Unraveling the Degradation and Air-Induced Healing Mechanisms of Halide Perovskites under Proton Irradiation.

As exceptional potential candidates for future-generation space photovoltaics, perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have been proven to be radiation-tolerant and recoverable under proton irradiation. Nevertheless, a key point, the influence of the atmosphere, has often been overlooked in ground-based irradiation experiments. Here, the atmosphere-dependent radiation tolerance and healing of perovskite materials under MeV proton irradiation are demonstrated by utilizing in situ electrical characterizations.

Direct determination of silicon overestimates the accumulation and translocation of SiO nanoparticles in rice seedlings.

Silica nanoparticles (SiO NPs) have numerous applications in agriculture, but may also pose significant risks to plants. Nevertheless, their bioaccumulation, an important determinant of their risks, was often not accurately measured due to the lack of reliable methods. In this study, the accumulation in rice seedlings of SiO NPs of different sizes without and with a gold nanoparticle core (Au@SiO NPs) was examined.

A detailed simulation study on radionuclide dispersion under spent fuel road transportation conditions: Effects of vessel type and coniferous vegetation growth.

Vegetation barriers are an important environmental characteristic of spent fuel road transportation accidents. Spent fuel vessels may be affected by force majeure factors during transportation, which leads to damage to spent fuel assemblies and containers and can cause radionuclides to gradually release from assemblies to vessels to the external environment. In this work, considering the growth periods of coniferous vegetation barriers and vessel type, a radionuclide dispersion model based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was established by adding a decay term and a pressure loss term.

Phosphination of amino-modified mesoporous silica for the selective separation of strontium.

Radioactive strontium (Sr) is considered as one of the most dangerous radionuclides due to its high biochemical toxicity. For the efficient and selective separation of Sr from acidic environments, a novel functional adsorbent CEPA@SBA-15-APTES was prepared in this work through the phosphorylation of amino-modified mesoporous silica with organic content of approximately 20 wt%. CEPA@SBA-15-APTES was characterized by TEM, SEM, EDS, TG-DSC, BET, FTIR, and XPS techniques, revealing its characteristics of an ordered hexagonal lattice-like structure and rich functional groups.

Numerical simulation for the control rod assembly drop time evaluation in a LFR.

During scram, the Control Rod Assembly (CRA) is quickly dropped into the core and as well, if any of the operating limits are exceeded, the CRA is dropped into the core within a stipulated time to shut down the reactor power as soon as possible. In this study, the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) approach was used to investigate the CRA drop dynamics of a lead-based research reactor. To simulate the flow field around the CRA in the guide tube, a 3-dimensional model of the CRA in the LBE-filled guide tube was developed and discretized; and the averaged Navier-Stokes equations coupled with the dynamic mesh method were adopted.

Correction: Thermal, mechanical investigation and neutron shielding analysis for Gd-MOF/polyimide materials.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1039/D1RA07500D.].

Thermal, mechanical investigation and neutron shielding analysis for Gd-MOF/polyimide materials.

None of the currently commercialized shielding materials in Generation IV nuclear energy systems are satisfactory in their performance. Developing a candidate neutron shielding material with good heat resistance and high strength is a challenging task. In this work, various gadolinium metal-organic frameworks (Gd-MOFs) with obvious advantages, such as porous structures, organic surfaces and strong neutron-absorbing nuclei, were synthesized to constrain polyimide (PI) chains.

Influences of Modified SmO on Thermal Stability, Mechanical and Neutron Shielding Properties of Aminophenol Trifunctional Epoxy Resin.

The requirements regarding the weight and capacity reduction of neutron shielding materials have become an urgent issue for advanced nuclear facilities and plants. An epoxy-based neutron shielding material with high-temperature stability and good neutron irradiation resistance was designed in this paper to solve the above issue. Aminophenol trifunctional epoxy resin (AFG-90H) was compounded with samarium oxide (SmO) by means of an ultrasonic-assisted method and the compatibility of SmO with the AFG-90H matrix was improved by 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) surface modification.

Boosting Thermoelectric Performance of CuSnSe Comprehensive Band Structure Regulation and Intensified Phonon Scattering by Multidimensional Defects.

As an eco-friendly thermoelectric material, CuSnSe has recently drawn much attention. However, its high electrical resistivity ρ and low thermopower prohibit its thermoelectric performance. Herein, we show that a widened band gap and the increased density of states are achieved S alloying, resulting in 1.

Synthesis of Cerium Tetrafluoride and Cerium Trifluoride Nanoscale Polycrystals from Ammonium Hydrogen Difluoride.

This paper reported a dry synthesis and characterization of cerium tetrafluoride (CeF) and cerium trifluoride (CeF) nanoscale polycrystals (NPs). The CeF NPs were spherical or flaky and approximately 10 ± 2 nm in diameter. The CeF NPs were rod-shaped nanorods with a length of about 150 ± 5 nm and a diameter of about 20 ± 2 nm.

Observation of Coulomb-Assisted Nuclear Bound State of Ξ^{-}-^{14}N System.

In an emulsion-counter hybrid experiment performed at J-PARC, a Ξ^{-} absorption event was observed which decayed into twin single-Λ hypernuclei. Kinematic calculations enabled a unique identification of the reaction process as Ξ^{-}+^{14}N→_{Λ}^{10}Be+_{Λ}^{5}He. For the binding energy of the Ξ^{-} hyperon in the Ξ^{-}-^{14}N system a value of 1.

Polydatin Attenuates 14.1 MeV Neutron-Induced Injuries via Regulating the Apoptosis and Antioxidative Pathways and Improving the Hematopoiesis of Mice.

With more powerful penetrability and ionizing capability, high energetic neutron radiation (HENR) often poses greater threats than photon radiation, especially on such occasions as nuclear bomb exposure, nuclear accidents, aerospace conduction, and neutron-based radiotherapy. Therefore, there emerges an urgent unmet demand in exploring highly efficient radioprotectants against HENR. In the present study, high-throughput 14.

An improved beam splitting method for intensity modulated proton therapy.

The pencil beam algorithm (PBA) has become the predominant dose calculation method in proton therapy, due to its high level of efficiency. However, density heterogeneity decreases the accuracy of PBA. To improve PBA's accuracy, a beam splitting method is used to divide the original scanning beam into multiple thinner beamlets.

Effects of substrates on proton irradiation damage of graphene.

In this paper, the irradiation damage of graphite sheets and monolayer graphene on Cu and Ni substrates after the proton irradiation with High Intensity D-T Fusion Neutron Generator (HINEG) were studied. The microstructure evolution of graphite sheets and monolayer graphene on different substrates was analyzed using Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Results showed that the peak area ratio of carbon-oxides (C-O, C[double bond, length as m-dash]O) in graphene was reduced after irradiation.

Assessment of heat transfer correlations in the sub-channels of proposed rod bundle geometry for supercritical water reactor.

There are heat transfer correlations for heat transfer analysis in single tube geometries after several experimental and theoretical heat transfer studies in these single tube geometries. This is not the case for heat transfer analysis in rod bundle geometry with regard to proposed square fuel assembly of the Supercritical-Water-Cooled Reactor (SCWR) European Atomic Energy (EURATOM) design. Thus limited heat transfer studies exist on rod bundle geometry at supercritical pressures.

Interactions between alloy elements and oxygen at the steel-liquid LBE interface determined from first-principles molecular dynamics simulations.

Lead bismuth eutectic (LBE) alloy shows high potential for application in advanced nuclear systems such as lead-alloy-cooled fast reactors. However, high-temperature LBE liquid is prone to corrode the reference containment material, typically made of steel, through a process known as liquid metal corrosion. In this work, an extensive set of first-principles calculations was performed to investigate the diffusion behavior of steel alloy elements and O in liquid LBE.

Nuclear safety in the unexpected second nuclear era.

Nuclear energy development has entered an unexpected second nuclear era, which is mainly driven by developing countries. Despite major efforts to pursue a safe nuclear energy system in the first nuclear era, severe nuclear accidents occurred. A basic problem is that we do not have an adequate understanding of nuclear safety.

Synergetic Effect of Substitutional Dopants and Sulfur Vacancy in Modulating the Ferromagnetism of MoS Nanosheets.

The activation and modulation of the magnetism of MoS nanosheets are critical to the development of their application in next-generation spintronics. Here, we report a synergetic strategy to induce and modulate the ferromagnetism of the originally nonmagnetic MoS nanosheets. A two-step experimental method was used to simultaneously introduce substitutional V dopants and sulfur vacancy (V) in the MoS nanosheet host, showing an air-stable and adjustable ferromagnetic response at room temperature.

Selective Separation of Pd(II) on Pyridine-Functionalized Graphene Oxide Prepared by Radiation-Induced Simultaneous Grafting Polymerization and Reduction.

The recovery of precious metals like palladium (Pd) from secondary resources has enormous economic benefits and is in favor of resource reuse. In this work, we prepared a high efficiency pyridine-functionalized reduced graphene oxide (rGO) adsorbent for selective separation of Pd(II) from simulated electronic waste leachate, by one-pot γ-ray radiation-induced simultaneous grafting polymerization (RIGP) of 4-vinylpyridine (4VP) from graphene oxide (GO) and reduction of GO. The poly(4-vinylpyridine)-grafted reduced graphene oxide (rGO--P4VP) exhibits fast adsorption kinetics and high maximum adsorption capacity.

Iodine-Rich Polymersomes Enable Versatile SPECT/CT Imaging and Potent Radioisotope Therapy for Tumor in Vivo.

Emerging tumor treatment demands high sensitivity and high-spatial resolution diagnosis in combination with targeted therapy. Here, we report that iodine-rich polymersomes (I-PS) enable versatile single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT)/computed tomography (CT) dual-modal imaging and potent radioisotope therapy for breast cancer in vivo. Interestingly, I-PS could be easily and stably labeled with radioiodine, I and I.

The design of a direct charge nuclear battery with high energy conversion efficiency.

Direct charging nuclear batteries (DCNB) have the potential of being widely used to meet the special requirements in the area of aerospace and ocean. The current application of direct charging nuclear batteries is restricted by the low energy conversion efficiency, commonly less than 10%. This low efficiency is limited mainly by issues of low source efficiency and shunt factor among others, such as collection and geometry factors.

Beating the exclusion rule against the coexistence of robust luminescence and ferromagnetism in chalcogenide monolayers.

Monolayer chalcogenide semiconductors with both luminescent and ferromagnetic properties are dreamed for simultaneous polarization and detection of the valley degree of freedom in valleytronics. However, a conventional chalcogenide monolayer lacks these coexisting properties due to their mutually exclusive origins. Herein we demonstrate that robust ferromagnetism and photoluminescence (PL) could be achieved in a (Co, Cr)-incorporated single monolayer MoS, where the ferromagnetic interaction is activated by Co ions, and the nonradiative recombination channels of excitons is cut off by Cr ions.

Metal-Organic Frameworks for Photocatalysis and Photothermal Catalysis.

To meet the ever-increasing global demand for energy, conversion of solar energy to chemical/thermal energy is very promising. Light-mediated catalysis, including photocatalysis (organic transformations, water splitting, CO reduction, etc.) and photothermal catalysis play key roles in solar to chemical/thermal energy conversion via the light-matter interaction.

Insights into potential consequences of fusion hypothetical accident, lessons learnt from the former fission accidents.

From previous catastrophic fission nuclear accidents, such as the Chernobyl and Fukushima accidents, researchers learnt the lessons that external hazard beyond design basis or human errors could result in severe accidents and multi-failure of the confinements although they were considered as very-low-probability events and not requested to be paid much attention to according to the current nuclear safety regulations. Fusion energy is always regarded as a safe and clean energy. However, massive quantity of radioactivity still exists in the fusion reactor and is possible to be released into the environment.