Exploration on the compounds in the selenite-borate system led to the discovery of a new second-order NLO material, Se2B2O7, with a SHG efficiency of about 2.2 times that of KDP (KH2PO4). Its structure features a 3D network with helical tunnels, and it is transparent in the UV and visible region. The compound is a wide band gap semiconductor.

TDR was introduced to solve the problem of how to measure hydrate saturation accurately. Then a series of un-drained triaxial tests were carried out on methane hydrate-bearing sediments under various conditions with effective confining pressures at 1, 2 and 4 MPa, average hydrate saturations at 15.71, 35.7 and 56.49% and strain rate at 0.8%/min. The results indicate that the shear strength increases with the increases of effective confining pressure and hydrate saturation, but the maximum failure time decreases with the increasing effective confining pressures. According to Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion, the shear strength of methane hydrate-bearing sediments was analyzed. It can be found that the internal friction angles are not sensitive to hydrate saturation, but the cohesion shows a high hydrate saturation dependency.

The mechanical properties of gas hydrate-bearing sediments are important basic parameters during natural gas hydrate drilling and exploitation. It’s very hard to get and preserve the actual gas hydrate specimens for the measurements of these characteristics. Experimental techniques for mechanical properties of gas hydrate-bearing sediments are essential and unique because of the special high pressure and low temperature conditions for the stability of gas hydrate. Qingdao Institute of Marine Geology has developed an experimental equipment (Chinese National patent No. ZL 2010 2 0253067.3) to study the variation of mechanical properties along with gas hydrate saturation in different sediments. The combination, configuration and advantages of the equipment, as well as some preliminary experimental results were introduced in this article.