Re-evaluation of Radiation-Energy Transfer to an Extraction Solvent in a Minor-Actinide-Separation Process Based on Consideration of Radiation Permeability

ABSTRACT

Absorbed-dose estimation is essential for evaluation of the radiation tolerance of minor-actinide-separation processes. We propose a dose-evaluation method based on radiation permeability, with comparisons of heterogeneous structures seen in the solvent-extraction process, such as emulsions forming in the mixture of the organic and aqueous phases. A demonstration of radiation-energy-transfer simulation is performed with a focus on the minor-actinide-recovery process from high-level liquid waste with the aid of the Monte Carlo radiation-transport code PHITS. The simulation results indicate that the dose absorbed by the extraction solvent from alpha radiation depends upon the emulsion structure, and that from beta and gamma radiation depends upon the mixer-settler-apparatus size. Non-negligible contributions of well-permeable gamma rays were indicated in terms of the plant operation of the minor-actinide-separation process.     

A novel low power hybrid cache using GC-EDRAM cells

In a typical embedded CPU, large on-chip storage is critical to meet high performance requirements. However, the fast increasing size of the on-chip storage based on traditional SRAM cells makes the area cost and energy consumption unsustainable for future embedded applications. Replacing SRAM with DRAM on the CPU’s chip is generally considered not worthwhile because DRAM is not compatible with the common CMOS logic and requires additional processing steps beyond what is required for CMOS. However a special DRAM technology, Gain-Cell embedded-DRAM (GC-eDRAM)  [1], [2], [3] is logic compatible and retains some of the good properties of DRAM (small and low power). In this paper we evaluate the performance of a novel hybrid cache memory where the data array, generally populated with SRAM cells, is replaced with GC-eDRAM cells while the tag array continues to use SRAM cells. Our evaluation of this cache demonstrates that, compared to the conventional SRAM-based designs, our novel architecture exhibits comparable performance with less energy consumption and smaller silicon area, enabling the sustainable on-chip storage scaling for future embedded CPUs.     

磨料有序排布电镀砂轮的制备及其把持力研究

为解决电镀砂轮磨削加工中容屑空间不足的问题，采用点胶微粘接的方法制备了磨料有序排布的电镀砂轮，分析了磨料粘接效果和镀层力学性能。通过SEM分析了磨料/镀层/导电胶的结合界面，并进行了干磨削试验。研究结果表明，直径约为磨料粒径40%的胶点可粘接住磨料，单个胶点上粘接多颗磨料的占比小于6%；双脉冲电镀工艺制备的镀层显微硬度大于500HV，表层残余应力小于100MPa，磨料/镀层/导电胶之间的界面贴合紧密，无明显缺陷；砂轮在磨削时没有出现磨料脱落现象。     

Microwave hybrid fast sintering of red clay ceramics

This work aimed to examine the performance of the hybrid sintering of clay ceramic in a microwave furnace, compared to the sintering process in a conventional furnace. The raw materials were subjected to X-ray fluorescence, loss on ignition (LOI), X-ray diffraction, particle size distribution, real specific mass, and thermogravimetric analyses. The red clay ceramic mass was prepared, extruded, pre-sintered in a conventional furnace at 600°C/60 min, and sintered at temperatures between 700 °C and 1100 °C. The sintering conventional (resistive oven) was carried out for 60 min with a heating rate of 10°C/min. In the microwave furnace, the sintering times were 5, 10, and 15 min, with a heating rate of 50°C/min, with a sintering chamber coated with silicon carbide (susceptor). The sintered specimens were characterized according to linear shrinkage, water absorption, apparent porosity, apparent specific mass, X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy analysis, spectroscopy analysis in the ultraviolet and visible regions, microhardness, and scanning electron microscopy. The results showed that microwave sintering promoted an increase in the microhardness and apparent specific mass, and reduction in water absorption and apparent porosity values, due to greater densification in the microstructure. The best results occurred for specimens sintered at 1100°C.     

A selective organosilica membrane for ethyl acetate dehydration by pervaporation

Organosilica bis(triethoxysilyl) ethane (BTESE) membranes were explored for pervaporation dehydration of binary and ternary mixtures of ethyl acetate (EA) by undiluted sol coating combined with flash firing. Three BTESE membranes (M1, M2, and M3) were fabricated on macroporous supports by varying BTESE concentrations (0.5, 2.5, and 5 wt% BTESE, respectively) in polymer sols. The membranes were characterized by DLS, SEM, FTIR, XRD, contact angle, AFM, and pervaporation performance to discuss the effect of the BTESE contents in the polymer sol on the formation and dehydration performance of resulting organosilica membranes. It was found that 5 wt% loading of BTESE led to a highly selective membrane for dehydration of EA/H₂O mixture. Among the synthesized membranes, M3 delivered flux of 0.84 ± 0.05 kg.m⁻².h⁻¹ with a selectivity of >10,000 for EA/H₂O mixture (98/2 wt%) at 60°C. The time course of pervaporation dehydration for the EA/H₂O mixture (95/5 wt%) confirms the stability of BTESE membrane in the investigated time period of 120 h. Further, the membrane exhibited excellent selectivity larger than 10,000 for separation of ternary mixtures (90/2/8 wt%) of ethyl acetate/ethanol/water and n-propyl acetate/isopropanol/water respectively, the composition of which is similar to the top product of the distillation column used in the industrial esterification process. The best separation performance and excellent acid stability of BTESE membranes in this study suggest that the simple synthesis protocol of undiluted sol coating and flash firing will provide a cost-effective, quick, and efficient synthesis route for practical membrane based applications.     

Design,simulation, elaboration and luminescence of Tb3+-doped Ba0.84Gd0.16F2.16 fluoroaluminosilicate scintillating glass ceramics

Extensive researches on scintillators have been executed to satisfy the excellent radiation detection materials in broad applications. However, practical application of conventional scintillators is limited due to the limitations of high cost, time-consuming fabrication process and insufficient radioluminescence. Herein, high density precursor glass doped with Tb³⁺ was designed to absorb X-ray efficiently and produce green emission. Molecular dynamics simulation was used to simulate the phase separation process in melting process. Then, Tb³⁺-doped Ba_0.84Gd_0.16F_2.16 glass ceramics (GCs) with excellent structural and optical properties were elaborated by melt quenching technic and further heat treating. Their structural properties, photoluminescence (PL) and X-ray excited luminescence (XEL) were explored detailedly. The internal quantum efficiency of PL is 64 % in GCs. The XEL intensity is 192 % of that of Bi₄Ge₃O₁₂ (BGO) commercial scintillator. Our results suggest that Ba_0.84Gd_0.16F_2.16:Tb³⁺ GCs might have potential application in X-ray detection.     

A novel strategy based on salp swarm algorithm for extracting the maximum power of proton exchange membrane fuel cell

Cell temperature and water content of the membrane have a significant effect on the performance of fuel cells. The current-power curve of the fuel cell has a maximum power point (MPP) that is needed to be tracked. This study presents a novel strategy based on a salp swarm algorithm (SSA) for extracting the maximum power of proton-exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). At first, a new formula is derived to estimate the optimal voltage of PEMFC corresponding to MPP. Then the error between the estimated voltage at MPP and the actual terminal voltage of the fuel cell is fed to a proportional-integral-derivative controller (PID). The output of the PID controller tunes the duty cycle of a boost converter to maximize the harvested power from the PEMFC. SSA determines the optimal gains of PID. Sensitivity analysis is performed with the operating fuel cell at different cell temperature and water content of the membrane. The obtained results through the proposed strategy are compared with other programmed approaches of incremental resistance method, Fuzzy-Logic, grey antlion optimizer, wolf optimizer, and mine-blast algorithm. The obtained results demonstrated high reliability and efficiency of the proposed strategy in extracting the maximum power of the PEMFC.     

Development of a H2-permeable Pd60Cu40-based composite membrane using a reverse build-up method

A new reverse build-up method is developed to fabricate an economical H₂-permeable composite membrane. Sputtering and electroplating are used for the formation of a membrane comprised of a 3.7-μm-thick Pd₆₀Cu₄₀ (wt.%) alloy layer and a 13-μm-thick porous Ni support layer, respectively. The H₂-permeation measurements are performed under the flow of a gaseous mixture of H₂ and He at 300–320 °C and 50–100 kPa of H₂ partial pressure. The H₂/He selectivity values exceed 300. The activation energy at 300–320 °C is 10.9 kJ mol⁻¹. The H₂ permeability of the membrane is 1.25 × 10⁻⁸ mol m⁻¹ s⁻¹ Pa^−0.5 at 320 °C after 448 h. The estimated Pd cost of the proposed membrane is approximately 1/8 of the cost for a pure Pd₆₀Cu₄₀ membrane. This study demonstrates that the proposed method allows the facile production of low-cost, Pd-based membranes for H₂ separation.     

Zinc doped Fe2O3 for boosting Electrocatalytic Nitrogen Fixation to ammonia under mild conditions

Artificial nitrogen fixation is emerging as a promising approach for synthesis of ammonia at mild conditions. Inspired by biological nitrogen fixation based on bacteria containing iron, zinc doped Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles are proposed as an efficient and earth abundant electrocatalyst for converting N₂ to NH₃. In neutral media, it achieves a maximum Faradaic efficiency (FE) of 10.4% and a large NH₃ yield rate of 15.1 μg h^?1 mg^?1_cat. at ?0.5 V vs. reversible hydrogen electrode. This catalyst also exhibits excellent selectivity and stability. Theoretical calculations suggest the reaction follows the associative enzymatic mechanism and it has a barrier of as low as 0.68 eV.     

Influence of anode current density on carbon parasitic reactions during electrolysis

In the electro-deoxidation process, carbon parasitic reaction (CO₃^2- + 4e^-=C + 3O^2-) usually occurs when using carbon materials as the anode, which leads to increase of the carbon content in the final metal and decrease of the current efficiency of the process. The aim of this work is to reduce the negative effect of carbon parasitic reaction on the electrolysis process by adjusting anode current density. The results indicate that lower graphite anode area can achieve higher current density, which is helpful to increase the nucleation site of CO₂ bubbles. Most of CO₂ would be released from the anode instead of dissolution in the molten CaCl₂ and reacting with O^2- to form CO₃^2-, thus decreasing the carbon parasitic reaction of the process. Furthermore, the results of the compared experiments show that when the anode area decreases from 172.78 to 4.99 cm², CO₂ concentration in the released gases increases significantly, the carbon mass content in the final metal product decreased from 1.09% to 0.13%, and the current efficiency increased from 6.65% to 36.50%. This study determined a suitable anode current density range for reducing carbon parasitic reaction and provides a valuable reference for the selection of the anode in the electrolysis process.