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The role of the axial substituent in subphthalocyanine acceptors for bulk-heterojunction solar cells
No full textInfinite spinning of several polyacetylene chains into long multiple helices
No full textThis study demonstrates a designed multi-stranded helical motif that self-spun naturally by six to eight polyacetylene (PA) chains. The spiral of one end results in the helical behavior of the whole long polymer. We show that six PA chains with length of 1017.2 Angstrom (1 nm) can self-spin continuously to form multiple helical structure. The basic strand-strand interaction, self-spun mechanism, and thermal stability during the natural helix-forming are particularly explained. The formed PA multiple helices are stable at room temperature. It is expected that these findings could stimulate enormous effects on the synthesis of helical polymers to further develop novel PA helix based functional materials and nanoscale devices
Surface modifications and deuterium retention in polycrystalline and single crystal tungsten as a function of particle flux and temperature
No full textThe effects of particle flux and exposure temperature on surface modifications and deuterium (D) retention were systematically investigated on four different tungsten (W) microstructures. As-received, recrystallized, and single crystal W samples were exposed to D plasmas at surface temperatures of 530–1170 K. Two different ranges of D ion fluxes (1022 and 1024 D+m−2s−1) were used with the ion energy of 40 eV and particle fluence of 1026 D+m−2. Increasing the particle flux by two orders of magnitude caused blister formation and D retention even at temperatures above 700 K. The main effect of increasing the particle flux on total D retention was the shifting of temperature at which the retention was maximal towards higher temperatures. Diffusion-trapping simulations were used to fit the thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS) release peaks of D, yielding one or two types of trapping sites with de-trapping energies around 2 eV
Micro-NRA and micro-3HIXE with He-3 microbeam on samples exposed in ASDEX Upgrade and Pilot-PSI machines
No full textMicro nuclear reaction analysis (micro-NRA) exploiting the nuclear reaction D(He-3,p)He-4 was used for post-mortem analyses of special marker samples, exposed to deuterium plasma inside ASDEX Upgrade (AUG) tokamak and to the deuterium plasma jet in the Pilot-PSI linear plasma gun. Lateral concentration profiles of deuterium and erosion/deposition profiles of the marker materials were obtained by a combination of micro-NRA and particle induced X-ray emission by He-3 beam (3HIXE). In the case of AUG samples, where 25 nm thick W marker layers had been deposited on unpolished and polished graphite substrates, the effect of surface roughness on local erosion and deposition was also investigated. The lateral distribution of W concentration showed that erosion is much more distinct in the case of polished samples and the resulting surface shows a "leopard" skin pattern of W accumulated on carbon aggregates left on the surface from polishing. The Pilot-PSI samples indicated preferential accumulation of deuterium a few mm off from the centre of the region affected by the plasma beam. This is connected with the largest surface modifications while the thick deposited layers at the centre do not favour deuterium retention per se. The results were cross correlated with those obtained using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). With its quantitative abilities, micro-NRA provided essential calibration data for in situ LIES operation, as well as for complementary post mortem Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy (SIMS)
ELM behavior in ASDEX Upgrade with and without nitrogen seeding
No full textThe Type I ELM behavior in ASDEX Upgrade with full W plasma facing components is studied in terms of time scales and energy losses for a large set of shots characterized by similar operational parameters but different nitrogen seeding rate and input power. ELMs with no nitrogen can have two typical behaviors, that can be classified depending on their duration, the long and the short ELMs. The work shows that both short and long ELMs have a similar first phase, but the long ELMs are characterized by a second phase with further energy losses. The second phase disappears when nitrogen is seeded with a flux rate above 10 22 (e s −1 ). The phenomenon is compatible with a threshold effect. The presence of the second phase is related to a high divertor/scrape-off layer (SOL) temperature and/or to a low pedestal temperature. The ELM energy losses of the two phases are regulated by different mechanisms. The energy losses of the first phase increase with nitrogen which, in turn, produce the increase of the pedestal temperature. So the energy losses of the first phase are regulated by the pedestal top parameters and the increase with nitrogen is due to the decreasing pedestal collisionality. The energy losses of the second phase are related to the divertor/SOL conditions. The long ELMs energy losses increase with increasing divertor temperature and with the number of the expelled filaments. In terms of the power lost by the plasma, the nitrogen seeding increases the power losses of the short ELMs. The long ELMs have a first phase with power losses comparable to the short ELMs losses. Assuming no major difference in the wetted area, these results suggest that (i) the nitrogen might increase the divertor heat fluxes during the short ELMs and that (ii) the long ELMs, despite the longer time scale, are not beneficial in terms of divertor heat loads.</p
Results from recent detachment experiments in alternative divertor configurations on TCV
No full textDivertor detachment is explored on the TCV tokamak in alternative magnetic geometries. Starting from typical TCV single-null shapes, the poloidal flux expansion at the outer strikepoint is varied by a factor of 10 to investigate the X-divertor characteristics, and the total flux expansion is varied by 70% to study the properties of the super-X divertor. The effect of an additional X-point near the target is investigated in X-point target divertors. Detachment of the outer target is studied in these plasmas during Ohmic density ramps and with the ion {} B drift away from the primary X-point. The detachment threshold, depth of detachment, and the stability of the radiation location are investigated using target measurements from the wall-embedded Langmuir probes and two-dimensional CIII line emissivity profiles across the divertor region, obtained from inverted, toroidally-integrated camera data. It is found that increasing poloidal flux expansion results in a deeper detachment for a given line-averaged density and a reduction in the radiation location sensitivity to core density, while no large effect on the detachment threshold is observed. The total flux expansion, contrary to expectations, does not show a significant influence on any detachment characteristics in these experiments. In X-point target geometries, no evidence is found for a reduced detachment threshold despite a 2–3 fold increase in connection length. A reduced radiation location sensitivity to core plasma density in the vicinity of the target X-point is suggested by the measurements
Comparison between measured and predicted turbulence frequency spectra in ITG and TEM regimes
Get PDFThe observation of distinct peaks in tokamak core reflectometry measurements—named quasi-coherent-modes (QCMs)—are identified as a signature of trapped-electron-mode (TEM) turbulence (Arnichand et al 2016 Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 58 014037). This phenomenon is investigated with detailed linear and nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations using the Gene code. A Tore-Supra density scan is studied, which traverses through a linear (LOC) to saturated (SOC) ohmic confinement transition. The LOC and SOC phases are both simulated separately. In the LOC phase, where QCMs are observed, TEMs are robustly predicted unstable in linear studies. In the later SOC phase, where QCMs are no longer observed, ion-temperature-gradient (ITG) modes are identified. In nonlinear simulations, in the ITG (SOC) phase, a broadband spectrum is seen. In the TEM (LOC) phase, a clear emergence of a peak at the TEM frequencies is seen. This is due to reduced nonlinear frequency broadening of the underlying linear modes in the TEM regime compared with the ITG regime. A synthetic diagnostic of the nonlinearly simulated frequency spectra reproduces the features observed in the reflectometry measurements. These results support the identification of core QCMs as an experimental marker for TEM turbulence.</p
Technical note on the linearity and power dependence of the diffusion coefficient in W7-AS
Get PDFTransient electron temperature measurements of a step power experiment at W7-AS are reassessed by direct comparison of the up- and downward responses of the electron temperature. The analysis shows that the response at some distance to the center behaves linearly and the model predicted responses based on a power-dependent diffusion coefficient that vary from the measured step responses.</p
Haptic assistance for teleoperated maintenance of fusion plants : task analysis, design and evaluation
No full textHydrogen from electrochemical reforming of C1–C3 alcohols using proton conducting membranes
Get PDFThis study investigates the production of hydrogen from the electrochemical reforming of short-chain alcohols (methanol, ethanol, iso-propanol) and their mixtures. High surface gas diffusion Pt/C electrodes were interfaced to a Nafion polymeric membrane. The assembly separated the two chambers of an electrochemical reactor, which were filled with anolyte (alcohol + H2O or alcohol + H2SO4) and catholyte (H2SO4) aqueous solutions. The half-reactions, which take place upon polarization, are the alcohol electrooxidation and the hydrogen evolution reaction at the anode and cathode, respectively. A standard Ag/AgCl reference electrode was introduced for monitoring the individual anodic and cathodic overpotentials. Our results show that roughly 75% of the total potential losses are due to sluggish kinetics of the alcohol electrooxidation reaction. Anodic overpotential becomes larger as the number of C-atoms in the alcohol increases, while a slight dependence on the pH was observed upon changing the acidity of the anolyte solution. In the case of alcohol mixtures, it is the largest alcohol that dictates the overall cell performance. © 2017 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC</p