Nanometer-thick crystalline ice plates in rapidly-frozen glucose solution observed by spin-contrast-variation small-angle neutron scattering

Kumada, Takayuki; Nakagawa, Hiroshi; Miura, Daisuke; Sekine, Yurina; Motokawa, Ryuhei; Hiroi, Kosuke; Inamura, Yasuhiro; Oku, Takayuki; Oishi, Kazuki*; Morikawa, Toshiaki*; et al.

Hamon, 34(2), p.50 - 53, 2024/05

Spin-contrast-variation (SCV) small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) enabled us to determine structure of nano-ice crystals that were generated in rapidly frozen sugar solution. In the frozen glucose solution, we found that the nano-ice crystals formed a planar structure with a radius larger than several tens of nanometers and a thickness of 2-3 nm, which was close to the critical nucleation size of ice crystals in supercooled water. This result suggests that the glucose molecules were preferentially bound to a specific face of nano-ice crystals, and then blocked the crystal growth perpendicular to that face.

Upgrade of the small-angle neutron scattering diffractometer SANS-J at JRR-3

Kumada, Takayuki; Motokawa, Ryuhei; Oba, Yojiro; Nakagawa, Hiroshi; Sekine, Yurina; Micheau, C.; Ueda, Yuki; Sugita, Tsuyoshi; Birumachi, Atsushi; Sasaki, Miki; et al.

Journal of Applied Crystallography, 56(6), p.1776 - 1783, 2023/12

https://doi.org/10.1107/S1600576723009731

The combination of the existing position-sensitive photomultiplier and the He main detector with focusing devices, and the newly installed front detectors in SANS-J at JRR-3 covers small-angle neutron scattering signals in the range of the magnitude of the scattering vector Q from 0.002 to 6 nm-1 gaplessly with three standard device layouts. The installation of the front detector and a graphical user interface system largely improved the usability of SANS-J.

Polarized neutrons observed nanometer-thick crystalline ice plates in frozen glucose solution

Kumada, Takayuki; Nakagawa, Hiroshi; Miura, Daisuke; Sekine, Yurina; Motokawa, Ryuhei; Hiroi, Kosuke; Inamura, Yasuhiro; Oku, Takayuki; Oishi, Kazuki*; Morikawa, Toshiaki*; et al.

Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters (Internet), 14(34), p.7638 - 7643, 2023/08

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.3c01448

The structure of nano-ice crystals in rapidly frozen glucose solution was elucidated by using spin-contrast-variation small-angle neutron scattering, which distinguishes the nano-ice crystal signal from the frozen amorphous solution signal by the polarization-dependent neutron scattering. The analysis revealed that the nano-ice crystals form a planar structure with a diameter exceeding tens of nanometers and a thickness of 1 nm, which is close to the critical nucleation size. This result suggests that the glucose molecules are preferentially bound to a specific face of nano-ice crystals, and then block the crystal growth perpendicular to that face.

Development of spin-contrast-variation neutron powder diffractometry for extracting the structure factor of hydrogen atoms

Miura, Daisuke*; Kumada, Takayuki; Sekine, Yurina; Motokawa, Ryuhei; Nakagawa, Hiroshi; Oba, Yojiro; Ohara, Takashi; Takata, Shinichi; Hiroi, Kosuke; Morikawa, Toshiaki*; et al.

Journal of Applied Crystallography, 54(2), p.454 - 460, 2021/04

AA2020-0724.pdf:2.05MB

https://doi.org/10.1107/S1600576721000303

We developed a spin-contrast-variation neutron powder diffractometry technique that extracts the structure factor of hydrogen atoms, namely, the contribution of hydrogen atoms to a crystal structure factor. Crystals of L-glutamic acid were dispersed in a dpolystyrene matrix containing 4-methacryloyloxy-2,2,6,6,-tetramethyl-1-piperidinyloxy (TEMPO methacrylate) to polarize their proton spins dynamically. The intensities of the diffraction peaks of the sample changed according to the proton polarization, and the structure factor of the hydrogen atoms was extracted from the proton-polarization dependent intensities. This technique is expected to enable analyses of the structures of hydrogen-containing materials that are difficult to determine with conventional powder diffractometry.

Thermally altered subsurface material of asteroid (162173) Ryugu

Kitazato, Kohei*; Milliken, R. E.*; Iwata, Takahiro*; Abe, Masanao*; Otake, Makiko*; Matsuura, Shuji*; Takagi, Yasuhiko*; Nakamura, Tomoki*; Hiroi, Takahiro*; Matsuoka, Moe*; et al.

Nature Astronomy (Internet), 5(3), p.246 - 250, 2021/03

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-020-01271-2

Here we report observations of Ryugu's subsurface material by the Near-Infrared Spectrometer (NIRS3) on the Hayabusa2 spacecraft. Reflectance spectra of excavated material exhibit a hydroxyl (OH) absorption feature that is slightly stronger and peak-shifted compared with that observed for the surface, indicating that space weathering and/or radiative heating have caused subtle spectral changes in the uppermost surface. However, the strength and shape of the OH feature still suggests that the subsurface material experienced heating above 300 C, similar to the surface. In contrast, thermophysical modeling indicates that radiative heating does not increase the temperature above 200 C at the estimated excavation depth of 1 m, even if the semimajor axis is reduced to 0.344 au. This supports the hypothesis that primary thermal alteration occurred due to radiogenic and/or impact heating on Ryugu's parent body.

Development and application of a He neutron spin filter at J-PARC

Okudaira, Takuya; Oku, Takayuki; Ino, Takashi*; Hayashida, Hirotoshi*; Kira, Hiroshi*; Sakai, Kenji; Hiroi, Kosuke; Takahashi, Shingo*; Aizawa, Kazuya; Endo, Hitoshi*; et al.

Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A, 977, p.164301_1 - 164301_8, 2020/10

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2020.164301

The Energy-resolved neutron imaging system, RADEN

Shinohara, Takenao; Kai, Tetsuya; Oikawa, Kenichi; Nakatani, Takeshi; Segawa, Mariko; Hiroi, Kosuke; Su, Y. H.; Oi, Motoki; Harada, Masahide; Iikura, Hiroshi; et al.

Review of Scientific Instruments, 91(4), p.043302_1 - 043302_20, 2020/04

AA2019-0737.pdf:18.65MB

https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5136034

Development status of the NMR system for the polarized He Neutron Spin Filter (NSF) in the MLF at J-PARC

Sakai, Kenji; Oku, Takayuki; Hayashida, Hirotoshi*; Kira, Hiroshi*; Hiroi, Kosuke; Ino, Takashi*; Oyama, Kenji*; Okawara, Manabu*; Kakurai, Kazuhisa; Shinohara, Takenao; et al.

JPS Conference Proceedings (Internet), 8, p.036015_1 - 036015_6, 2015/09

https://doi.org/10.7566/JPSCP.8.036015

The polarized He filter, which polarizes neutrons due to a large neutron absorption cross section of He with strong spin selectivity, becomes a convenient neutron spin filter (NSF) because it is operated immediately after its installation in beam lines without any neutron beam adjustments. For realizing such the NSF, a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) system is indispensable for monitoring He nuclear spin polarization of the NSF. We have developed the flexible NMR system based on adiabatic fast passage (AFP) and pulse NMR methods by using their complementary features. In comparing with the values of obtained by neutron transmission measurement at the beam line 10 of the J-PARC, we measured the correlations between the AFP and pulse NMR signals as changing condition of temperature, amplitude and applying period of the radio frequency field for the pulse NMR, and so on. As the results, we confirmed that our system would function enough as the monitor.

Test results of Run-1 and Run-2 in Steam Generator Safety Test Facility (SWAT-3)

Kurihara, Akikazu; Yatabe, Toshio; Hiroi, Hiroshi; Tanabe, Hiromi

JNC TN9400 2003-060, 236 Pages, 2003/07

JNC-TN9400-2003-060.pdf:7.91MB

Large leak sodium-water reaction tests were carried out using SWAT-1 rig and SWAT-3 facility in Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corporation (PNC) O-arai Engineering Center to obtain the data on the design of the prototype LMFBR Monju steam generator against a large leak accident.This report provides the results of SWAT-3 Runs 1 and 2.In Runs 1 and 2, the heat transfer tube bundle of the evaporator, fabricated by TOSHIBA/IHI, were used, and the pressure relief line was located at the top of evaporator.The water injection rates in the evaporator were 6.7kg/s and 14.2 (initial) - 9.7kg/s in Runs 1 and 2 respectively, which corresponded to 3.3 tubes and 7.1 (initial) - 4.8 tubes failure in actual size system according to iso-velocity modeling.Approximately two hundreds of measurement points were provided to collect data such as pressure,Temperature, strain,sodium level, void, thrust load, acceleration, displacement, flow rate, and so on in each run.Initial spike pressures were 1.13MPa and 2.62MPa nearest to injection point in Runs 1 and 2 respectively, and the maximum quasi-steady pressures in evaporator were 0.49MPa and 0.67MPa in Runs 1 and 2. No secondary tube failure was observed. The rupture disc of evaporator (RD601) burst at 1.1s in Run-1 and at 0.7s in Run-2 after water injected, and the pressure relief system was well-functioned though a few items for improvement were found.

Development of detailed sodium fire analysis code SOLFAS; Investigation of code characteristics by parametric calculation

; Morii, Tadashi*; Hiroi, Hiroshi*; Himeno, Yoshiaki

PNC TN9410 88-104, 110 Pages, 1988/08

PNC-TN9410-88-104.pdf:5.07MB

[objectives] The detailed sodium fire analysis code, SOLFAS (Sodium Leak Fire and Aerosol Analysis Code System), is under development to make more accurate calculation for heat/mass transfer during a sodium fire. Objective of the present study is to investigate basic characteristics of version-0.1 of the code in regard to the solution scheme and the numerical algorithm. [Methods] Parametric calculations of single-phase one-component laminar natural convection heat transfer on a horizontal plane were conducted to investigate the dependence of some parameters on the calculated results as well as the CPU-time. [Results] Present study revealed that distribution of the calculational cells plays an important role to obtain results with high accuracy. The CPU-time strongly depended upon such parameters as time step, convergence condition, relaxation factors, over-relaxation factor, and so on. By selecting appropriate values for these parameters, reasonable results were obtained in the wide laminar flow region.