Metal Ir coatings on endocardial electrode tips, obtained by MOCVD

The present work demonstrates the application of the Metal-Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition technique to fabricate metal iridium coatings onto the pole tips of endocardial electrodes. Using iridium (III) acetylacetonate as volatile precursor, the target coatings were successfully applied to the working surface of cathodes and anodes of pacemaker electrodes in the flow type reactor in hydrogen atmosphere at deposition temperature of 550°C. The coating samples were characterized by means of XRD, SEM, Raman- and XPS-spectroscopies. The formation of non-textured coatings with fractal-like morphology and 7-24 nm crystallite size has been realized. The electrochemical properties of the coatings were investigated by cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The charge storage capacity values of the electrochemically activated samples were 17.0-115 mC·cm–2 and 14.4-76.5 mC·cm–2 for measurements carried out in 0.1M sulfuric acid and in phosphate buffer saline solutions, respectively. A comparison of some characteristics of the samples obtained with commercially available cathode of pacemaker electrodes is also presented

Potential of Core-Collapse Supernova Neutrino Detection at JUNO

JUNO is an underground neutrino observatory under construction in Jiangmen, China. It uses 20kton liquid scintillator as target, which enables it to detect supernova burst neutrinos of a large statistics for the next galactic core-collapse supernova (CCSN) and also pre-supernova neutrinos from the nearby CCSN progenitors. All flavors of supernova burst neutrinos can be detected by JUNO via several interaction channels, including inverse beta decay, elastic scattering on electron and proton, interactions on C12 nuclei, etc. This retains the possibility for JUNO to reconstruct the energy spectra of supernova burst neutrinos of all flavors. The real time monitoring systems based on FPGA and DAQ are under development in JUNO, which allow prompt alert and trigger-less data acquisition of CCSN events. The alert performances of both monitoring systems have been thoroughly studied using simulations. Moreover, once a CCSN is tagged, the system can give fast characterizations, such as directionality and light curve

Detection of the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background with JUNO

As an underground multi-purpose neutrino detector with 20 kton liquid scintillator, Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is competitive with and complementary to the water-Cherenkov detectors on the search for the diffuse supernova neutrino background (DSNB). Typical supernova models predict 2-4 events per year within the optimal observation window in the JUNO detector. The dominant background is from the neutral-current (NC) interaction of atmospheric neutrinos with 12C nuclei, which surpasses the DSNB by more than one order of magnitude. We evaluated the systematic uncertainty of NC background from the spread of a variety of data-driven models and further developed a method to determine NC background within 15\% with {\it{in}} {\it{situ}} measurements after ten years of running. Besides, the NC-like backgrounds can be effectively suppressed by the intrinsic pulse-shape discrimination (PSD) capabilities of liquid scintillators. In this talk, I will present in detail the improvements on NC background uncertainty evaluation, PSD discriminator development, and finally, the potential of DSNB sensitivity in JUNO

Real-time Monitoring for the Next Core-Collapse Supernova in JUNO

Core-collapse supernova (CCSN) is one of the most energetic astrophysical events in the Universe. The early and prompt detection of neutrinos before (pre-SN) and during the SN burst is a unique opportunity to realize the multi-messenger observation of the CCSN events. In this work, we describe the monitoring concept and present the sensitivity of the system to the pre-SN and SN neutrinos at the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), which is a 20 kton liquid scintillator detector under construction in South China. The real-time monitoring system is designed with both the prompt monitors on the electronic board and online monitors at the data acquisition stage, in order to ensure both the alert speed and alert coverage of progenitor stars. By assuming a false alert rate of 1 per year, this monitoring system can be sensitive to the pre-SN neutrinos up to the distance of about 1.6 (0.9) kpc and SN neutrinos up to about 370 (360) kpc for a progenitor mass of 30$M_{\odot}$ for the case of normal (inverted) mass ordering. The pointing ability of the CCSN is evaluated by using the accumulated event anisotropy of the inverse beta decay interactions from pre-SN or SN neutrinos, which, along with the early alert, can play important roles for the followup multi-messenger observations of the next Galactic or nearby extragalactic CCSN.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figure

Synthesis of Ni-Cu-CNF Composite Materials via Carbon Erosion of Ni-Cu Bulk Alloys Prepared by Mechanochemical Alloying

The unique physical and chemical properties of composite materials based on carbon nanofibers (CNFs) makes them attractive to scientists and manufacturers. One promising method to produce CNFs is catalytic chemical vapor deposition (CCVD). In the present work, a method based on carbon erosion (CE) of bulk microdispersed Ni-Cu alloys has been proposed to prepare efficient catalysts for the synthesis of CNF-based composites. The initial Ni-Cu alloys were obtained by mechanochemical alloying (MCA) of metallic powders in a planetary mill. The effect of MCA duration on the phase composition of Ni-Cu samples was studied by X-ray diffraction analysis and temperature-programmed reduction in hydrogen. It has been also revealed that, during such stages as heating, reduction, and short-term exposure to the reaction mixture (C2H4/H2/Ar) at 550 °C, the formation of a Ni-based solid solution from the initial Ni-Cu alloys takes place. The early stages of the CE process were monitored by transmission electron microscopy combined with energy-dispersive X-Ray analysis. It was found that the composition of the catalytic particles is identical to that of the initial alloy. The morphological and structural features of the prepared Ni-Cu-CNF composites were studied by scanning and transmission electron microscopies. The textural characteristics of the composites were found to be dependent on the reaction time

Porous Co-Pt Nanoalloys for Production of Carbon Nanofibers and Composites

The controllable synthesis of carbon nanofibers (CNF) and composites based on CNF (Metals/CNF) is of particular interest. In the present work, the samples of CNF were produced via ethylene decomposition over Co-Pt (0–100 at.% Pt) microdispersed alloys prepared by a reductive thermolysis of multicomponent precursors. XRD analysis showed that the crystal structure of alloys in the composition range of 5–35 at.% Pt corresponds to a fcc lattice based on cobalt (Fm-3m), while the CoPt (50 at.% Pt) and CoPt3 (75 at.% Pt) samples are intermetallics with the structure P4/mmm and Pm-3m, respectively. The microstructure of the alloys is represented by agglomerates of polycrystalline particles (50–150 nm) interconnected by the filaments. The impact of Pt content in the Co1−xPtx samples on their activity in CNF production was revealed. The interaction of alloys with ethylene is accompanied by the generation of active particles on which the growth of nanofibers occurs. Plane Co showed low productivity (~5.5 g/gcat), while Pt itself exhibited no activity at all. The addition of 15–25 at.% Pt to cobalt catalyst leads to an increase in activity by 3–5 times. The maximum yield of CNF reached 40 g/gcat for Co0.75Pt0.25 sample. The local composition of the active alloyed particles and the structural features of CNF were explored

Comparative Study on Carbon Erosion of Nickel Alloys in the Presence of Organic Compounds under Various Reaction Conditions

The processes of carbon erosion of nickel alloys during the catalytic pyrolysis of organic compounds with the formation of carbon nanofibers in a flow-through reactor as well as under reaction conditions in a close volume (Reactions under Autogenic Pressure at Elevated Temperature, RAPET) were studied. The efficiency of the ferromagnetic resonance method to monitor the appearance of catalytically active nickel particles in these processes has been shown. As found, the interaction of bulk Ni-Cr alloy with the reaction medium containing halogenated hydrocarbons (1,2-dichloroethane, 1-iodobutane, 1-bromobutane) results in the appearance of ferromagnetic particles of similar dimensions (~200–300 nm). In the cases of hexachlorobenzene and hexafluorobenzene, the presence of a hydrogen source (hexamethylbenzene) in the reaction mixture was shown to be highly required. The microdispersed samples of Ni-Cu and Ni-Mo alloys were prepared by mechanochemical alloying of powders and by reductive thermolysis of salts-precursors, accordingly. Their interaction with polymers (polyethylene and polyvinyl chloride) under RAPET conditions and with ethylene and 1,2-dichloroethane in a flow-through reactor are comparatively studied as well. According to microscopic data, the morphology of the formed carbon nanofibers is affected by the alloy composition and by the nature of the used organic substrate

Efficient Production of Segmented Carbon Nanofibers via Catalytic Decomposition of Trichloroethylene over Ni-W Catalyst

The catalytic utilization of chlorine-organic wastes remains of extreme importance from an ecological point of view. Depending on the molecular structure of the chlorine-substituted hydrocarbon (presence of unsaturated bonds, intermolecular chlorine-to-hydrogen ratio), the features of its catalytic decomposition can be significantly different. Often, 1,2-dichloroethane is used as a model substrate. In the present work, the catalytic decomposition of trichloroethylene (C2HCl3) over microdispersed 100Ni and 96Ni-4W with the formation of carbon nanofibers (CNF) was studied. Catalysts were obtained by a co-precipitation of complex salts followed by reductive thermolysis. The disintegration of the initial bulk alloy driven by its interaction with the reaction mixture C2HCl3/H2/Ar entails the formation of submicron active particles. It has been established that the optimal activity of the pristine Ni catalyst and the 96Ni-4W alloy is provided in temperature ranges of 500–650 °C and 475–725 °C, respectively. The maximum yield of CNF for 2 h of reaction was 63 g/gcat for 100Ni and 112 g/gcat for 96Ni-4W catalyst. Longevity tests showed that nickel undergoes fast deactivation (after 3 h), whereas the 96Ni-4W catalyst remains active for 7 h of interaction. The effects of the catalyst’s composition and the reaction temperature upon the structural and morphological characteristics of synthesized carbon nanofibers were investigated by X-ray diffraction analysis, Raman spectroscopy, and electron microscopies. The initial stages of the carbon erosion process were precisely examined by transmission electron microscopy coupled with elemental mapping. The segmented structure of CNF was found to be prevailing in a range of 500–650 °C. The textural parameters of carbon product (SBET and Vpore) were shown to reach maximum values (374 m2/g and 0.71 cm3/g, respectively) at the reaction temperature of 550 °C