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Copper melting behavior at extreme temperatures could inform fusion materials
Using SLAC’s electron camera, researchers recorded timestamps of solid copper atoms (orange) as they melted (yellow) after being blasted with laser heat. This graphic shows how copper atoms changed over a period of several femtoseconds (millionths of a billionth of a second), notated here as fractions of a picosecond. Instead of the predicted collapse, the researchers saw a gradual melting. (Image: Greg Stewart/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
The SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory has announced researchers have conducted experiments testing how copper melts under extreme conditions, such as those it might be exposed to in a fusion machine. The results, published in Nature Communications, found that a copper thin film was more resilient to melting than models had predicted, uncovering molecular dynamics that had been missing from calculations.
“These results greatly improve the simulations we use to predict which materials have the best shot at surviving the extreme conditions of future fusion reaction chambers,” said Mianzhen Mo, the SLAC staff scientist who led the research.
You-Jin Jung, Jaesik Hwang, Jei-Won Yeon, Bong Hyun Boo, Kyuseok Song
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 172 | Number 2 | October 2012 | Pages 202-207
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE11-98
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The dispersion properties of boron carbide (B4C) microparticles in aqueous media were investigated by measuring the particle size distribution, the dispersibility, and the zeta potential as these properties relate to their application as neutron absorbers in fuel-storage pool water. The B4C powder is composed of particles with a narrow size distribution, with a d50 (mean diameter) of 0.65 m. The amount of B4C particles dispersed decreased exponentially with increasing dispersion time. The dispersibility of B4C particles increased with an increase in the loading of B4C particles and reached a maximum value at 12.91 wt%. The zeta potential of the B4C suspension was measured as a function of pH and temperature. The B4C suspension has a negative zeta potential value in the pH range between 2 and 12. The dispersion of B4C particles was not greatly influenced by the addition of boric acid (H3BO3). The absolute value of the zeta potential decreased with increasing temperature.
