Matthew R. Dirmyer

Evidence of a Kinetic Isotope Effect in Nanoaluminum and Water Combustion

The normally innocuous combination of aluminum and water becomes violently reactive on the nanoscale. Research in the field of the combustion of nanoparticulate aluminum has important implications in the design of molecular aluminum clusters, hydrogen storage systems, as well as energetic formulations which could use extraterrestrial water for space propulsion. However, the mechanism that controls the reaction speed is poorly understood. While current models for micron-sized aluminum water combustion reactions place heavy emphasis on diffusional limitations, as reaction scales become commensurate with diffusion lengths (approaching the nanoscale) reaction rates have long been suspected to depend on chemical kinetics, but have never been definitely measured. The combustion analysis of nanoparticulate aluminum with H2O or D2O is presented. Different reaction rates resulting from the kinetic isotope effect are observed. The current study presents the first-ever observed kinetic isotope effect in a metal combustion reaction and verifies that chemical reaction kinetics play a major role in determining the global burning rate.

Limiting spectroscopic interferences of 239Pu and 237Np in a UO2 matrix using LA-ICP-MS

The objective of this study was to evaluate the spectral overlap for actinides and directly measure plutonium in uranium oxide and neptunium in uranium oxide matrix without an internal standard using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). The system successfully measured 239Pu and 237Np with linear correlation coefficients (>0.99), relative standard deviations, limits of detections (0.026 and 0.111xa0wt% respectively) and percent biases reported. Each sample set was measured and analyzed within an hour which suggests a more rapid analytical technique than current methods used in nuclear safeguards to quantify plutonium and neptunium in a uranium matrix.

Synthesis and characterization of surrogate nuclear explosion debris: urban glass matrix

Surrogate nuclear explosive debris was synthesized and characterized for major, minor, and trace elemental composition as well as uranium isotopics. The samples consisted of an urban glass matrix, equal masses soda lime and cement, doped with 500xa0ppm uranium with varying enrichments. The surface and cross section morphology were measured with SEM, and the major elemental composition was determined by XPS. LA-ICP-MS was used to measure the uranium isotopic abundance comparing different sampling techniques. The results provide an example of the utility of LA-ICP-MS for forensics applications.

Structural differences between single crystal and polycrystalline UBe13

Abstract We report on observations of structural and chemical differences between samples of UBe13 that were synthesised using two different methods. Unexplained discrepancies in properties between samples with differing synthesis had previously been found in this heavy fermion superconductor. A polycrystalline UBe13 sample was made by arc-melting the constituents. Single crystals were grown using an aluminium flux and had a consistently slightly larger lattice parameter than the polycrystals, which merited further study. Neutron diffraction data were collected at the Lujan Center at LANSCE on the HIPPO diffractometer. Aluminium was detected by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) in the flux-grown single crystal (0.803 wt%), and small amounts (~0.2 wt%) of thorium were detected in the UBe13 polycrystalline sample. In order to probe the implications of the presence of Al, calculations by spin-polarised DFT-GGA+U show that the incorporation of Al onto the 96i site (the lowest symmetry site in the structure) is energetically more favourable than on other sites. In general, the trends calculated by DFT for bond lengths and lattice parameter increases are consistent with bond lengths experimentally observed by neutron diffraction, but specific percentage changes with aluminium incorporation may be obscured by the unexpected thorium in the polycrystalline sample. The aggregate of our initial observations suggests that incorporation of aluminium from the flux into single crystal UBe13 is significant.

Comparison of femtosecond and nanosecond laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry for uranium isotopic measurements

Feasibility tests were conducted using femtosecond and nanosecond laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry for rapid uranium isotopic measurements. The samples used in this study consisted of a range of pg quantities of known 235/238 U solutions as dried spot residues of 300 pL drops on silicon substrates. The samples spanned the following enrichments of 235U: 0.5, 1.5, 2, 3, and 15.1%. In this direct comparison using these particular samples both pulse durations demonstrated near equivalent data can be produced on either system with respect to accuracy and precision. There is no question that either LA-ICP-MS method offers the potential for rapid, accurate and precise isotopic measurements of U10Mo materials whether DU, LEU or HEU. The LA-ICP-MS equipment used for this work is commercially available. The program is in the process of validating this work for large samples using center samples strips from Y-12 MP-1 LEU-Mo Casting #1.

Purification of precursors of Yb3+ doped YLF crystals by solvent extraction and electrochemical processing

Optical refrigeration by laser irradiation of YLiF4:Yb3+ (YLF:Yb) crystals has been shown to be strongly deteriorated by impurities, which absorb energy at the laser wavelength, and relax non-radiatively, negating cooling produced from anti-Stokes fluorescence. We aim to increase the efficiency of optical refrigeration through materials purification. We start with the purest sources commercially available and process them in a cleanroom environment. Our method proceeds through electrochemical purification, separating out the transition metal impurities by their redox potentials, and can be scaled up to produce the amounts of material needed for crystal growth.