NSUF 22-4465: Radiation Tolerance of Advanced Multilayered Coatings under Transient Temperature Conditions
Advance multilayered coating has proven thermal-cycle resistance and diffusion barrier performance at elevated temperature. Therefore, it is a crucial component for the advanced enclosure solution technology developed at Argonne for micro-GCR concepts. The nanoscale multilayer structure provides high-density sink sites for radiation-induced defects and is thus expected to have advantageous resistance to radiation-induced microstructural modifications and consequent performance degradation. However, experimental evidence is required to demonstrate that this advanced multilayered coating can survive the harsh radiation conditions found in a high-temperature nuclear reactors. In an ongoing irradiation project, it has been preliminarily proven that multilayered coating can survive irradiation at constant elevated temperatures. This proposed study aims at further extending the testing conditions to thermal cycling and rapid temperature ramping scenarios leveraging the in situ TEM ion irradiation capability at IVEM-Tandem to produce the qualitative and quantitative references for radiation tolerance of advanced multilayered coating on refractory metal substrate so as to facilitate the development of this technology and the micro-reactor concepts. While ex-situ heavy ion irradiation on bulk samples is also ongoing (not sponsored by NSUF), the in-situ TEM experiments involving variable temperature conditions proposed here will help capture the radiation-induced microstructure modification processes under dynamic irradiation conditions to facilitate the understanding of the related mechanisms. The advanced multilayered coating samples on Nb substrates will be used in this study. The samples are prepared by coating refractory metals by ~3-micron thick multilayered coating consisting of 5~50 nm thick single layers of ceramics and/or metals using atomic layer deposition (ALD). The coating parameters that showed best radiation tolerance in constant temperature irradiation tests will be adopted. TEM lamellae will be lifted out from the coated metal samples using focused ion beam (FIB). The as-fabricated lamellae will be irradiated by 1 MeV Kr ions up to 1.80E16 ions/cm2 using a relatively high dose rate of 3.2×1011 ions/cm2·s. The selection of the ion energy ensures that the majority of the Kr ions will penetrate the lamellae, leaving few foreign atoms within the sample and only creating radiation damages and consequent enhanced diffusion in coated metal lamellae. Instead of constant irradiation temperature used in previous study, a variable temperature will be adopted. Thermal cycling between 100°C and 800°C with two different ramping rate will be used in presence if ion irradiation. On the other hand, The samples will be irradiated at 500°C to three different doses (0.5, 1.0 and 1.5×1016 ions/cm2) before rapidly ramping the irradiation temperature to 800°C. The samples will then be irradiated at 800°C until a final 1.8×1016 ions/cm2 is reached. The evolution of the multilayer structure and coating-substrate compatibility during temperature variation with irradiation will be focused in this study. The integrity and microstructure of the multilayer structure and the coating-substrate interaction layer (if any) will be monitored throughout the in-situ irradiation. The results will provide experimental demonstration for the radiation tolerance of the advanced multilayered coating during high-temperature thermal cycling and power transients and guide further optimization of the coating recipe. The in situ TEM ion irradiation investigation takes one days for each sample. As there will be ten samples (five irradiation conditions and two sample sets), we request ten (10) days of IVEM-Tandem facility time.
Additional Info
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Abstract | Advance multilayered coating has proven thermal-cycle resistance and diffusion barrier performance at elevated temperature. Therefore, it is a crucial component for the advanced enclosure solution technology developed at Argonne for micro-GCR concepts. The nanoscale multilayer structure provides high-density sink sites for radiation-induced defects and is thus expected to have advantageous resistance to radiation-induced microstructural modifications and consequent performance degradation. However, experimental evidence is required to demonstrate that this advanced multilayered coating can survive the harsh radiation conditions found in a high-temperature nuclear reactors. In an ongoing irradiation project, it has been preliminarily proven that multilayered coating can survive irradiation at constant elevated temperatures. This proposed study aims at further extending the testing conditions to thermal cycling and rapid temperature ramping scenarios leveraging the in situ TEM ion irradiation capability at IVEM-Tandem to produce the qualitative and quantitative references for radiation tolerance of advanced multilayered coating on refractory metal substrate so as to facilitate the development of this technology and the micro-reactor concepts. While ex-situ heavy ion irradiation on bulk samples is also ongoing (not sponsored by NSUF), the in-situ TEM experiments involving variable temperature conditions proposed here will help capture the radiation-induced microstructure modification processes under dynamic irradiation conditions to facilitate the understanding of the related mechanisms. The advanced multilayered coating samples on Nb substrates will be used in this study. The samples are prepared by coating refractory metals by ~3-micron thick multilayered coating consisting of 5~50 nm thick single layers of ceramics and/or metals using atomic layer deposition (ALD). The coating parameters that showed best radiation tolerance in constant temperature irradiation tests will be adopted. TEM lamellae will be lifted out from the coated metal samples using focused ion beam (FIB). The as-fabricated lamellae will be irradiated by 1 MeV Kr ions up to 1.80E16 ions/cm2 using a relatively high dose rate of 3.2×1011 ions/cm2·s. The selection of the ion energy ensures that the majority of the Kr ions will penetrate the lamellae, leaving few foreign atoms within the sample and only creating radiation damages and consequent enhanced diffusion in coated metal lamellae. Instead of constant irradiation temperature used in previous study, a variable temperature will be adopted. Thermal cycling between 100°C and 800°C with two different ramping rate will be used in presence if ion irradiation. On the other hand, The samples will be irradiated at 500°C to three different doses (0.5, 1.0 and 1.5×1016 ions/cm2) before rapidly ramping the irradiation temperature to 800°C. The samples will then be irradiated at 800°C until a final 1.8×1016 ions/cm2 is reached. The evolution of the multilayer structure and coating-substrate compatibility during temperature variation with irradiation will be focused in this study. The integrity and microstructure of the multilayer structure and the coating-substrate interaction layer (if any) will be monitored throughout the in-situ irradiation. The results will provide experimental demonstration for the radiation tolerance of the advanced multilayered coating during high-temperature thermal cycling and power transients and guide further optimization of the coating recipe. The in situ TEM ion irradiation investigation takes one days for each sample. As there will be ten samples (five irradiation conditions and two sample sets), we request ten (10) days of IVEM-Tandem facility time. |
| Award Announced Date | 2022-06-14T07:23:41.537 |
| Awarded Institution | Idaho National Laboratory |
| Facility | Advanced Test Reactor |
| Facility Tech Lead | Alina Zackrone, Wei-Ying Chen |
| Irradiation Facility | Intermediate Voltage Electron Microscopy (IVEM)-Tandem Facility |
| PI | Yinbin Miao |
| PI Email | [email protected] |
| Project Type | RTE |
| RTE Number | 4465 |