Plasma Nitriding of Inner Surface of Slender Tubes using Small Diameter Helicon Plasma.

A steady-state, high-flux N/Ar helicon wave plasma (HWP) with a small diameter (10 mm) was used to nitride the interior of a slender austenitic stainless steel (ASS) 316L tube at a temperature of 450 °C. N and Ar were fed to a 500 mm long slender tube with 10 mm inner diameter and were ionized inside the tube using a helicon wave in the magnetic field of 2000 G. The microstructure and depth of the nitrided layers, in addition to the morphology and hardness of the nitrided surfaces, were intensively characterized by employing scanning electron microscopy (SEM), optical microscopy (OM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), as well as microhardness tests.

[Preparation and characterization of specific monoclonal antibodies against mercury ions].

The environmental pollution by heavy metals such as mercury, cadmium and lead has become a worldwide public health hazard. To rapidly and inexpensively monitor environmental heavy metals is a prerequisite for minimizing human and animal exposure. The development of immunoassays to detect mercury ion residues has been a promising trend with the advantage of rapid and cheap operation.