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Title: Competing effects of electronic and nuclear energy loss on microstructural evolution in ionic-covalent materials

Abstract

Ever increasing energy needs have raised the demands for advanced fuels and cladding materials that withstand the extreme radiation environments with improved accident tolerance over a long period of time. Ceria (CeO2) is a well known ionic conductor that is isostructural with urania and plutonia-based nuclear fuels. In the context of nuclear fuels, immobilization and transmutation of actinides, CeO2 is a model system for radiation effect studies. Covalent silicon carbide (SiC) is a candidate for use as structural material in fusion, cladding material for fission reactors, and an inert matrix for the transmutation of plutonium and other radioactive actinides. Understanding microstructural change of these ionic-covalent materials to irradiation is important for advanced nuclear energy systems. While displacements from nuclear energy loss may be the primary contribution to damage accumulation in a crystalline matrix and a driving force for the grain boundary evolution in nanostructured materials, local non-equilibrium disorder and excitation through electronic energy loss may, however, produce additional damage or anneal pre-existing defect. At intermediate transit energies where electronic and nuclear energy losses are both significant, synergistic, additive or competitive processes may evolve that affect the dynamic response of materials to irradiation. The response of crystalline and nanostructured CeO2 andmore » SiC to ion irradiation are studied under different nuclear and electronic stopping powers to describe some general material response in this transit energy regime. Although fast radiation-induced grain growth in CeO2 is evident with no phase transformation, different fluence and dose dependence on the growth rate is observed under Si and Au irradiations. While grain shrinkage and amorphization are observed in the nano-engineered 3C SiC with a high-density of stacking faults embedded in nanosize columnar grains, significantly enhanced radiation resistance is attributed to stacking faults that promote efficient point defect annihilation. Moreover, competing effects of electronic and nuclear energy loss on the damage accumulation and annihilation are observed in crystalline 4H-SiC. Systematic experiments and simulation effort are needed to understand the competitive or synergistic effects.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [8];  [8];  [1]
  1. ORNL
  2. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)
  3. Osaka University
  4. University of Oxford
  5. University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK)
  6. French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), Centre de Saclay, Gif sur Yvette
  7. University of Nebraska Medical Center
  8. North Carolina State University
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
OSTI Identifier:
1126529
DOE Contract Number:  
DE-AC05-00OR22725
Resource Type:
Conference
Resource Relation:
Conference: Symposium M at the E-MRS Spring Meeting May 2013, E-MRS 2013 SPRING MEETING, France, 20130527, 20130531
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

Citation Formats

Zhang, Yanwen, Varga, Tamas, Ishimaru, Dr. Manabu, Edmondson, Dr. Philip, Xue, Haizhou, Liu, Peng, Moll, Sandra, Namavar, Fereydoon, Hardiman, Chris, Shannon, Prof. Steven, and Weber, William J. Competing effects of electronic and nuclear energy loss on microstructural evolution in ionic-covalent materials. United States: N. p., 2014. Web.
Zhang, Yanwen, Varga, Tamas, Ishimaru, Dr. Manabu, Edmondson, Dr. Philip, Xue, Haizhou, Liu, Peng, Moll, Sandra, Namavar, Fereydoon, Hardiman, Chris, Shannon, Prof. Steven, & Weber, William J. Competing effects of electronic and nuclear energy loss on microstructural evolution in ionic-covalent materials. United States.
Zhang, Yanwen, Varga, Tamas, Ishimaru, Dr. Manabu, Edmondson, Dr. Philip, Xue, Haizhou, Liu, Peng, Moll, Sandra, Namavar, Fereydoon, Hardiman, Chris, Shannon, Prof. Steven, and Weber, William J. 2014. "Competing effects of electronic and nuclear energy loss on microstructural evolution in ionic-covalent materials". United States.
@article{osti_1126529,
title = {Competing effects of electronic and nuclear energy loss on microstructural evolution in ionic-covalent materials},
author = {Zhang, Yanwen and Varga, Tamas and Ishimaru, Dr. Manabu and Edmondson, Dr. Philip and Xue, Haizhou and Liu, Peng and Moll, Sandra and Namavar, Fereydoon and Hardiman, Chris and Shannon, Prof. Steven and Weber, William J},
abstractNote = {Ever increasing energy needs have raised the demands for advanced fuels and cladding materials that withstand the extreme radiation environments with improved accident tolerance over a long period of time. Ceria (CeO2) is a well known ionic conductor that is isostructural with urania and plutonia-based nuclear fuels. In the context of nuclear fuels, immobilization and transmutation of actinides, CeO2 is a model system for radiation effect studies. Covalent silicon carbide (SiC) is a candidate for use as structural material in fusion, cladding material for fission reactors, and an inert matrix for the transmutation of plutonium and other radioactive actinides. Understanding microstructural change of these ionic-covalent materials to irradiation is important for advanced nuclear energy systems. While displacements from nuclear energy loss may be the primary contribution to damage accumulation in a crystalline matrix and a driving force for the grain boundary evolution in nanostructured materials, local non-equilibrium disorder and excitation through electronic energy loss may, however, produce additional damage or anneal pre-existing defect. At intermediate transit energies where electronic and nuclear energy losses are both significant, synergistic, additive or competitive processes may evolve that affect the dynamic response of materials to irradiation. The response of crystalline and nanostructured CeO2 and SiC to ion irradiation are studied under different nuclear and electronic stopping powers to describe some general material response in this transit energy regime. Although fast radiation-induced grain growth in CeO2 is evident with no phase transformation, different fluence and dose dependence on the growth rate is observed under Si and Au irradiations. While grain shrinkage and amorphization are observed in the nano-engineered 3C SiC with a high-density of stacking faults embedded in nanosize columnar grains, significantly enhanced radiation resistance is attributed to stacking faults that promote efficient point defect annihilation. Moreover, competing effects of electronic and nuclear energy loss on the damage accumulation and annihilation are observed in crystalline 4H-SiC. Systematic experiments and simulation effort are needed to understand the competitive or synergistic effects.},
doi = {},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1126529}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2014},
month = {Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2014}
}

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