Improved immobilization of Re(VII) from aqueous solutions bimetallic Ni/Fe nanoparticles; Implications towards Tc(VII) removal

Maamoun, I.; Tokunaga, Kohei; Dohi, Terumi; Kanno, Futoshi*; Falyouna, O.*; Eljamal, O.*; Tanaka, Kazuya

Frontiers in Nuclear Engineering (Internet), 2, p.1142823_1 - 1142823_17, 2023/03

https://doi.org/10.3389/fnuen.2023.1142823

Recently, the rapid development of nuclear power technologies and the continuous energy demand around the world exhibited massive amounts of contaminated water with radionuclides. Technetium-99 (Tc) is one of the long-lived radionuclides with a highly mobile anionic form (Tc(VII)) in aqueous solutions. Hence, the rapid and efficient Tc(VII) removal from radioactive water has emerged as a challenging issue. In this work, bimetallic nickel/iron nanoparticles (Ni/Fe) were prepared to enhance the immobilization of rhenium (Re(VII)) from aqueous solutions, as the surrogate of Tc(VII).

An Answer after 50 Years

Tokunaga, Yo

JPSJ News and Comments (Internet), 19, p.20_1 - 20_2, 2022/12

https://doi.org/10.7566/JPSJNC.19.20

Single crystal growth of superconducting UTe by molten salt flux method

Sakai, Hironori; Opletal, P.; Tokiwa, Yoshifumi; Yamamoto, Etsuji; Tokunaga, Yo; Kambe, Shinsaku; Haga, Yoshinori

Physical Review Materials (Internet), 6(7), p.073401_1 - 073401_10, 2022/07

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.6.073401

The molten salt flux method is applied as a new synthetic route for the single crystals of the spin-triplet superconductor UTe. The single crystals under an optimized growth condition with excess uranium exhibit a superconducting transition at K, which is the highest reported for this compound. The obtained crystals show a remarkably large residual resistivity ratio with respect to the room temperature value and a small residual electronic contribution in specific heat well below . These results indicate that the increase of in UTe can be achieved by reducing the disorder associated with uranium vacancies. The excess uranium in the molten salt acts as a reducing agent, preventing tetravalent uranium from becoming pentavalent and suppressing creation of uranium vacancies. At the same time, the relatively low growth temperature can suppress Te volatilization.

Urea-introduced ionic liquid for the effective extraction of Pt(IV) and Pd(II) ions

Ueda, Yuki; Eguchi, Ayano; Tokunaga, Kohei; Kikuchi, Kei*; Sugita, Tsuyoshi; Okamura, Hiroyuki; Naganawa, Hirochika

Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 61(19), p.6640 - 6649, 2022/05

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.iecr.2c00304

no abstracts in English

Multipole polaron in the devil's staircase of CeSb

Arai, Yosuke*; Kuroda, Kenta*; Nomoto, Takuya*; Tin, Z. H.*; Sakuragi, Shunsuke*; Bareille, C.*; Akebi, Shuntaro*; Kurokawa, Kifu*; Kinoshita, Yuto*; Zhang, W.-L.*; et al.

Nature Materials, 21(4), p.410 - 415, 2022/04

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-021-01188-9

Slow electronic dynamics in the paramagnetic state of UTe

Tokunaga, Yo; Sakai, Hironori; Kambe, Shinsaku; Haga, Yoshinori; Tokiwa, Yoshifumi; Opletal, P.; Fujibayashi, Hiroyuki*; Kinjo, Katsuki*; Kitagawa, Shunsaku*; Ishida, Kenji*; et al.

Journal of the Physical Society of Japan, 91(2), p.023707_1 - 023707_5, 2022/02

https://doi.org/10.7566/JPSJ.91.023707

Te NMR experiments in field () applied along the easy magnetization axis (the -axis) revealed slow electronic dynamics developing in the paramagnetic state of UTe. The observed slow fluctuations are concerned with a successive growth of long-range electronic correlations below 3040 K, where the spin susceptibility along the hard magnetization axis (the -axis) shows a broad maximum. The experiments also imply that tiny amounts of disorder or defects locally disturb the long-range electronic correlations and develop an inhomogeneous electronic state at low temperatures, leading to a low temperature upturn observed in the bulk-susceptibility in . We suggest that UTe would be located on the paramagnetic side near an electronic phase boundary, where either the magnetic or Fermi-surface instability would be the origin of the characteristic fluctuations.

Nanoscale heterogeneity induced by nonmagnetic Zn dopants in the quantum critical metal CeCoIn; In NQR/NMR and Co NMR study

Sakai, Hironori; Tokunaga, Yo; Kambe, Shinsaku; Zhu, J.-X.*; Ronning, F.*; Thompson, J. D.*; Ramakrishna, S. K.*; Reyes, A. P.*; Suzuki, Kohei*; Oshima, Yoshiki*; et al.

Physical Review B, 104(8), p.085106_1 - 085106_12, 2021/08

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.104.085106

Antiferromagnetism in a prototypical quantum critical metal CeCoIn is known to be induced by slight substitutions of non-magnetic Zn atoms for In. In nominally 7% Zn substituted CeCoIn, an antiferromagnetic (AFM) state coexists with heavy fermion superconductivity. Heterogeneity of the electronic states is investigated in Zn doped CeCoIn by means of nuclear quadrupole and magnetic resonances (NQR and NMR). Site-dependent NQR relaxation rates indicate that the AFM state is locally nucleated around Zn substituents in the matrix of a heavy fermion state, and percolates through the bulk at the AFM transition temperature . At lower temperatures, an anisotropic superconducting (SC) gap below the SC transition temperature , and the SC state permeates through the AFM regions via a SC proximity effect. Applying an external magnetic field induces a spin-flop transition near 5 T, reducing the volume of the AFM regions. Consequently, a short ranged inhomogeneous AFM state survives and coexists with a paramagnetic Fermi liquid state at high fields.

Critical slowing-down and field-dependent paramagnetic fluctuations in the skyrmion host EuPtSi; SR and NMR studies

Higa, Nonoka*; Ito, Takashi; Yogi, Mamoru*; Hattori, Taisuke; Sakai, Hironori; Kambe, Shinsaku; Guguchia, Z.*; Higemoto, Wataru; Nakashima, Miho*; Homma, Yoshiya*; et al.

Physical Review B, 104(4), p.045145_1 - 045145_7, 2021/07

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.104.045145

Effective removal of iodate by coprecipitation with barite; Behavior and mechanism

Tokunaga, Kohei; Takahashi, Yoshio*; Tanaka, Kazuya; Kozai, Naofumi

Chemosphere, 266, p.129104_1 - 129104_10, 2021/03

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.129104

Radioactive iodine (I) is of great concern owing to its high mobility in the environment and long-term radiotoxicity, but there is a lack of effective techniques for removing iodate (IO) from aqueous solution. The aim of this study is to develop a new technique for removing radioactive iodate from contaminated solution by using barite (BaSO). In the present study, we examined the coprecipitation mechanism of iodate by barite at the molecular level for determining optimum conditions for iodate removal. The results showed that iodate was effectively removed from aqueous solution by coprecipitation, even in the presence of competitive anions in solution. Comparing our method with previous studies, iodate removal efficiency by barite was determined to be about two orders of magnitude greater than that by hydrotalcite-like layered double hydroxide at Cl concentration of 10 mmol L. Extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) analysis indicated that incorporated iodate was strongly bound in the crystal lattice of barite by substituting the sulfate site in the structure when the iodine concentration was low. The charge compensation problem from the IO substitution in SO site is achieved by the substitution of Na-IO pairs at the nearest Ba site. Therefore, considering high removal efficiency and strong binding of iodate in barite, coprecipitation with barite is a promising material for removing radioactive iodate from various aqueous solutions contaminated with iodate.

Universal scaling behavior under pressure in the heavy-fermion antiferromagnet CeRhSi; Si NMR study

Sakai, Hironori; Matsumoto, Yuji*; Haga, Yoshinori; Tokunaga, Yo; Kambe, Shinsaku

Physical Review B, 103(8), p.085114_1 - 085114_8, 2021/02

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.103.085114

The microscopic origin of a magnetic phase diagram under pressure in a heavy fermion antiferromagnet CeRhSi was investigated using the Si nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technique. We investigated the temperature and pressure dependencies of -independent local fluctuations caused by the single-site Kondo effect. A universal scaling behavior observed on the energy scale of the local fluctuations in an entire pressure region demonstrates that a characteristic energy scale of Kondo interactions monotonically increases by applying pressure without a critical anomaly around the quantum critical pressure of antiferromagnetism. Our NMR result agrees with the Doniach picture of the heavy-fermion phase diagram, where the progressive delocalization of the -electrons occurs across , accompanied by the development of antiferromagnetic correlations among the -electrons.