Progress of Jinping Underground laboratory for Nuclear Astrophysics (JUNA)

Jinping Underground laboratory for Nuclear Astrophysics(JUNA) will take the advantage of the ultra-low background of CJPL lab and high current accelerator based on an ECR source and a highly sensitive detector to directly study for the first time a number of crucial reactions occurring at their relevant stellar energies during the evolution of hydrostatic stars. In its first phase, JUNA aims at the direct measurements of~(25)Mg(p,γ)~(26)Al,~(19)F(p,α)~(16)O,~(13)C(α,n)~(16)O and ~(12)C(α,γ)~(16)O reactions. The experimental setup,which includes an accelerator system with high stability and high intensity, a detector system, and a shielding material with low background, will be established during the above research. The current progress of JUNA will be given.     

A proposed direct measurement of cross section at Gamow window for key reaction ~(19)F( p,α)~(16)O in Asymptotic Giant Branch stars with a planned accelerator in CJPL

In 2014, the National Natural Science Foundation of China(NSFC) approved the Jinping Underground Nuclear Astrophysics laboratory(JUNA) project, which aims at direct cross-section measurements of four key stellar nuclear reactions right down to the Gamow windows. In order to solve the observed fluorine overabundances in Asymptotic Giant Branch(AGB) stars, measuring the key ~(19)F( p,α)~(16)O reaction at effective burning energies(i.e., at Gamow window) is established as one of the scientific research sub-projects. The present paper describes this sub-project in details, including motivation, status, experimental setup, yield and background estimation, aboveground test, as well as other relevant reactions.     

Study of the primordial lithium abundance

Lithium isotopes have attracted an intense interest because the abundance of both 6Li and 6Li from big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) is one of the puzzles in nuclear astrophysics. Many investigations of both astrophysical observation and nucleosynthesis calculation have been carried out to solve the puzzle, but it is not solved yet. Several nuclear reactions involving lithium have been indirectly measured at China Institute of Atomic Energy, Beijing. The Standard BBN (SBBN) network calculations are then perfo...     

Nuclear uncertainties in the s-process simulation

The heavy elements in the Universe are formed during the s- and r-processes mainly in AGB stars and supernovae, respectively. Simulation of s- and r-nucleosynthesis critically depends on the neutron capture and weak decay rates for all the nuclei on the reaction chain. The present work analyzes systematically the neutron capture rates (cross sections) for the s-process nuclei, including ～3000 rates on ～200 nuclei. The network calculations for the constant temperature s-process have been performed using the different data sets selected as the nuclear inputs to investigate the uncertainties in the predicted s-abundances. We show that the available cross sections of neutron capture on many s-process nuclei still carry large uncertainties, which lead to low accuracy in the determination of s-process isotope abundances. We analyze the neutron capture cross section data for the same unique isobar nucleus accorded by year from previous work. Such an analysis indicates that the s-process has been studied for more than fifty years and there exist two research stages around 1976 and 2002, respectively. The needs and opportunities for future experiments and theoretical tools are highlighted to remove the existing shortcomings in the neutron capture rates.     

电化学石英晶体微天平研究碱性介质中单层级铂原子修饰的金电极上甲醇的电催化氧化

通过在Au电极表面欠电位沉积(UPD)Cu、再与Pt源(H2PtCl6或K2PtCl4)进行置换反应,制得单层级Pt原子修饰的金电极(对H2PtCl6或K2PtCl4,所制电极分别记为Pt(CuUPD-Pt4+)n/Au或Pt(CuUPD-Pt2+)n/Au,n表示欠电位沉积-置换过程的重复次数).用电化学石英晶体微天平(EQCM)技术定量研究了所制电极,评估了其在碱性环境中催化甲醇氧化的质量比活性(SECA).结果表明,以H2PtCl6为Pt源所制电极(Pt(CuUPD-Pt4+)3/Au)的活性更高,最大SECA高达35.7mAμg-1.根据EQCM结果计算了置换效率,籍此讨论了Pt原子在Au电极表面的层层组装结构,发现所制电极表面的裸Au位点分布百分数与实验结果(由AuOx还原峰电量测算)吻合.我们认为,EQCM技术是一种定量研究电极支撑的超薄催化剂的有效手段,这种高效的单层级贵金属催化剂有望在生物、能源、环境相关的电催化研究中进一步应用.     

Electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance study on Au-supported Pt adlayers for electrocatalytic oxidation of methanol in alkaline solution

Underpotential deposition (UPD) of Cu on an Au electrode followed by redox replacement reaction (RRR) of Cu_UPD with a Pt source (H₂PtCl₆ or K₂PtCl₄) yielded Au-supported Pt adlayers (for short, Pt(CuUPD-Pt⁴⁺)n/Au for H₂PtCl₆, or Pt(CuUPD-Pt²⁺)n/Au for K₂PtCl₄, where n denotes the number of UPD-redox replacement cycles). The electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance (EQCM) technique was used for the first time to quantitatively study the fabricated electrodes and estimate their mass-normalized specific electrocatalytic activity (SECA) for methanol oxidation in alkaline solution. In comparison with Pt(CuUPD-Pt²⁺)n/Au, Pt(CuUPD-Pt⁴⁺)n/Au exhibited a higher electrocatalytic activity, and the maximum SECA was obtained to be as high as 35.7 mA μg^?1 at Pt(CuUPD-Pt⁴⁺)3/Au. The layer-by-layer architecture of Pt atoms on Au is briefly discussed based on the EQCM-revealed redox replacement efficiency, and the calculated distribution percentages of bare Au sites agree with the experimental results deduced from the charge under the AuO _x -reduction peaks. The EQCM is highly recommended as an efficient technique to quantitatively examine various electrode-supported catalyst adlayers, and the highly efficient catalyst adlayers of noble metals are promising in electrocatalysis relevant to biological, energy and environmental sciences and technologies.     

Study of the primordial lithium abundance

Lithium isotopes have attracted an intense interest because the abundance of both ⁶Li and ⁷Li from big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) is one of the puzzles in nuclear astrophysics. Many investigations of both astrophysical observation and nucleosynthesis calculation have been carried out to solve the puzzle, but it is not solved yet. Several nuclear reactions involving lithium have been indirectly measured at China Institute of Atomic Energy, Beijing. The Standard BBN (SBBN) network calculations are then performed to investigate the primordial Lithium abundance. The result shows that these nuclear reactions have minimal effect on the SBBN abundances of ⁶Li and ⁷Li.