Thermal Characteristics of PVA-PANI-ZnS Nanocomposite Film Synthesized by Gamma Irradiation Method

Gamma irradiation is employed for in situ preparation of PVA-PANI-ZnS nanocomposite. The irradiation dose is varied from 10 to 40 kGy at 10 kGy intervals. The XRD result confirms the formation of crystalline phases corresponding to ZnS nanoparticles, PVA and PANI. Field emission scanning electron microscopy shows the formation of agglomerated PANI along the PVA backbone, within which the ZnS nanoparticles are dispersed.UV-visible spectroscopy is conducted to measure the transmittance spectra of samples revealing the electronic absorption characteristics of ZnS and PANI nanoparticles. Photo-acoustic（PA） setup is installed to investigate the thermal properties of samples. The PA spectroscopy indicates a high value of thermal diffusivity for samples due to the presence of ZnS and PANI nanoparticles. Moreover, at higher doses, the more polymerization and formation of PANI and ZnS nanoparticles result in enhancement of thermal diffusivity.

Ultralow-weight loading Ni catalyst supported on two-dimensional vermiculite for carbon monoxide methanation

Nickel-based catalysts represent the most commonly used systems for CO methanation.We have successfully prepared a Ni catalyst system supported on two-dimensional plasma-treated vermiculite（2D-PVMT）with a very low Ni loading（0.5 wt%）.The catalyst precursor was subjected to heat treatment via either conventional heat treatment（CHT）or the plasma irradiation method（PIM）.The as-obtained CHT-Ni/PVMT and PIM-Ni/PVMT catalysts were characterized with scanning electron microscopy（SEM）,energy dispersive X-ray（EDX）,X-ray diffraction（XRD）,X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy（XPS）,inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy（ICP-AES）and high-angle annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy（HAADF-STEM）.Additionally,CHT-NiO/PVMT and PIM-NiO/PVMT catalysts were characterized with hydrogen temperature programmed reduction（H2-TPR）.Compared with CHT-Ni/PVMT,PIM-Ni/PVMT exhibited superior catalytic performance.The plasma treated catalyst PIM-Ni/PVMT achieved a CO conversion of93.5%and a turnover frequency（TOF）of 0.8537 s^-1,at a temperature of 450℃,a gas hourly space velocity of 6000 ml·g^-1·h^-1,a synthesis gas flow rate of 65 ml·min^-1,and a pressure of 1.5 MPa.Plasma irradiation may provide a successful strategy for the preparation of catalysts with very low metal loadings which exhibit excellent properties.

Mechanical properties of irradiated multi-phase polycrystalline BCC materials

Structure materials under severe irradiations in nuclear environments are known to degrade because of irradiation hardening and loss of ductility,resulting from irradiation-induced defects such as vacancies,interstitials and dislocation loops,etc.In this paper,we develop an elastic-viscoplastic model for irradiated multi-phase polycrystalline BCC materials in which the mechanical behaviors of individual grains and polycrystalline aggregates are both explored.At the microscopic grain scale,we use the internal variable model and propose a new tensorial damage descriptor to represent the geometry character of the defect loop,which facilitates the analysis of the defect loop evolutions and dislocation-defect interactions.At the macroscopic polycrystal scale,the self-consistent scheme is extended to consider the multiphase problem and used to bridge the individual grain behavior to polycrystal properties.Based on the proposed model,we found that the work-hardening coefficient decreases with the increase of irradiation-induced defect loops,and the orientation/loading dependence of mechanical properties is mainly attributed to the different Schmid factors.At the polycrystalline scale,numerical results for pure Fe match well with the irradiation experiment data.The model is further extended to predict the hardening effect of dispersoids in oxide-dispersed strengthened steels by the considering the Orowan bowing.The influences of grain size and irradiation are found to compete to dominate the strengthening behaviors of materials.

Irradiation-induced void evolution in iron：A phase-field approach with atomistic derived parameters

A series of material parameters are derived from atomistic simulations and implemented into a phase field（PF） model to simulate void evolution in body-centered cubic（bcc） iron subjected to different irradiation doses at different temperatures.The simulation results show good agreement with experimental observations — the porosity as a function of temperature varies in a bell-shaped manner and the void density monotonically decreases with increasing temperatures; both porosity and void density increase with increasing irradiation dose at the same temperature. Analysis reveals that the evolution of void number and size is determined by the interplay among the production, diffusion and recombination of vacancy and interstitial.

Irradiation methods and nozzle design for the advanced proton therapy facility

A conception design of the Advanced Proton Therapy Facility （APTF） has been carried out. The system intentionally employs a slow-cycling synchrotron with a maximum energy of 250 MeV, two rotating gantries and two fixed beam nozzles for the treatment. In this paper, we try to compare the strength and weaknesses between the two treatment methods： the beam spreading and the pencil beam scanning. The application of the pencil beam scanning method and the double-scattering method together with the related nozzle design at APTF is also given. The simulation results of employing the double-scattering method have been given during the preliminary design.

Effect of Scanning Beam Profile to Fabricate Fused Fiber Tapers by CO_2 Laser Irradiation Method

Beam uniformity is a crucial building block of CO2 experiments aimed at fusing and stretching optical fibers in a lossless manner. When the irradiation beam is expanded through a galvanometer mirror, ways to achieve beam uniformity are investigated.

Synthesis of hydrophobic carbon nanotubes/reduced graphene oxide composite films by flash light irradiation

Carbon nanotubes/graphene composites have superior mechanical, electrical and electrochemistry prop- erties with carbon nanotubes as a hydrophobicity boosting agent. Their extraordinary hydrophobic performance is highly suitable for electrode applications in lithium ion batteries and supercapacitors which often employ organic electrolytes. Also the hydrophobic features enable the oil enrichment for the crude oil separation from seawater. The ever reported synthesis routes towards such a composite either involve complicated multi-step reactions, e.g., chemical vapor depositions, or lead to insufficient extru- sion of carbon nanotubes in the chemical reductions of graphene oxide, e.g., fully embedding between the compact graphene oxide sheets. As a consequence, the formation of standalone carbon nanotubes over graphene sheets remains of high interests. Herein we use the facile flash light irradiation method to induce the reduction of graphene oxides in the presence of carbon nanotubes. Photographs, micrographs, X-ray diffraction, infrared spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis all indicate that graphene oxides has been reduced. And the contact angle tests confirm the excellent hydrophobic perfor- mances of the synthesized carbon nanotube/reduced graphene oxide composite films. This one-step treatment represents a straightforward and high efficiency way for the reduction of carbon nanotubes/graphene oxides composites.

ATPF–a dedicated proton therapy facility

A proton therapy facility based on a linac injector and a slow-cycling synchrotron is proposed. To obtain good treatments for different cancer types, both the spot scanning method and the double-scattering method are adopted in the facility, whereas the nozzles include both gantry and fixed beam types. The proton accelerator chain includes a synchrotron of 250 MeV in maximum energy, an injector of 7 MeV consisting of an RFQ and a DTL linac, with a repetition rate of 0.5 Hz. The slow extraction using the third-order resonance and together with the RFKO method is considered to be a good method to obtain a stable and more-or-less homogenous beam spill. To benefit the spot scanning 200 between 60 MeV and 230 MeV. A new method method, the extraction energy can be as many as about - the emittance balancing technique of using a solenoid or a quadrupole rotator is proposed to solve the problem of unequal emittance in the two transverse planes with a beam slowly extracted from a synchrotron. The facility has been designed to keep the potential to be upgraded to include the carbon therapy in the future.