Heavy-oxygen Water Research Articles

Water can trigger nuclear reaction to produce energy and isotope gases

This paper reports the discovery that water can trigger a peculiar nuclear reaction and produce energy. Cavitation may induce unusual reactions through implosion of water vapor bubbles. Many of this research has been published formally or informally. We have conducted experiments using two reactor types made from multiple-pipe heat exchanger and found that the heat exchange process of water produces peculiar excess heat and abnormally high pressure leading to rupture of the reactor. Recently, we have tested another eight reactors. Interestingly, these reactors produce non-condensable gas. We suspected that they include 22Ne and CO2. We used a mass spectrometer (MS) to analyze 14 gas samples collected from 8 reactors, including ten samples showing a coefficient of performance COPx > 1.05 (with excess heat) and four having COPx < 1.05 (without excess heat). Several methods were adopted to identify the gas content. For CO2 identification, two methods are employed. For 22Ne identification, three methods are employed. All the results confirm that isotope 22Ne and regular CO2 really exist in the output gas from reactors determined to have excess heat. We conjecture a possible mechanism to produce 22Ne and CO2 and find out that 12C and isotope 17O are the intermediate. They finally form isotope gases containing 17O, including H2O-17 (heavy-oxygen water), isotope O2 (16O–17O), and isotope CO2 (12C–16O–17O). In the excess heat producing reactors, all these gasses were detected by MS in the absence of 20Ne and 21Ne. The observed isotope gases produced from reactors having excess heat verifies that water can trigger a peculiar nuclear reaction and produce energy.

A simultaneous isotope separation enhancement: Integration of the D isotope enrichment process and the O18 isotope enrichment process

Nowadays, the two isotope enrichment processes that employ water as the raw material are the ones for O18 isotope enrichment and D isotope enrichment, both of which disregard the interactions between their processes and fail to account for the full potential of D isotope. Therefore, an integration process is established in this paper. To achieve the full utilization of the D isotope in this process, an improved H2O-H2S dual-temperature isotope exchange system (IGS) is developed as the mass exchanger to transfer the D isotope obtained from the normalization of the heavy oxygen water distillation product in the hot section to the cold section. Through the simultaneous enhancement strategy, the IGS process requires 0.284531 mol/hr of feed to produce 0.2018 mol/hr of D isotope while about 30,266 times of feed is required for conventional GS process under the same process condition. Consequently, the D isotope enrichment process can be changed from factory scale to lab scale. The heavy water and heavy oxygen water products can be produced by the cold and hot sections of the IGS process, respectively, making the recovery ratio of 99.98% and the wastewater ratio of 0%.

Design and Analysis of a Single Humidity Sensor Based on TDLAS for Water Vapor and Heavy Oxygen Water Vapor Detection

In this paper, a single humidity sensor for water vapor and heavy oxygen water vapor detection is presented. The sensor is based on tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS) and thus has high sensitivity, good selectivity, and a short response time. A 1372 nm distributed feedback (DFB) diode laser is utilized as the light source, the wavelength tuning range of which covers the absorption lines of water vapor and heavy oxygen water vapor. A Herriott gas cell with 12 m optical length is designed for signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) enhancement. The sensor can distinguish between water vapor and heavy oxygen water vapor effectively. The accuracy of water detection is within ±0.5% RH. The accuracy of heavy oxygen water vapor detection is within ±1.0% RH.

Water accelerates and directly participates soot oxidation: An isotopic study

Water vapor is inevitable in automobile exhaust and its influence on soot oxidation is of great interests to many researchers. In this paper, we utilized heavy-oxygen water (H218O) to investigate the water participation extent and its relationship with soot oxidation activity. By comparing the quantity of labeled species in products, we noticed water participated in both bare and catalytic soot oxidation. The tighter contact between soot and catalyst, the more involvement of water. But the extent was not affected by the redox property of Mn2O3 catalysts. The promotional effect of water on activity was observed in all investigated conditions, which was probably because water could be dissociated to more active oxygen species and accelerate the regeneration of oxygen vacancies. But hydrogen atoms left by water still need to be eliminated by dioxygen. Hence in general water worked as an accelerator rather than oxidant.

Dielectric response of light, heavy and heavy-oxygen water: isotope effects on the hydrogen-bonding network's collective relaxation dynamics.

Isotopic substitutions largely affect the dielectric relaxation dynamics of hydrogen-bonded liquid water; yet, the role of the altered molecular masses and nuclear quantum effects has not been fully established. To disentangle these two effects we study the dielectric relaxation of light (H216O), heavy (D216O) and heavy-oxygen (H218O) water at temperatures ranging from 278 to 338 K. Upon 16O/18O exchange, we find that the relaxation time of the collective orientational relaxation mode of water increases by 4-5%, in quantitative agreement with the enhancement of viscosity. Despite the rotational character of dielectric relaxation, the increase is consistent with a translational mass factor. For H/D substitution, the slow-down of the relaxation time is more pronounced and also shows a strong temperature dependence. In addition to the classical mass factor, the enhancement of the relaxation time for D216O can be described by an apparent temperature shift of 7.2 K relative to H216O, which is higher than the 6.5 K shift reported for viscosity. As this shift accounts for altered zero-point energies, the comparison suggests that the underlying thermally populated states relevant to the activation of viscous flow and dielectric relaxation differ.

Effect of leaching solutions on chemical durability of a natural metamict titanite

ABSTRACT Titanite (CaTiSiO5) a mineral that has shown promise as an actinide-bearing host phase. Natural titanites contain radionuclides which result in radiation damage to the crystal structure and could even lead to an amorphous state (metamict state). It is imperative to understand how the chemical durability of the titanites would be affected by such radiation damage and leaching solutions. Natural metamict titanite 2974 was studied by static leach tests at 200°C in different solutions, including heavy water (D2O) and heavy-oxygen water (H2 18O). The effects of these solutions on the leaching behaviour of the natural titanite with metamict structures were characterised using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), infrared spectrum (IR), Raman and X-ray diffraction (XRD), and the normalized leaching rates of the elements in the titanite were analysed using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). The results indicate that in a pH 1 solution as well as a pH 11 solution, the leaching rates are comparatively low, even at a high temperature of 200°C. SiO2 and TiO2 were detected on the surface of the leached 2974, which indicates that the hydrothermal alteration abides to a mechanism of dissolution and re-precipitation. However, 2974 is mostly dissolved in a strongly acidic condition.

Conditioning Heavy-Oxygen Water by Rectification under Vacuum

An investigation into the distillation of heavy-oxygen water under vacuum has been performed. Conditions and parameters of the operation of distillation columns for the conditioning of heavy-oxygen water have been determined.

Nonnegligible Generation of Hydroxyl Radicals from UVC Photolysis of Aqueous Nitrous Oxide.

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is widely used in radiation-chemistry and photochemistry as a scavenger to convert a hydrated electron ( eaq-) into a hydroxyl radical (·OH). However, few investigations pay attention to the photochemistry of dissolved N2O itself. The effects of purged N2O on photochemical processes are unclear and neglected. In the present work, the effects of N2O on the hydroxylation of terephthalic acid (TPA) were investigated with both medium-pressure and low-pressure mercury lamps as the light sources. Under short-wavelength UV (200-300 nm) irradiation, N2O accelerated the decay of TPA and the formation of 2-hydroxylterephthalic acid (hTPA). The effective quantum yield of ·OH from the photolysis of dissolved N2O at 254 nm was determined as 1.15-1.63, which was far larger than those of NO3- (0.09) and NO2- (0.046). On the basis of the kinetic analysis in N2 and N2O purged solutions, isotope fractionation with heavy oxygen water, and ·OH scavenging experiments with tert-butyl alcohol, the contribution of the ·OH radicals generated from the photolysis of N2O to the formation of hTPA (61.7%) was determined to be 1 order of magnitude higher than that from the converted eaq- (6.5%). These results demonstrate that using N2O and ·OH probes to quantify photogenerated eaq- in UVC irradiation might lead to false results. The work here is helpful for the proper design of scavenging and probing experiments by the combination of N2O and ·OH probes.

Electrochemical Oxidation of Environmentally Persistent Perfluorooctane Sulfonate by a Novel Lead Dioxide Anode

Ti/TiO2-NTs/Ag2O/PbO2 anode was prepared by electrodeposition technique and characterized by scanning electron microscope-energy dispersive spectrometer (SEM-EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), linear sweep voltammetry (LSV), and accelerated life test. Electrochemical oxidation of persistent organic pollutant wastewater perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) was carried out with the novel PbO2 anode. Ti/TiO2-NTs/Ag2O/PbO2 anode exhibited a pyramid structure, which was the typical PbO2 electrodes prepared using electrochemical deposition method. XRD spectra indicated that diffraction peaks of PbO2 coating conformed to that of JCPDS (Joint Committee on Powder Diffraction Standards) card for β-PbO2. Ti/TiO2-NTs/Ag2O/PbO2 anode showed high oxygen evolution potential, and longer life service, compared with Ti/PbO2 and Ti/TiO2-NTs/PbO2 anodes. The degradation ratio of PFOS (90mL of 0.0929mmolL−1) was 74.87%, with a pseudo first-order kinetic constant of 0.0165min−1 and a half-life of 43.18min−1 at a constant current density of 30mAcm−2 after 180min of electrolysis. PFOS oxidation yielded sulfate, fluoride, and perfluorocarboxyl anions (i.e., C3F7COO−, C4F9COO−, C5F11COO−, C6F13COO−, and C7F15COO−). The electrospray ionization (ESI) mass spectrum confirmed that oxygen in the intermediate products originated from a heavy-oxygen water electrolyte, and the degradation of PFOS was initiated by the dissociation of a sulfonic group. A possible mechanism was revealed; that was, PFOS was desulfated at the anode to form C8F17· and then transformed into C8F17OH, followed by intramolecular rearrangement and hydrolysis reactions to form C7F15COO−. Kolbe decarboxylation occurred in C7F15COO− at the anode to generate C7F15·, which evolved into C6F13COO− in a similar way and the CF2 unit fell off from C7F15COO−. PFOS was gradually degraded into short-chain perfluorocarboxyl anions by repeating the CF2 unzipping cycle.

Mass spectrometric analysis of the cell surface N-glycoproteome by combining metabolic labeling and click chemistry.

Cell surface N-glycoproteins play extraordinarily important roles in cell-cell communication, cell-matrix interactions, and cellular response to environmental cues. Global analysis is exceptionally challenging because many N-glycoproteins are present at low abundances and effective separation is difficult to achieve. Here, we have developed a novel strategy integrating metabolic labeling, copper-free click chemistry, and mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomics methods to analyze cell surface N-glycoproteins comprehensively and site-specifically. A sugar analog containing an azido group, N-azidoacetylgalactosamine, was fed to cells to label glycoproteins. Glycoproteins with the functional group on the cell surface were then bound to dibenzocyclooctyne-sulfo-biotin via copper-free click chemistry under physiological conditions. After protein extraction and digestion, glycopeptides with the biotin tag were enriched by NeutrAvidin conjugated beads. Enriched glycopeptides were deglycosylated with peptide-N-glycosidase F in heavy-oxygen water, and in the process of glycan removal, asparagine was converted to aspartic acid and tagged with 18O for MS analysis. With this strategy, 144 unique N-glycopeptides containing 152 N-glycosylation sites were identified in 110 proteins in HEK293T cells. As expected, 95% of identified glycoproteins were membrane proteins, which were highly enriched. Many sites were located on important receptors, transporters, and cluster of differentiation proteins. The experimental results demonstrated that the current method is very effective for the comprehensive and site-specific identification of the cell surface N-glycoproteome and can be extensively applied to other cell surface protein studies.

A Universal Chemical Enrichment Method for Mapping the Yeast N-glycoproteome by Mass Spectrometry (MS)

Glycosylation is one of the most common and important protein modifications in biological systems. Many glycoproteins naturally occur at low abundances, which makes comprehensive analysis extremely difficult. Additionally, glycans are highly heterogeneous, which further complicates analysis in complex samples. Lectin enrichment has been commonly used, but each lectin is inherently specific to one or several carbohydrates, and thus no single or collection of lectin(s) can bind to all glycans. Here we have employed a boronic acid-based chemical method to universally enrich glycopeptides. The reaction between boronic acids and sugars has been extensively investigated, and it is well known that the interaction between boronic acid and diols is one of the strongest reversible covalent bond interactions in an aqueous environment. This strong covalent interaction provides a great opportunity to catch glycopeptides and glycoproteins by boronic acid, whereas the reversible property allows their release without side effects. More importantly, the boronic acid-diol recognition is universal, which provides great capability and potential for comprehensively mapping glycosylation sites in complex biological samples. By combining boronic acid enrichment with PNGase F treatment in heavy-oxygen water and MS, we have identified 816 N-glycosylation sites in 332 yeast proteins, among which 675 sites were well-localized with greater than 99% confidence. The results demonstrated that the boronic acid-based chemical method can effectively enrich glycopeptides for comprehensive analysis of protein glycosylation. A general trend seen within the large data set was that there were fewer glycosylation sites toward the C termini of proteins. Of the 332 glycoproteins identified in yeast, 194 were membrane proteins. Many proteins get glycosylated in the high-mannose N-glycan biosynthetic and GPI anchor biosynthetic pathways. Compared with lectin enrichment, the current method is more cost-efficient, generic, and effective. This method can be extensively applied to different complex samples for the comprehensive analysis of protein glycosylation.

Effect of2H and18O water isotopes in kinesin-1 gliding assay

We show for the first time the effects of heavy-hydrogen water (2H2O) and heavy-oxygen water (H218O) on the gliding speed of microtubules on kinesin-1 coated surfaces. Increased fractions of isotopic waters used in the motility solution decreased the gliding speed of microtubules by a maximum of 21% for heavy-hydrogen and 5% for heavy-oxygen water. We also show that gliding microtubule speed returns to its original speed after being treated with heavy-hydrogen water. We discuss possible interpretations of these results and the importance for future studies of water effects on kinesin and microtubules. We also discuss the implication for using heavy waters in biomolecular devices incorporating molecular motors.

Effect of 2-H and 18-O water isotopes in kinesin-1 gliding assay

AbstractWe show here the effects of heavy-hydrogen water (^2^H~2~O) and heavy-oxygen water (H~2~^18^O) on the gliding speed of microtubules on kinesin-1 coated surfaces. Increased fractions of isotopic waters used in the motility solution decreased the gliding speed of microtubules by a maximum of 21% for heavy-hydrogen and 5% for heavy-oxygen water. We discuss possible interpretations of these results and the importance for future studies of water effects on kinesin and microtubules. We also discuss the implication for biomolecular devices incorporating molecular motors.

Mechanistic study on degradation of azelnidipine solution under radical initiator-based oxidative conditions

We identified four degradants (Dg-A, Dg-B, Dg-C, Dg-D) of azelnidipine to be generated under radical initiator-based oxidative conditions and proposed the mechanistic pathway for their formation. 2,2′-Azobisisobutyronitrile was used as a radical initiator. There appeared to be two major pathways in the oxidation of the 1,4-dihydropyridine moiety. One was initiated by hydrogen abstraction from the C-4 position of the dihydropyridine ring, followed by hydrogen abstraction from the N-1 position, leading to aromatization of the dihydropyridine ring and Dg-A generation. The other was initiated by hydrogen abstraction from the N-1 position of the dihydropyridine ring followed by oxidation and hydrolysis to yield Dg-B. Furthermore, Dg-B was subjected to hydrolysis to generate Dg-C and Dg-D. It has been revealed that the rate of the Dg-B degradation was predominantly governed by the water content of the solvent used. Water participation in Dg-B degradation was proved by monitoring the incorporation of heavy oxygen atom ( 18O) into the structure with LC–MS, in which the experiment was carried out in a medium prepared with heavy oxygen water to label 18O during the hydrolysis.

Water diffusion in fluoropolymer-based fuel-cell electrolyte membranes investigated by radioactivated-tracer permeation technique

Abstract The self-diffusion coefficient of water, D, in proton exchange membranes (PEMs) based on crosslinked-polytetrafluoroethylene (cPTFE) films was measured by a radioactivated-tracer permeation technique using tritium labeled water (HTO). The D value was found to increase with the water volume fraction of the PEM, φ, probably because the water-filled regions were more effectively interconnected with each other at high φ, allowing water permeation to be faster through a PEM. Interestingly, the grafted PEMs showed the lower D compared to that of Nafion in spite of their high φ. This would be caused by tortuous structures of transport pathways and a strong coulombic interaction between water and the negatively-charged sulfonate (SO3 −) groups. Heavy-oxygen water (H2 18O) was also used in the similar permeation experiment to obtain the D. Since the HTO diffusion actually occurred not only by translational motion of water but also by intermolecular hydrogen-atom hopping, comparing the D of HTO with that of H2 18O was likely to give the information about the state of water in the PEMs.

(Corrected) Osmotic stress and water isotope effects in kinesin-1 gliding motility assays

AbstractThe osmotic pressure and kinetic properties of water play important roles in biomolecular interactions. As pointed out by Parsegian, Rand, and Rau, these crucial roles are often overlooked[1]. In some fields, osmotic stress and isotope effects have been exploited for probing the role water plays in binding interactions of biomolecules. To our knowledge, there have been no studies of osmotic stress and water isotope effects for kinesin, and only a handful for myosin. We're currently using the gliding motility assay to see whether we can extract new information about kinesin-1 / microtubule interactions by changing osmotic stress and water isotopes. We will describe our open-source, automated analysis platform for extracting microtubule gliding speeds from image series. We will also show our preliminary analyses of the changes seen in gliding assays when done in heavy water (either heavy-hydrogen or heavy-oxygen) or osmolytes (betaine). We will discuss whether osmotic stress and isotopes, particularly heavy-oxygen water, might be an important tool for probing effects of water on binding interactions between kinesin and microtubules. We will also discuss potential applications of deuterium water for stabilizing microtubules and kinesin for lab or device applications.[1] Parsegian, V. A., Rand, R. P., &amp; Rau, D. C. (1995). Macromolecules and water: probing with osmotic stress. Methods in Enzymology, 259.This work was supported by the DTRA CB Basic Research Program under Grant No. HDTRA1-09-1-008 in collaboration with Dr. Susan Atlas lab (UNM).CORRECTIONS: At the workshop, Erik Schaffer pointed out to us that some of our speed differences (casein data) were surely due to microscope increasing in temperature. I’ve edited the poster to correct for this. Thanks, Erik!2011 March Correction: Using temperature stabilization and much-improved technique, Andy has taken higher-quality data for the heavy-hydrogen and heavy-oxygen experiments. See the added slides, 6-7.

(Corrected) Osmotic stress and water isotope effects in kinesin-1 gliding motility assays

AbstractThe osmotic pressure and kinetic properties of water play important roles in biomolecular interactions. As pointed out by Parsegian, Rand, and Rau, these crucial roles are often overlooked[1]. In some fields, osmotic stress and isotope effects have been exploited for probing the role water plays in binding interactions of biomolecules. To our knowledge, there have been no studies of osmotic stress and water isotope effects for kinesin, and only a handful for myosin. We're currently using the gliding motility assay to see whether we can extract new information about kinesin-1 / microtubule interactions by changing osmotic stress and water isotopes. We will describe our open-source, automated analysis platform for extracting microtubule gliding speeds from image series. We will also show our preliminary analyses of the changes seen in gliding assays when done in heavy water (either heavy-hydrogen or heavy-oxygen) or osmolytes (betaine). We will discuss whether osmotic stress and isotopes, particularly heavy-oxygen water, might be an important tool for probing effects of water on binding interactions between kinesin and microtubules. We will also discuss potential applications of deuterium water for stabilizing microtubules and kinesin for lab or device applications.[1] Parsegian, V. A., Rand, R. P., &amp; Rau, D. C. (1995). Macromolecules and water: probing with osmotic stress. Methods in Enzymology, 259.This work was supported by the DTRA CB Basic Research Program under Grant No. HDTRA1-09-1-008 in collaboration with Dr. Susan Atlas lab (UNM).CORRECTIONS: At the workshop, Erik Schaffer pointed out to us that some of our speed differences (casein data) were surely due to microscope increasing in temperature. I’ve edited the poster to correct for this. Thanks, Erik!

Osmotic stress and water isotope effects in kinesin-1 gliding motility assays

AbstractThe osmotic pressure and kinetic properties of water play important roles in biomolecular interactions. As pointed out by Parsegian, Rand, and Rau, these crucial roles are often overlooked[1]. In some fields, osmotic stress and isotope effects have been exploited for probing the role water plays in binding interactions of biomolecules. To our knowledge, there have been no studies of osmotic stress and water isotope effects for kinesin, and only a handful for myosin. We're currently using the gliding motility assay to see whether we can extract new information about kinesin-1 / microtubule interactions by changing osmotic stress and water isotopes. We will describe our open-source, automated analysis platform for extracting microtubule gliding speeds from image series. We will also show our preliminary analyses of the changes seen in gliding assays when done in heavy water (either heavy-hydrogen or heavy-oxygen) or osmolytes (betaine). We will discuss whether osmotic stress and isotopes, particularly heavy-oxygen water, might be an important tool for probing effects of water on binding interactions between kinesin and microtubules. We will also discuss potential applications of deuterium water for stabilizing microtubules and kinesin for lab or device applications.[1] Parsegian, V. A., Rand, R. P., &amp; Rau, D. C. (1995). Macromolecules and water: probing with osmotic stress. Methods in Enzymology, 259.This work was supported by the DTRA CB Basic Research Program under Grant No. HDTRA1-09-1-008 in collaboration with Dr. Susan Atlas lab (UNM).

Anomalously large kinetic isotope effect

AbstractActivated diffusion of water between macromolecules in swollen cellulose is accompanied by anomalously high kinetic isotope effects of oxygen. The separation factor of heavy-oxygen water (H218O /H216O) is thousands of permilles instead of tens of permilles according to modern Absolute Rate Theory. This anomalous separation under usual conditions is disguised by the opposing process of very fast equalization to equilibrium through water-filled cellulose pores. This process is quicker by approximately 3 orders of magnitude than diffusion through the cellulose body. As a consequence, this opposition-directed equalization virtually eliminates the results of isotope separation. To reveal this anomaly it is necessary to suppress equalization, which was the primary problem for both discovery of this anomaly and its investigation. The method of investigating the anomalous separation in cellulose was developed with suppression of this negative influence. Discussion of the theoretical nature of the anomalous kinetic isotope effect is presented. This theoretical study would probably permit the discovery and use for isotope separation of the anomalously high isotope effect for other chemical elements, in particular, for those heavier than oxygen.

Heat capacities and enthalpy of fusion of heavy oxygen water

The heat capacities of 18 O-enriched water under its saturated vapor pressure have been measured in the temperature range 9-300 K by means of adiabatic calorimetry. The triple point temperature and the enthalpy of fusion of pure H 2 18 O have been determined to be 273.46±0.01 K and 6.029±0.004 kJ mol -1 , respectively. The heat capacity difference between H 2 18 O and H 2 16 O, C p (H 2 18 O)-C p (H 2 16 O), rises steeply in the temperature range 9-100 K and makes a shoulder peak of 0.70 J K -1 mol -1 at 100 K