Publications Repository - Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf

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41397 Publications

Cryogel-Supported Stem Cell Factory for Customized Sustained Release of Bispecific Antibodies for Cancer Immunotherapy

Aliperta, R.; Welzel, P. B.; Bergmann, R.; Freudenberg, R.; Berndt, N.; Feldmann, A.; Arndt, C.; Koristka, S.; Stanzione, M.; Cartellieri, M.; Ehninger, A.; Ehninger, G.; Werner, C.; Pietzsch, J.; Steinbach, J.; Bornhäuser, M.; Bachmann, M.

Combining stem cells with biomaterial scaffolds provides a promising strategy for the development of drug delivery systems. Here we propose an innovative immunotherapeutic organoid by housing human mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs), gene-modified for the secretion of an anti-CD33-anti-CD3 bispecific antibody (bsAb), in a small biocompatible star-shaped poly(ethylene glycol)-heparin cryogel scaffold as a transplantable and low invasive therapeutic machinery for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The macroporous biohybrid cryogel platform displays effectiveness in supporting proliferation and survival of bsAb-releasing-MSCs overtime in vitro and in vivo, avoiding cell loss and ensuring a constant release of sustained and detectable levels of bsAb capable of triggering T-cell-mediated anti-tumor responses and a rapid regression of CD33+ AML blasts. This therapeutic device results as a promising and safe alternative to the continuous administration of short-lived immunoagents and paves the way for effective bsAb-based therapeutic strategies for future tumor treatments.

Keywords: starPEG-heparin cryogel; Mesenchymal stromal cells; Bispecific antibody; Cancer immunotherapy

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23663
Publ.-Id: 23663


Tos-Nos-Mos: Synthesis of different aryl sulfonate precursors for the radiosynthesis of the alpha7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor radioligand [18F]NS14490

Rötering, S.; Scheunemann, M.; Günther, R.; Löser, R.; Hiller, A.; Peters, D.; Brust, P.; Fischer, S.; Steinbach, J.

Radiopharmacological investigations of [18F]NS14490 have proven that this radiotracer could be a potential PETradiotracer for imaging of alpha7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor particularly with regard to vulnerable plaques of diseased vessels. For further optimisation of the previously automated one-pot radiosynthesis of [18F]NS14490 using a tosylate precursor, precursors with other leaving groups (nosylate and mosylate) were synthesized and compared with the tosylate with respect to their reactivities towards [18F]fluoride. The use of these different precursors resulted in comparable labelling yields of [18F]NS14490. A novel mosylate precursor was synthesized and evaluated, which has revealed a higher stability during a storage period of five months compared to the corresponding tosylate and nosylate.

Keywords: Alpha7 nAChR ligand; PET; Synthesis of precursor; Reactivity of precursor; Tosylate; Nosylate; Mosylate

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23661
Publ.-Id: 23661


Extracellular S100A4 affects endothelial cell integrity and stimulates transmigratory behavior of human A375 melanoma cells

Herwig, N.; Belter, B.; Pietzsch, J.

High extracellular S100A4 level proves a specific characteristic of some cancer cases, including malignant melanoma. Concerning the latter, extracellular S100A4 in an autocrine manner was shown to promote prometastatic activation of A375 cells by interaction with the receptor for advanced glycation endproducts (RAGE). We hypothesized that interaction of extracellular S100A4 with RAGE in a paracrine manner will affect endothelial cell (EC) integrity thus further promoting melanoma metastasis. We investigated the influence of recombinant and cell (A375)-derived S100A4 on RAGE and junction protein expression, and EC (hCMEC/D3) integrity by measuring transendothelial electrical resistance (TEER). RAGE was upregulated by recombinant S100A4. Decrease of TEER and diminished expression of both occludin and VE-cadherin revealed the loss of EC integrity. Transmigration of transgenic A375 cells (A375-hS100A4/A375-hRAGE) through the EC monolayer was significantly higher compared to wild-type A375 cells, and was substantially decreased by sRAGE. An additional pilot study in mice, intracardially injected with A375-hS100A4 or A375-hRAGE cells, showed lower survival rates and a higher incidence of metastases compared to wild-type A375 cells. Tumor development was mostly located in the brain, bones, and ovaries. These findings provide further evidence on extracellular S100A4 as paracrine mediator of prometastatic endothelial dysfunction involving its interaction with RAGE.

Keywords: hCMEC/D3; prometastatic endothelial dysfunction; receptor for advanced glycation endproducts (RAGE); soluble RAGE (sRAGE); S100 proteins; transendothelial electrical resistance (TEER)

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Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23660
Publ.-Id: 23660


Electrochemical behavior of nanocrystalline Ta/TaN multilayer on 316L stainless steel: Novel bipolar plates for proton exchange membrane fuel-cells

Alishahi, M.; Mahboubi, F.; Mousavi Khoie, S. M.; Aparicio, M.; Hübner, R.; Soldera, F.; Gago, R.

Insufficient corrosion resistance and surface conductivity are two main issues that plague large-scale application of stainless steel (SS) bipolar plates in proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). This study explores the use of nanocrystalline Ta/TaN multilayer coatings to improve the electrical and electrochemical performance of polished 316L SS bipolar plates. The multilayer coatings have been deposited by (reactive) magnetron sputtering and characterized by X-ray diffraction, field-emission scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The electrochemical behavior of bare and coated substrates has been evaluated in simulated PEMFC working environments by potentiodynamic and potentiostatic polarization tests at ambient temperature and 80 °C. The results show that the Ta/TaN multilayer coating increases the polarization resistance of 316L SS by about 30 and 104 times at ambient and elevated temperatures, respectively. The interfacial contact resistance (ICR) shows a low value of 12 µOhm cm-2 before the potentiostatic test. This ICR is significantly lower than for the bare substrate and remains mostly unchanged after potentiostatic polarization for 14 h. In addition, the high contact angle (92 °) with water for coated substrates indicates a hydrophobic character, which can improve the water management within the cell in PEMFC stacks.

Keywords: PEMFC; Bipolar plate; Magnetron sputtering; Multilayer coating; Interfacial contact resistance; Corrosion

Related publications

  • Journal of Power Sources 322(2016), 1-9

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23659
Publ.-Id: 23659


Tailoring the magnetic anisotropy of (Ga,Mn)(As,P) by ion irradiation

Yuan, Y.; Rushforth, A.; Sawicki, M.; Dietl, T.; Helm, M.; Zhou, S.

The rich phenomena in the magnetic anisotropy of diluted ferromagnetic semiconductors (DFS) have opened new concepts for spintronics beyond conventional electronic logic devices [1]. As an example, the magnetic anisotropy of (Ga,Mn)(As,P) can be changed from in-plane to out-of-plane by low temperature annealing [2, 3]. In this work, we demonstrate another flexible approach to tune the magnetic anisotropy by He+ ion irradiation, which is a well-developed chip-technology. For the as-prepared (Ga,Mn)(As,P), the low-temperature long-time annealing suppresses the compensation from Mn interstitials, resulting in a higher carrier concentration and the switching of the magnetic easy axis from the in-plane [100] to the out-of-plane [001] direction [3]. By He+ irradiation, we can turn the magnetic easy axis gradually back to the out-of-plane direction. Therefore, ion irradiation combined with low-temperature long-time annealing boosts the prospects of flexible tailoring of the magnetic anisotropy of DFS material, allowing for the development of new concepts for spintronic devices.

[1] T. Dietl et al., Rev. Mod. Phys. 86, 187-251 (2014).
[2] M. Sawicki et al., Phys. Rev. B 70, 245325 (2004).
[3] A. Casiraghi et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 97, 122504 (2010).

Related publications

  • Poster
    EMRS 2016 Spring, 02.-06.05.2016, Lille, France

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23658
Publ.-Id: 23658


Pulsed laser melting: A versatile approach for the preparation of dilute ferromagnetic semiconductors

Yuan, Y.; Helm, M.; Zhou, S.

Mn doped III-V dilute ferromagnetic semiconductors (DFS) are of great interest in recent decades due to their potential for spintronics [1]. However, the low solid solubility of Mn in III-V semiconductors prohibits the common equilibrium preparation process. For long time, the low-temperature molecule beam epitaxy (LT-MBE) has been the only method to obtain DFS. The technical challenges in LT-MBE result in the fact that GaMnAs (and its alloys with low concentration of phosphorus or indium) is the only available DFS.
In our work, making the full use of ion implantation combined with pulsed laser melting, we have extended the family of Mn doped III-V DFSs. All specimens exhibit the epitaxial structure and pronounced uniaxial magnetic anisotropy. Particularly, we have prepared InMnAs with both high Curie temperature and perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, which is difficult to prepare by LT-MBE due to many n-type defects [3], as well as GaMnP [4] and InMnP [5] which have only been prepared by ion implantation up to now. When compared with LT-MBE, this approach combining ion implantation and pulsed laser melting brightens the future of III-Mn-V DFS by two aspects: (1) Its efficiency and reproducibility make the possibility of the large-scale production in industry; (2) The introduction of new materials (GaMnP and InMnP) provides a more complete platform for understanding the DFS family.

[1]. T. Dietl et al., Rev. Mod. Phys., 86, 187-251 (2014)
[2]. D. Bürger et al., Phys. Rev. B, 81, 115202 (2010)
[3]. Y. Yuan et al., J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 48, 235002 (2015)
[4].Y. Yuan et al., IEEE Trans. Mag. 50, 2401304 (2014)
[5]. M. Khalid et al., Phys. Rev. B, 89, 121301(R) (2014)

Related publications

  • Lecture (Conference)
    EMRS 2016 Spring Meeting, 02.-06.05.2016, Lille, France

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23657
Publ.-Id: 23657


Numerical simulation of mass transfer and convection near a hydrogen bubble during water electrolysis in a magnetic field

Mutschke, G.; Fröhlich, J.; Yang, X.; Eckert, K.; Karnbach, F.; Uhlemann, M.; Baczyzmalski, D.; Cierpka, C.

Hydrogen produced from wind or solar power could be used easily for storing energy also at large scale, thus allowing to bridge the gap between supply and demand of renewable energy with respect to time and place. When splitting water by electrolysis, a deeper look at local phenomena near single bubbles at the electrode might be helpful to improve our understanding of the process. In the recent literature, magnetic fields are discussed with respect to the bubble departure, thereby possibly influencing the efficiency of the process [1-6].
The contribution will present numerical simulations resolving in detail local phenomena near a single hydrogen bubble at the cathode during the electrolysis of water. The modeling is supported by data of recent experiments on hydrogen single bubbles evolving at a platinum micro-electrode. The results will provide insight into the local and temporal behavior of electrolyte convection, species concentration and mass transfer during electrolysis. Furthermore, the influence of the Lorentz force caused by vertical magnetic fields will be discussed in detail.
[1] X. Yang et al., Langmuir 31 (2015) 8184-8193.
[2] D. Fernandez et al., Langmuir 30 (2014) 13065-13074.
[3] H. Liu et al., J. Electroanal. Chem. 754 (2015) 22-29.
[4] H. Liu et al., Can. J. Chem. Eng. 94 (2016) 192-199.
[5] D. Baczyzmalski et al., Exp. Fluids 56 (2015) 162ff.
[6] J. Koza et al., Electrochem. Comm. 10 (2009) 425-429.

Keywords: electrolysis; hydrogen evolution; magnetic field; Lorentz force; convection; mass transfer

  • Poster
    67th Annual Meeting of the International Society of ELectrochemistry, 21.-26.08.2016, Den Haag, Niederlande
  • Lecture (Conference)
    10th PAMIR International Conference on Fundamental and Applied MHD, 20.-24.06.2016, Cagliari (Sardinia), Italia
  • Contribution to proceedings
    10th PAMIR International Conference on Fundamental and Applied MHD, 20.-24.06.2016, Cagliari (Sardinia), Italia
    Proceedings of the 10th PAMIR International Conference on FUndamental and Applied MHD, 978-88-90551-93-2, 97-101
  • Open Access Logo Magnetohydrodynamics 53(2017)1, 193-199

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Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23656
Publ.-Id: 23656


PET/CT during degradation processes at the cement-clay interface and derivation of process parameters

Kulenkampff, J.; Mäder, U.; Gründig, M.; Eichelbaum, S.; Lippmann-Pipke, J.

Observation of degradation processes is complicated by the heterogeneous nature of the process. Better process understanding requires methods for both monitoring the fate of chemical species (mobile phase) and structural alterations (stationary phase). In the past decade, we empowered positron emission tomography (PET) for quantitative transport visualization in geological media – GeoPET. It has an unrivalled sensitivity and robustness for quantitative, non-destructive, spatio-temporal concentration measurements cPET(x,y,z,t). CT adds structural information.

  • Poster
    1st Annual Workshop of the CEBAMA project, 11.-13.05.2016, Barcelona, Spanien
  • Open Access Logo Contribution to proceedings
    1st Annual Workshop of the CEBAMA project, 11.-13.05.2016, Barcelona, Spanien
    Proceedings of the First Annual Workshop of the HORIZON 2020 CEBAMA Project KIT scientific reports 7734, Karlsruhe: KIT Scientific Publishing, 978-3-7315-0660-7, 113-119
    DOI: 10.5445/KSP/1000068889

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23655
Publ.-Id: 23655


Multiscale Self-Assembly of Silicon Quantum Dots into an Anisotropic Three-Dimensional Random Network

Ilday, S.; Ilday, F. O.; Hübner, R.; Prosa, T. J.; Martin, I.; Nogay, G.; Kabacelik, I.; Mics, Z.; Bonn, M.; Turchinovich, D.; Toffoli, H.; Toffoli, D.; Friedrich, D.; Schmidt, B.; Heinig, K.-H.; Turan, R.

Multiscale self-assembly is ubiquitous in nature but its deliberate use to synthesize multifunctional three-dimensional materials remains rare, partly due to the notoriously difficult problem of controlling topology from atomic to macroscopic scales to obtain intended material properties. Here, we propose a simple, modular, noncolloidal methodology that is based on exploiting universality in stochastic growth dynamics and driving the growth process under far-from-equilibrium conditions toward a preplanned structure. As proof of principle, we demonstrate a confined-butconnected solid structure, comprising an anisotropic random network of silicon quantum-dots that hierarchically self-assembles from the atomic to the microscopic scales. First, quantum-dots form to subsequently interconnect without inflating their diameters to form a random network, and this network then grows in a preferential direction to form undulated and branching nanowire-like structures. This specific topology simultaneously achieves two scale-dependent features, which were previously thought to be mutually exclusive: good electrical conduction on the microscale and a bandgap tunable over a range of energies on the nanoscale.

Keywords: Si; random network; hierarchical; multiscale; self-assembly; stochastic deposition

Related publications

  • Nano Letters 16(2016), 1942-1948

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23654
Publ.-Id: 23654


Investigation of single bubbles and bubble chains in liquid metal under the influence of magnetic fields

Strumpf, E.; Eckert, S.

Two-phase flows play an important role in industrial applications, such as the continuous casting of steel. Here, inert gas is injected into the beginning of the submerged entry nozzle to avoid nozzle clogging as well as to catch impurities within the melt and to transport them to the free surface, away from the solidification front. Furthermore electromagnetic brakes are used with the aim to dampen the highly turbulent flow and to reduce high velocities in the liquid metal. Although a vast number of simulations and experiments of bubbly flows in water exist, such investigations in liquid metal still lack quantity. However, liquid metal experiments are unavoidable for a correct modelling of such special cases, like the influence of magnetic fields on the flow or the two-phase flow behavior. In the present study the ascents of single bubbles and of bubble chains in a liquid metal are investigated. For this purpose a benchmark experiment is set up, a cuboid vessel of the dimensions 144 x 144 x 12 mm³, which is filled with eutectic alloy GaInSn. A transversal magnetic field up to 1.1 T is imposed to this vessel. Ultrasound Doppler Velocimetry (UDV) is used to map the flow in the continuous phase of bubble chain regimes as well as the ascent velocity of single bubbles.

Keywords: liquid metal; single bubble; bubble chain; magnetic field; ultrasound

  • Lecture (Conference)
    International Conference on Multiphase Flow (ICMF 2016), 22.-27.05.2016, Firenze, Italia

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23653
Publ.-Id: 23653


Magnetic vortex cores as tunable spin wave emitters

Wintz, S.; Tyberkevych, V.; Weigand, M.; Raabe, J.; Lindner, J.; Erbe, A.; Slavin, A.; Fassbender, J.

The use of spin waves as information carriers in spintronic devices can substantially reduce energy losses by eliminating the ohmic heating associated with electron transport. Yet, the excitation of short-wavelength spin waves in nanoscale magnetic systems remains a significant challenge. Here, we propose a method for their coherent generation in a heterostructure composed of antiferromagnetically coupled magnetic layers. The driven dynamics of naturally formed nanosized stacked pairs of magnetic vortex cores is used to achieve this aim. The resulting spin-wave propagation is directly imaged by time-resolved scanning transmission X-ray microscopy. We show that the dipole-exchange spin waves excited in this system have a linear, non-reciprocal dispersion and that their wavelength can be tuned by changing the driving frequency.

Keywords: magnetism spinwaves magnonics vortex

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23652
Publ.-Id: 23652


Defect studies of Mg films deposited on various substrates

Hruška, P.; Čížek, J.; Anwand, W.; Bulíř, J.; Drahokoupil, J.; Stráská, J.; Melikhova, O.; Procházka, I.; Lančok, J.

In the present work the structure of Mg films deposited by RF magnetron sputtering was characterized using variable energy positron annihilation spectroscopy combined with scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The effect of deposition parameters, namely temperature, type of substrate and deposition rate, on the microstructure was examined. All Mg films studied grow with the basal (0001) plane parallel with the substrate and exhibit only negligible in-plane stress. Films deposited at room temperature are characterized by nanocrystalline structure with high volume fraction of grain boundaries. and positrons are preferentially trapped in open volume defects present at grain boundaries. In these films positrons are trapped predominantly in open-volume defects present at grain boundaries. With increasing deposition temperature the mean grain size increases and the volume fraction of grain boundaries decreases. Hence, in Mg films prepared at elevated temperatures positrons are trapped mainly at misfit dislocations compensating different atomic spacing in the films and the substrate. Moreover, it was found that slow deposition rate leads to higher density of defects compared to fast deposition rate. By annealing of Mg film with thin 20 nm Pd over-layer at 300°C for 1 hour Pd layer is mixed with Mg film forming a Mg-Pd compound. The Mg-Pd phase likely contains structural open-volume defects which trap positrons.

Keywords: defect studies; Mg films; positron annihilation

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Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23651
Publ.-Id: 23651


Ferromagnetism in 5f-band metamagnet UCoAl induced by Os doping

Andreev, A. V.; Shirasaki, K.; Sebek, J.; Vejprovova, J.; Gorbunov, D. I.; Havela, L.; Danis, S.; Yamamura, T.

UCoAl is a 5f-band metamagnet with a uniquely low paramagnetic-to-ferromagnetic transition field, 0.7 T, extremely sensitive to any perturbation such as elemental substitution. Here, we study variations of magnetic properties in the UCoAl-UOsAl system on single- and polycrystalline samples with different concentration of Os. We found that osmium can substitute Co in UCoAl up to 20%, while preserving the ZrNiAl structure type. Pure UOsAl was identified as a hexagonal Laves phase, MgZn2 type. It is a weak Pauli paramagnet. Even a 2%-substitution of Os for Co in the 5f band metamagnet stabilizes ferromagnetism with the Curie temperature TC = 26 K and uranium magnetic moment µ = 0.4 µB and shifts the critical metamagnetic field to zero. Higher Os concentrations enhance both TC and µ. All magnetic response is concentrated into the c-axis; the susceptibility for magnetic field perpendicular to c is low and practically temperature-independent. Our study reflects the decisive role of the 5f-5d hybridization in the magnetism of the UCoAl-UOsAl system. This work completes the study of the alloying of UCoAl with late transition metals and indicates that the non-magnetic phase exhibiting band metamagnetism is very limited in the concentration range.

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23650
Publ.-Id: 23650


Evaluation of covalence in An(III)- and Ln(III)-complexes by NMR Spectroscopy

Adam, C.; Kaden, P.; Beele, B. B.; Geist, A.; Müllich, U.; Panak, P. J.

Partitioning and transmutation (P&T) facilitates a reduction of the long-term radiotoxicity and heat load of spent nuclear fuel by separation of the actinides and subsequent conversion into shorter-lived or stable nuclides. A chemically demanding key step in this process is the separation of the trivalent actinides from fission lanthanides. This can be achieved by liquid-liquid extraction using highly selective extraction agents, such as nPrBTP (1) or C5-BPP (2). These have high separation factors (>100) for trivalent americium over europium. However, the molecular origin of their selectivity is largely unclear.
NMR spectroscopy on paramagnetic samples allows a separation of the observed paramagnetic shift into a part due to transferred electron spin density (Fermi contact shift, FCS) and a part due to dipolar coupling of electron and nuclear spin (Pseudo contact shift, PCS). Evaluation of the FCS thus allows an assessment of the share of covalence in the metal-ligand bond of the N-donor complexes. Several methods that enable the separation of the shift contributions have been proposed in literature. So-called “model free methods” that do not require structural models of the complexes appear most promising.
We will present and compare the results of different temperature-dependent and temperature-independent model-free methods for complexes of both ligands. The merits, but also the limitations of currently available methods will be discussed in detail. Furthermore, we will evaluate the applicability of temperature-dependent methods for shift separation of Am(III) complexes and give a qualitative assessment on covalence in the bonding of these complexes.

Keywords: NMR Spectroscopy; Separation; Partitioning Ligands; Bonding

  • Poster
    ATALANTE 2016 – Nuclear Chemistry for Sustainable Fuel Cycles, 05.-10.06.2016, Montpellier, Frankreich

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23649
Publ.-Id: 23649


Comparative NMR Study of nPrBTP and iPrBTP Complexes

Adam, C.; Rohde, V.; Müllich, U.; Kaden, P.; Geist, A.; Panak, P. J.

Partitioning and transmutation (P&T) is a strategy for reducing the long-term radiotoxicity and heat load of spent nuclear fuel by separating actinides from the used fuel and converting them into shorterlived or stable products. A key step in this process is the separation of the trivalent actinides from lanthanides, which can be achieved by liquid-liquid extraction using selective N-donor extracting ligands, such as alkylated bis-triazinyl pyridines (BTP). These have high separation factors (>100) for trivalent americium over europium. However, little is known about the molecular origin of their selectivity.
The aliphatic side chains of BTP ligands influence the stability against radiation and hydrolysis, the solubility, but also the selectivity and extraction behaviour. While nPrBTP (1) has been thoroughly studied over the past years, only few data are available for its isomer iPrBTP (2). TRLFS studies showed that the stability constants for the Eu(III) complex are almost three orders of magnitude higher than for nPrBTP, while the increase for Cm(III) complexes is less pronounced.
This result prompted us to investigate Ln(III) and the Am(III) complexes by NMR spectroscopy, which offers insight into the metal-ligand bond properties. For the NMR studies, iPrBTP with 15N isotope labelling of the nitrogen atoms in the pyrazole moiety was synthesized. We will show a comparison of the bonding properties in complexes of (1) and (2) and discuss the share of covalence in the bonding. Furthermore, the implications for the mechanism of complex formation with ligand (2) will be evaluated.

Keywords: NMR Spectroscopy; Separation; Partitioning Ligands; Bonding

  • Lecture (Conference)
    ATALANTE 2016 – Nuclear Chemistry for Sustainable Fuel Cycles, 05.-10.06.2016, Montpellier, Frankreich

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23648
Publ.-Id: 23648


Comparative NMR study of nPrBTP and iPrBTP

Adam, C.; Rohde, V.; Müllich, U.; Kaden, P.; Geist, A.; Panak, P. J.; Geckeis, H.

Bistriazinyl-pyridine type ligands are important extracting agents for separating trivalent actinide ions from trivalent lanthanides. The alkyl substituents on the lateral triazine rings have a significant effect on the stability of the ligand against hydrolysis and radiolysis. Furthermore they influence solubility, extraction behaviour and selectivity. TRLFS and extraction studies suggest differences in complexation and extraction behaviour of BTP ligands bearing iso-propyl or n-propyl substituents, respectively. As NMR studies allow insight into the metal-ligand bonding, we conducted NMR studies on a range of 15N-labelled nPrBTP and iPrBTP complexes. Our results show that no strong change in the metal-ligand bonding occurs, thus excluding electronic reasons for differences in complexation behaviour, extraction kinetics and selectivity. This supports mechanistic reasons for the observed differences.

Keywords: NMR Spectroscopy; Bonding; Extraction; BTP; An(III)/Ln(III) separation

  • Open Access Logo Contribution to proceedings
    Comparative NMR study of nPrBTP and iPrBTP, 05.-10.06.2016, Montpellier, Frankreich
    Procedia Chemistry
    DOI: 10.1016/j.proche.2016.10.006

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Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23647
Publ.-Id: 23647


Guided-wave second harmonics in Nd:YCOB ridge waveguides produced by combination of carbon ion irradiation and precise diamond blade dicing

Li, R.; Nie, W.; Shang, Z.; Cheng, C.; Akhmadaliev, S.; Zhou, S.; Lu, Q.; Chen, F.

We report on the fabrication of Nd:YCa4O(BO3)3 (Nd:YCOB) ridge waveguides by combining carbon ion irradiation and precise diamond blade dicing. The guiding and spectroscopic properties of the planar as well as ridge waveguides are investigated. The second harmonic generation (SHG) at 532 nm has been realized through the waveguide structures. With nearly the same input power, the maximum average output powers are 0.56 mW and 0.62 mW, and the maximum conversion efficiencies reach 0.3%W−1 and 0.5%W−1, for planar and ridge waveguides, respectively.

Keywords: Optical waveguides; Nd:YCOB crystal; Second harmonic generation

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Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23646
Publ.-Id: 23646


Universality of (2+1)-dimensional restricted solid-on-solid models

Kelling, J.; Ódor, G.; Gemming, S.

Extensive dynamical simulations of Restricted Solid on Solid models in D=2+1 dimensions have been done using parallel multisurface algorithms implemented on graphics cards. Numerical evidence is presented that these models exhibit KPZ surface growth scaling, irrespective of the step heights N. We show that by increasing N the corrections to scaling increase, thus smaller step sized models describe better the asymptotic, long wave scaling behavior.

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Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23645
Publ.-Id: 23645


A possible new origin of long absorption tail in Nd-doped yttrium aluminum garnet induced by 15 MeV gold-ion irradiation and heat treatment

Amekura, H.; Akhmadaliev, S.; Zhou, S.; Chen, F.

When ion irradiation introduces point-defects in semiconductors/insulators, discrete energy levels can be introduced in the bandgap, and then optical transitions whose energies are lower than the bandgap become possible. The electronic transitions between the discrete level and the continuous host band are observed as a continuous tail starting from the fundamental edge. This is the well-known mechanism of the absorption tail close to the band-edge observed in many semiconductors/insulators. In this paper, we propose another mechanism for the absorption tail, which is probably active in Nd-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (Nd:YAG) after ion irradiation and annealing. A Nd:YAG bulk crystal was irradiated with 15 MeV Au5+ ions to a fluence of 8 × 1014 ions/cm2. The irradiation generates an amorphous layer of ∼3 μm thick with refractive index reduction of Δn = −0.03. Thermal annealing at 1000 °C induces recrystallization to randomly aligned small crystalline grains. Simultaneously, an extraordinarily long absorption tail appeared in the optical spectrum covering from 0.24 to ∼2 μm without fringes. The origin of the tail is discussed based on two models: (i) conventional electronic transitions between defect levels and YAG host band and (ii) enhanced light scattering by randomly aligned small grains.

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Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23644
Publ.-Id: 23644


Structure and X-ray diagnostics in non-equilibrium warm dense matter

Vorberger, J.; Chapman, D. A.

We present a quantum theory for the dynamic structure factors in non-equilibrium, non-ideal, two-component warm dense matter. This general framework allows the derivation of expressions for the local field corrections in non-equilibrium. Based on a perturbation expansion of the non-equilibrium polarization function in terms of the interaction strength and taking the Wigner function as input quantity, we calculate the dynamic structure for a variety of typical scenarios and demonstrate typical effects. Example situations include laser heated matter or shock produced warm dense matter.
We provide a generalized Chihara decomposition of the total dynamic electron structure factor. The formula features the free electrons, the non-equilibrium ion structure, the generalized non-equilibrium screening cloud and an additional term arising due to not invoking the Born-Oppenheimer approximation. This puts the theory of x-ray scattering in non-equilibrium on a sound theoretical basis and makes x-ray scattering a possible diagnostics for non-equilibrium warm dense matter on all time scales, in particular on femtosecond electronic time scales.
We give examples for the expected x-ray scattering signals in laser heated systems and in two-temperature systems. We discuss the possibility to resolve temperature relaxation using x-ray scattering and point out possible problems in the current models used for the description of such relaxation processes.

Keywords: x-ray scattering; warm dense matter; dynamic structure factor; exchange; correlations

  • Poster
    HEDLA 2016, 16.-20.05.2016, Menlo Park, USA

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23643
Publ.-Id: 23643


Time structure influence on the radiobiological response to MeV electron beams

Beyreuther, E.; Gotz, M.; Karsch, L.; Lessmann, E.; Schürer, M.; Pawelke, J.

No abstract available

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Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23642
Publ.-Id: 23642


Status of the Development of a Novel Compact Proton Therapy Gantry System Based on Pulsed Magnets for Laser-driven Beams

Masood, U.; Baumann, M.; Cowan, T. E.; Enghardt, W.; Herrmannsdörfer, T.; Karsch, L.; Kroll, F.; Schramm, U.; Schürer, M.; Pawelke, J.

Purpose/Objective(s):

Proton acceleration on m scale via high intensity laser has become a compelling alternative to conventional accelerators and gained interests for its potential to reduce size and costs for proton therapy (PT) facilities. Next generation petawatt lasers promise laser-driven protons (LDP) with therapeutic energies. But, in contrast to conventionally accelerated quasi-continuous mono-energetic pencil beams with about 30 Gy/sec dose rate, LDP beams have diverse properties, i.e. ultra-intense pico-sec bunches with up to 1010 Gy/sec dose rate, large energy spread and divergence, and with only up to 10 Hz repetition rate. These properties make it challenging to adapt LDP beams directly for medical applications. The presented work is an ongoing joint translational research project of several institutions aiming to establish laser-driven PT. We will present the recent progress in design concepts and the status of the development.

Materials/Methods:

In addition to laser accelerator development, LDP beams demand radiobiological characterization and new solutions for beam transport and dose delivery. Laser-based technology for low energy LDP beams has been established for cell and small animal irradiation using a fixed beamline and is being utilized for systematic extreme dose rate radiobiological studies. For translation towards patient irradiation a highly compact 360° isocentric proton gantry system was designed based on light-weight iron-less high-field pulsed magnets. The gantry is integrated with beam control, energy selection and a novel dose delivery system, capable to magnetically control the beam spot size and to scan the beam for advanced irradiation schemes. A 3D TPS has been adapted and used to demonstrate clinical functionality of our system. For its realization, key high-field pulsed magnets are being developed.

Results:

Radiobiologically, so far no overall difference is observed for laser-driven ultra-high dose rates compared to conventional PT beams. Our double achromatic gantry system is about 3 times smaller than conventional PT gantries. The new dose delivery system can simultaneously widens the beam size (Ø 1-20 cm) and scan 10x20 cm2 field size, for the most efficient dose delivery. High quality clinical treatment plans can be provided with such beams. For the gantry realization a pulsed 40 T solenoid for particle capture and a 10 T compact iron-less 50° sector magnet were successfully tested. A pulsed 120 T/m gradient quadrupole is being manufactured.
Conclusions:
Our compact, light-weight gantry could provide an optimized solution for the laser-driven PT. The tests of pulsed gantry magnets are being continued. Our new conventional PT facility is additionally equipped with a petawatt laser laboratory and an experimental bunker. This will allow testing for clinical applicability of LDP systems side-by-side with conventional therapeutic proton beams as reference.

Acknowledgment:

This project was supported by German BMBF grant (03Z1N511 and 03Z1O511).

Keywords: Proton Therapy; Gantry; Pulsed Magnets; Laser acceleration

  • Poster
    ASTRO 2016 Annual Meeting, 25.-28.09.2016, Boston, USA
  • Abstract in refereed journal
    International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics 96(2016)2, E612
    Online First (2016) DOI: 10.1016/j.ijrobp.2016.06.2162
    ISSN: 0360-3016

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23641
Publ.-Id: 23641


Systematic investigation of projectile fragmentation using beams of unstable B and C isotopes

Thies, R.; Heinz, A.; Adachi, T.; Aksyutina, Y.; Alcantara-Núñes, J.; Altstadt, S.; Alvarez-Pol, H.; Ashwood, N.; Aumann, T.; Avdeichikov, V.; Barr, M.; Beceiro-Novo, S.; Bemmerer, D.; Benlliure, J.; Bertulani, C. A.; Boretzky, K.; Borge, M. J. G.; Burgunder, G.; Camaño, M.; Caesar, C.; Casarejos, E.; Catford, W.; Cederkäll, J.; Chakraborty, S.; Chartier, M.; Chulkov, L. V.; Cortina-Gil, D.; Crespo, R.; Datta, U.; Díaz Fernández, P.; Dillmann, I.; Elekes, Z.; Enders, J.; Ershova, O.; Estradé, A.; Farinon, F.; Fraile, L. M.; Freer, M.; Freudenberger, M.; Fynbo, H. O. U.; Galaviz, D.; Geissel, H.; Gernhäuser, R.; Göbel, K.; Golubev, P.; Gonzalez Diaz, D.; Hagdahl, J.; Heftrich, T.; Heil, M.; Heine, M.; Henriques, A.; Holl, M.; Ickert, G.; Ignatov, A.; Jakobsson, B.; Johansson, H. T.; Jonson, B.; Kalantar-Nayestanaki, N.; Kanungo, R.; Knöbel, R.; Kröll, T.; Krücken, R.; Kurcewicz, J.; Kurz, N.; Labiche, M.; Langer, C.; Le Bleis, T.; Lemmon, R.; Lepyoshkina, O.; Lindberg, S.; Machado, J.; Marganiec, J.; Maroussov, V.; Mostazo, M.; Movsesyan, A.; Najafi, A.; Nilsson, T.; Nociforo, C.; Panin, V.; Paschalis, S.; Perea, A.; Petri, M.; Pietri, S.; Plag, R.; Prochazka, A.; Rahaman, A.; Rastrepina, G.; Reifarth, R.; Ribeiro, G.; Ricciardi, M. V.; Rigollet, C.; Riisager, K.; Röder, M.; Rossi, D.; Sanchez Del Rio, J.; Savran, D.; Scheit, H.; Simon, H.; Sorlin, O.; Stoica, V.; Streicher, B.; Taylor, J. T.; Tengblad, O.; Terashima, S.; Togano, Y.; Uberseder, E.; van de Walle, J.; Velho, P.; Volkov, V.; Wagner, A.; Wamers, F.; Weick, H.; Weigand, M.; Wheldon, C.; Wilson, G.; Wimmer, C.; Winfield, J. S.; Woods, P.; Yakorev, D.; Zhukov, M. V.; Zilges, A.; Zuber, K.

Background: Models describing nuclear fragmentation and fragmentation fission deliver important input for planning nuclear physics experiments and future radioactive ion beam facilities. These models are usually benchmarked against data from stable beam experiments. In the future, two-step fragmentation reactions with exotic nuclei as stepping stones are a promising tool for reaching the most neutron-rich nuclei, creating a need for models to describe also these reactions.
Purpose: We want to extend the presently available data on fragmentation reactions towards the light exotic region on the nuclear chart. Furthermore, we want to improve the understanding of projectile fragmentation especially for unstable isotopes.
Method: We have measured projectile fragments from C10,12−18 and B10−15 isotopes colliding with a carbon target. These measurements were all performed within one experiment, which gives rise to a very consistent data set. We compare our data to model calculations.
Results: One-proton removal cross sections with different final neutron numbers (1pxn) for relativistic C10,12−18 and B10−15 isotopes impinging on a carbon target. Comparing model calculations to the data, we find that the epax code is not able to describe the data satisfactorily. Using abrabla07 on the other hand, we find that the average excitation energy per abraded nucleon needs to be decreased from 27 MeV to 8.1 MeV. With that decrease abrabla07 describes the data surprisingly well.
Conclusions: Extending the available data towards light unstable nuclei with a consistent set of new data has allowed a systematic investigation of the role of the excitation energy induced in projectile fragmentation. Most striking is the apparent mass dependence of the average excitation energy per abraded nucleon. Nevertheless, this parameter, which has been related to final-state interactions, requires further study.

Keywords: nuclear fragmentation fission radioactive ion beam facilities C10 C12−18 B10−15 isotope

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Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23640
Publ.-Id: 23640


Remote Sensing-Based Exploration of Structurally-Related Mineralizations around Mount Isa, Queensland, Australia

Jakob, S.; Gloaguen, R.; Laukamp, C.

Hyperspectral imaging is a powerful tool for mineral mapping and increasingly used in poorly-accessible areas. It only requires a limited amount of validation sample points, but can fail to discriminate spectrally-similar features. In this manuscript, we show that we improve the identification of interesting targets by including geomorphological data in the spectral mapping scheme. We jointly use geomorphic and spectral features to locate gossanous ironstone ridges as an indicator for possible Pb-Zn-Ag-mineralization and provide an application around Mount Isa and George Fisher/Hilton mine, Queensland, Australia. We combine hyperspectral HyMap data using mixture tuned matched filtering with topographical indices, such as maximum curvature and the topographical position index. As it is often the case with structurally-controlled mineralization, the amount of training sites is limited, and supervised classification methods cannot be implemented. Therefore, we implement expert knowledge in a decision tree to take advantage of the relationship between mineralization, alteration and structure. Optimized rock sampling and spectral measurements provided data for validation. We are able to map sets of gossanous ridges with a minimum of validation points, not only within the Mount Isa mining area itself, but also outside the commonly-accepted host rocks. The ridges are parallel to north-south trending geomorphological features and probably associated with the Paroo fault zone. Similarities between the ridges were confirmed by field observations, spectral measurements and a qualitative rock sample analysis. We identified new mineralized ridges that we could subsequently attribute to a poorly-known and sub-economic deposit known as the Mount Novit Pb-Zn-deposit.

Keywords: HyMap; hyperspectral; mineral mapping; geomorphological features; alteration mapping

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23639
Publ.-Id: 23639


JRQ and JPA irradiated and annealed reactor pressure vessel steels studied by positron annihilation

Slugen, V.; Gokhman, O.; Pecko, S.; Sojak, S.; Bergner, F.

The paper is focused on a comprehensive study of JRQ and JPA reactor pressure vessel steels from the positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy (PALS) point of view. Based on our more than 20 years’ experience with characterization of irradiated reactor steels, we confirmed that defects after irradiation start to grow and/or merge into bigger clusters. Experimental results shown that JPA steel is more sensitive to the creation of irradiation-induced defects than JRQ steel. It is most probably due to high copper content (0.29 wt.% in JPA) and copper precipitation has a major impact on neutron-induced defect creation at the beginning of the irradiation. Based on current PALS results, no large vacancy clusters were formed during irradiation, which could cause dangerous embrittlement concerning operation safety of nuclear power plant. The combined PALS, small angle neutron scattering and atomic probe tomography studies support the model for JRQ and JPA steels describing the structure of irradiationinduced clusters as agglomerations of vacancy clusters (consisting of 2–6 vacancies each) and are separated from each other by a distribution of atoms.

Keywords: Nuclear materials; positron annihilation spectroscopy; RPV steel; irradiation; ion beam implantation

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23638
Publ.-Id: 23638


Interaction of radio-metals with microorganisms

Raff, J.; Vogel, M.; Günther, A.; Drobot, B.; Schmoock, C.; Moll, H.; Börnick, H.; Worch, E.; Stumpf, T.

Metals interact in various ways with living organisms. This affects first of all the behavior of the metals in the environment as different metal species differ in their mobility in the geo- and the biosphere as well as in their bioavailability. Conversely, metals are essential for the vitality of cells. Many metals are an integral part of one or more enzymes involved in metabolic and biochemical processes. Beside essential metals there are also toxic and radioactive metals that can seriously damage an organism at least at higher concentrations. Figure 1 shows possible interaction mechanisms between microorganisms and radio-metals.
Furthermore, radio-metals may damage or even destroy cells by radiation. The latter excites or ionizes atoms or molecules causing the formation of radicals, changes of biomolecules or even the breakage of chemical bonds. But also for this kind of damage microorganisms have successfully developed effective strategies. Different spectroscopic methods and electron microscopy reveal that different groups of organisms such as bacteria, algae and fungi, differ in their interaction with radio-metals.
In case of bacterial uranium mining waste pile isolates belonging to the genera Lysinibacillus and Bacillus it was demonstrated that so-called S-layer proteins, forming a latticed protein envelope on many bacteria and almost all archaea, are able to effectively scavenge reactive oxygen species (ROS). The latter can be formed by either radiolysis of water or the Fenton reaction. These ROS react with tyrosine side chains of the proteins forming bityrosines and thereby causing an intramolecular crosslinking. Furthermore, these S-layers possess different functional groups on their surface such as carboxyl, hydroxyl, amino, phosphate, sulfoxide and sulfate groups. These groups mediate selective binding of different metals including uranyl(VI) [2]. As most S-layer proteins are also calcium binding proteins, these S-layers additionally possess at least two different Ca binding sites binding trivalent actinides such as Cm(III) with high affinity [3]. In case of the alga Chlorella vulgaris U(VI) concentrations up to 5 µM are bound via carboxyl and phosphate groups being located on the cell surface. This process is followed by desorption in which probably the secretion of complexing bio-ligands is involved [4]. At higher uranium concentrations of 100 µM the alga will die and no desorption can be observed. In comparison to this alga, the fungus Schizophyllum commune interacts with moderate concentrations of uranium (4.2 µM) via organic phosphates. At higher U(VI) concentrations (420 µM) the fungus stays alive and accumulates uranium additionally inside the cell by forming inorganic uranyl phosphates [5]. Due to their high uranium resistance and high accumulation rates different fungi were selected to be further investigated regarding their application potential for a fungal-based concept for the reliable immobilization of released radionuclides within the so called BioVeStRa project.

References
[1] Lloyd J.R. and Macaskie L. E. (2002), In Interactions of Microorganisms with Radionuclides, Ed. Keith-Roach & Livens, Elsevier, 313-342,
[2] Merroun M.L. et al. (2005), Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 71(9), 5532-5543.
[3] Moll H. et al. (2011), Curium(III) complexation with surface-layer (S-layer) proteins from a uranium mining waste pile isolate. Poster at Migration 2011, 18.-23.09.2011, Beijing, PR China.
[4] Vogel M. et al. (2010), Sci. Total Environ. 409, 384-395.
[5] Günther A. et al. (2014), Biometals 27,775-785.

Keywords: radionuclides; microorganism; interaction

Related publications

  • Poster
    Ninth International Conference on Nuclear and Radiochemistry – NRC9, 29.08.-02.09.2016, Helsinki, Finnland

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23637
Publ.-Id: 23637


Pulsed-power high-field magnets for laser-driven proton therapy gantry systems

Karsch, L.; Cowan, T. E.; Enghardt, W.; Herrmannsdörfer, T.; Kroll, F.; Masood, U.; Schramm, U.; Schürer, M.; Pawelke, J.

please ask the authors

Related publications

  • Lecture (Conference)
    EAPPC with BEAMS and MEGAGAUSS 2016, 18.-22.09.2016, Estoril, Portugal

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23636
Publ.-Id: 23636


Ionization chamber collection efficiency in pulsed radiation fields of high pulse dose

Gotz, M.; Karsch, L.; Pawelke, J.

please ask the authors

Related publications

  • Poster
    AAPM 58th Annual Meeting, 31.07.-04.08.2016, Washington, DC, USA
  • Abstract in refereed journal
    Medical Physics 43(2016)6, 3316
    DOI: 10.1118/1.4955543

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23635
Publ.-Id: 23635


Entwicklung kompakter, gepulster Elektro-Dipolmagnete für die laserbasierte Protonentherapie

Schürer, M.; Herrmannsdörfer, T.; Karsch, L.; Kroll, F.; Masood, U.; Pawelke, J.

no abstract is available

Related publications

  • Lecture (Conference)
    Entwerfen Entwickeln Erleben – EEE2016, 30.06.-01.07.2016, Dresden, Deutschland
  • Contribution to proceedings
    Entwerfen Entwickeln Erleben – EEE2016, 30.06.-01.07.2016, Dresden, Deutschland
    Entwickeln - Entwerfen - Erleben 2016: Beiträge zur virtuellen Produktentwicklung und Konstruktionstechnik, Dresden: Verlag der Wissenschaften GmbH, TUDpress, 978-3-95908-062-0, 91-96

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Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23634
Publ.-Id: 23634


Preparation of in vivo radiobiological characterization of laser-driven proton beams

Karsch, L.; Baumann, M.; Beyreuther, E.; Brüchner, K.; Gotz, M.; Krause, M.; Leßmann, E.; Schmidt, M.; Schramm, U.; Schürer, M.; Pawelke, J.

please ask the authors

Related publications

  • Poster
    Annual ARR Meeting, 27.-29.06.2016, Leicester, Great Britain

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23633
Publ.-Id: 23633


A compact proton therapy facility concept for pulsed beams from high power laser accelerators

Masood, U.; Baumann, M.; Enghardt, W.; Hofmann, K. M.; Karsch, L.; Kroll, F.; Schramm, U.; Schürer, M.; Wilkens, J. J.; Pawelke, J.

please ask the authors

Related publications

  • Poster
    55th Annual Conference of the PTCOG, 22.-28.05.2016, Prague, Czech Republic
  • Open Access Logo Abstract in refereed journal
    International Journal of Particle Therapy 3(2016)1, 160
    DOI: 10.14338/IJPT.16-PTCOG-1.1

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23632
Publ.-Id: 23632


Novel Approach to utilize Proton Beams from High Power Laser Accelerators for Therapy

Masood, U.; Baumann, M.; Cowan, T. E.; Enghardt, W.; Herrmannsdörfer, T.; Hofmann, K. M.; Karsch, L.; Kroll, F.; Schramm, U.; Schürer, M.; Wilkens, J. J.; Pawelke, J.

please ask the authors

Related publications

  • Poster
    7th International Particle Accelerator Conference (IPAC), 08.-13.05.2016, Busan, South Korea
  • Contribution to proceedings
    7th International Particle Accelerator Conference (IPAC), 08.-13.05.2016, Busan, South Korea
    Proceedings of IPAC2016, 978-3-95450-147-2, 1-3

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23631
Publ.-Id: 23631


In-vivo Simulation of the Relative Biological Effectiveness in Proton Therapy Using a Monte Carlo Method

Oesten, H.; Loeck, S.; Helmbrecht, S.; Tillner, F.; Wohlfahrt, P.; Schuemann, J.; Luehr, A.

urpose: In proton therapy, the relative biological effectiveness (RBE) – compared with conventional photon therapy – is routinely set to 1.1. However, experimental in vitro studies indicate evidence for the variability of the RBE. To clarify the impact on patient treatment, investigation of the RBE in a preclinical case study should be performed.
Methods: The Monte Carlo software TOPAS was used to simulate the radiation field of an irradiation setup at the experimental beamline of the proton therapy facility (OncoRay) in Dresden, Germany. Simulations were performed on cone beam CT-data of a xenogeneous mouse with an orthotopic lung carcinoma obtained by an in-house developed small animal image-guided radiotherapy device. A homogeneous physical fraction dose of 1.8Gy was prescribed for the contoured tumor volume. Simulated dose and linear energy transfer distributions were used to estimate RBE values in the mouse based on an RBE model by Wedenberg et al. To characterize radiation sensitivity of normal and tumor tissue, α/β-ratios were taken from the literature for NB1RGB (10.1Gy) and human squamous lung cancer (6.2Gy) cell lines, respectively.
Results: Good dose coverage of the target volume was achieved with a spread-out Bragg peak (SOBP). The contra-lateral lung was completely spared from receiving radiation. An increase in RBE towards the distal end of the SOBP from 1.07 to 1.35 and from 1.05 to 1.3 was observed when considering normal tissue and tumor, respectively, with the highest RBE values located distal to the target volume.
Conclusion: Modeled RBE values simulated on cone beam CT-data for experimental preclinical proton therapy varied with tissue type and depth in a mouse and differed therefore from a constant value of 1.1. Further translational work will include, first, conducting preclinical experiments and, second, analogous RBE studies in patients using experimentally verified simulation settings for our clinically used patient-specific beam conforming technique.

Keywords: proton therapy; cancer; hadron therapy; RBE; radiobiology; lung cancer; orthotopic tumor model; Monte Carlo; TOPAS

  • Contribution to proceedings
    AAPM Annual Meeting, 31.07.-04.08.2016, Washington, DC, USA
    Medical Physics 43, 3621
    DOI: 10.1118/1.4956868

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23630
Publ.-Id: 23630


The specific sorption of Np(V) on the corundum (α-Al2O3) surface in the presence of trivalent lanthanides Eu(III) and Gd(III): a batch sorption and XAS study

Virtanen, S.; Bok, F.; Ikeda-Ohno, A.; Rossberg, A.; Lützenkirchen, J.; Rabung, T.; Lehto, J.; Huittinen, N.

The sorption of pentavalent neptunium, Np(V), on corundum (α-Al2O3) was investigated in the absence and presence of trivalent europium or gadolinium as competing element under CO2-free conditions. The objective of this study was to investigate how a trivalent metal ion with a higher charge than that of the neptunyl ion would affect the sorption of Np(V) when allowed to adsorb on the mineral surface before the addition of Np(V). Batch sorption experiments conducted as a function of pH (pH-edges) and as a function of Np(V) concentration (isotherms) in the absence and presence of 1×10-5 M Eu(III) showed no sign of Eu being able to block Np sorption sites. Surface complexation modelling using the diffuse double layer model was employed to the batch data to obtain surface complexation constants for the formed Np(V) complexes on corundum. To account for potential changes occurring in the coordination environment of the neptunium ion in the presence of a trivalent lanthanide, X-ray absorption spectroscopic (XAS) studies of samples containing only Np(V) or Np(V) and Gd(III) were conducted. The XAS-measurements reveal the presence of a bidentate Np(V) edgesharing complex on the corundum surface in the absence of Gd(III). In the presence of Gd(III) our Np(V) EXAFS data show a contraction of the Np-Al distance together with the formation of an additional peak that is not resolved in the absence of the competing metal. These differences might point toward a change in the Np(V) surface configuration on corundum when Gd(III) is added to the sample before Np(V).

Keywords: Np(V); Eu(III); Gd(III); sorption competition; batch sorption; EXAFS

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Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23628
Publ.-Id: 23628


Completing the nuclear reaction puzzle of the nucleosynthesis of 92Mo

Tveten, G. M.; Spyrou, A.; Schwengner, R.; Naqvi, F.; Larsen, A. C.; Eriksen, T. K.; Bellogarrote, F. L.; Bernstein, L. A.; Bleuel, D. L.; Crespo-Campo, L.; Guttormsen, M.; Giacoppo, F.; Görgen, A.; Hagen, T. W.; Hadynska-Klek, K.; Klintefjord, M.; Meyer, B. S.; Nyhus, H. T.; Renstrom, T.; Rose, S. J.; Sahin, E.; Siem, S.; Tornyi, T. G.

One of the greatest questions for modern physics to address is how elements heavier than iron are created in extreme, astrophysical environments. A particularly challenging part of that question is the description of the so-called p-nuclei, which are believed to be mainly produced in some types of supernovae.
In this work, we present for the first time measurements on the nuclear level density and average strength function of 92 Mo. State-of-the-art p-process calculations systematically underestimate the observed solar abundance. Our data provide stringent constraints on the 91 Nb(p,gamma92 Mo reaction rate, which is the last unmeasured reaction in the nucleosynthesis puzzle of 92 Mo. Based on our results, we conclude that the 92 Mo abundance anomaly is not due to the nuclear physics input.

Keywords: P-nuclei; p-process; nucleosynthesis; solar abundance; strength function; reaction rate

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23627
Publ.-Id: 23627


Comprehensive UV/vis and Infrared Studies of Light-induced Carbon Monoxide Release From Ruthenium(II) Complexes

Kubeil, M.; Vernooij, R. R.; Wood, B. R.; Stephan, H.; Graham, B.; Spiccia, L.

The use of carbon monoxide as a therapeutic agent has been demonstrated in pre-clinical trials, with CO-releasing molecules (CORMs) exhibiting anti-inflammatory, anti-proliferative, anti-apoptotic, anti-oxidative and vasodilatory effects. Organometallic compounds that can release CO in a highly controlled fashion under physiological conditions have therefore become a major field of scientific and medical research. Light-induced activation of CORMs is a controlled CO release approach that has received considerable attention. However, despite the number of photo-CORMs reported in the literature, their utility has been limited because excitation into the UV region results in low tissue penetrability and direct damage to healthy tissue. The challenge to extend the excitation wavelength further into the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum has led us to explore the application of ruthenium(II) -carbonyl complexes as photo-CORMs.
Herein, we report the synthesis of ruthenium(II)-carbonyl complexes (Figure 1) functionalized with bidentate polypyridyl ligands and investigate the mechanism of CO release (before and after light-activation) using a combination of spectral techniques (UV/Vis, FTIR and Raman spectroscopy). The photo-induced CO-release kinetics of the Ru(II)-photo-CORMs, as well as the identity of the intermediates and photo-activated products, will be presented. These results have important implications in guiding the design of new photo-CORMs activated by visible light.

  • Lecture (Conference)
    27th International Conference on Organometallic Chemistry (ICOMC), 17.-22.07.2016, Melbourne, Australia

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23626
Publ.-Id: 23626


Experimental investigations on a common centrifugal pump operating under gas entrainment conditions

Schäfer, T.; Neumann, M.; Bieberle, A.; Hampel, U.

This paper presents an experimental study on the effects of additional gas entrainment in centrifugal pumps designed for conveying liquid phases only. The pump performance has been evaluated for several gas entrainment conditions, and for various operational settings of the pump, such as its alignment and the rotational speed of the impeller. As a main performance indicator the impact of entrained gas on the hydraulic power of the pump has been analyzed using experimental data. Additionally, high-resolution gamma-ray computed tomography (HireCT) operated in time-averaged rotation-synchronized scanning mode has been applied to quantify local phase fraction distributions inside the rapidly rotating pump impeller. Based on these quantitative tomographic measurements, gas holdup profiles along selected streamlines have been calculated and gas accumulation areas inside the impeller chambers have been visualized. Thus, various internally accumulated gas holdup patterns have been identified and, eventually, associated with characteristic pump performance behaviors. Moreover, the tomographic measuring method allowed an enhanced gas holdup analysis in specified pump compartments. As a result, the related specific gas and liquid phase holdup profiles have been evaluated.

Keywords: centrifugal pump; gas entrainment; two-phase flow; gas holdup; gamma-ray computed tomography

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Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23625
Publ.-Id: 23625


Commissioning of a Compton Camera for particle beam range monitoring

Thirolf, P. G.; Aldawood, S.; Böhmer, M.; Bortfeldt, J.; Castelhano, I.; Dedes, G.; Enghardt, W.; Fiedler, F.; Gernhäuser, R.; Golnik, C.; Helmbrecht, S.; Hueso-González, F.; Kolff, H. V. D.; Kormoll, T.; Lang, C.; Liprandi, S.; Maier, L.; Marinšek, T.; Miani, A.; Pausch, G.; Petzoldt, J.; Pocevicius, M.; Römer, K.; Schaart, D. R.; Valencia-Lozano, I.; Parodi, K.

A Compton camera prototype for the position-sensitive detection of prompt γ rays from nuclear reactions between proton (or ion) beams and organic targets is being commissioned in Garching. The detector system is designed to allow for reconstructing the γ-source position from the Compton scattering kinematics of the primary photon as well as from tracking the Compton-scattered electron trajectory. The camera consists of a monolithic LaBr3(Ce) scintillation absorber crystal, read out by a 256-fold segmented multi-anode PMT and preceded by a stacked array of 6 double-sided silicon strip detectors acting as scatterers. The detector system has been calibrated and characterized in the laboratory as well as at different accelerator facilities, including clinical proton beams. Results from online commissioning runs will be presented, demonstrating excellent agreement between experimental prompt-γ spectra and Monte-Carlo simulations. Particular effort was dedicated to characterize the spatial resolution achievable with the monolithic LaBr 3 (Ce) scintillator when targeting the primary photon interaction position. Intense, tightly collimated 137Cs and 60Co sources were used for 2D irradiation scans as prerequisite for studying the performance of the “k-Nearest Neighbour”-algorithm developed in Delft and extending its applicability into the energy range beyond 511 keV. Systematic results of the monolithic scintillator’s spatial resolution will be presented as a function of the k-NN parameters (e.g. events per irradiation position) and the PMT segmentation, resulting in the realization of the presently optimum spatial resolution (3.8(2) mm @1.3 MeV) already for a reduced PMT segmentation (8x8). An outline of ongoing and planned further experimental activities and upgrade plans will be presented.
This work is supported by the DFG Cluster of Excellence MAP (Munich-Centre for Advanced Photonics).

Keywords: in-vivo dosimetry; prompt gamma; proton therapy; ion beam therapy; compton camera; cancer; radiooncology; imaging

  • Contribution to proceedings
    2016 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference (IEEE NSS/MIC), 29.10.-06.11.2016, Strasbourg, France

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23623
Publ.-Id: 23623


The inhibitory potency of polyoxometalates at P2X receptors

Spanier, C.; Abdelrahman, A.; Tang, J.; Hausmann, R.; Kortz, U.; Schmalzin, G.; Stephan, H.; Wang, W.; Müller, C. E.

P2X receptors are trimeric ligand-gated ion channels activated by ATP and permeable for cations such as Na+, K+ and Ca2+. Seven different subunits exist, assembled as homo- or heterotrimers of various stoichiometry.1 Polyoxometalates (POMs) are polynuclear metal-oxo anions of early transition metals in high oxidation states (e. g. W6+, Mo6+, V5+). This class of inorganic metal cluster compounds exhibits great variability with respect to shape, size, charge and composition.2 POMs bear several negative charges and in this respect resemble ATP, which binds to P2X receptors in its negatively charged state. We previously found that certain POMs can inhibit ATP-hydrolyzing ectonucleotidases.2-4 In the present study we investigated whether tungsten-containing POMs can interact with P2X receptors. A series of POMs was investigated for their ability to inhibit ATP-induced calcium influx in recombinant 1321N1 astrocytoma cells stably transfected with P2X receptor subtypes. Several POMs were found to be highly potent inhibitors of P2X receptors exhibiting low nanomolar potency. PEGylation of POMs to increase their metabolic stability was tolerated by the receptors. Structure-activity relationships at P2X receptor subtypes differed from those observed for ecto¬nucleotidases. The majority of POMs were found to be non-cytotoxic at pharmacologically active concentrations.

  • Poster
    Frontiers in Medicinal Chemistry (FiMC) Meeting 2016, 13.-16.03.2016, Bonn, Deutschland

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23622
Publ.-Id: 23622


Experimental and Theoretical Investigation of the Collection Efficiency of Air-Filled Ionization Chambers in Pulsed Radiation Fields of High Pulse Dose

Gotz, M.; Karsch, L.; Pawelke, J.

Ionization chambers are used in physical radiation research and are the most important dosimeters in radiation therapy. In this contribution an investigation of the collection efficiency by experiments and theoretical description is presented. The collection efficiency was measured for a plane-parallel advanced Markus ionization chamber (PTW 34045, 1 mm electrode spacing, 300 V nominal voltage), a chamber often used in clinical practice. The measurements were performed for collection voltages of 100 V and 300 V by irradiation with a pulsed electron beam of varied pulse dose up to approximately 600 mGy (0.8 nC liberated charge). These results are compared to existing descriptions of the collection efficiency and our own model based on a numeric solution by Euler method of a differential equation system modelling the processes within the chamber.
While the existing models accurately describe the collection efficiency at the lower collection voltage (100 V) they fail to reproduce the experimentally observed behavior at the higher collection voltage (300 V) particularly at high pulse doses. In contrast, our own numeric solution reproduces the collection efficiency at all tested voltages and pulse doses. This illustrates the importance of considering additional effects such as electric shielding by the liberated charges and field strength dependent attachment of electrons which are not considered in the existing models. Subsequently, the developed more accurate numeric solution might provide a valuable tool for future investigations.

Related publications

  • Poster
    Nuclear Science Symposium & Medical Imaging Conference, 29.10.-06.11.2016, Strasbourg, France

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23621
Publ.-Id: 23621


Small, but hitting the target – towards novel nanoparticle platforms for diagnostic cancer imaging

Zarschler, K.

For effective localization of functionalized nanoparticles at diseased tissues such as solid tumours or metastases through biorecognition, appropriate targeting vectors directed against selected tumour biomarkers are a key prerequisite. The diversity of such vector molecules ranges from proteins, including antibodies and fragments thereof, through aptamers and glycans to short peptides and small molecules.
The presented work focusses on the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) acting as a model receptor, since it is overexpressed and/or deregulated in a variety of solid tumours. Thus, bioconjugation of EGFR-specific single-domain antibodies (sdAbs) to different nanomaterials and characterization of sdAb-conjugates covering in vitro cancer cell imaging, cell proliferation as well as EGFR phosphorylation and signalling are described. The specificity of the sdAb-conjugates is investigated by way of receptor RNA silencing techniques with increasing complexity in vitro by introducing increasing concentrations of human or bovine serum. The results show that sdAb-functionalised nanomaterials can effectively target the EGFR, even in more complex bovine and human serum conditions where targeting specificity is largely conserved for increasing serum concentration. For highly affine targeting ligands such as sdAbs, targeting a receptor such as EGFR with low serum competitor abundance, receptor recognition function can still be partially realised in complex conditions. Moreover, sdAb-mediated biorecognition of EGFR is not restricted to particular nanomaterials, but was observed to work efficiently in combination with a variety of materials.

  • Lecture (others)
    Eingeladener Vortrag am Institut für Chemie der Universität Zürich, Schweiz, 29.01.2015, Zürich, Schweiz

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23620
Publ.-Id: 23620


Small, but hitting the target – towards novel nanoparticle platforms for diagnostic cancer imaging

Zarschler, K.

For effective localization of functionalized nanoparticles at diseased tissues such as solid tumours or metastases through biorecognition, appropriate targeting vectors directed against selected tumour biomarkers are a key prerequisite. The diversity of such vector molecules ranges from proteins, including antibodies and fragments thereof, through aptamers and glycans to short peptides and small molecules.
The presented work focusses on the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) acting as a model receptor, since it is overexpressed and/or deregulated in a variety of solid tumours. Thus, bioconjugation of EGFR-specific single-domain antibodies (sdAbs) to different nanomaterials and characterization of sdAb-conjugates covering in vitro cancer cell imaging, cell proliferation as well as EGFR phosphorylation and signalling are described. The specificity of the sdAb-conjugates is investigated by way of receptor RNA silencing techniques with increasing complexity in vitro by introducing increasing concentrations of human or bovine serum. The results show that sdAb-functionalised nanomaterials can effectively target the EGFR, even in more complex bovine and human serum conditions where targeting specificity is largely conserved for increasing serum concentration. For highly affine targeting ligands such as sdAbs, targeting a receptor such as EGFR with low serum competitor abundance, receptor recognition function can still be partially realised in complex conditions. Moreover, sdAb-mediated biorecognition of EGFR is not restricted to particular nanomaterials, but was observed to work efficiently in combination with a variety of materials.

  • Lecture (others)
    Eingeladener Vortrag am Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, 27.11.2014, Melbourne, Australien

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23619
Publ.-Id: 23619


Specific nanoparticle targeting of the EGF-receptor using single-domain antibodies

Zarschler, K.; Rocks, L.; Mahon, E.; Prapainop, K.; Stephan, H.; Dawson, K. A.

Introduction
For effective localization of functionalized nanoparticles at diseased tissues such as solid tumors or metastases through biorecognition, appropriate targeting vectors directed against selected tumor biomarkers are a key prerequisite. The diversity of such vector molecules ranges from proteins, including antibodies and fragments thereof, through aptamers and glycans to short peptides and small molecules.
In the presented work we analyze the specific nanoparticle targeting capabilities of a small camelid single-domain antibody (sdAb), representing a potential recognition agent for the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR).

Methods
Bioconjugation of EGFR-specific sdAbs to different nanomaterials and characterization of sdAb-conjugates covering in vitro cancer cell imaging, cell proliferation as well as EGFR phosphorylation and signaling are described. The specificity of the sdAb-conjugates is investigated by way of receptor RNA silencing techniques with increasing complexity in vitro by introducing increasing concentrations of human or bovine serum.

Results and Discussion
The results show that sdAb-functionalized nanomaterials can effectively target the EGFR, even in more complex bovine and human serum conditions where targeting specificity is largely conserved for increasing serum concentrations. For highly affine targeting ligands such as sdAbs, targeting a receptor such as EGFR with low serum competitor abundance, receptor recognition function can still be partially realized in complex conditions. Moreover, sdAb-mediated biorecognition of EGFR is not restricted to particular nanomaterials, but was observed to work efficiently in combination with a variety of materials.

  • Lecture (Conference)
    ICONAN 2016 - International Conference on Nanomedicine and Nanobiotechnology 2016, 28.-30.09.2016, Paris, Frankreich

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23618
Publ.-Id: 23618


Gastric Bypass Surgery Recruits a Gut – Striatal Dopamine Pathway to Reduce Fat Appetite in Obese Rats

Hankir, M. K.; Seyfried, F.; Hintschich, C. A.; Diep, T. A.; Kleberg, K.; Kranz, M.; Deuther-Conrad, W.; Tellez, L. A.; Rullmann, M.; Patt, M.; Teichert, S.; Sabri, O.; Brust, P.; Hansen, H. S.; de Araujo, I. E.; Krügel, U.; Fenske, W. K.

Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) surgery produces well-documented improvements in maladaptive feeding behaviors, yet the underlying mechanisms remain ill-defined. As recognized mediators of fat intake, we evaluated the functional requirement of gut lipid-sensing and striatal dopamine signaling on healthier fat appetite after RYGB. We found that surgical rerouting of intestinal fat passage mobilized jejunal/ileal production of the dietary fat-derived molecule oleoylethanolamide (OEA). Vagal afferents link intestinal OEA signaling to nigrostriatal function. RYGB-treatment increased in vivo dorsal striatal dopamine release and dopamine-1-receptor density under conditions of high-fat meal consumption independently of bodyweight. Moreover, blocking OEA, vagal and dorsal striatal dopamine signaling all reversed the beneficial effects of surgery on fat appetite. Our findings suggest that RYGB re-sensitizes gut lipid-sensing to modify brain reward circuits compromised in obesity.

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23617
Publ.-Id: 23617


In vivo demonstration of an active tumor pretargeting approach with peptide nucleic acid bioconjugates as complementary system

Leonidova, A.; Foerster, C.; Zarschler, K.; Schubert, M.; Pietzsch, H.-J.; Steinbach, J.; Bergmann, R.; Metzler-Nolte, N.; Stephan, H.; Gasser, G.

Aim
The ability of early-stage diagnosis of tumor malignancies and personalized treatment ultimately relies on the availability of highly tumor-affine compounds with purposeful pharmacological profile. Although monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) specifically bind to tumor-associated epitopes, the conventional concept of directly radiolabeled tumor-specific mAb has several drawbacks most prominently the prolonged radiation exposure of non-cancerous tissue. However, the concept of tumor pretargeting allows for the rational use of long-circulating high-affinity mAbs for non-invasive cancer radioimmunodetection and therapy. Our work describes a successful tumor pretargeting utilizing an EGFR-specific mAb and peptide nucleic acid (PNA) derivatives as the complementary system for specific radionuclide delivery to pretargeted tumor tissue.

Methods
After chemical synthesis, purification and detailed characterization of the individual components including antibody-PNA conjugates and different PNA oligomers, biodistribution studies were carried out using healthy Wistar rats. Finally, the pretargeting approach was evaluated in murine A431 tumor xenografts by single photon emission computed tomography.

Results
After optimizing the pharmacokinetic properties of PNA oligomers and investigating their hybridization properties, we elaborated a versatile conjugation protocol based on coupling a cysteine-functionalized PNA oligomer to a maleimido-functionalized mAb. The in vivo studies demonstrated a rapid and efficient accumulation of activity at the tumor site with a tumor-to-muscle ratio of > 8 and clearly distinguishable tumor visualization.

Conclusion
This successful tumor pretargeting study has demonstrated the high potential of this concept by applying radiolabeled complementary PNA strands as an alternative in vivo recognition and radionuclide transporting system. The next step involves the translation of these results to the application of therapeutic relevant radionuclides.

  • Lecture (Conference)
    NuklearMedizin 2016 - 54. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Nuklearmedizin e.V., 20.-23.04.2016, Dresden, Deutschland

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23616
Publ.-Id: 23616


Single-domain antibodies for specific nanoparticle targeting of the EGF-receptor

Zarschler, K.

For effective localization of functionalized nanoparticles at diseased tissues such as solid tumours or metastases through biorecognition, appropriate targeting vectors directed against selected tumour biomarkers are a key prerequisite. The diversity of such vector molecules ranges from proteins, including antibodies and fragments thereof, through aptamers and glycans to short peptides and small molecules.
The presented work focusses on the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) acting as a model receptor, since it is overexpressed and/or deregulated in a variety of solid tumours. Thus, bioconjugation of EGFR-specific single-domain antibodies (sdAbs) to different nanomaterials and characterization of sdAb-conjugates covering in vitro cancer cell imaging, cell proliferation as well as EGFR phosphorylation and signalling are described. The specificity of the sdAb-conjugates is investigated by way of receptor RNA silencing techniques with increasing complexity in vitro by introducing increasing concentrations of human or bovine serum. The results show that sdAb-functionalised nanomaterials can effectively target the EGFR, even in more complex bovine and human serum conditions where targeting specificity is largely conserved for increasing serum concentration. For highly affine targeting ligands such as sdAbs, targeting a receptor such as EGFR with low serum competitor abundance, receptor recognition function can still be partially realised in complex conditions. Moreover, sdAb-mediated biorecognition of EGFR is not restricted to particular nanomaterials, but was observed to work efficiently in combination with a variety of materials.

  • Invited lecture (Conferences)
    Scientific Symposium "Targeting tumor angiogenesis with antibody-based technologies", 08.06.2015, Madrid, Spanien

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23615
Publ.-Id: 23615


Diagnostic and therapeutic targeting of EGF-receptor positive cancer cells using single-domain antibodies

Zarschler, K.

Single-domain antibodies (sdAbs) provide several advantages over classical antibodies and fragments thereof. Due to their small size and strict monomeric appearance combined with other important properties such as high solubility and stability as well as high specificity and affinity for the respective antigen, these proteins have been identified as attractive targeting moieties for molecular imaging and drug delivery. Furthermore, sdAbs are easily engineered into bivalent and bispecific constructs by genetic in-frame joining of two identical or two different sdAbs, respectively. This results in increased antigen binding through avidity effects and in enhanced construct specificity by simultaneous interaction with two different antigens, respectively.
In addition to intrinsic agonistic or antagonistic effects on their target, sdAbs appear to be ideally suited to create novel tailored derivatives equipped with innovative effector functions. The chemical or genetic linkage of sdAbs to accessory effector moieties such as toxins and enzymes results in a new class of target-specific anticancer therapeutics. Thereby, the sdAb guides the effector moiety to the diseased tissue, where it carries out its particular function.
Herein the application of radiolabelled epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) specific sdAbs as in vivo molecular imaging tracers as well as their intrinsic antagonistic effects on tumor cells will be described. Furthermore, the construction and characterisation of sdAb-based therapeutics will be exemplified. Thus, this contribution sheds light on the future application of sdAb derivatives in the field of cancer diagnosis and therapy.

  • Lecture (Conference)
    PACHIFICHEM 2015, 15.-20.12.2015, Honolulu, USA

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23614
Publ.-Id: 23614


Ultra-fast Thermal Processing

Rebohle, L.; Schumann, T.; Prucnal, S.; Skorupa, W.

Thermal processing in the subsecond range comprises modern, non-equilibrium annealing techniques which allow various material modifications at the surface without affecting the bulk. Flash lamp annealing (FLA) is one of the most diverse methods of short time annealing with applications ranging from the classical field of semiconductor doping to the treatment of polymers and flexible substrates. The presentation focuses on several FLA aspects which are especially important for thin film applications. In detail, it briefly introduces to the technological background, deals with the broad subject of temperature distributions and addresses constraints and other process issues like thermal stress or homogeneity. Finally, an overview of the various applications of FLA is given.

Keywords: flash lamp annealing; pulsed light sintering; semiconductors

  • Invited lecture (Conferences)
    The International Conference on Coatings on Glass and Plastics, 12.-16.06.2016, Braunschweig, Deutschland

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23613
Publ.-Id: 23613


Subsecond thermal processing with flash lamps: equipment and modelling issues

Schumann, T.; Rebohle, L.; Skorupa, W.

This contribution presents an overview of the complex technical aspects of flash-lamp-annealing-tools for thermal processing in the millisecond range used at the Helmholtz Research Center Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR). It outlines that Flash Lamp Annealing (FLA) is established as a high-performance alternative to Rapid Thermal Annealing and Furnace Annealing when it comes to treatment of the most advanced thin layer and coating materials, thus enabling the fabrication of novel electronic structures and materials classes. It shows the unique variety of parameters the HZDR is able to provide for applications ranging from annealing of implanted Si and Ge, transparent conductive oxides, photovoltaic materials, silver and copper inks on various non-metal substrates to exceptional applications (roof tiles, watchcases). It explains, how crucial parameters, such as emission spectrum, energy density, and preheat temperature are monitored to provide a reliable reproducibility. Modelling aspects regarding temperature distribution and heat transport within the millisecond range will also be addressed. Furthermore, a summary will be given of characteristic features of our tools to convey the diversity of the fields of application and the enormous range of possible research.

Keywords: flash lamp annealing

  • Poster
    The International Conference on Coatings on Glass and Plastics, 12.-16.06.2016, Braunschweig, Deutschland

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23612
Publ.-Id: 23612


Flash lamp annealing for low-cost transparent conducting oxide layers

Rebohle, L.; Mathey, A.; Prucnal, S.; Wiesenhütter, K.; Vines, L.; Lindberg, P.; Svensson, B.; Bregolin, F. L.; Skorupa, W.

Aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) is one of the most promising transparent conductive oxide material which is characterized by low resistivity, high transparency and most of all, by low cost of fabrication. AZO thin-films were deposited on p-type Si wafers via r.f. magnetron sputtering either at room temperature or at 400 °C followed by a thermal treatment in the millisecond range using flash lamp annealing (FLA). It is shown that FLA enhances the electrical activation of Al and minimizes secondary phase formation during post-deposition annealing. In addition, the optoelectronic and microstructural properties of the FLA treated samples are independent on the deposition temperature. As FLA is a cost-effective, easily scalable high-throughput technology, these results opens the possibility for a further, desirable cost reduction of the overall fabrication process.

Keywords: flash lamp annealing; doping; zinc oxide; transparent conducting oxide

  • Poster
    The International Conference on Coatings on Glass and Plastics, 12.-16.06.2016, Braunschweig, Deutschland

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23611
Publ.-Id: 23611


X-ray spectroscopic study of the chemical state of “invisible” Au in synthetic minerals in the Fe-As-S system

Trigub, A. L.; Tagirov, B. R.; Kvashnina, K. O.; Chareev, D. A.; Nickolsky, M. S.; Shiryaev, A. A.; Baranova, N. N.; Mokhov, E. V. Kovalchuk A. V.

Minerals of the Fe-As-S system are ubiquitous components of Au ores in many deposits of hydrothermal origin, including world-class volcanogenic massive sulfide, low-temperature epithermal and mesothermal ones. The “invisible” (or refractory) form of Au is present in all types of hydrothermal ores and in many cases predominates. Knowledge of the “invisible” Au chemical state (local atomic environment/structural position, electronic structure and oxidation state) is a fundamental problem crucial for understanding conditions of the ore formation, is necessary for physical-chemical modeling of hydrothermal Au mineralization, and will help to create more efficient technologies of ore concentration and Au extraction. We report investigation of the “invisible” Au chemical state in synthetic analogues of natural minerals: pyrite (FeS2), arsenopyrite (FeAsS), and löllingite (FeAs2). The compounds were synthesized using hydrothermal (pyrite) and salt flux techniques (all the minerals) and studied using X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy (XAFS) in high energy resolution fluorescence detection (HERFD) mode in combination with first-principles quantum chemical calculations. The concentration of the “invisible” Au in the synthesized löllingite (800±300 ppm) was much higher compared to arsenopyrite (23±14 ppm), whereas the lowest Au content with zonal Au concentration profiles was observed in crystals of salt flux pyrite. The concentration of Au in the hydrothermal pyrite (40-90 ppm) is independent on sulfur fugacity and probably reflects the maximum Au solubility at the experimental P/T parameters (450 °C, 1 kbar). It is shown that Au replaces Fe in structure of löllingite, arsenopyrite, and hydrothermal pyrite. The nearest-neighbors Au-ligand distance increases by 0.14 Å (pyrite), 0.16 Å (löllingite), and 0.23 (As), 0.13 (S) Å for arsenopyrite relative to Fe-ligand distance in pure compounds. Distortion of the local atomic structure around the Au is negatively correlated with the distance and disappears at r > ~4 Å. The chemically bound Au is stable only in hydrothermal pyrite, whereas the pyrite synthesized in the absence of hydrothermal fluid contains only Au°. Heating (metamorphism) of hydrothermal pyrite results in decomposition of the chemically bound Au with formation of Au° nuggets which coarsen with temperature. Depending on chemical composition of the host mineral Au can play a role either of cation or anion: the Bader atomic partial charges of Au decrease in the order of pyrite (+0.4 e) > arsenopyrite (0) > löllingite (-0.4 e). Our results suggest that other noble metals (platinum group elements, Ag) can form the chemically bound refractory admixture in base metal sulfides/chalcogenides. The chemical state, as well as the concentration, of this form of noble metals can differ depending on the composition of the host mineral and the ore history.

Keywords: invisible gold; pyrite; arsenopyrite; löllingite; synthetic minerals; X-ray absorption spectroscopy; atomic charges

Downloads

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23610
Publ.-Id: 23610


Microbial Influence on Bentonite-Transformation

Matschiavelli, N.; Steglich, J.; Arnold, T.; Cherkouk, A.

Bentonites are clay silicates consisting mostly of montmorillonite. Due to their mineral composition, bentonites are characterized by a high swelling capacity and low hydraulic conductivity. Therefore, Bentonite is a promising raw material for serving as a natural clay barrier for the disposal of highly radioactive waste. To address the question, whether and to which extend microbial activity affects the respective parameters, selected bentonites can be supplied with a pore water solution and afterwards incubated for short- and long-term analyses at different temperatures in order to simulate the evolution of microbial activity and the resulting impact on Bentonite-transformation. For characterization the respective Bentonite samples will be analyzed considering their geochemistry, molecular biology and mineralogy – three divisions that influence each other directly. We expect that the obtained results could reveal variations in microbial diversity and a correlation with changes of geochemical parameters which could affect the composition and solubility of minerals, and furthermore the beneficial properties of bentonite. The gained information can be further used to indicate a trend in bentonite transformation, which is a prerequisite for evaluating the influence of prokaryotes on safety-relevant processes and properties in radioactive waste repositories.

  • Contribution to proceedings
    MIND Project Annual Meeting, 03.-04.05.2016, Granada, Spain
  • Lecture (Conference)
    MIND Project Annual Meeting, 03.-04.05.2016, Granada, Spain
  • Poster
    MIND Project Annual Meeting, 03.-04.05.2016, Granada, Spain

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23609
Publ.-Id: 23609


Clinical Validation of a New Digital Spectrometer System for Range Verification in Proton Therapy

Werner, T.; Petzoldt, J.; Hueso-González, F.; Berthold, J.; Rinscheid, A.; Enghardt, W.; Pausch, G.

Particle therapy is a promising technique for cancer treatment because of the characteristic dose deposition of protons in matter. As an alternative method to conventional photon therapy, it allows a precise irradiation of the tumor volume in the patient body, while sparing healthy, radiosensitive organs.
However, body modifications during the treatment period hinder the precise positioning of the Bragg peak in the target volume, and thus limits the accuracy of proton therapy.
These uncertainties and the lack of a suitable monitoring system, which should control the range in vivo and real-time during the irradiation, make it necessary to establish broad safety margins around the irradiated volume in the patient body. This decreases the effectiveness of the therapy and reduces the benefits compared to conventional photon therapy. To counteract this, many solutions for a clinically applicable system for online range verification are under discussion. One approach is the Prompt Gamma Timing (PGT) method. The energy-resolved timing spectra of the detected photons encode the range information of the primary protons and allow a real time range verification [1]. The concept of PGT was developed and tested in first experiments, which confirm that PGT is a promising method for range assessment [2]. Especially the simplicity of the concept according to the experimental implementation justifies a further development with special focus on clinical applications.

  • Lecture (Conference)
    IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference, 29.10.-06.11.2016, Strasbourg, France

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23608
Publ.-Id: 23608


Field-Induced Magnonic Liquid in the 3D Spin-Dimerized Antiferromagnet Sr3Cr2O8

Wang, Z.; Quintero-Castro, D. L.; Zherlitsyn, S.; Yasin, S.; Skourski, Y.; Islam, A. T. M. N.; Lake, B.; Deisenhofer, J.; Loidl, A.

We report on ultrasound and magnetization studies in three-dimensional, spin-dimerized Sr3Cr2O8 as a function of temperature and external magnetic field up to 61 T. It is well established [A. A. Aczel et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 207203 (2009)] that this system exhibits a magnonic-superfluid phase between 30 and 60 T and below 8 K. By mapping ultrasound and magnetization anomalies as a function of magnetic field and temperature we establish that this superfluid phase is embedded in a domelike phase regime of a hightemperature magnonic liquid extending up to 18 K. Compared to thermodynamic results, our study indicates that the magnonic liquid could be characterized by an Ising-like order but has lost the coherence of the transverse components.

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23607
Publ.-Id: 23607


Characterization of a fast timing and energy spectroscopy system for real-time range verification in particle therapy

Rinscheid, A.; Berthold, J.; Enghardt, W.; Golnik, C.; Fiedler, F.; Hueso-González, F.; Kormoll, T.; Petzoldt, J.; Römer, K.; Werner, T.; Wolf, A.; Reichert, D.; Pausch, G.

A compact high-throughput gamma-ray timing and energy spectrometry systems has been characterized with respect to time and energy resolution at detector loads up to 1.5 Mcps by using 0.1-12.5 MeV bremsstrahlung and a common radioactive source. The detection system, developed for range assessment in particle therapy based on the Prompt Gamma-Ray Timing (PGT) technique, consist of a commercial ⌀2”×1” or ⌀2”×2” CeBr 3 scintillation detector with photomultiplier readout (Scionix), coupled to a digital plug-on spectrometer (U100) by Target Systemelektronik. The excellent time structure of the bremsstrahlung beam at ELBE (HZDR) allowed measuring the system time resolution simultaneously for 0.1-12 MeV photons. Also, the beam current and thus the detector load could be varied in a wide range. The energy resolution was determined in parallel with a 60 Co-source attached to the detector. Source and bremsstrahlung photons were separated by means of cuts in the timing spectra measured against the accelerator RF. The detection system could demonstrate a time resolution of < 260 ps (FWHM) for energies above 3 MeV with the smaller crystal, and an energy resolution of < 3.7% at 1.173 MeV for both crystals, up to detector loads of 1.4 Mcps and a corresponding system throughput of ~ 600 kcps. This fits well with the design goals of the detection system. Corresponding units shall be used for measuring PGT spectra during patients treatments with proton beams, in order to verify the proton beam range for single beam spots in Pencil Beam Scanning (PBS) mode. Range verification is considered a key for reducing margins and for improving precision and health outcome of particle therapy.

Related publications

  • Lecture (Conference)
    2016 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference, 29.10.-06.11.2016, Strasbourg, France

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23606
Publ.-Id: 23606


Ultraschall zur Bestimmung von Partikelbewegungen in flüssigem Metall

Hoppe, D.; Strumpf, E.

In flüssigem Metall schwebende Partikel können Echos von Ultraschall verursachen. Aus solchen Echos wird versucht, die entlang der Schallausbreitung vorkommenden Partikelbewegungen zu rekonstruieren. Konkret sind damit die Positionen gemeint, welche die Partikel vertikal oberhalb des Schallwandlers als Funktionen der Zeit einnehmen. Anhand solcher Funktionen soll dann auf Strömungsvorgänge im flüssigen Metall geschlossen werden.

Keywords: Flüssigmetall; Ultraschall; Partikelbewegungen

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23605
Publ.-Id: 23605


Use of Target Capsules for Radiolabeling of Platinum Nanoparticles with a Modified Nirta® Solid Target Station (Cyclone 18/9)

Franke, K.

The increased use of nanoparticles (NP) in technical processes and consumer products requires a comprehensive and thorough nanosafety research. Challenging is the sensitive and selective detection of NP in different environments. Here radiolabeling offers a unique tool for even in situ detection of NP for nanosafety studies. Often radiotracers are introduced into NP via the NP synthesis process. Highest activity concentrations are achievable. However, this strategy requires careful characterization of the synthesized NP to allow a comparison with the commercially available NP. Mostly there is very little detailed knowledge about the commercial synthesis process. The direct activation of NP can overcome this limitation. In this study we present the use of a Cyclone 18/9 for the activation of 10 nm Pt-NP. The activation yields into the NP labeling with Au radionuclides.

Keywords: Platinum nanoparticles; Cyclotron; Radiolabeling; Targetry; Gold radioisotopes

  • Lecture (Conference)
    16th International Workshop on Targetry and Target Chemistry (WTTC16), 29.08.-01.09.2016, Santa Fe, USA

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23604
Publ.-Id: 23604


Measurement of the 92,93,94,100Mo(γ,n) reactions by Coulomb Dissociation

Göbel, K.; Adrich, P.; Altstadt, S.; Alvarez-Pol, H.; Aksouh, F.; Aumann, T.; Babilon, M.; Behr, K.-H.; Benlliure, J.; Berg, T.; Böhmer, M.; Boretzky, K.; Brünle, A.; Beyer, R.; Casarejos, E.; Chartier, M.; Cortina-Gil, D.; Chatillon, A.; Pramanik, U. D.; Deveaux, L.; Elvers, M.; Elze, T. W.; Emling, H.; Erhard, M.; Ershova, O.; Fernandez-Dominguez, B.; Geissel, H.; Górska, M.; Heftrich, T.; Heil, M.; Hellstroem, M.; Ickert, G.; Johansson, H.; Junghans, A. R.; Käppeler, F.; Kiselev, O.; Klimkiewicz, A.; Kratz, J. V.; Kulessa, R.; Kurz, N.; Labiche, M.; Langer, C.; Bleis, T. L.; Lemmon, R.; Lindenberg, K.; Litvinov, Y. A.; Maierbeck, P.; Movsesyan, A.; Müller, S.; Nilsson, T.; Nociforo, C.; Paar, N.; Palit, R.; Paschalis, S.; Plag, R.; Prokopowicz, W.; Reifarth, R.; Rossi, D. M.; Schnorrenberger, L.; Simon, H.; Sonnabend, K.; Sümmerer, K.; Surówka, G.; Vretenar, D.; Wagner, A.; Walter, S.; Waluś, W.; Wamers, F.; Weick, H.; Weig, M.; Winckler, N.; Winkler, M.; Zilges, A.

The Coulomb Dissociation (CD) cross sections of the stable isotopes 92,94,100 Mo , of the unstable isotope 93 Mo were measured at the L, /R 3 B setup at GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt, Germany. Experimental data on these isotopes may help to explain the problem of the underproduction of 92,94 Mo , 96,98 Ru in the models of p-process nucleosynthesis. The CD cross sections obtained for the stable Mo isotopes are in good agreement with experiments performed with real photons, thus validating the method of Coulomb Dissociation. The result for the reaction 93 Mo(γ,n) is especially important since the corresponding cross section has not been measured before. A preliminary integral Coulomb Dissociation cross section of the 94 Mo(γ,n) reaction is presented. Further analysis will complete the experimental database for the (γ,n) production chain of the p-isotopes of molybdenum.

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23603
Publ.-Id: 23603


Radiation dosimetry of the α4β2 nicotinic receptor ligand (+)-[18F]Flubatine, comparing preclinical PET/MRI and PET/CT to first-in-human PET/CT results

Kranz, M.; Sattler, B.; Tiepolt, S.; Wilke, S.; Deuther-Conrad, W.; Donat, C.; Fischer, S.; Patt, M.; Schildan, A.; Patt, J.; Smits, R.; Hoepping, A.; Steinbach, J.; Sabri, O.; Brust, P.

Background: Both enantiomers of [18F]flubatine are promising radioligands for neuroimaging of α4β2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors with positron emission tomography (PET) exhibiting promising pharmacokinetics which makes them attractive for different clinical questions. Ina previous preclinical study, the main advantage of (+)-[18F]flubatine compared to (-)-[18F]flubatine was its higher binding affinity suggesting that (+)-[18F]flubatine might be able to detect also slight reductions of α4β2 nAChRs and could be more sensitive than (-)-[18F]flubatine in early stages of Alzheimer's disease. To support the clinical translation, we investigated a fully image-based internal dosimetry approach for (+)-[18F]flubatine, coparing mouse data collected on a preclinical PET/MR system to piglet and first-in-human data acquired on a clinical PET/CT system. Time-activity curves (TACs) were obtained from the three species, the animal data extrapolated to human scale, exponentially fitted and the organ doses (OD), and the effective dose (ED) calculated with OLINDA.

Results: The excreting organs (urinary bladder, kidneys, and liver) receive the highest organ doses in all species. Hence, a renal/hepatobiliary excretion pathway can be assumed. In addition, the ED conversion factors of 12.1 µSv/MBq (mice), 14.3 µSv/MBq (piglets) and 23.0 µSv/MBq (humans) were calculated which are well within the order of magnitude as known from other 18F-labeled radiotracers.

Conclusion: Although both enantiomers of [18F]flubatine] exhibit different binding kinetics in the brain due to the respective affinities, the effective dose revealed no enantiomer-specific differences among the investigated species. The preclinical dosimetry and biodistribution of (+)-[18F]flubatine was shown and the feasibility of a dose assessment based on image data acquired on a small animal PET/MR and a clinical PET/CT was demonstrated. Additionally, the first-in-human study confirmed the tolerability of the radiation risk of (+)-[18F]flubatine imaging which is well within the range as caused by other 18F-labeled tracers. However, as shown in previous studies, the ED in humans is underestimated by up to 50 % using preclinical imaging for internal dosimetry. This fact needs to be considered when applying for first-in-human studies based on preclinical biokinetic data scaled to human anatomy.

Keywords: Image-based internal dosimetry; (+)-[18F]flubatine; Preclinical hybrid PET/MRI; OLINDA/EXM; Dosimetry; Nicotinic receptors; Radiation safaty

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23602
Publ.-Id: 23602


THEREDA, the thermodynamic reference database for a nuclear waste disposal in Germany

Bok, F.; Moog, H. C.; Altmaier, M.; Voigt, W.; Thoenen, T.

The disposal of nuclear waste including the assessment of long-term safety is still an open question in Germany. In addition to the still pending decision about the repository host rock (salt, granite, or clay) the basic necessity of a consistent and obligatory thermodynamic reference database persists. Such a database is essential to assess potential failure scenarios accurately and to make well-founded predictions about the long-term safety. Specific challenges are comprehensive datasets covering also high temperatures and salinities. Against this background, available databases do not suffice and are limited in their use, partly because of high restrictions and resulting incompleteness of reactions. Other databases rely on heterogeneous and therefore inconsistent data leading to incorrect model calculations. Due to these deficiencies THEREDA, a joint project of institutions leading in the field of safety research for nuclear waste disposal in Germany and Switzerland, was started in 2006.
THEREDA contains a relational databank whose structure has been designed in a way that promotes the internal consistency of thermodynamic data. Data considered cover the needs of Gibbs Energy Minimizers (ChemApp) and Law-of-Mass-Action programs (Geochemist’s Workbench, EQ3/6, PHREEQC) alike. Parameters for a variety of models describing interactions in mixed phases are included. Namely the Pitzer parameters to describe activity coefficients of hydrated ions and molecules are considered. Both thermodynamic and interaction parameters can be described by temperature functions.
THEREDA offers evaluated thermodynamic data for many compounds (solid phases, aqueous species, or constituents of the gaseous phase) of elements relevant according to the present state of research. In particular, all oxidation states expected for disposal site conditions are covered.
Ready-to-use parameter files are created from the databank in a variety of formats (generic ASCII type, and formats required by the geochemical speciation codes) and offered to the users. They are also used for internal test calculations – one essential element of the quality assurance scheme. The results are documented and provided to the users.
THEREDA is accessible via internet through www.thereda.de. This is not only a portal to the database, but shall also serve as an information and discussion platform on issues concerning the database. Thus we are confident to generate helpful feedback from the anticipated user community.

Keywords: THEREDA; Modelling; Solubility; Pitzer; Thermodynamic; Database

  • Poster
    17 International Symposium on Solubility Phenomena and Related Equilibrium Processes (ISSP17), 24.-29.07.2016, Geneva, Schweiz

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23600
Publ.-Id: 23600


Oxygen solubility modelling in water and brines

Bok, F.; Moog, Helge C.

Dissolved molecular oxygen influences the chemistry of various redox reactions in the aqueous solution e.g. corrosion processes, microbial activity or the immobilisation of radionuclides. In the presence of dissolved oxygen, the poorly soluble (hydro)oxides of reduced actinides, e.g. U(OH)₄(am), PuO₂(am/cr) get oxidized and these elements become more soluble in water. Furthermore, the activity of dissolved oxygen is used as redox parameter in common geochemical codes (i.e. Geochemist’s Workbench®). Thus, the correct prediction of the O₂ solubility in water and saline solutions is necessary for the correct modelling of redox processes in water and in brines especially.
For reasons of consistency, the few existing sets of O₂-ion interaction coefficients for the Pitzer model cannot be used in combination with the THEREDA Pitzer model for the oceanic salt system and would result in wrong gas solubility calculation’s results. Therefore, a new and consistent set of solubility parameters was deduced using published O₂ solubility data in water and binary and ternary salt solutions from ~100 literature references.
First a critical review of the published data on oxygen solubility in water and salt solutions has been performed. Using these data, the temperature function of the O₂ Henry’s constant could be obtained valid for the temperature range 273–618 K. Then a consistent set of Pitzer interaction coefficients including its temperature function’s parameters was deduced for the calculation of the amount of dissolved oxygen in aqueous solution and brines. All parameters have been determined using the geochemical speciation software PHREEQC coupled with the parameter estimation software UCODE-2005.
A self-consistent set of Pitzer interaction coefficients for the description of oxygen solubility in binary and some ternary salt solutions could be obtained for the system Na⁺, K⁺, H⁺, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺ / Cl⁻, SO₄²⁻, CO₃²⁻, PO₄³⁻, OH⁻ - H₂O(l). For the chloride and the sulphate subsystems, temperature function parameters could be obtained to describe the temperature dependency of the O₂ solubility in these salt solutions.

Keywords: Saline solutions; Redox; Oxygen; Pitzer; Solubility

  • Lecture (Conference)
    17 International Symposium on Solubility Phenomena and Related Equilibrium Processes (ISSP17), 24.-29.07.2016, Geneva, Schweiz

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23599
Publ.-Id: 23599


Application of solvent extraction to environmental science - Identification of radioactive contaminants in surface water

Ikeda-Ohno, A.

Solvent extraction is a very traditional but still a very versatile technique with a variety of applications. This presentation will focus on the application of solvent extraction particularly to the environmental science associated with radioactive contamination.

Keywords: Solvent extraction; separation; surface water; environmental science; speciation; actinides; radionuclides; radioactive contamination

  • Invited lecture (Conferences)
    Interdisciplinary German-Japanese Symposium iJaDe2016 - 2nd German-Japanese Microsymposium "Solvent Extraction: From Fundamentals to Applications", 10.05.2016, Dresden, Germany

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23598
Publ.-Id: 23598


High Conductivity in Molecularly p-doped Diketopyrrolopyrrole–Based Polymer: the Impact of a High Dopant Strength and Good Structural Order

Karpov, Y.; Erdmann, T.; Raguzin, I.; Al-Hussein, M.; Binner, M.; Lappan, U.; Stamm, M.; Gerasimov, K. L.; Beryozkina, T.; Bakulev, V.; Anokhin, D. V.; Ivanov, D. A.; Günther, F.; Gemming, S.; Seifert, G.; Voit, B.; Kiriy, A.

[3]-Radialene-based dopant CN6-CP studied herein, with its reduction potential of +0.8 vs Fc/Fc+ and LUMO level of -5.88 eV, is the strongest molecular p-dopant reported in open literature so far. The efficient p-doping of the donor-acceptor copolymer PDPP(6-DO)2TT having the HOMO level of -5.5 eV was achieved which confirmed by UV-vis-IR spectroscopy studies and DFT calculations. Films of PDPP(6-DO)2TT doped by CN6-CP exhibit electrical conductivities up to 50 S/cm which is one of the highest conductivity for molecularly doped semiconducting polymers. The high conductivity is attributed to a good structural order in the doped polymer as confirmed by x-ray scattering studiesdue and its high doping level. CN6-CP shows a relatively good thermal stability up to 280°C and it withstands sublimation in vacuum which makes it potentially suitable for the doping of small semiconducting molecules processed by vacuum evaporation techniques. The superior electron affinity of CN6-CP significantly broadens the range of semiconductors that can be used in devices in the p-doped state.

Keywords: p-dopant; conjugated polymer; electrical conductivity; organic electronics

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23597
Publ.-Id: 23597


Hopping Based Charge Transfer in Diketopyrrolopyrrole Based Donor-Acceptor Polymers: A Theoretical Study

Günther, F.; Gemming, S.; Seifert, G.

Diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) based materials have recently been considered as promising candidates for novel organic electronics.
In this article, we report an investigation on intermolecular charge transfer between DPP based polymers.

We use Marcus transfer theory and evaluate the required quantities, the reorganization energy and the coupling, by density functional-based tight binding (DFTB) calculations.
Since the coupling is dependent on the stacking geometry we employ an energy-weighted statistical approach to derive a single quantity, which can been entered in the Marcus formula.
This value contains the variation of the coupling when the stacking conformation is changed.
The application of this method, as we implement it in this study, does not require a detailed analysis of the energy landscape, but samples over large number of stacking possibilities on a regular, but very dense grid into account.
These average values can been used to analyze isomeric effects such as the orientation of units, the influence of the molecular structure as functionalization, or the importance of stacking properties as parallel and anti-parallel stacking.
The obtained results show that enhanced charge carrier mobilities can be achieved when specific molecular configurations are considered rather than by working with a set of random orientations.

Keywords: Diketopyrrolopyrrole; Hopping; Electronic Transfer; Marcus theory; density functional based tight binding

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23596
Publ.-Id: 23596


Lutetium Fine Silicate (LFS): A new scintillator for range-verification applications in oncology

Roemer, K.; Pausch, G.; Bemmerer, D.; Fahmy, K.; Golnik, C.; Hueso-Gonzalez, F.; Iltzsche, M.; Lutz, B.; Petzoldt, J.; Weinberger, D.; Fiedler, F.

Proton therapy facilities are built all around the world for optimized cancer treatments. In order to fully exploit the advantages of this therapy, a proton range verification is mandatory. The most promising advances use either the positron emission tomography (PT-PET) approach or the prompt gamma emissions caused by nuclear reactions (by means of passive collimation, Compton cameras or prompt gamma timing). Gamma ray detectors in this field face unique requirements: Good properties with respect to energy, time and spatial resolution even when operated with high counting rates in rather high background environments.
Lutetium Fine Silicate (LFS) is a novel scintillation material which is especially designed for PET applications. Thus, in this work, the characteristics of LFS are determined for energy ranges which match the requirements of the prompt gamma ray monitors (i.e. up to 8 MeV). The usage of different photodetectors (i.e. PMT or Silicon-based read-out), depending on the particular application, is discussed.

Keywords: Scintillator; Photodetector; Proton range monitor

Related publications

  • Lecture (Conference)
    2016 IEEE NSS/MIC, 29.10.-06.11.2016, Strasbourg, France
  • Poster
    2016 IEEE NSS/MIC, 30.10.-05.11.2016, Strassbourg, France

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23595
Publ.-Id: 23595


Determination of stability constants of selected U(VI) flavonol complexes by absorption and emission spectroscopy

Günther, A.; Geipel, G.

Flavonols are polyphenol compounds, which belong to the class of flavonoids. They are produced by plants and can be segregated by the root into the soil. Flavonols can bind metals, e.g. Co, Fe, Ni, Al, Zn and Pb due to the presence of the carbonyl group on the gamma-pyranone ring and the hydroxyl groups as substituents in different positions of the whole organic molecule. The interactions of these polyphenols with radioactive metals have been studied very rare up to now. In this work first results of spectroscopic investigations of the U(VI) complexation by flavonols with several number of hydroxyl groups and glycosidic substituent are presented and discussed. The flavonols and their U(VI) complexes have specific absorption bands and emission signals in the UV-Vis range, which were used for the calculation of deprotonation constants of organic ligands and of the stability constants of the formed U(VI) flavonol complexes in methanolic solution.

Keywords: Flavonol; Uran(VI); complexation; absorption; emission

  • Poster
    Biometals, 10.-15.07.2016, Dresden, Germany

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23594
Publ.-Id: 23594


Mobilisation of metals from Kupferschiefer sensu strictu in neutral to alkaline environment using bulk and biotechnologically produced organic acids

Kostudis, S.; Kutschke, S.; Pollmann, K.

The European Kupferschiefer deposits constitute a challenging local resource of a broad spectrum of metals such as copper, manganese, molybdenum, silver and zinc. In order to exploit them both efficiently and environmentally benignly, biotechnological leaching approaches are investigated. Commonly used acidophilic bioleaching is limited by high carbonate content of up to 18 % resulting in an increased pH value of more than 2. Hence, alternative processes such as neutral leaching are tested. Experiments were aiming at metal solubilisation using glutamic and citric acid as bulk chemicals, as well as biotechnologically produced citric acid. Subsequently, mobilisation of Cu, Mn, Mo, Co, Zn, Ga, Ag, Au, Ni and Pt has been reported. Results show that mostly the use of organic acids in neutral to alkaline pH range performs better in metal solubilisation than in acidic milieu.

Keywords: Kupferschiefer; black shale; leaching; organic acid; copper; trace metals; mobilisation

  • Contribution to proceedings
    Biohydrometallurgy '16, 20.-22.06.2016, Falmouth, United Kingdom
    Proceedings of Biohydrometallurgy '16

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23593
Publ.-Id: 23593


OECD PKL3 Project - Final Report on the ROCOM Tests

Kliem, S.; Franz, R.

In the frame of the OECD PKL 3 Project three groups of experiments have been conducted at the HZDR coolant mixing test facility ROCOM.
The first series concerned the influence of the coolant mixing in the reactor pressure vessel on the Natural Circulation Interruption (NCI). For that purpose boundary conditions (mass flow rates and temperatures in the individual loops at the inlet of the RPV) have been derived for subsequent tests in the ROCOM test facility on coolant mixing inside the pressure vessel. The ROCOM tests were designed to address the fluid/fluid mixing of hot and cold water in the RPV downcomer and in the lower plenum and the temperature distribution at the core inlet. A series of three quasi-stationary experiments was carried out. Boundary conditions were taken from the PKLIII test H4.1 (Schoen, 2014).
The second test series was dedicated to the investigation of the mixing of unborated coolant which is injected into the reactor pressure vessel in the late phase of an accident. It is assumed that the standard sources of the emergency core cooling water are not available. Unborated water is injected to ensure the core cooling. Due to the injection of unborated water, an occurrence of re-criticality in the shut-down reactor is threatening. This possible re-criticality depends in a dominant manner on the mixing of the injected water with the high-borated coolant in the reactor pressure vessel. The ROCOM experiments provided an insight into the mixing and therefore allow drawing corresponding conclusions.
The last series (consisting of one experiment) was on the investigation of the thermal-hydraulic behavior inside the RPV during the ECC-injection from ACCU into the cold leg of loop 1. It is based on the PKLIII test H3.1, which objective was to explore the effectiveness of ECC-injections from ACCU to restore operating conditions of RHRS during the core heat-up phase. The test H3.1 addressed the failure of RHRS under cold shut-down condition with open RCS (RPV closure head removed). Experimental results at the RPV inlet from the PKLIII test H3.1 Run 1 Phase C were used as boundary conditions for the corresponding ROCOM test.
Altogether six ROCOM tests have been conducted within the OECD PKL3 Project.
The current report describes the results of all tests.

  • Article, self-published (no contribution to HZDR-Annual report)
    Forschungszentrum Rossendorf 2016
    HZDR\FWO\2016\01
    118 Seiten
    ISSN: 2191-8708, eISSN: 2191-8716

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23591
Publ.-Id: 23591


Reduction of Uranium(VI) by isolated, anaerobic microorganisms from the flooding water of the former uranium mine Königstein (Saxony/Germany)

Gerber, U.; Krawczyk-Bärsch, E.; Scheinost, A. C.; Arnold, T.

The former uranium mine Königstein (Saxony, Germany) is currently in the process of remediation. The under-ground is flooded in a controlled way, and the flooding water is cleaned up in an elaborate waste water treat-ment plant. Despite high uranium concentrations up to 13 mg/L and a low pH of 2.9, these waters contain a high microbial diversity as detected by culture-independent methods [1]. Microorganisms are known to interact with metals and radionuclides in different ways [2]. As a result, microorganisms can change the chemical behavior of metals and radionuclides. Anaerobic bacteria which are able to gain energy from the reduction of several metals are known to change the redox state of radionuclides. For instance, anaerobic sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) reduce U(VI) to U(IV) and thus change the migration behavior from the more soluble U(VI) into the insoluble U(IV) [3]. For that reason, these anaerobic living bacteria are able to use U(VI) as energy source. Genomic sequence analysis of the flooding water of Königstein revealed the presence of such anaerobic SRB. By culture dependent methods it was possible to isolate anaerobic microorganisms from the flooding water. They were then incubated with 10 mM glycerol using the flooding water as background solution. The uranium concentration was about 13 mg/L. During an incubation time of six weeks the redox potential decreased from 660 mV to 300 mV. After four and six weeks of incubation, the cells were separated from the incubation medium by centrifugation and then analyzed by U-LIII edge EXAFS (extended X-ray absorption fine structure) and XANES (X-ray absorption near edge structure) measurements. By Iterative Target-Factor Analysis (ITFA) we determined that
100 % of U(VI) was reduced to U(IV). Simultaneously, investigations of the supernatant with UV-vis resulted in the same findings. The results show that naturally occurring anaerobic microorganisms within the flooding water of the former uranium mine Königstein are able to reduce U(VI) to U(IV).

REFERENCES

1. Zirnstein, I., Charakterisierung der mikrobiellen Biozönose im sauren Grubenwasser des ehemaligen Uranbergwerks Königstein, Institut für Ressourcenökologie, Dissertation, 2015, TU Dresden: Dresden.
2. Lloyd, J.R.M., L. E. , Interactions of microorganisms with radionuclides. Elsevier Science. 2002.
3. Lovley, D.R., et al., Enzymatic Iron and Uranium Reduction by Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria. Marine Geology, 1993. 113(1-2): p. 41-53.

Keywords: Uranium; Reduction; Bioremediation; Sulfate-reducing bacteria

Related publications

  • Lecture (Conference)
    10th International Biometals Symposium, 10.-15.07.2016, Dresden, Deutschland

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23590
Publ.-Id: 23590


Evidence of uranium uptake in Acidovorax facilis cells by TRLFS and EF-TEM/EELS

Krawczyk-Bärsch, E.; Gerber, U.; Steudtner, R.

For bioremediation of uranium contaminated environments from activities such as uranium mining and uranium processing, microorganisms could be important due to their ability to immobilize radionuclides and heavy met-als. Since the main public concern is the possibility of radionuclide escaping and migrating into groundwater, there is an intense interest in the development of effective remediation methods. The aim is to improve biore-mediation strategies, based on a better understanding of binding mechanisms on the molecular level.

For our studies we used Acidovorax facilis (formerly Pseudomonas facilis), an aerobic Gram-negative Betapro-teobacteria, which is commonly found in soil. Experiments were performed in batch cultures under aerobic con-ditions at 25 °C using nutrient broth. The cells were grown to an optical density (OD600) of around 1.5. For U(VI) biosorption experiments the cultures were washed 2 times with tap water and then resuspended in tap water. After that UO2(NO3)2 was added to the solution to achieve an initial uranium concentration of 0.05 and 0.1 M, respectively, at a neutral pH range. The duration of the sorption experiments were limited to 48 h. As a re-sponse to uranium stress Acidovorax f. were forming extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) resulting in the formation of cell agglomerates. For separating the EPS from the bacteria, the cell agglomerates were ultra-centrifuged (40.000 x g) for 2 h at 10 °C. The cell pellet was used for time-resolved laser fluorescence spectros-copy (TRLFS). The U(VI) luminescence at 274 K was measured after excitation with laser pulses at 266 nm and with an average pulse energy of 300 μJ. The emitted fluorescence light of the cell pellet was recorded using an iHR550 spectrograph and an ICCD camera in the 370 – 670-nm wavelength range by averaging 100 laser pulses and using a gate of 2000 µs. The measured emission spectrum of the pellet is characterized by five emission bands. Their peak maxima were observed at 481.2, 497.8, 519.5, 544.1 and 569.3 nm ± 0.5 nm. In addition, the spectra of the Uranyl-complexes of lipopolysaccharide (R−O−PO3−UO2) and peptidoglycan (R−COO−UO2) were used for comparison. The reference spectra display band positions at 481.5, 498.1, 519.6, 542.9 and 567.5 nm for pH 4 [1] as well as 481.6, 498.1, 518.0, 539.0 and 566.0 nm for pH 4 [2], respectively. They show only a small deviation from those observed in our studies with the best agreement by those of the Uranyl-lipopolysaccharide-complex. Hence, it can be concluded that phosphoryl groups may be the main binding sites for uranyl, located in the lipopolysaccharide Acidovorax f. cells. But, at this moment it is not clear if it is bound on carboxylic functionality groups either.

Acidovorax f. cells were prepared for Energy-filtered transmission electron microscopy (EF-TEM) and electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) by following the routine embedding protocol as described in [3]. The results provide microscopically and spectroscopically evidence of Uranium sorbed at the outer membrane of Acidovorax f. cells by showing high electron density and U ionization intensity peaks. The results support the TRLFS measurements and contribute to a better understanding of the binding mechanisms of U(VI) on Acidovorax f. cells.

[1] Barkleit, A. et al. (2008) Dalton Transaction, 2879–2886.
[2] Barkleit, A. et al. (2009) Dalton Transaction, 5379–5385.
[3] Lünsdorf, H. et al. (2001) Methods in Enzymology 331, 317–331.

Keywords: Uranium; TRLFS; Acidovorax facilis; TEM-EELS

  • Poster
    BioMetals 2016, 10th International Biometals Symposium, 10.-15.07.2016, Dresden, Germany

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23589
Publ.-Id: 23589


U(VI) reduction by anaerobic microorganisms isolated from the flooding water of the former uranium mine Königstein (Saxony)

Gerber, U.; Röder, G.; Krawczyk-Bärsch, E.; Arnold, T.; Scheinost, A. C.

The former uranium mine Königstein (Saxony, Germany) is currently in the process of remediation. The underground is flooded in a controlled way, and the flooding water is cleaned up in a dedicated waste water treatment plant. Despite high U concentrations up to 13 mg/L and a low pH of 2.9, these waters contain a high microbial diversity as detected by culture-independent methods. Microorganisms are known to interact with metals and radionuclides in different ways [1]. Anaerobic bacteria which are able to gain energy from the reduction of several metals, are known to change the redox state of metals and radionuclides. For instance, anaerobic sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) reduce U(VI) to U(IV) and thus change the migration behavior from the more soluble U(VI) into the less soluble U(IV) [2]. Genomic sequence analysis of the flooding water revealed the presence of such anaerobic SRB. By culture-dependent methods it was possible to isolate anaerobic microorganisms from the flooding water. They were incubated with 10 mM glycerol using the flooding water as background medium. During an incubation time of six weeks the redox potential decreased from 660 mV to 300 mV. After four and six weeks of incubation, the cells were separated from the incubation medium by centrifugation and than analyzed by U-LIII edge EXAFS (extended X-ray absorption fine structure) and XANES (X-ray absorption near edge structure) measurements. By Iterative Target-Factor Analysis (ITFA) we determined that 100 % of U(VI) was reduced to U(IV). Simultaneously, investigations of the supernatant with UV-vis resulted in the same findings. The results show that naturally occurring anaerobic microorganisms within the flooding water of the former uranium mine Königstein are able to reduce U(VI) to U(IV).

1. Lloyd, J.R.M., L. E. , Interactions of microorganisms with radionuclides. Elsevier Science. 2002.
2. Lovley, D.R., et al., Enzymatic Iron and Uranium Reduction by Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria. Marine Geology, 1993. 113(1-2): p. 41-53.

Keywords: Uranium; Reduction; Sulfate-reducing bacteria; Bioremediation

  • Lecture (others)
    5. Workshop - TransAqua, 06.-07.04.2016, Dresden, Deutschland

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23587
Publ.-Id: 23587


Speciation studies of Rn/Ln with selected degradation products of organic LILW – New spectroscopic insights into the uranyl-acetate system –

Brinkmann, H.; Moll, H.; Arnold, T.

Organic polymers (e.g. cellulose, PVC, bitumen) present in low and intermediate level wastes (LILW) are exposed to ionizing radiation, alkaline pH, and organic degrading microorganisms. This may lead to the formation of smaller, water soluble organic compounds, affecting amongst others the chemical behavior and mobility of radionuclides (RN). In the worst case complexation will lead to an increased mobility and a decreased retention of RN in the barriers of a nuclear waste disposal. Therefore, the characterization of RN complexes with degradation products is necessary for the assessment of the safety and the long-term performance of a nuclear waste repository.
The presentation will give an overview of our planned activities in cooperation with our partners (UNIMAN, SCK·CEN, and UGR) to contribute to task 1.2 of WP 1. Here our focus and expertise lies on the application of different modern spectroscopic tools to directly characterize the speciation of Rn/Ln with organic degradation products and/or with selected microbes, to underpin the findings from UNIMAN and SCK·CEN. Current results obtained by TRLFS, cryo-TRLFS, and UV-vis giving new insights into the uranyl-acetate system will be presented.

Keywords: Uranium; Acetate; TRLFS; UV-vis; MIND

  • Lecture (others)
    MIND Project Annual Meeting 2016, 02.-04.05.2016, Granada, Spain

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23586
Publ.-Id: 23586


Development of a functional assay for the prediction of NP net removal rates in WWT

Schymura, S.; Hildebrand, H.; Franke, K.

Within recent years the growing application of nanoparticles (NPs) in products of everyday life caused raising concerns about their potential risks for humans and environment. Environmental concentrations of manufactured nanoparticles are predicted to be low, but significant. Key players in regulating NP influx into the environment are wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). The development of removal guidelines and a NP classification based on their likely fate in wastewater treatment (WWT) is mandatory to support WWTP operating companies and regulating agencies.
A potential approach based on suitable functional assays is developed within the project NanoSuppe in cooperation with an US-EPA initialized round robin test with various partners in the US. The idea is to use a simple test program to establish NP affinity coefficients with activated sewage sludge to predict net removal rates during WWT.
Within NanoSuppe, different NPs, such as TiO2, CeO2, MWCNT and Quantum dots, are radiolabeled for easy and highly sensitive detection and employed in batch sorption experiments with activated sludge from a local WWTP. Based on the theory developed by Barton et al., NP affinities for NP hetero-aggregation with the activated sludge are measured from the time-dependent sorption behavior and used as a means of categorizing NP in different groups.
We found that the results of such functional assays depend very much on the experimental setup, such as composition of the dispersion medium (or matrix solution) and consequently NP surface modification (which is to be expected). There is also a significant influence of mixing times and, more dominant, shaking intensity. One of the key parameters is the initial colloidal stability of the NPs in the used media. A suitable procedure that best reflects the situation during WWT is desirable and the predictive strength concerning net removal rates during WWT is to be verified in WWTP model experiments.

Keywords: Nanopartikel; nanoparticle; Kläranlage; Wastewater Treatment Plant; Heteroaggregation; Heteroaggregation

  • Poster
    Clustertreffen NanoCare, 03.-04.05.2016, Frankfurt am Main, Deutschland

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23585
Publ.-Id: 23585


Polyglycerol-Based Copper Chelators for the Transport and Release of Copper Ions in Biological Environments

Albrecht, R.; Fehse, S.; Pant, K.; Nowag, S.; Stephan, H.; Haag, R.; Tzschucke, C. C.

Here, the synthesis and characterization of three improved nanosystems is presented based on amino functionalized hyperbranched polyglycerol (hPG; M w = 16.8 kDa) as potential copper( II ) chelators. The ligands, N -methyl- N -picolylglycine amide, 2,6-pyridine dicarboxylic acid monoamide, and cyclam tetraacetic acid (TETA) monoamide, are covalently attached to the polymer with amide bonds. In this paper, the Cu( II ) loading capacity, the stability of the Cu( II )- loaded carriers at different pHs, with competing ligands and in human serum, as well as the transport of Cu( II ) in biological systems are investigated. For the fi rst time, a different cytotoxicity of functionalized polymer nanoparticles with and without Cu( II ) is observed. The cyclam-based carrier combines the highest loading capacity (29 Cu ions/nanoparticle), best stability with respect to pH and EDTA (45% remaining Cu after 24 h), lowest cytotoxicity (IC 50 > 100 × 10 −6 M (unloaded), 1500 × 10 −6 M Cu( II ); Cu:carrier 29:1), and the highest stability in human serum.

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23584
Publ.-Id: 23584


Direct and Auger electron-induced, single- and double-strand breaks on plasmid DNA caused by 99mTc-labeled pyrene derivatives and the effect of bonding distance

Reissig, F.; Mamat, C.; Steinbach, J.; Pietzsch, H.-J.; Freudenberg, R.; Kotzerke, J.; Wunderlich, G.

It is evident that 99mTc causes radical-mediated DNA damage due to Auger electrons, which were emitted simultaneously with the known γ-emission of 99mTc. We have synthesized a series of new 99mTc-labeled pyrene derivatives with varied distances between the pyrene moiety and the radionuclide. The pyrene motif is a common DNA intercalator and allowed us to test the influence of the radionuclide distance on damages of the DNA helix. In general, pUC 19 plasmid DNA enables the investigation of the unprotected interactions between the radiotracers and DNA that results in single-strand breaks (SSB) or double-strand breaks (DSB). The resulting DNA fragments were separated by gel electrophoresis and quantified by fluorescent staining. Direct DNA damage and radical-induced indirect DNA damage by radiolysis products of water were evaluated in the presence or absence of the radical scavenger DMSO.
We demonstrated that Auger electrons directly induced both SSB and DSB in high efficiency when 99mTc was tightly bound to the plasmid DNA and this damage could not be completely prevented by DMSO, a free radical scavenger. For the first time, we were able to minimize this effect by increasing the carbon chain lengths between the pyrene moiety and the 99mTc nuclide. However, a critical distance between the 99mTc atom and the DNA helix could not be determined due to the significantly lowered DSB generation resulting from the interaction which is dependent on the type of the 99mTc binding motif. The effectiveness of the DNA-binding 99mTc-labeled pyrene derivatives was demonstrated by comparison to non-DNA-binding 99mTcO4–, since nearly all DNA damage caused by 99mTcO4– was prevented by incubating with DMSO.

Keywords: Auger emitter; 99mTc; plasmid DNA; pyrene; direct DNA damage; radiobiology; DNA

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23583
Publ.-Id: 23583


Energy Resolution Improvement through Digital Pulse Shape Analysis at CdZnTe-Cross-Strip-Detectors

Weinberger, D.; Fiedler, F.; Kormoll, T.

CdZnTe is a semiconductor material with very good properties for gamma-ray detection. A relatively large band gap of 1.57 eV allows the use at room temperature without any additional cooling. Since holes are nearly immobile compared to electrons in CdZnTe, spectroscopic readout requires special techniques which reduce the depth dependence of the signal. One possibility is to apply an anode pattern which exploits the small pixel effect which induces a signal as the charge cloud is very close to the anode. However, a small current is already induced as the charge cloud travels the bulk. The additional drift current will be accumulated at the charge sensitive preamplifier and influences the base line determination algorithm and results in an additional energy input. We present a simple approach to eliminate the influence of this drift current with the use of pulse shape discrimination implemented in an FPGA of a sampling ADC board. With this algorithm and the known transfer function of the preamplifier a proper depth correction is possible to improve the spectral resolution.

Keywords: CdZnTe; detectors; Energy Resolution Improvement

  • Contribution to proceedings
    2016 IEEE NSS/MIC/RTSD, 29.10.-06.11.2016, Strasbourg, Frankreich
    Proceedings of 2016 IEEE NSS/MIC/RTSD
  • Poster
    2016 IEEE NSS/MIC/RTSD, 29.10.-06.11.2016, Strasbourg, Frankreich

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23581
Publ.-Id: 23581


ESR modes in a Strong-Leg Ladder in the Tomonaga-Luttinger Liquid Phase

Zvyagin, S.; Ozerov, M.; Maksymenko, M.; Wosnitza, J.; Honecker, A.; Landee, C. P.; Turnbull, M.; Furuya, S.; Giamarchi, T.

es hat kein Abstract vorgelegen

  • Lecture (Conference)
    APS March Meeting 2016, 14.-18.03.2016, Baltimore, USA

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23580
Publ.-Id: 23580


Numerical simulation of liquid metal batteries

Weber, N.; Beckstein, P.; Galindo, V.; Herreman, W.; Landgraf, S.; Nore, C.; Stefani, F.; Weier, T.

Considering the increasing deployment of renewable energies, large-scale stationary energy storage will be a key-technology for the future. One potentially ideal grid-scale energy storage system is the liquid metal battery (LMB), consisting of a totally liquid interior. The long life time and abundant raw materials of LMBs offer a very cheap way of building batteries.

Building LMBs cheap means to make them large. Strong currents in the order of kA will drive a fluid flow, which may increase the battery's performance, or lead to a short circuit in the worst case.

A numerial model for describing the MHD fluid flow is presented and used to describe the Tayler instability, electro-vortex flow and interface instabilities in LMBs.

  • Lecture (others)
    Vortrag am Departament de Física Aplicada an der Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 26.04.2016, Barcelona, Spanien

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23578
Publ.-Id: 23578


Open Access-Transformationsinitiative "OA2020"

Reschke, E.

Vorstellung der Open Access Transformationsinitiative OA2020

Keywords: Open Access; OA2020; publication fees; author publication charge; White Paper; DEAL

  • Lecture (others)
    Arbeitskreis Spezialbibliotheken Dresden - Frühjahrstreffen,, 20.04.2016, Dresden, Deutschland

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23577
Publ.-Id: 23577


Kerndatensatz Forschung

Reschke, E.

Vorstellung der Kategorien, die sich auf das Publizieren beziehen.

Keywords: Kerndatensatz; Research; Publications

  • Lecture (others)
    Arbeitskreis Spezialbibliotheken Dresden - Frühjahrstreffen, 20.04.2016, Dresden, Deutschland

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23576
Publ.-Id: 23576


A novel scheme of Compton imaging for nuclear medicine

Pausch, G.; Golnik, C.; Schulz, A.; Enghardt, W.

The paper introduces a novel concept of gamma imaging, the Single-Plane Compton Imager (SPCI). An SPCI is a compact array of scintillation crystals with separate light readouts, arranged for example in a checkerboard configuration. The passive collimation of conventional gamma cameras is replaced by kind of a “soft” electronic collimation derived from the Compton kinematics. In contrast to Compton cameras, where individual scattering angles are determined event-by-event from coincident energy depositions in separate detector planes, the SPCI reconstructs activity distributions from accumulated “conditional” spectra by using Maximum Likelihood Expectation Maximization algorithms. The condition is a coincident energy deposition in two (adjacent) detector elements of a single plane, which occurs most likely due to Compton scattering in one element followed by absorption in the other one. The SPCI could overcome drawbacks of Anger and Compton cameras: (i) Image resolution and detection efficiency are no competing factors. Both improve with increasing detector area. (ii) The fraction of valid events per hit exceeds that of passively collimated systems or Compton cameras by orders of magnitude. (iii) A single detector construction could fit to a wide range of gamma energies. Last not least, optimal SPCI pixels sizes fit with pixel dimensions in PET scanners. SPCI could thus be based on recent detector developments for PET-MRI featuring individual Si-based pixel readouts.

Keywords: Gamma Kamera; Anger Kamera; Compton Kamera; SPECT; Szintillator; Bildgebung; Bildrekonstruktion; MLEM; Gamma camera; Anger camera; Compton camera; SPECT; scintillator; imaging; image reconstruction; MLEM

  • Lecture (Conference)
    IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference, 28.10.-06.11.2016, Strasbourg, France
  • Contribution to proceedings
    2016 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference, 29.10.-05.11.2016, Strasbourg, France
    2016 IEEE NSS/MIC Conference Record
    DOI: 10.1109/NSSMIC.2016.8069921
    Cited 3 times in Scopus

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23575
Publ.-Id: 23575


Redox dependent interfacial reactivity of hexavalent radionuclides

Hellebrandt, S.; Knope, K. E.; Lee, S. S.; Lussier, A. J.; Stubbs, J. E.; Eng, P. J.; Soderholm, L.; Fenter, P.; Schmidt, M.

A solid comprehension of the geochemical behavior of radionuclides on a molecular level is essential to make reliable long-term predictions about the safety of a nuclear waste repository. The mobility of radionuclides in the environment and thus their hazard potential will also be controlled by the reactivity at the water/mineral interface. In order to understand these processes analytical methods shall ideally be both surface specific and sensitive. X-ray reflectivity techniques, particularly resonant anomalous X-ray reflectivity (RAXR) and crystal truncation rod (CTR) measurements have proved to be a successful combination to investigate geochemical interfacial regimes (Fenter 2002).
Plutonium is one of the most important radionuclides in term of nuclear waste disposal due to its long half-life period and high radiotoxicity. That’s why it has been subject of different studies over the last decades. While these studies could show an enhancement of the mobility of plutonium in the presence of colloidal matter, the formation of Pu(IV)-nanoparticles is still content of ongoing research (Walther & Deneke 2013). Recently, Schmidt et al. suggested a surface-catalyzed formation due to an enhanced concentration of Pu(III) at the surface in equilibrium with a small amount of Pu(IV). Part of the current study was to proof the viability of this mechanism, but also to investigate the interfacial reactivity of Pu’s various oxidation states.
The interaction of UO2 2+ and PuO2 2+ with muscovite mica and the effect on the actinides’ different redox properties were investigated using a combination of surface X ray diffraction, alpha spectrometry and grazing-incidence X-ray adsorption near-edge structure (GI-XANES) spectroscopy. Although, U(VI) often is used as a homologue for Pu(VI), this study show a completely different behavior of Pu(VI) and U(VI). Starting with a Pu(VI) solution, Pu(IV)-nanoparticles were formed and adsorbed on the mineral surface. The suggested formation mechanism is similar to that of Pu(III). No such adsorption or nanoparticle formation was observed for U. Our results reveal major differences between Pu and U concerning redox and adsorption behavior, influencing their mobility in the environment. Regarding the prediction of the fate of these contaminants’ in aqueous systems their different interfacial behavior is of importance. This in turn significantly effects the quality of predictions of the allocation of these contaminants in aqueous systems.

  • Lecture (Conference)
    2nd Conference on Key Topics in Deep Geological Disposal, 26.-28.09.2016, Köln, Deutschland

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23574
Publ.-Id: 23574


The microbiology of subsurface, salt-based nuclear waste repositories: Toward a realistic prediction of the microbial effects on repository performance

Swanson, J.; Cherkouk, A.; Bader, M.; Reed, D.

Only two countries in the world—Germany and the United States—currently host nuclear waste facilities in subterranean salt formations, although the concept is gaining traction in other countries, as well. The evaluation of such sites for their feasibility as waste repositories is extensive and multidisciplinary. Microbiology has been one of the weaker areas of investigation, and as a result, there is still uncertainty surrounding the possible effects of microbial activity on salt-based repository performance.
The success of a nuclear waste repository is measured as its ability to prevent the release of radionuclides into the surrounding environment or to limit that release to levels deemed acceptable by the appropriate regulatory agencies and public. Microorganisms are predicted to have diverse effects on nuclear waste repository performance, all of which involve their impact on radionuclide migration. These effects are due to any activities that may affect radionuclide speciation, solubility, or mobility, including 1) complexation with carbonate or organic ligands generated from the breakdown of organic waste; 2) complexation with microbially-generated ligands; 3) creation of a reducing environment through the consumption of oxygen or generation of hydrogen; 4) alteration of pH; 5) redox reactions; and 6) bioassociation that could lead to biocolloid transport.
Because the biogeochemistry of other deep geologic (e.g., granite, clay) settings differs significantly from subterranean salt, it is not possible to extrapolate microbial activity from one site type to the other. However, because of a lack of data, this is precisely what has been done in most safety case scenarios in salt. Thus, performance models assume the worst-case scenario: that the organisms present in rock salt will thrive on the organics present in the radioactive waste, leading to the generation of complexing agents that enhance radionuclide solubility, and that they will take up significant amounts of radionuclides and transport them away from the repository. The goal of current research being conducted by Los Alamos National Laboratory for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) and by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf for the German repository concept, is to provide a more realistic view of the potential effects of microorganisms on salt-based nuclear waste repositories.
To reach this goal, both laboratories have been performing coordinated, culture-dependent and independent studies on halite and briny groundwater samples from the Salado Formation (US) and the Zechstein Formation (Germany). Isolates (e.g., Halobacterium sp., putatively noricense,
and others) undergo further investigation into their ability to degrade specific organic waste components (e.g., citrate, cellulose) under repository-relevant conditions and into their potential interactions with waste radionuclides (e.g., uptake, toxicity, and transformation). Results thus far suggest: 1) that the activity of repository-indigenous organisms will be constrained by the projected conditions (brine composition, anoxic atmosphere) and also by the lack of suitable organic substrates but that organisms located in the far-field (overlying briny groundwaters) will not; 2) that some organisms alter brine composition in ways that may affect radionuclide solubility; 3) that the radionuclides present in the waste are inhibitory, but not completely lethal, at their soluble concentrations in repository brine; and 4) that bioassociation of radionuclides appears to differ with oxidation state, organism, and brine composition.
An overview of our current knowledge regarding the microbial impact on salt-based nuclear waste repository performance will be presented and will emphasize the much-needed collaboration between those doing basic halophile research and those applying it in non-routine settings.

  • Lecture (Conference)
    Halophiles 2016, 22.-27.05.2016, San Juan, Puerto Rico

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23573
Publ.-Id: 23573


The Role of Calcite in Nuclear Waste Disposal Sites

Hellebrandt, S. E.; Hofmann, S.; Jordan, N.; Schmidt, M.

In the safety assessment of nuclear waste disposal sites we have a look on different geochemical processes in the near and far field of a conceivable disposal site. These processes include sorption and incorporation as possibel mechanisms of radionuclide retention in a worst case scenario of an ingress of groundwater. Various minerals in the host rocks as well as primary and secondary phases in the geotechnical barrier were investigated under these conditions elsewhere. Calcite (CaCO3) can be found in every section of the containment and has a couple of features, which makes it interesting for further investigations. A high retention potential because of high sorption capacity as well as the possibility to incorporate guest ions into the crystal lattice at the Ca-ion position is distinctive for calcite [Schmidt 2008, Marques Fernandes 2008]. The long-lived radionuclides (e.g. Plutonium, Curium) determine the long-term radiotoxicity, which defines the considered timespan of the safety analysis. The trivalent radionuclides have an affinity to calcite because of their chemical properties (ionic charge and radius).
To investigate this affinity we conducted different experiments – coprecipitation and batch studies over various periods of time. We can show, that the incorporation of radionuclides and their homologues is dependent on several parameters: i.e. the grain size and specific surface area of calcite, amount and composition of impurities in the calcite and in the background solution. To investigate the structural incorporation we used site-selective timeresolved laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy with Europium, which serves as a homologue for the trivalent radionuclides because of its great spectroscopic usability [Binnemans 2015] and its similar chemical behavoir. With this method we can distiguish between sorption of the Europium ion onto the calcite surface and incorporation into the crystal bulk by figuring out the amount of water molecules in the first coordination shell of the Europium ion – if there is no water left, incorporation took place. Furthermore we perform X-ray surface diffraction with two high resolution methods, crystal truncation rod and resonant anomalous X-ray-reflectivity. Our experiments were run in situ, which means we have a thin solution film above the crystall. We can demonstrate the influence of different background electolytes (sodium nitrate and sodium iodate) on calcite, which cause a significant surface destabilisation and hence a modification or prevention of sorption and incorporation mechanism. These results are important to examine sorption and structural incorporation on calcite as a process of radionuclide retention in the near and far field of nuclear waste disposal sites.

References
Binnemans, K. (2015): Interpretation of europium(III) spectra. Coord. Chem. Rev., 295, 1-45.
Schmidt, M. et al. (2008): Charge Compensation in Solid Solutions. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed., 47, 5846-5850
Marques Fernandes, M. et al. (2008): Incorporation of trivalent actinides into calcite: A time resolved laser fluorescence spectroscopy (TRLFS) study. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 72, 464-474.

Keywords: Calcite; nuclear waste disposal site

  • Lecture (Conference)
    Key topics in deep geological disposal, 26.-28.09.2016, Köln, Deutschland

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23572
Publ.-Id: 23572


Incorporation of Eu(III) into Calcite under different Recrystallization conditions

Hellebrandt, S. E.; Hofmann, S.; Jordan, N.; Barkleit, A.; Schmidt, M.

Calcite is a ubiquitous mineral in the earth’s crust. Its capacity to incorporate guest ions with similar ionic radius as Ca2+ (e.g. Eu3+, Pu3+, and Am3+) makes it interesting for various environmental issues as well as for safety assessment of nuclear waste disposal sites. Here the trivalent later actinides with long half-lives (like Am and Cm) comprise the most of the long-term radiotoxicity.
For our experiments we used Eu as homologue because of its similar ionic charge and radius and its preferable luminescence properties [1]. We conducted batch studies with three calcite powders, which differ in their specific surface area (SSA) and recrystallization rates (Rr). The speciation of the incorporated Eu(III) was then investigated by site-selective time-resolved laser fluorescence spectroscopy. With increase of the recrystallization rate incorporation occurs faster and the speciation comes to be dominated by one species with its excitation maximum at 578.9 nm. Previous investigations of this process under growth [2] and phase transformation conditions [3] had not identified this species. A long lifetime of ~ 3000 µs demonstrates complete loss of hydration [4], consequently Eu must have been incorporated into the bulk crystal.
The results show a strong dependence of the incorporation kinetics on the recrystallization rate of the different calcites. The predominance of the newly identified species seems to be independent of this kinetic effect, however.
[1] Binnemans (2015) Coord. Chem. Rev. 295, 1-45
[2] Schmidt (2008) Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 47, 5846-5850
[3] Schmidt (2010) J. Colloid Interface Sci. 351, 50-56
[4] Horrocks (1979) J. Am. Chem. Soc. 101, 334.

Keywords: Calcite; Recristallization; Europium; TRLFS; Incorporation

  • Lecture (Conference)
    Goldschmidt2016, 26.06.-01.07.2016, Yokohama, Japan

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23571
Publ.-Id: 23571


Evidence of a new Incorporation Species of Eu(III) in Calcite and its dependence of the background electrolyte

Hellebrandt, S. E.; Hofmann, S.; Jordan, N.; Barkleit, A.; Schmidt, M.

Calcite plays a significant role in nuclear waste disposal sites, both as a constituent of geological formations and as a secondary mineral, e.g. upon weathering of concrete. As such it has a direct impact on a repository’s safety and performance. Geochemically, calcite has the potential to adsorb as well as incorporate guest ions with a similar ionic radius, e.g. Eu(III), Pu(III) and Am(III), for Ca(II) in the host lattice. For the safety assessment of nuclear waste disposal sites these trivalent actinides with long half-lives (especially Am) dominate its long-term radiotoxicity and are thus of particular interest.
Schmidt et al. investigated the influence of different dissolved cations on the incorporation process by [1] time-resolved laser fluorescence spectroscopy (TRLFS) with Eu(III)/Cm(III). They could show that there exists a coupled substitution mechanism [Cm(III)/Eu(III) + Na(I) ↔ 2 Ca(II)]. The experiments by Schmidt, et al. were performed under growth conditions, representative of the formation of a secondary phase. Calcite already present as a constituent of the host rock, however, would be more likely to interact with the contaminants at, or very close to equilibrium. Under these conditions its reactivity will be governed by its recrystallization rate, and different interaction mechanism – and consequently different contaminant speciation – may be expected.
For our experiments we used Eu as homologue because of its similar ionic charge and radius, as well as its desirable luminescence properties [2]. We conducted batch studies with calcite powder in calcite saturated solutions with NaCl or KCl as background electrolyte. The speciation of the incorporated Eu(III) was then investigated by site-selective time-resolved laser fluorescence spectroscopy (TRLFS). The speciation of both systems is dominated by a species with its excitation maximum at 578.9 nm, which had not been identified in previous investigations of this process under growth [1] and phase transformation conditions [3]. A long lifetime of ~ 4000 µs demonstrates complete loss of hydration [4], consequently Eu must have been incorporated into the bulk crystal. The corresponding emission spectrum shows the maximum splitting pattern implying a low symmetry of the ligand field surrounding Eu(III)[2]. After 1 month reaction time the excitation spectrum of the calcite in contact with NaCl shows a strongly blue-shifted excitation spectrum compared to the same calcite with KCl, demonstrating the effect of the background electrolyte on the Eu(III) speciation. As the peak at 579.3 nm belongs to a sorption species, this indicates enhanced incorporation in NaCl background relative to the KCl system. This may indicate that also under recrystallization conditions coupled substitution of Eu(III) and Na(I) for two Ca(II) is required for incorporation. Incorporation remains a significant interaction mechanism in the KCl system, likely due to a considerable amount of naturally occurring Na in the calcite
The results show, that the speciation of Eu(III) in calcite depends on the conditions of its incorporation, i.e. growth versus recrystallization. A hitherto unknown incorporation has been identified, and our results strongly suggest incorporation under recrystallization conditions strongly depends on the availability of Na(I).
[1] M. Schmidt, Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2008, 47, 5846-5850.
[2] K.Binnemans, Coord. Chem. Rev. 2015,295, 1-45.
[3] M. Schmidt, J. Colloid Interface Sci. 2010, 351, 50-56.
[4] W. DeW. Horrocks, Jr., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1979, 101, 334-340.

Keywords: Calcite; TRLFS; Europium; Incorporation

  • Poster
    Ninth international conference on nuclear and radiochemistry - NRC9, 29.08.-02.09.2016, Helsinki, Finland

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23570
Publ.-Id: 23570


Porting the Plasma Simulation PIConGPU to Heterogeneous Architectures with Alpaka

Zenker, E.; Widera, R.; Juckeland, G.; Worpitz, B.; Hübl, A.; Knüpfer, A.; Nagel, W. E.; Bussmann, M.

We discuss our experience on porting the CUDA-based plasma simulation code PIConGPU to heterogeneous platforms using the abstract kernel interface Alpaka. With the advent of next-generation architectures such as OpenPower, the full use of the hardware and the mapping of CPUs and GPUs to specific simulation tasks has become important. Performance portability is of great interest, but even more important is the ability to develop against a single interface to keep code testable and maintainable. We show how we can make use of the Alpaka library in real-world applications and how we achieve portability and performance.

Keywords: Supercomputing & HPC; Computational Physics; Performance Optimization

  • Lecture (Conference)
    GPU Technology Conference, 04.-07.04.2016, San Jose, California, USA

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23569
Publ.-Id: 23569


Speciation of trivalent actinides and lanthanides in body fluids

Barkleit, A.; Wilke, C.; Heller, A.; Ikeda-Ohno, A.; Stumpf, T.

In case of incorporation into the human body, radionuclides potentially represent serious health risks due to their chemo- and radiotoxicity. In order to assess their toxicological behavior, such as transport, metabolism, deposition, and elimination from the human organisms, the understanding of their in vivo chemical speciation on a molecular level is crucial. Due to their high specific radioactivity with very long half-lives, trivalent actinides (An(III)) are considered to be some of the problematic radionuclides particularly in the geological repository of radioactive wastes. The reliable safety and health assessment of the waste repositories requires the information about the behavior of An(III) in vivo. Nevertheless, little is known about the speciation of not only An(III) but also trivalent lanthanides (Ln(III)), non-radioactive chemical analogs of An(III), in body fluids.
In order to improve our understanding of the behavior of An(III) and Ln(III) in the human body, the present study focuses on the chemical speciation of An(III) and Ln(III) in the gastrointestinal tract. The human gastrointestinal system was simulated by using an in vitro digestion model, which was developed by Oomen et al. [1] and is the basis of an international unified bioaccessibility protocol [2]. To verify the model, natural human saliva samples were included in the speciation investigation. Because An(III) and Ln(III) are excreted mainly by the kidney [3, 4], their speciation in natural human urine was investigated to complete the metabolic pathway from oral ingestion through the digestive system till elimination.
The speciation of curium(III) (Cm(III)) and europium(III) (Eu(III)) in the gastrointestinal tract as well as in human natural saliva and urine has been studied by means of time-resolved laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy (TRLFS). The standard model body fluids and the natural saliva and urine samples were spiked in vitro with Cm(III) and Eu(III) in trace metal concentrations.
The dominant chemical species in the human saliva was identified by a comparison of the natural human sample spectra with reference spectra obtained for synthetic saliva and individual components of the body fluid. Linear combination fitting analysis on the sample spectra indicates the formation of 60-90% inorganic- and 10-40% organic species of Cm(III)/Eu(III) in the salivary media. Ternary M(III) complexes containing phosphate and carbonate anions with the additional counter-cation calcium are formed as the main inorganic species. Complexes with the digestive enzyme α-amylase and the protein mucin (to a minor extent) represent the major part of the organic species.
When the M(III) reached the stomach, the metal complexes were dissociated due to the high acidic conditions. That is, Cm(III) and Eu(III) are mainly present as the aqua ion, and only a small part (about 20%) is coordinated by the protein pepsin. When entering the intestine the metal ions are strongly bound by the protective protein mucin and inorganic ligands (mainly carbonate and phosphate).
After transporting into the bloodstream and transformation into the urine via the kidney, the speciation of the metal ions strongly depends on the pH of the urine. When the pH is slightly acidic, the formation of Cm(III) and Eu(III) citrate complex dominates, whereas ternary complexes with phosphate and calcium as the main ligands and the additional participation of citrate and/or carbonate occur at around near-neutral pH [5].
These speciation studies in different body fluids pointed out that An(III) and Ln(III) are coordinated by both inorganic and organic molecules in the human body. Proteins (e.g. α-amylase, pepsin, mucin) would be the important organic binding partners. Furthermore, ternary inorganic complexes containing phosphate and carbonate anions with the additional counter-cation calcium are expected to be formed as the main inorganic species in almost all the body fluids.
References
[1] Oomen, A. G., Rompelberg, C. J. M., Bruil, M. A., Dobbe, C. J. G., Pereboom, D. P. K. H., Sips, A. J. A. M., Arch. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 44, 281-287 (2003).
[2] Wragg, J., Cave, M., Taylor, H., Basta, N., Brandon, E., Casteel, S., Gron, C., Oomen, A., van de Wiele, T., British Geological Survey Open Report OR/07/027, Keyworth, Nottingham, 90 pp. (2009).
[3] Menetrier, F., Taylor, D. M., and Comte, A., Appl. Radiat. Isot. 66, 632–647 (2008).
[4] Taylor, D. M., Leggett, R. W., Radiat. Prot. Dosim. 105, 193–198 (2003).
[5] Heller, A., Barkleit, A., Bernhard, G., Chem. Res. Toxicol. 24, 193-203 (2011).

  • Poster
    9th International Conference on Nuclear and Radiochemistry NRC9, 29.08.-02.09.2016, Helsinki, Finland

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23568
Publ.-Id: 23568


Chemical speciation of An(III) and Ln(III) in human saliva

Barkleit, A.; Wilke, C.; Heller, A.; Stumpf, T.; Ikeda-Ohno, A.

In case of incorporation into the human body, radionuclides potentially represent serious health risks due to their chemo- and radiotoxicity. In order to assess their toxicological behavior, such as transport, metabolism, deposition, and elimination from the human organisms, the understanding of their in vivo chemical speciation on a molecular level is crucial. Due to their high specific radioactivity with very long half-lives, trivalent actinides (An(III)) are considered to be some of the problematic radionuclides particularly in the geological repository of radioactive wastes. The reliable safety and health assessment of the waste repositories requires the information about the behavior of An(III) in vivo. Nevertheless, little is known about the speciation of not only An(III) but also trivalent lanthanides (Ln(III)), non-radioactive chemical analogs of An(III), in body fluids.
In order to improve our understanding of the behavior of An(III) and Ln(III) in the human body, the present study focuses on the chemical speciation of An(III) and Ln(III) in saliva. Saliva is one of the most important body fluids to understand the behavior of these metals in the digestive system, as it is the very first contact medium in the human body in case of oral ingestion.
We report the first speciation study of curium(III) and europium(III) in human saliva by means of time-resolved laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy (TRLFS). For TRLFS measurements, fresh saliva samples from humans have been spiked in vitro with Cm(III) or Eu(III). The dominant chemical spe-cies in the human saliva was identified by a comparison of the sample spectra with reference spectra obtained for synthetic saliva and individual components of the body fluid. Linear combination analysis on the sample spectra indicates the formation of about 60-90% inorganic- and 10-40% organic species of Cm(III)/Eu(III) in the salivary media. A ternary M(III) complex containing phosphate and carbonate anions with the additional counter-cation calcium is formed as the main inorganic species. Complexes with α-amylase and mucin (to a minor extent) represent the major part of the organic species. Thermodynamic calculation of the speciation, based on the recently determined stability constants for Cm(III) and Eu(III) complexes with α-amylase, also supports the experimentally determined speciation.

  • Poster
    10th International Biometals Symposium (Biometals 2016), 10.-15.07.2016, Dresden, Germany

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23567
Publ.-Id: 23567


An online, energy-resolving beam profile detector for laser-driven proton beams

Metzkes, J.; Zeil, K.; Kraft, S. D.; Karsch, L.; Sobiella, M.; Rehwald, M.; Obst, L.; Schlenvoigt, H.-P.; Schramm, U.

In this paper, a scintillator-based online beam profile detector for the characterization of laser-driven proton beams is presented. Using a pixelated matrix with varying absorber thicknesses, the proton beam is spatially resolved in two spatial dimensions and simultaneously energy-resolved. A thin plastic scintillator placed behind the absorber and read out by a CCD camera is used as the active detector material. The spatial detector resolution reaches down to ~4mm and up to 9 energy ranges can be resolved with an energy resolution of ~1 MeV above 8 MeV proton energy. With these detector design parameters, the spatial characteristics of the proton distribution and its cut-off energy can be analyzed online and on-shot under vacuum conditions. The paper discusses the detector design, its characterization and calibration at a conventional proton source as well as the first detector application at a laser-driven proton source.

Keywords: laser-driven proton acceleration; scintillator-based online detectors

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Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23566
Publ.-Id: 23566


Performance-Portable Many-Core Plasma Simulations: Porting PIConGPU to OpenPower and Beyond

Zenker, E.; Widera, R.; Hübl, A.; Juckeland, G.; Knüpfer, A.; Nagel, W. E.; Bussmann, M.

With the appearance of the heterogeneous platform OpenPower, many-core accelerator devices have been coupled with Power host processors for the first time. Towards utilizing their full potential, it is worth investigating performance portable algorithms that allow to choose the best-fitting hardware for each domain-specific compute task. Suiting even the high level of parallelism on modern GPGPUs, our presented approach relies heavily on abstract meta-programming techniques, which are essential to focus on fine-grained tuning rather than code porting. With this in mind, the CUDA-based open-source plasma simulation code PIConGPU is currently being abstracted to support the heterogeneous OpenPower platform using our fast porting interface cupla, which wraps the abstract parallel C++11 kernel acceleration library Alpaka.

We demonstrate how PIConGPU can benefit from the tunable kernel execution strategies of the Alpaka library, achieving portability and performance with single-source kernels on conventional CPUs, Power8 CPUs and NVIDIA GPUs.

Keywords: OpenPower; heterogeneous computing; HPC; C++11; CUDA; OpenMP; particle-in-cell; platform portability; performance portability

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23565
Publ.-Id: 23565


Alpaka - An Abstraction Library for Parallel Kernel Acceleration

Zenker, E.; Worpitz, B.; Widera, R.; Hübl, A.; Juckeland, G.; Knüpfer, A.; Nagel, W. E.; Bussmann, M.

Porting applications to new hardware or programming models is a tedious and error prone process. Every help that eases these burdens is saving developer time that can then be invested into the advancement of the application itself instead of preserving the status-quo on a new platform.

The Alpaka library defines and implements an abstract hierarchical redundant parallelism model. The model exploits parallelism and memory hierarchies on a node at all levels available in current hardware. By doing so, it allows to achieve platform and performance portability across various types of accelerators by ignoring specific unsupported
levels and utilizing only the ones supported on a specific
accelerator. All hardware types (multi- and many-core CPUs, GPUs and other accelerators) are supported for and can be programmed in the same way.
The Alpaka C++ template interface allows for straightforward extension of the library to support other accelerators and specialization of its internals for optimization.

Running Alpaka applications on a new (and supported) platform requires the change of only one source code line instead of a lot of #ifdefs.

Keywords: Heterogeneous computing; HPC; C++; CUDA; OpenMP; platform portability; performance portability

  • Contribution to proceedings
    The Sixth International Workshop on Accelerators and Hybrid Exascale Systems co-located with the 30th IEEE International Parallel & Distributed Processing Symposium, 23.-27.05.2016, Chicago Hyatt Regency Chicago, Illinois, USA
    Proceedings of the 30th IEEE International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23564
Publ.-Id: 23564


Spectroscopic studies on the interaction of europium(III) and curium(III) with components of the human mucosa

Wilke, C.; Barkleit, A.; Ikeda-Ohno, A.; Stumpf, T.

Lanthanide and actinide elements are exogenous metals, which have no essential role in normal biochemistry. Through different processes such as nuclear accidents, these heavy metals could be potentially released into the environment where they could be further incorporated eventually into the food chain and furthermore into the human gastrointestinal tract through oral ingestion. Because of their potential chemical- and radiotoxicity, it is important to understand their chemical and biological behavior in the human body. The digestive system is covered by a thick, viscoelastic mucosa membrane, which is a protective barrier to pathogens and toxic substances. The protective response in mucosa relies largely on the glycoprotein mucin. A previous spectroscopic screening with TRLFS (Time-Resolved Laser-Induced Fluorescence Spectroscopy) revealed mucin as a fundamental binding partner of Eu(III) as well as of Cm(III) in the human gastrointestinal tract. Based on these previous results, the present study focuses on this protein and its components to investigate its binding behavior with Eu(III) and Cm(III) as representatives of Ln(III) and An(III), respectively.

Keywords: lanthanides; actinides; Eu(III); Cm(III); TRLFS; spectroscopy; mucin

  • Contribution to proceedings
    Biometals - 10th International Biometals Symposium, 10.-15.07.2016, Dresden, Deutschland
    Proceedings of Biometals
  • Lecture (Conference)
    Biometals - 10th International Biometals Symposium, 10.-15.07.2016, Dresden, Deutschland

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23563
Publ.-Id: 23563


Dynamical properties of the sine-Gordon quantum spin magnet Cu-PM at zero and finite temperature

Tiegel, A. C.; Honecker, A.; Pruschke, T.; Ponomaryov, A.; Zvyagin, S. A.; Feyerherm, R.; Manmana, S. R.

The material copper pyrimidine dinitrate (Cu-PM) is a quasi-one-dimensional spin system described by the spin-1/2 XXZ Heisenberg antiferromagnet with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions. Based on numerical results obtained by the density-matrix renormalization group, exact diagonalization, and accompanying electron spin resonance (ESR) experiments we revisit the spin dynamics of this compound in an applied magnetic field. Our calculations for momentum and frequency-resolved dynamical quantities give direct access to the intensity of the elementary excitations at both zero and finite temperature. This allows us to study the system beyond the low-energy description by the quantum sine-Gordon model. We find a deviation from the Lorentz invariant dispersion for the single-soliton resonance. Furthermore, our calculations only confirm the presence of the strongest boundary bound state previously derived from a boundary sine-Gordon field theory, while composite boundary-bulk excitations have too low intensities to be observable. Upon increasing the temperature, we find a temperature-induced crossover of the soliton and the emergence of new features, such as interbreather transitions. The latter observation is confirmed by our ESR experiments on Cu-PM over a wide range of the applied field.

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23562
Publ.-Id: 23562


Comparison Between the Magnetic Irreversibility and Zero Resistance of High-Quality Melt-Processed YBaCuO Superconductors

Dias, F. T.; Vieira, V. D. N.; Wolff-Fabris, F.; Kampert, E.; Hneda, M.; Schaf, J.; Farinela, G. F.; Gouvea, C. D.; Rovira, J. J. R.

This paper portrays a detailed study of the magnetic irreversibility limit Tirr (H) and of the zero resistance point Tc0 (H) of three different top-seeding melt-textured YBa2Cu3O7−δ superconducting samples, with well-aligned c-axis and doped with a high density of nonsuperconducting Y2Ba1Cu1O5 (Y211) pinning centers. We have performed measurements for applied magnetic fields up to 140 kOe and for the whole set of the different field–current configurations. The magnetization measurements were performed using an MPMS-XL SQUID magnetometer and a vibrating sample magnetometer, both from Quantum Design. The electric transport measurements were made using a physical properties measurement system from Quantum Design. The goal of this exhaustive study is obtaining precise data about magnetic flux mobility along the various directions in the sample for the different field–current configurations, thereby defining the nature and effects, due to the strength and anisotropy of the pinning mechanisms and disclosing the various physical mechanisms dissipating electric transport in these systems below the superconducting transition temperature. We discuss our results in terms of the anisotropic flux pinning by the Y211 grains dispersed into the superconducting matrix.

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23561
Publ.-Id: 23561


Electron spin resonance in a strong-rung spin-1/2 Heisenberg ladder

Ponomaryov, A. N.; Ozerov, M.; Zviagina, L.; Wosnitza, J.; Povarov, K. Y.; Xiao, F.; Zheludev, A.; Landee, C.; Cizmar, E.; Zvyagin, A. A.; Zvyagin, S. A.

Cu(C8H6N2)Cl2, a strong-rung spin-1/2 Heisenberg ladder compound, is probed by means of electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy in the field-induced gapless phase above Hc1. The temperature dependence of the ESR linewidth is analyzed in the quantum field theory framework, suggesting that the anisotropy of magnetic interactions plays a crucial role, determining the peculiar low-temperature ESR linewidth behavior. In particular, it is argued that the uniform Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (which is allowed on the bonds along the ladder legs) can be the source of this behavior in Cu(C8H6N2)Cl2.

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23560
Publ.-Id: 23560


Tunnelling magnetoresistance of the half-metallic compensated ferrimagnet Mn2RuxGa

Borisov, K.; Betto, D.; Lau, Y. C.; Fowley, C.; Titova, A.; Thiyagarajah, N.; Atcheson, G.; Lindner, J.; Deac, A. M.; Coey, J. M. D.; Stamenov, P.; Rode, K.

Tunnel magnetoresistance ratios of up to 40% are measured between 10K and 300K when the highly spin-polarized compensated ferrimagnet, Mn2RuxGa, is integrated into MgO-based perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions. Temperature and bias dependences of the tunnel magnetoresistance effect, with a sign change near −0.2 V, reflect the structure of the Mn2RuxGa interface density of states. Despite magnetic moment vanishing at a compensation temperature of 200K for x ≈ 0.8, the tunnel magneto resistance ratio remains non-zero throughout the compensation region, demonstrating that the spin-transport is governed by one of the Mn sub-lattices only. Broad temperature range magnetic field immunity of at least 0.5T is demonstrated in the same sample. The high spin polarization and perpendicular magnetic anisotropy make Mn2RuxGa suitable for applications in both non-volatile magnetic random access memory cells and terahertz spin-transfer oscillators.

Keywords: Tunneling Magnetoresistance; Half-Metal; Mn-based alloys; MRAM; Spin Polarisation; Heusler alloy; Ferrimagnetic; Perpendicular Magnetic Anisotropy

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23559
Publ.-Id: 23559


Dual-energy CT-based assessment of patient tissue variability and its influence on particle therapy planning

Wohlfahrt, P.; Möhler, C.; Negwer, F.; Troost, E.; Enghardt, W.; Greilich, S.; Richter, C.

The accuracy of particle therapy is currently limited by uncertainties in range prediction using a heuristic conversion from CT number to stopping-power ratio (SPR). The clinical application of dual-energy CT (DECT) contributes to reduce CT-related uncertainties and to quantify the influence of tissue variability on SPR prediction. DECT offers the opportunity to provide a patient-specific CT-number-to-SPR prediction. Based on routinely used DECT patient scans, this study shows differences between adults and children, which has to be clinically regarded.

  • Lecture (Conference)
    47. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Medizinische Physik (DGMP) e. V., 07.-10.09.2016, Würzburg, Deutschland

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23558
Publ.-Id: 23558


Cooperative effects of adsorption, reduction, and polymerization observed for hexavalent actinides on the muscovite basal plane

Hellebrandt, S.; Knope, K. E.; Lee, S. S.; Lussier, A. J.; Stubbs, J. E.; Eng, P. J.; Soderholm, L.; Fenter, P.; Schmidt, M.

Reliable long-term predictions about the safety of a potential nuclear waste repository must be based on a sound, molecular-level comprehension of the geochemical behavior of the radionuclides. Especially, their reactivity at the water/mineral interface will control their mobility and thus hazard potential.1 Understanding the geochemical behavior of plutonium has been particularly challenging, due to its multitude of accessible oxidation states and its capability to form nanoparticles or eigencolloids. Despite the generally accepted importance of Pu(IV)-nanoparticles for Pu’s chemical4-6 and environmental behavior,2, 3, 7, 8 the mechanism of their formation is still the subject of ongoing research.9 Several previous studies have identified Pu(IV) nanoparticles to be the final state of adsorbed Pu, starting from both higher10-12 and lower oxidation states,13 on both redox active10, 12 and redox inactive substrates.11, 13 In our own previous work we suggested a mechanism, in which the enhanced concentration of Pu(III) at the interface, in combination with the presence of minor quantities of Pu(IV) in equilibrium, drives the formation of these nanoparticles in an effectively surface-catalyzed reaction.13 This mechanism would be independent of Pu’s initial oxidation state assuming there is adequate amounts of Pu(IV) present in equilibrium. In order to be able to understand these processes analytical techniques that allow selectively probing the mineral/water interface and elucidating processes at the interface under in situ conditions are required. X-ray reflectivity techniques, such as crystal truncation rod (CTR) measurements and resonant anomalous x-ray reflectivity (RAXR) have proven to be valuable tools for geochemical studies concerning reactions in the interfacial regime14, especially for complex reactions of the actinides.13, 15
To further elucidate the interfacial reactivity of Pu in its various oxidation states, and to test the viability of the mechanisms discussed above for Pu(III), we study the reactivity of hexavalent PuO22+ at the muscovite (001) basal plane and compare it to the behavior of ostensibly analogous UO22+ ([Pu] = 0.1 mmol L-1, [U] = 1 mmol L-1, pH = 3.2 ± 0.2, I(NaCl) = 0.1 mol L-1) using resonant anomalous X-ray reflectivity (RAXR) and crystal truncation rods (CTR), as well as grazing-incidence X-ray adsorption near-edge structure (GI-XANES) spectroscopy and alpha spectrometry. The RAXR data indicate that adsorbed Pu has a broad distribution that extends up to 60 Å from the surface. Independent quantification of the adsorption of Pu by alpha spectrometry finds a coverage of 8.3 Pu/AUC (where AUC = 46.72 Ų is the surface unit cell area). The observed broad structure and large coverage cannot be explained by ionic adsorption of PuO22+, indicating adsorption of Pu(IV) oxo nanoparticles. GI-XANES confirms that most Pu at the interface was tetravalent. These observations corroborate a redox-partner independent mechanism for the interfacial formation of Pu(IV) oxo nanoparticles put forward previously. Uranium exhibits clearly different behavior. No discernible RAXR signal was detected, indicating no adsorption of UO22+. GI-XANES and alpha spectrometry also showed very weak signal, in agreement with the RAXR findings, and in the case of GI-XANES indicating predominantly hexavalent U. Our results reveal significant differences between Pu and U in terms of mineral uptake, greatly impacting their geochemical mobility and potentially useful for predicting the fate of these contaminants’ in the aqueous environment.

1. H. Geckeis, J. Lützenkirchen, R. Polly, T. Rabung and M. Schmidt, Chemical Reviews, 2013, 113, 1016-1062.
2. A. B. Kersting, D. W. Efurd, D. L. Finnegan, D. J. Rokop, D. K. Smith and J. L. Thompson, Nature, 1999, 397, 56-59.
3. A. P. Novikov, S. N. Kalmykov, S. Utsunomiya, R. C. Ewing, F. Horreard, A. Merkulov, S. B. Clark, V. V. Tkachev and B. F. Myasoedov, Science, 2006, 314, 638-641.
4. L. Soderholm, P. M. Almond, S. Skanthakumar, R. E. Wilson and P. C. Burns, Angewandte Chemie-International Edition, 2008, 47, 298-302.
5. K. E. Knope and L. Soderholm, Chemical Reviews, 2012, 113, 944-994.
6. V. Neck, M. Altmaier and T. Fanghänel, Comptes Rendus Chimie, 2007, 10, 959-977.
7. R. J. Silva and H. Nitsche, Radiochimica Acta, 1995, 70/71, 377-396.
8. A. B. Kersting, Inorganic Chemistry, 2013, 52, 3533-3546.
9. C. Walther and M. A. Denecke, Chemical Reviews, 2013, 113, 995-1015.
10. R. Kirsch, D. Fellhauer, M. Altmaier, V. Neck, A. Rossberg, T. Fanghänel, L. Charlet and A. C. Scheinost, Environmental Science & Technology, 2011, 45, 7267-7274.
11. A. E. Hixon, Y. Arai and B. A. Powell, Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 2013, 403, 105-112.
12. A. E. Hixon and B. A. Powell, Environmental Science & Technology, 2014, 48, 9255-9262.
13. M. Schmidt, S. S. Lee, R. E. Wilson, K. E. Knope, F. Bellucci, P. J. Eng, J. E. Stubbs, L. Soderholm and P. Fenter, Environmental Science & Technology, 2013, 47, 14178-14184.
14. P. Fenter, Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, 2002, 49, 149-220.
15. M. Schmidt, S. Hellebrandt, K. E. Knope, S. S. Lee, J. E. Stubbs, P. J. Eng, L. Soderholm and P. Fenter, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 2015, 165, 280-293.

Keywords: sorption; nanoparticles; muscovite; plutonium; uranium; x-ray reflectivity; CTR; RAXR

  • Lecture (Conference)
    Ninth International Conference on Nuclear and Radiochemistry - NRC9, 29.08.-02.09.2016, Helsinki, Finnland

Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23557
Publ.-Id: 23557


Fate of Plutonium at a Former Nuclear Testing Site in Australia

Ikeda-Ohno, A.; Shahin, L. M.; Howard, D.; Collins, R. N.; Payne, T. E.; Johansen, M. P.

A series of the British nuclear tests conducted on mainland Australia between 1953 and 1963 dispersed long-lived radioactivity and nuclear weapons debris, the legacy of which is a long-lasting source of radioactive contamination to the surrounding biosphere. A reliable assessment of the environmental impact of these types of radioactive contaminants and their implications for human health requires an understanding of their physical/chemical characteristics on the molecular scale. However, mainly due to the technical difficulties associated with the chemical diversity of environmental samples, these contaminants have never been characterized adequately. In this study, we identify the chemical form of plutonium (Pu), one of the most problematic radionuclides dispersed, in the local soils collected from one of the former weapons test sites, Maralinga. We herein reveal the first direct spectroscopic evidence that the Pu legacy exists as particulates of fine Pu oxyhydroxide compounds, a very concentrated and low-soluble form of Pu, which will serve as ongoing radioactive sources far into the future. We also verify that the Pu in the particles originated in the so-called “Minor trials” that involved the dispersal of weapon components by highly explosive chemicals, not in the nuclear explosion tests called “Major trials”. The obtained results help us to understand the chemical transformation of the original Pu materials dispersed in the semi-arid environment more than fifty years ago. These findings further highlight the importance of the comprehensive physical/chemical characterization of Pu contaminants for reliable environmental- and radiotoxicological assessment, which is significantly influenced by the original physical/chemical form of the contaminant.

Keywords: Plutonium; Nuclear weapons tests; Environmental contamination; Characterisation; Synchrotron; X-ray fluorescence microscopy; X-ray absorption spectroscopy

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Permalink: https://www.hzdr.de/publications/Publ-23556
Publ.-Id: 23556


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