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Title: Correlation between crystallographic orientation and surface faceting in UO 2

Journal Article · · Journal of Nuclear Materials

Here coordinated experimental efforts to quantitatively correlate crystallographic orientation and surface faceting features in UO2 are reported upon. A sintered polycrystalline UO2 sample was thermally etched to induce the formation of surface faceting features. Synchrotron Laue microdiffraction was used to obtain a precise crystallographic orientation map for the UO2 surface grains. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was utilized to collect the detailed information on the surface morphology of the sample. The surface faceting features were found to be highly dependent on the crystallographic orientation. In most cases, Triple-plane structures containing one {100} plane and two {111} planes were found to dominate the surface of UO2. The orientation-faceting relationship established in this study revealed a practical and efficient method of determining crystallographic orientation based on the surface features captured by SEM images.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy - Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS)
DOE Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357
OSTI ID:
1392328
Journal Information:
Journal of Nuclear Materials, Vol. 478, Issue C; ISSN 0022-3115
Publisher:
Elsevier
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English