Contact angle measurement system with liquid sodium in inert atmosphere.

Liquid sodium is the heat transport medium in fast breeder reactors due to its favorable chemical, physical, and nuclear properties. Wetting of liquid sodium with the material of reactor components is essential for the effective functioning of the reactor. Liquid sodium wetting plays a crucial role, such as in (i) heat transfer and (ii) image reconstruction under sodium ultrasonic scanners.

Highly Porous Polypyrrole (PPy) Hydrogel Support for the Design of a Co-N-C Electrocatalyst for Oxygen Reduction Reaction.

Atomically dispersed metal-nitrogen-carbon (M-N-C) catalysts have emerged as one of the most promising platinum-group metal (PGM)-free cathode catalysts for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Among the various approaches to enhance the ORR performance of the catalysts, increasing the density of accessible active sites is of paramount importance. Thus, nitrogen-rich support with abundant porosity can be very propitious.

Structural Stability and Phase Transitions in Zeolite A: An In Situ High Pressure-High Temperature Investigation.

The high pressure-high temperature structural stability of Zeolite A (ZA) has been studied using the X-ray diffraction (XRD) method. Structural studies at high temperatures show a reduction in the oxygen occupancy, belonging to the water molecule, indicating thermal dehydration and subsequent expulsion of water molecules from the pores of the structure. ZA does not undergo structural phase transition with temperature.

Synthesis of nano-crystalline zeolite-A and zeolite-X from Indian coal fly ash, its characterization and performance evaluation for the removal of Cs and Sr from simulated nuclear waste.

Phase pure zeolite-A and zeolite-X were synthesized using coal fly ash (CFA) obtained from Indian thermal power plants by employing alkali fusion method followed by hydrothermal technique. The fusion of fly ash with NaCO was accomplished by heating at 800 °C/2 h by maintaining fly ash to NaCO ratio at 1.2.

Structural and spectroscopic investigations of neodymium-doped strontium borophosphate glass.

Neodymium-doped glass finds application in lasers with high energy and low pulse width. In the present study, a series of Nd ions (0-2 mol%)-doped strontium borophosphate (SBP) glass samples was prepared through the conventional melt quench method. A broad peak in the X-ray diffraction spectrum confirmed the formation of a single-phase amorphous borophosphate glass.

Fabrication, chemical and thermal stability studies of crystalline ceramic wasteform based on oxyapatite phosphate host LaSr(PO)O for high level nuclear waste immobilization.

Reprocessed high-level nuclear waste (HLW) contains range of radioactive components. Crystalline oxyphosphate apatite ceramic of the formula LaSr(PO)O [LSS] was investigated as a host for HLW immobilisation. The systematic study of solid solubility limit of individual rare earth ion substitution leads to the formulation of simulated wasteform of the formula LaPrNdSmGdSr(PO)O (WF1) with the waste loading of 17.

Crystal Chemical Substitution at Ca and La Sites in CaLa(SiO)O To Design the Composition CaM LaRE (SiO)O for Nuclear Waste Immobilization and Its Influence on the Thermal Expansion Behavior.

The oxysilicate apatite host CaLa(SiO)O has been explored for immobilization of radioactive nuclides. Divalent ion, trivalent rare earth ion, and combined ionic substitutions in the silicate oxyapatite were carried out to optimize the simulated wasteform composition. The phases were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, FT-IR, TGA, SEM-EDS, and HT-XRD techniques.