Volatile constituents in fully mature fruits of apricot （Prunus armeniaca L.） cultivar Xinshiji were extracted using headspace solid-phase microextraction （HS-SPME） and simultaneous steam distillation extraction （SSDE） and then analyzed using capillary gas chromatography and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. A total of 70 components were identified by HSSPME, including 20 esters, 19 hydrocarbons, 5 alcohols, 5 ketones, 4 acids, 4 lactones, 3 aldehydes, and 10 miscellaneous components, with the esters being the dominant constituent. On the basis of the odor unit values, it is believed that the following compounds probably contributed to the fresh apricot odor： hexyl acetate, β-ionone, butyl acetate, （E）-2-hexenal, linalool, limonene, γ-decalactone, and hexanal. A total of 49 components were also detected by SSDE, including 13 hydrocarbons, 9 alcohols, 7 aldehydes, 9 esters, 4 ketones, 4 lactones, 2 acids, and 1 miscellaneous component, of which the monoterpene alcohols were the dominant constituents. It could be judged from the odor unit values that the following compounds were the major contributors to boiled apricot aroma： β-ionone, linalool, hexyl acetate, γ-dodecalactone, γ- decalactone, （E）-2-hexenal, hexanal, γ-octalactone, phenylacetaldehyde, butyl acetate, limonene, α-terpineol, and δ-decalactone. The results show that HS-SPME is a simple, rapid, and solvent-free method, which is an alternative to the classical SSDE.

Use of packed-fiber solid-phase extraction for sample clean-up and preconcentration of vitamin B_(12) before determination

A rapid and simple preconcentration step applying packed-fiber solid-phase extraction columns has been investigated to vitamin B12. The extraction performance of the new method was investigated preliminarily on vitamin functional drink. The analysis used a reversed-phase C18 column, with a photo-diode array detector at 220 nm. The samples were preconcentrated with packed-fiber solid-phase extraction columns. Good linearity was observed in vitamin functional drink. The repeatability of extraction performance, expressed as relative standard deviations, was from 3.5% to 4.3%. The limit of detection （LOD） is 5 ng mL^-1 （S/N = 3）. Finally, the method had been applied for the determination of vitamin B12 in vitamin functional drink.

Synthesis of a highly hydrophobic cyclic decapeptide by solid-phase synthesis of linear peptide and cyclization in solution

A general method was described to synthesize a highly hydrophobic cyclic peptide,cyclo[LWLWLWLWLQ]where underlines indicate D-configuration of the amino acid,by a two-step solid-phase/solution synthesis strategy.The linear decapeptide was assembled by standard Boc chemistry on solid-phase and subsequently cyclized in solution with high efficiency and reproducibility. In subsequent purification by semi-preparative HPLC,50%(v/v) DMF/H_2O was employed as the solvent to overcome the difficulty of solubilization...

Fast determination of multi-mycotoxins in corn by dispersive solid-phase extraction coupled with ultra-performance liquid chromatography with tandem quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry

A fast analytical method for the simultaneous determination of 9 mycotoxins, including alfatoxins （B1, B2, G1, and G2）, fumonisins （B1, B2 and B3）, zearalenone, and deoxynivalenol in corn using dispersive solid-phase extraction method and ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem quadrupole time-of-lfight mass spectrometry （UPLC-Q-TOF-MS） was developed and validated. Samples were extracted with acetonitrile-water （84：16, v：v, containing 1% acetic acid） using ultrasonic extraction. The extracts were puriifed with a dispersive SPE method using C18 as a cleaning agent. The ifnal clear extracts were dried by nitrogen blowing and subsequently redissolved in methanol-water （5：5, v：v）. The samples were then analyzed by UPLC-Q-TOF-MS with 0.1% formic acid in ammonium acetate-methanol as mobile phase. The mean recoveries were ranged from 68.0 to 120.0%, and the relative standard deviation （RSD） ranged from 0.18 to 6.29%. Limits of detections ranged from 0.05 to 50 μg kg？1, and limits of quantiifcation ranged from 0.1 to 200 μg kg？1, which were below the legal limits set by the European Union for the legislated mycotoxins. The developed method was applied to 130 corn samples. Among the mycotoxins studied, alfatoxins B1 and fumonisins B1, B2 and B3 were the most predominant mycotoxins, and their concentrations were 0–593.12, 0–2.01×104, 0–6.94×103 and 0–3.05×103 μg kg–1, respectively.

Solid-phase synthesis of Cu2MoS4 nanoparticles for degradation of methyl blue under a halogen-tungsten lamp

The Cu_2MoS_4 nanoparticles were prepared using a relatively simple and convenient solid-phase process, which was applied for the first time. The crystalline structure, morphology, and optical properties of Cu_2MoS_4 nanoparticles were characterized using X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy, and UV-vis spectrophotometry. Cu_2MoS_4 nanoparticles having a band gap of 1.66 eV exhibits good photocatalytic activity in the degradation of methylene blue, which indicates that this simple process may be critical to facilitate the cheap production of photocatalysts.