Experimental study on the phenomenon of gas–liquid flow in divertor and diffuser under blowout condition

In the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), the water in the cooling channel of the divertor needs to be pushed out by the blowout system to avoid water leakage, otherwise it will further endanger the safe operation. However, diffusers often used to change the pipe size have an adverse effect on the water discharge in divertors. Therefore, research on the blowout process in the divertor and diffuser is essential to improving the dryness of the blowout system. In this paper, the mutual restriction between divertor and diffuser is proposed by the experiment research, such restriction is an important factor in reducing the dryness of the divertor. According to the experimental results, the larger the resistance loss is in the divertor, the smaller the effective pressure difference will be in the diffuser. Meanwhile, liquid phase water flows rotationally in the diffuser under a small pressure difference, thus reducing the dryness of the divertor. Moreover, the diffuser increases the pressure difference required for complete blowout in the divertor. These results will provide a reference for the design and optimization of the EAST blowout system in the future

Typical cathode materials for lithium‐ion and sodium‐ion batteries: From structural design to performance optimization

Abstract Rechargeable lithium‐ion and sodium‐ion batteries (SIB) have dominated the energy storage fields such as electric vehicles and portable electronics due to their high energy density, long cycle life, and environmental friendliness. However, the critical bottleneck hindering the further improvement of their electrochemical performance is the unsatisfactory cathode materials, typically exhibiting inherent drawbacks such as low reversible capacity, initial capacity loss, fast capacity decay, and poor rate performance. These issues are mainly attributed to changes in the internal structure of cathode materials, such as irreversible transformation of particle morphology, evolution of crystal structure, and undesired physicochemical interfacial reactions during the electrochemical process. To address above obstacles, abundant research efforts have been devoted to stabilizing the structural evolution of cathode materials and enhancing their electrochemical performance. Herein, we reviewed the research progress on the cathode materials for lithium‐ion and SIBs. The typical cathodes and their structural characteristics, electrochemical behaviors, reaction mechanisms, and strategies for electrochemical performance optimization were summarized. This review aims to promote the understanding of the structure‐performance relationship in the cathode materials and provide some guidance for the design of advanced cathode materials for lithium‐ion and SIBs from the perspective of crystal structure

The specificity of ten non-digestible carbohydrates to enhance butyrate-producing bacteria and butyrate production in vitro fermentation

Butyrate and butyrate-producing bacteria are important indicators of gut microbial metabolism in human health. Ten non-digestible carbohydrates (NDCs), including inulin, fructooligosaccharide (FOS), oats β-glucans (OGS), oats β-glucan oligosaccharides (OGOS), Astragalus polysaccharides (APS), Astragalus oligosaccharides (AOS), xanthan gum oligosaccharides (XGOS), gellan gum oligosaccharides (GGOS), curdlan oligosaccharides (COS), and pullulan oligosaccharides (POS) were used to investigate NDC specificity in modulating butyrate-producing bacteria and butyrate production in 48-h in vitro fermentation studies in combination with fecal inocula from 7 healthy donors and 11 patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D). We observed that the amount of these ten NDCs utilized depended on NDC structure and inter-individual gut microbial differences. XGOS and GGOS fermentations significantly increased butyrate-producing bacteria (especially f_Lachnospiraceae) and butyric acid production. Furthermore, XGOS and GGOS fermentations showed a better ability to consistently modulate gut microbiota composition and metabolic properties between individuals of healthy donors or T2D patients when compared to inulin, FOS, APS, AOS, OGS, OGOS, COS and POS fermentation. This research indicated that xanthan gum and gellan gum oligosaccharides have strong specificity to enhance butyrate-producing bacteria and butyrate production

Piezoelectric single crystal ultrasonic transducers for biomedical applications

Piezoelectric single crystals, which have excellent piezoelectric properties, have extensively been employed for various sensors and actuators applications. In this paper, the state-of-art in piezoelectric single crystals for ultrasonic transducer applications is reviewed. Firstly, the basic principles and design considerations of piezoelectric ultrasonic transducers will be addressed. Then, the popular piezoelectric single crystals used for ultrasonic transducer applications, including LiNbO3 (LN), PMN-PT and PIN-PMN-PT, will be introduced. After describing the preparation and performance of the single crystals, the recent development of both the single-element and array transducers fabricated using the single crystals will be presented. Finally, various biomedical applications including eye imaging, intravascular imaging, blood flow measurement, photoacoustic imaging and microbeam applications of the single crystal transducers will be discussed.Department of Electrical Engineerin