skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Damage-tolerant nanotwinned metals with nanovoids under radiation environments

Journal Article · · Nature Communications
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms8036· OSTI ID:1215410

Material performance in extreme radiation environments is central to the design of future nuclear reactors. Radiation induces significant damage in the form of dislocation loops and voids in irradiated materials, and continuous radiation often leads to void growth and subsequent void swelling in metals with low stacking fault energy. Here we show that by using in situ heavy ion irradiation in a transmission electron microscope, pre-introduced nanovoids in nanotwinned Cu efficiently absorb radiation-induced defects accompanied by gradual elimination of nanovoids, enhancing radiation tolerance of Cu. In situ studies and atomistic simulations reveal that such remarkable self-healing capability stems from high density of coherent and incoherent twin boundaries that rapidly capture and transport point defects and dislocation loops to nanovoids, which act as storage bins for interstitial loops. This study describes a counterintuitive yet significant concept: deliberate introduction of nanovoids in conjunction with nanotwins enables unprecedented damage tolerance in metallic materials.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357; SC0010482; AC52-06NA25396
OSTI ID:
1215410
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1239108
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-14-27698; ncomms8036
Journal Information:
Nature Communications, Vol. 6; ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 111 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (60)

Defect accumulation in pure fcc metals in the transient regime: a review journal November 1993
Theory and experimental background on dimensional changes in irradiated alloys journal October 1994
Efficient Annealing of Radiation Damage Near Grain Boundaries via Interstitial Emission journal March 2010
Materials challenges in nuclear energy journal February 2013
In situ nanocompression testing of irradiated copper journal June 2011
Materials degradation in fission reactors: Lessons learned of relevance to fusion reactor systems journal August 2007
Interface enabled defects reduction in helium ion irradiated Cu/V nanolayers journal December 2010
Ultrahigh Strength and High Electrical Conductivity in Copper journal April 2004
A thermal spike model of grain growth under irradiation journal January 2008
Opportunities and Challenges for Materials Innovation in Nuclear Energy journal January 2013
The radiation damage tolerance of ultra-high strength nanolayered composites journal September 2007
Deformation twinning in nanocrystalline materials journal January 2012
Revealing the Maximum Strength in Nanotwinned Copper journal January 2009
MATERIALS SCIENCE: How Does Radiation Damage Materials? journal November 2007
Computer Simulation of Displacement Cascades in Nanocrystalline Ni journal March 2002
In situ Evidence of Defect Cluster Absorption by Grain Boundaries in Kr Ion Irradiated Nanocrystalline Ni journal February 2013
Removal of stacking-fault tetrahedra by twin boundaries in nanotwinned metals journal January 2013
The role of interface structure in controlling high helium concentrations journal June 2012
Deformation mechanisms in nanotwinned metal nanopillars journal July 2012
In situ study of defect migration kinetics in nanoporous Ag with enhanced radiation tolerance journal January 2014
Defective twin boundaries in nanotwinned metals journal May 2013
Interface Structure and Radiation Damage Resistance in Cu-Nb Multilayer Nanocomposites journal April 2008
Are Nanoporous Materials Radiation Resistant? journal June 2011
Twinning dislocation multiplication at a coherent twin boundary journal September 2011
Structural stability and lattice defects in copper: Ab initio , tight-binding, and embedded-atom calculations journal May 2001
Voids in Irradiated Stainless Steel journal November 1967
Radiation Tolerance of Complex Oxides journal August 2000
In situ studies of irradiation-induced twin boundary migration in nanotwinned Ag journal September 2013
Observation of the One-Dimensional Diffusion of Nanometer-Sized Dislocation Loops journal November 2007
One-Dimensional Fast Migration of Vacancy Clusters in Metals journal November 2007
Effect of grain size on void formation during high-energy electron irradiation of austenitic stainless steel journal January 1974
Dislocation–twin interactions in nanocrystalline fcc metals journal January 2011
The influence of ∑3 twin boundaries on the formation of radiation-induced defect clusters in nanotwinned Cu journal June 2011
Superior thermal stability of coherent twin boundaries in nanotwinned metals journal June 2012
Thermal stability of sputtered Cu films with nanoscale growth twins journal May 2008
Nanostructured Cu/Nb multilayers subjected to helium ion-irradiation journal August 2007
Detwinning mechanisms for growth twins in face-centered cubic metals journal April 2010
Effect of grain boundary character on sink efficiency journal October 2012
Temperature-accelerated dynamics for simulation of infrequent events journal June 2000
Plasticity and ultra-low stress induced twin boundary migration in nanotwinned Cu by in situ nanoindentation studies journal June 2014
Greater tolerance for nuclear materials journal September 2008
Dose dependence of the microstructural evolution in neutron-irradiated austenitic stainless steel journal November 1993
Dislocation structures of Σ3 {112} twin boundaries in face centered cubic metals journal July 2009
Controlling Radiation Damage journal March 2010
Perspective of ODS alloys application in nuclear environments journal December 2002
Phase-field simulation of irradiated metals journal January 2011
Surface effects on the radiation response of nanoporous Au foams journal November 2012
EPR Observation of Close Frenkel Pairs in Irradiated ZnSe journal July 1974
Defect annihilation at grain boundaries in alpha-Fe journal March 2013
Radiation-induced amorphization resistance and radiation tolerance in structurally related oxides journal February 2007
Multiscale modelling of defect kinetics in irradiated iron journal December 2004
On grain-size-dependent void swelling in pure copper irradiated with fission neutrons journal April 2002
Molecular dynamic studies of the interaction of a/6⟨112⟩ Shockley dislocations with stacking fault tetrahedra in copper. Part II: Intersection of stacking fault tetrahedra by moving twin boundaries journal March 2009
Atomistic study of the generation, interaction, accumulation and annihilation of cascade-induced defect clusters journal December 2002
Dislocation nucleation governed softening and maximum strength in nano-twinned metals journal April 2010
High-strength sputter-deposited Cu foils with preferred orientation of nanoscale growth twins journal April 2006
I. Energy calculations for pure metals journal January 1987
Comparison of swelling and irradiation creep behavior of fcc-austenitic and bcc-ferritic/martensitic alloys at high neutron exposure journal January 2000
Designing Radiation Resistance in Materials for Fusion Energy journal July 2014
The Stopping and Range of Ions in Matter book January 1985

Cited By (19)

Molecular dynamics simulations of silicon carbide nanowires under single-ion irradiation journal September 2019
Atomistic Study of Interactions between Intrinsic Kink Defects and Dislocations in Twin Boundaries of Nanotwinned Copper during Nanoindentation journal January 2020
Detwinning through migration of twin boundaries in nanotwinned Cu films under in situ ion irradiation journal March 2018
Dual Beam In Situ Radiation Studies of Nanocrystalline Cu journal August 2019
A Review on the Radiation Response of Nanoporous Metallic Materials journal August 2018
Strength and plasticity of nanolaminated materials journal July 2016
Non-random walk diffusion enhances the sink strength of semicoherent interfaces journal January 2016
Atomistic Simulation of the Interaction Between Point Defects and Twin Boundary journal July 2018
Nanotwinned and hierarchical nanotwinned metals: a review of experimental, computational and theoretical efforts journal February 2018
Synthesis and microstructure of electrodeposited and sputtered nanotwinned face-centered-cubic metals journal April 2016
Fracture, fatigue, and creep of nanotwinned metals journal April 2016
Micro-scale modeling of interface-dominated mechanical behavior journal October 2017
An all-photonic full color RGB system based on molecular photoswitches journal September 2019
Radiation-Induced Helium Bubbles in Metals journal March 2019
Density functional theory calculations of generalized stacking fault energy surfaces for eight face-centered cubic transition metals journal September 2019
In-Situ Helium Implantation and TEM Investigation of Radiation Tolerance to Helium Bubble Damage in Equiaxed Nanocrystalline Tungsten and Ultrafine Tungsten-TiC Alloy journal February 2020
In Situ Studies on the Irradiation-Induced Twin Boundary-Defect Interactions in Cu journal August 2017
Recent Studies on the Microstructural Response of Nanotwinned Metals to In Situ Heavy Ion Irradiation journal November 2019
Dislocation-enhanced experimental-scale vacancy loop formation in hcp Zirconium in one single collision cascade journal February 2016

Similar Records

Helium irradiation induced ultra-high strength nanotwinned Cu with nanovoids
Journal Article · Wed Jul 03 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Acta Materialia · OSTI ID:1215410

Radiation Enhanced Absorption of Frank Loops by Nanovoids in Cu
Journal Article · Tue Nov 01 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · JOM. Journal of the Minerals, Metals & Materials Society · OSTI ID:1215410

In situ study on heavy ion irradiation induced microstructure evolution in single crystal Cu with nanovoids at elevated temperature
Journal Article · Thu Dec 01 00:00:00 EST 2022 · Materials Today Communications · OSTI ID:1215410