Dr. Xiaofeng Guo, Associate Professor of Chemistry, Washington State University, will give a talk entitled "Chemistry and Thermodynamics of Nuclear Fuel"

October 25, 2024

@10:10 am, Blacksburg - Goodwin 440 (in person), Arlington - VTRC, Room 6-051
For remote access, click here to Register.

Abstract
New types of fuel materials and ceramics are needed to be studied for the emerging and next generation nuclear reactor technology development. Their development requires our fundamental understanding and accurate description of structures, thermochemical stability, mechanical performance, and phase equilibria. In our group, we use a set of structural-thermodynamic techniques to achieve that understanding. Specifically, high-temperature calorimetry was implemented to directly determine the enthalpy quantities, such as heat capacity, heats of phase transition, heats of reaction, mixing and formation. To correlate the emerging thermodynamics, we investigate the chemical states and structural features by performing synchrotron X-ray techniques, and ab initio modeling, to reveal the structural and electronic origins. In this talk, I will present our recent results of nuclear fuel systems, including UO2, UN and UC ceramic fuels, and lanthanide chloride molten salt systems.

Bio
Dr. Xiaofeng Guo is an associate professor of the Department of Chemistry and the Alexandra Navrotsky Institute for Experimental Thermodynamics at Washington State University. His current research interests are thermodynamics of f-block condensed matter systems. His radiological laboratories are equipped with various advanced high temperature calorimetric instruments capable of handling radionuclides in a large quantity. He also has expertise in synchrotron X-ray based scattering and absorption spectroscopies, and their applications in in situ high-pressure and high-temperature studies. Guo received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Davis in 2014. He was a G. T. Seaborg postdoctoral fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory from 2015 to 2017. He is a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award in 2022, and Early-Career and Emerging Researchers in Physical Chemistry in 2023.