High Flux Helium Irradiation of Dispersion-Strengthened Tungsten Alloys and Effects of Heavy Metal Impurity Layer Deposition

Tungsten has been chosen as the plasma-facing material (PFM) for the divertor region in ITER and also a candidate PFM for future plasma-burning nuclear fusion reactors. During fusion device operation, PFMs will be exposed to low-energy He irradiation at high temperatures, resulting in sub-surface bubbles and surface morphology changes such as pores and fuzz. Carbide dispersion-strengthened W materials may enhance the ductility of W, but their behavior under high flux He irradiation remains unclear. In this work, the response of dispersion-strengthened tungsten materials to high flux, low energy He irradiation at high temperature is examined. Tungsten alloyed with 1, 5, or 10 wt. % tantalum carbide or titanium carbide exposed to these conditions result in surface pores, coral-like feature growth and sub-surface helium bubbles. Reactor-relevant helium irradiation (5x10 26_ m-2_ fluence) combined with high powered laser pulses to simulate off-normal reactor events does not significantly alter the surface morphology, as the surface nanostructures appear stable and cracks are only observed on a localized region of one sample. However, specimens show the development of an impurity layer on the surface, likely impurity deposition from the sample holder during irradiation, resulting in a mixed material layer on the surface. Helium bubbles exist in this impurity layer, and obscure conclusions about helium interactions with the carbide dispersoids. Nonetheless, it is clear that the dispersoid microstructure limits He bubble formation and subsequent surface nanostructuring, attributed to the dispersoid composition.</p

Highly selective detection of Hg2+ and MeHgI by di-pyridin-2-yl-[4-(2-pyridin-4-yl-vinyl)-phenyl]-amine and its zinc coordination polymer

©2016 the Partner Organisations. Solvothermal reaction of Zn(NO3)2·6H2O with di-pyridin-2-yl-[4-(2-pyridin-4-yl-vinyl)-phenyl]-amine (ppvppa) and 1,4-naphthalenedicarboxylic acid (1,4-H2NDC) in H2O and MeCN at 150 °C yielded a two-dimensional (2D) coordination Zn(ii) polymer [Zn(ppvppa)(1,4-NDC)]n (1). Compound 1 was characterized by elemental analysis, IR spectroscopy, powder X-ray diffraction, single-crystal X-ray diffraction and thermogravimetric analysis. Compound 1 consists of dimeric [Zn2(ppvppa)2] units linked by 1,4-NDC bridges to generate a 2D honeycomb network. Either compound 1 or ppvppa alone can detect Hg2+ or MeHgI selectively and with good sensitivity. Upon addition of Hg2+ ions to a MeCN solution of ppvppa, marked changes in the UV-vis and fluorescence spectra are observed, associated with colour changes, which are easily identified by the naked eye. The pyridinyl rings of ppvppa are coordinated to the Hg2+ ion. This motif in the presence of NO3- ions forms a binuclear complex [Hg2(ppvppa)2(NO3)4] (2), which has been characterized as the solvate [Hg2(ppvppa)2(NO3)4]·H2O·4MeCN (2·H2O·4MeCN) by single-crystal X-ray diffraction studies. In aqueous solution, compound 1 emits pale orange light at ambient temperature and the addition of Hg2+ or MeHgI induces an change of fluorescence color from pale orange to blue. Compound 1 is a promising candidate as a sensitive naked-eye indicator for Hg2+ or MeHgI in water under a UV lamp. Introduction to the international collaboration Prof. Lang and Prof. Brammer met with each other in Nanjing, China when Prof. Brammer taught lectures at Nanjing Tech University last November. Prof. Lang's research involves metal sulfide cluster chemistry, design and development of new coordination complex-based catalysts, bioinorganic chemistry related to mimicking metal sites of enzymes and proteins, and so on. Prof. Brammer's research interest covers supramolecular chemistry and crystal engineering, in particular host-guest chemistry and catalysis in metal-organic frameworks, reactions in molecular solids and fundamentals of intermolecular interactions. Both professors recognised their many mutual research interests and decided to initiate an international collaborative project in the area of coordination polymers. Both will visit the partner's lab in China and UK in the near future and expand this project to a higher level

Non-ohmic critical fluctuation conductivity of layered superconductors in magnetic field

Thermal fluctuation conductivity for a layered superconductor in perpendicular magnetic field is treated in the frame of the self-consistent Hartree approximation for an arbitrarily strong in-plane electric field. The simultaneous application of the two fields results in a slightly stronger suppression of the superconducting fluctuations, compared to the case when the fields are applied individually.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, to be published in Phys. Rev.

Metal Surface Energy: Persistent Cancellation of Short-Range Correlation Effects beyond the Random-Phase Approximation

The role that non-local short-range correlation plays at metal surfaces is investigated by analyzing the correlation surface energy into contributions from dynamical density fluctuations of various two-dimensional wave vectors. Although short-range correlation is known to yield considerable correction to the ground-state energy of both uniform and non-uniform systems, short-range correlation effects on intermediate and short-wavelength contributions to the surface formation energy are found to compensate one another. As a result, our calculated surface energies, which are based on a non-local exchange-correlation kernel that provides accurate total energies of a uniform electron gas, are found to be very close to those obtained in the random-phase approximation and support the conclusion that the error introduced by the local-density approximation is small.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Current-Induced Effects in Nanoscale Conductors

We present an overview of current-induced effects in nanoscale conductors with emphasis on their description at the atomic level. In particular, we discuss steady-state current fluctuations, current-induced forces, inelastic scattering and local heating. All of these properties are calculated in terms of single-particle wavefunctions computed using a scattering approach within the static density-functional theory of many-electron systems. Examples of current-induced effects in atomic and molecular wires will be given and comparison with experimental results will be provided when available.Comment: revtex, 10 pages, 8 figure

First-principles study of electron transport through C20C_{20} cages

Electron transport properties of C$_{20}$ molecules suspended between gold electrodes are investigated using first-principles calculations. Our study reveals that the conductances are quite sensitive to the number of C$_{20}$ molecules between electrodes: the conductances of C$_{20}$ monomers are near 1 G$_{0}$, while those of dimers are markedly smaller, since incident electrons easily pass the C$_{20}$ molecules and are predominantly scattered at the C$_{20}$-C$_{20}$ junctions. Moreover, we find both channel currents locally circulating the outermost carbon atoms.Comment: 8 pages and 3 figure

Réaction de fixation du complément. Application au virus rabique

Soulebot J. P., Petermann H. G., Branche R., Lang R., Mackowiak Czesław. Réaction de fixation du complément. Application au virus rabique. In: Bulletin de l'Académie Vétérinaire de France tome 122 n°5, 1969. pp. 187-208

Energetics, forces, and quantized conductance in jellium modeled metallic nanowires

Energetics and quantized conductance in jellium modeled nanowires are investigated using the local density functional based shell correction method, extending our previous study of uniform in shape wires [C. Yannouleas and U. Landman, J. Phys. Chem. B 101, 5780 (1997)] to wires containing a variable shaped constricted region. The energetics of the wire (sodium) as a function of the length of the volume conserving, adiabatically shaped constriction leads to formation of self selecting magic wire configurations. The variations in the energy result in oscillations in the force required to elongate the wire and are directly correlated with the stepwise variations of the conductance of the nanowire in units of 2e^2/h. The oscillatory patterns in the energetics and forces, and the correlated stepwise variation in the conductance are shown, numerically and through a semiclassical analysis, to be dominated by the quantized spectrum of the transverse states at the narrowmost part of the constriction in the wire.Comment: Latex/Revtex, 11 pages with 5 Postscript figure

Shot Noise in Nanoscale Conductors From First Principles

We describe a field-theoretic approach to calculate quantum shot noise in nanoscale conductors from first principles. Our starting point is the second-quantization field operator to calculate shot noise in terms of single quasi-particle wavefunctions obtained self-consistently within density functional theory. The approach is valid in both linear and nonlinear response and is particularly suitable in studying shot noise in atomic-scale conductors. As an example we study shot noise in Si atomic wires between metal electrodes. We find that shot noise is strongly nonlinear as a function of bias and it is enhanced for one- and two-Si wires due to the large contribution from the metal electrodes. For longer wires it shows an oscillatory behavior for even and odd number of atoms with opposite trend with respect to the conductance, indicating that current fluctuations persist with increasing wire length.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

A polymorphic transcriptional regulatory domain in the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis risk gene CFAP410 correlates with differential isoform expression

We describe the characterisation of a variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) domain within intron 1 of the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) risk gene CFAP410 (Cilia and flagella associated protein 410) (previously known as C21orf2), providing insight into how this domain could support differential gene expression and thus be a modulator of ALS progression or risk. We demonstrated the VNTR was functional in a reporter gene assay in the HEK293 cell line, exhibiting both the properties of an activator domain and a transcriptional start site, and that the differential expression was directed by distinct repeat number in the VNTR. These properties embedded in the VNTR demonstrated the potential for this VNTR to modulate CFAP410 expression. We extrapolated these findings in silico by utilisation of tagging SNPs for the two most common VNTR alleles to establish a correlation with endogenous gene expression. Consistent with in vitro data, CFAP410 isoform expression was found to be variable in the brain. Furthermore, although the number of matched controls was low, there was evidence for one specific isoform being correlated with lower expression in those with ALS. To address if the genotype of the VNTR was associated with ALS risk, we characterised the variation of the CFAP410 VNTR in ALS cases and matched controls by PCR analysis of the VNTR length, defining eight alleles of the VNTR. No significant difference was observed between cases and controls, we noted, however, the cohort was unlikely to contain sufficient power to enable any firm conclusion to be drawn from this analysis. This data demonstrated that the VNTR domain has the potential to modulate CFAP410 expression as a regulatory element that could play a role in its tissue-specific and stimulus-inducible regulation that could impact the mechanism by which CFAP410 is involved in ALS