Design of the offline test electronics for the nozzle system of proton therapy.

A set of nozzle equipment for proton therapy is currently under development at China Institute of Atomic Energy (CIAE). To facilitate the off-line commissioning of the whole equipment, a set of ionization chamber signal generation system, known as the test electronics, was designed. The results showed that the system can simulate the beam position, beam fluence (which exhibits a positive correlation with the dose), and other related analog signals generated by the proton beam when it traverses the ionization chamber.

Highly efficient preconcentration using anodically generated shrinking gas bubbles for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) detection.

Here we report a highly efficient PFAS preconcentration method that uses anodically generated shrinking gas bubbles to preconcentrate PFAS via aerosol formation, achieving ~ 1400-fold enrichment of PFOS and PFOA-the two most common PFAS-in 20 min. This new method improves the enrichment factor by 15 to 105% relative to the previous method that uses cathodically generated H bubbles. The shrinking gas bubbles are in situ electrogenerated by oxidizing water in an NHHCO solution.

Harnessing bubble behaviors for developing new analytical strategies.

Gas bubbles are easily accessible and offer many unique characteristic properties of a gas/liquid two-phase system for developing new analytical methods. In this minireview, we discuss the newly developed analytical strategies that harness the behaviors of bubbles. Recent advancements include the utilization of the gas/liquid interfacial activity of bubbles for detection and preconcentration of surface-active compounds; the employment of the gas phase properties of bubbles for acoustic imaging and detection, microfluidic analysis, electrochemical sensing, and emission spectroscopy; and the application of the mass transport behaviors at the gas/liquid interface in gas sensing, biosensing, and nanofluidics.

Stabilizing Hard Magnetic SmCo Nanoparticles by N-Doped Graphitic Carbon Layer.

We report a chemical method to synthesize size-controllable SmCo nanoparticles (NPs) and to stabilize the NPs against air oxidation by coating a layer of N-doped graphitic carbon (NGC). First 10 nm CoO and 5 nm SmO NPs were synthesized and aggregated in reverse micelles of oleylamine to form SmCo-oxide NPs with a controlled size (110, 150, or 200 nm). The SmCo-O NPs were then coated with polydopamine and thermally annealed to form SmCo-O/NGC NPs, which were further embedded in CaO matrix and reduced with Ca at 850 °C to give SmCo/NGC NPs of 80, 120, or 180 nm, respectively.

Experimental study for 15-20 mA dc H- multicusp source.

Recently, a new H- source and test stand was developed at CIAE. The design of this new source is based on the experience on our previous 10-15 mA H(-) ion source and the source at TRIUMF. Major efforts include the study of the virtual filter magnetic field, confining magnetic field, filament shape and location, the vacuum improvement on the extracting area, the extraction optics, new control and interlock system of the power supplies.