This paper reviews sulfur-induced passivity degradation of nuclear materials with emphasis on steam generator(SG)alloys. The state of arts on this topic concerning thermodynamic calculation and experimental data has been reviewed. Thermodynamic calculation results indicate that the distribution of sulfur species strongly depends on pH and temperature. Experimental data show that solution pH, temperature and solution chemistries can significantly affect the electrochemical behaviors of SG materials and the underlying degradation mechanisms. Some issues when conducting corrosion tests at high temperature should be paid attention to, such as the dissolution of the autoclave, which may affect the facticity of the experimental results.

Water is the most abundant compound inherently existing in bio-oils. Thus understanding the role of water within bio-oils upgrading process is essential for future engineering scale-up design. In this study, furfural was chosen as bio-oils model compound, and the catalytic hydrogenation of furfural over commercial 5%, Ru/C catalyst was firstly investigated in a series of gradient variable water/ethanol mixture solvents. Water had a significant effect on the distribution of product yields. The dominant reaction pathways varied with the water contents in the water/ethanol mixture solvents. Typically, when ethanol was used as the solvent, the main products were obtained by the hydrogenation of carbonyl group or furan ring. When pure water was used as the solvent, the rearrangement reaction of furfural to cyclopentanone should be selectively promoted theoretically. However, serious polymerization and resinification were observed herein in catalytic hydrogenation system of pure water. The catalyst surface was modified by the water-insoluble polymers, and consequently, a relative low yield of cyclopentanone was obtained. A plausible multiple competitive reaction mechanism between polymerization reaction and the hydrogenation of furfural was suggested in this study. Characterizations(TG,FT-IR,SEM)were employed to analyze and explain our experiments.

An efficient visible-light-responsive BiOBr/TiO₂ heterojunction nanocomposite was fabricated successfully using in-situ depositing technique at room temperature by introducing BiOBr onto the surface of TiO₂ nanobelts pre-prepared by hydrothermal reaction and etched with H₂SO₄. The obtained particles were characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, XPS, UV-Vis DRS and PL techniques. BiOBr/TiO₂ heterojunction nanocomposites with different mass ratios of m(BiOBr)/m(TiO₂) were discussed in order to get the best photocatalytic activity, and BiOBr/TiO₂-1.0 was proved to be the optimal mass ratio. BiOBr/TiO₂-1.0 exhibited excellent photocatalytic activity in the degradation of RhB compared with TiO₂ nanobelts, pure BiOBr and the mechanical mixture of TiO₂ nanobelts and BiOBr. At last, a possible mechanism of photocatalytic enhancement was proposed.

Effects of water-soluble co-solvents(WSCs)on the properties of water/oil Pickering emulsions were investigated. Pickering emulsions were prepared in the system of 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene(TMB)/ hydrophobic silica/ water with varied concentrations of WSCs(ethanol, acetic acid and glycerin). Mean droplet diameter distributions of the obtained emulsions were studied to investigate the effects of WSCs types and concentrations. The results demonstrated that mean droplet diameter distributions decreased at first and then increased with the increase of WSC concentration. Moreover, the effect of WSC concentration on the phase inversion locus was further investigated. At the same time, infrared radiation(IR)spectrometer was used to investigate the mechanism. The results showed that the WSC attaching on hydrophobic silica changed the wettability of the particles, which facilitated the formation and phase inversion of the emulsion. The hydrogen bonds between the co-solvent groups attaching on the solid particles made a great effect on the droplet size of the emulsion and strengthened the interaction among emulsifiers. Overall, proper WSC was in favor of the stability of Pickering emulsion.

Based on the momentum conservation approach, a theoretical model was developed to predict the superficial liquid velocity, and a correlation equation was established to calculate the gas holdup of an annular external- loop airlift reactor(AELAR)in the bubble flow and developing slug flow pattern. Experiments were performed by using tap-water and silicone oil with the viscosity of 2.0 mm²/s(2cs-SiO)and 5.0 mm²/s(5cs-SiO)as liquid phases. The effects of liquid viscosity and flow pattern on the AELAR performance were investigated. The predictions of the proposed model were in good agreement with the experimental results of the AELAR. In addition, the comparison of the experimental results shows that the proposed model has good accuracy and could be used to predict the gas holdup and liquid velocity of an AELAR operating in bubble and developing flow pattern.

In recent years, organic-inorganic hybrid nanocarriers are explored for effective drug delivery and preferable disease treatments. In this study, using 5-fluorouracil(5-FU)as electronegative model drug, a new type of organic-inorganic hybrid drug delivery system(LDH/HA-PEG/5-FU)was conceived and manufactured by the adsorption of PEGylated hyaluronic acid(HA-PEG)on the surface of layered double hydroxide(LDH, prepared via hydrothermal method)and the intercalation of 5-FU in the interlamination of LDH via ion exchange strategy. The drug loading amount of LDH/HA-PEG/5-FU achieved as high as 34.2%. LDH, LDH/5-FU and LDH/HA-PEG/5- FU were characterized by FT-IR, XRD, TGA, laser particle size analyzer and SEM. With the benefit of pHdegradable feature of LDH and enzyme-degradable feature of HA, LDH/HA-PEG/5-FU showed pH-degradable and enzyme-degradable capacity in in vitro drug release. Moreover, the drug carrier LDH/HA-PEG contained biocompatible PEG and tumor-targeted HA, resulting in lower cytotoxicity and better endocytosis compared with LDH in vitro. It was suggested that the organic-inorganic hybrid drug delivery system, which was endowed with the properties of controlled release, low toxicity and tumor-targeting delivery for ameliorative cancer therapy, was advisable and might be applied further to fulfill other treatments.

A Pr-doped TiO₂-NTs/SnO₂-Sb electrode was prepared by a simple method, cyclic voltammetry(CV). The methyl orange(MO)aqueous solution was selected as a simulated wastewater. The ordered microstructural TiO₂-NTs substrate was synthesized by an electrochemical method to obtain large specific surface area and high space utilization. The phase structure, electrode surface morphology and electrochemical properties of electrodes were characterized by XRD, SEM and electrochemical technology, respectively. The results showed that praseodymium oxide was successfully doped into the SnO₂-Sb film by CV method. Due to the doped Pr, the oxygen evolution potential increased from 2.25 V to 2.40 V. The degradation of MO was investigated by UV-vis. The C _t /C ₀(φ) was studied as a function to obtain the optimal parameters, such as the amount of doped Pr, current density and initial dye concentration. In addition, the degradation process followed pseudo-first-order reaction kinetics and the rate constant was 0.099 3 min^-1. The result indicated that the introduction of Pr reduced the formation of oxygen vacancies or enhanced the formation of adsorbed hydroxyl radical groups on the surface, thus leading to better activity and stability.

Mesoporous titanium silicalite-1(TS-1)was hydrothermally synthesized with the addition of triethanolamine( TEA)in the conventional process, and used in the cyclohexanone ammoximation in a continuous slurry reactor. The as-prepared TS-1 was characterized with X-ray diffraction(XRD), scanning electron microcopy( SEM), N₂ adsorption-desorption, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR)spectroscopy, UV-Visible(UV-Vis) diffuse reflectance spectra and UV Raman spectroscopy. The results indicated that the addition of TEA resulted in the formation of mesopores and the slight increase of framework titanium in TS-1. TS-1 synthesized with the addition of TEA exhibited a higher stability in the cyclohexanone ammoximation than that without the addition of TEA, attributing to the increase of mesopore volumes and the slight increase of the framework titanium in TS-1. However, when the addition of TEA was up to TEA/SiO₂ ratio of 0.24, the crystallinity and framework titanium of TS-1 decreased markedly, and the average crystal sizes of TS-1 increased, with the catalyst stability becoming poor.

The properties of two types of fly ash geopolymers made from class F fly ashes produced in wet bottom and dry bottom boilers were investigated in the present study. The source material used in the geopolymer concrete was activated with sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate solution. The results revealed that the geopolymer produced with wet bottom boiler fly ash(CZ-FA)hardened quickly, and had higher early-age strength and lower shrinkage than the geopolymer produced with dry bottom boiler fly ash(SX-FA). The compressive strength of the two geopolymers made from CZ-FA and SX-FA was 45 MPa and 15 MPa respectively when cured at 60 °C and delayed for 14 d. However, after 90 days’ delay, the compressive strength of both the samples is almost the same, up to 80 MPa. Nearly 20% volume shrinkage of the samples made from SX-FA was much higher than that made from CZ-FA, which was almost zero. XRD, SEM/EDS and FT-IR were used to analyze the main reason of the differences.

The soil-water retention curve(SWRC)can be used to evaluate the ability of unsaturated soils to attract water at various water contents and suctions. In this study, drying SWRCs for a kind of sandy soil were obtained in the laboratory by using self-modified SWRC apparatus. In addition, the porosity and the pore size distribution of the samples were investigated by a mercury porosimetry test in order to analyze the effect of dry density. Results showed that the soil-water retention of the soil specimens was strongly dependent on the dry density. Under zero suction, soil specimens with a higher dry density exhibited lower initial volumetric water content. The higher the dry density of soil, the more slowly the volumetric water content decreased with the increase of suction. There was a general and consistent trend for a soil specimen to possess a larger air-entry value and residual suction, while smaller slope of SWRC when it had a higher density. This was probably attributed to the presence of smaller interconnected pores in the soil specimen with a higher dry density. The proportion of large diameter pores decreased in comparison to pores with small diameters in the soil tested. The measured total pore volume of the soil specimen, which had a larger dry density, was lower than that of the relatively loose specimens.

The solubilities of 2-naphthalenesulfonic acid monohydrate and sodium 2-naphthalenesulfonate in sulfuric acid solutions were measured at temperatures ranging from 278.15 to 338.15 K by using a dynamic method. The concentration of sulfuric acid solution ranged from 0 to 80wt%,. The solubilities of 2-naphthalenesulfonic acid monohydrate and sodium 2-naphthalenesulfonate increased with temperature, and both of them were the lowest at 70wt%, of sulfuric acid solution(w ₃ ⁰ =0.70)while the highest in pure water. The solubility data were correlated by the modified Apelblat equation. Based on the solubility difference between 2-naphthalenesulfonic acid monohydrate and sodium 2-naphthalenesulfonate, a new technique in which sodium sulfate was used to replace sodium sulfite in the neutralization reaction was developed. The suitable mole ratio of H₂O to Na₂SO₄ in the neutralization reaction was 80:1, and that of 2-naphthalenesulfonic acid monohydrate to Na₂SO₄ was 3.2:1. The material balance under the suitable mole ratios was given and discussed.

Self-made enriched ¹⁰B boric acid as raw material was purified by recrystallization. The effects of final crystallization temperature, crystallization time, stirring speed, crystallization frequency and other factors on the purity were investigated. The appropriate operating condition was that the final crystallization temperature and time were 5°C and 10 h respectively under a low-speed stirring for crystallizing twice, which would make the purity and yield of boric acid reach 99.94% and 95.36%, respectively. Taking this as foundation, recrystallization process was optimized with acetone as anti-solvent, whose amount was the most important index. The boric acid solution was added into acetone and recrystallized under the same condition, and the purity and yield of boric acid would reach 99.98% and 99.61%, respectively. The product detected by XRD was confirmed as boric acid crystal. Main ion concentration in the product was detected by ICP, which basically met the national standard of high purity. Crystal morphology of boric acid was observed by SEM.