Electrochemical Reduction of La2O3, Nd2O3, and CeO2 in LiCl-Li2O Melt

The reduction of pellets composed of individual CeO2, Nd2O3 and a La2O3-Nd2O3-CeO2 mixture by lithium extracted on a cathode during lithium chloride electrolysis at 650 °C was studied. The methods of cyclic voltammetry, electron microscopy, including determination of the elemental composition of the studied objects, and X-ray diffraction analysis were applied for the present study. The reduction degree of rare-earth metal (REM) oxides was determined using both the bromine method and reduction melting of the samples in the graphite crucible. The formation of the metallic phase composed of the rare-earth elements (REEs) was not observed even at the cathode potentials, corresponding to the formation of the liquid alkali metal phase, and lithium extraction, which, in the quantitative ratio, exceeds greatly the values needed for the reduction reaction. CeO2 was found to reduce to Ce2O3

Electrochemical Reduction of Pd-Nd₂O₃-CeO₂ Mixtures in the LiCl-Li₂O Melt

The electrochemical reduction of pelleted heterophase powder Pd-Nd2O3-CeO2 mixtures was studied in molten LiCl-Li2O (1–1.5 wt%) at 650 °C. The influence of the composition of the mixture, as well as electrochemical factors—i.e., the amount of electricity passed and the cathode potential during electrolysis—were considered. It was found that in the presence of metallic palladium, neodymium and cerium oxides are reduced by lithium released at the cathode and form intermetallic compounds of different compositions. At potentials more positive than the formation of a phase based on liquid lithium at 0.5–0.8 V, CePd3 and NdPd3 intermetallic compounds are present in the reduced product. At potentials close to the formation of liquid lithium, a whole spectrum of intermetallic compounds is synthesized: CePd, NdPd, Ce3Pd4, and Nd3Pd4. The mechanisms of formation of palladium alloys with neodymium and cerium are proposed and considered. The degree of the reduction of lanthanide oxides was calculated from the data on the concentration of residual oxygen in the reduced product

Observation of Interacting Josephson vortex chains by magnetic force microscopy

The ability to control Josephson vortices is instrumental for development of superconducting cryoelectronics. However, direct visualization of multivortex states in Josephson junctions is a challenging task. Here, we employ a magnetic force microscopy (MFM) for the analysis of planar Josephson junctions. We observe a specific MFM response, seen as a chain of small rings. By changing the applied field, we show that the number of rings is equal to the number of flux quanta in the junction. Therefore, each ring represents an individual vortex in a one-dimensional vortex chain within the junction. Our observation demonstrates that the MFM technique can be used for visualization of Josephson vortices and for probing their spatial configurations and mutual interaction

Challenges to effective cancer control in China, India, and Russia

Cancer is one of the major non-communicable diseases posing a threat to world health. Unfortunately, improvements in socioeconomic conditions are usually associated with increased cancer incidence. In this Commission, we focus on China, India, and Russia, which share rapidly rising cancer incidence and have cancer mortality rates that are nearly twice as high as in the UK or the USA, vast geographies, growing economies, ageing populations, increasingly westernised lifestyles, relatively disenfranchised subpopulations, serious contamination of the environment, and uncontrolled cancer-causing communicable infections. We describe the overall state of health and cancer control in each country and additional specific issues for consideration: for China, access to care, contamination of the environment, and cancer fatalism and traditional medicine; for India, affordability of care, provision of adequate health personnel, and sociocultural barriers to cancer control; and for Russia, monitoring of the burden of cancer, societal attitudes towards cancer prevention, effects of inequitable treatment and access to medicine, and a need for improved international engagement