In Situ Confined Synthesis of a Copper-Encapsulated Silicalite-1 Zeolite for Highly Efficient Iodine Capture.

Effective capture of radioactive iodine is highly desirable for decontamination purposes in spent fuel reprocessing. Cu-based adsorbents with a low cost and high chemical affinity for I molecules act as a decent candidate for iodine elimination, but the low utilization and stability remain a significant challenge. Herein, a facile in situ confined synthesis strategy is developed to design and synthesize a copper-encapsulated flaky silicalite-1 (Cu@FSL-1) zeolite with a thickness of ≤300 nm.

Structure and thermal expansion behavior of CaLaNd(SiO)(PO)O apatite for nuclear waste immobilization.

In this study, Ca4La6-xNdx(SiO4)4(PO4)2O2 (x = 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6) apatites were explored for nuclear waste immobilization, and Nd3+ ions were used as the surrogate of radionuclides (such as Am3+, Cm3+, and Pu3+). The synthesized samples conform to the P63/m (176) symmetry in the hexagonal system according to the characterizations by means of X-ray diffraction, Raman spectra, and Fourier-transform infrared spectra. Rietveld analyses indicate that both Ca2+ and Ln3+ (La, Nd) cations are located at the M4f and M6h sites, which is different from earlier studies.

Systematic study of the mirror effect in a poly-Si subwavelength periodic membrane.

By using the equivalent eigenvalue equation of a waveguide grating, the mirror effect (Deltalambda/lambda>15%) with very high reflectivity (R>99%) based on guided-mode resonance (GMR) effects in a poly-Si subwavelength periodic membrane is obtained, and the reflection performance of the poly-Si subwavelength periodic membrane is systematically studied. It is shown that the equivalent eigenvalue equation of a waveguide grating can provide a solid starting point for designing the broadband grating with very high reflectivity. The physical mechanisms of broadband reflection of the strongly modulated waveguide grating structures are investigated theoretically and the important role of multiple GMRs for a broad reflection band is discussed in detail.