Rapid assessment of structural and compositional changes during early stages of zirconium alloy oxidation

Kautz, Elizabeth J.; Gwalani, Bharat; Lambeets, Sten V M.; Kovarik, Libor; Schreiber, Daniel K.; Perea, Daniel E.; Senor, David J.; Liu, Yi-Sheng; Battu, Anil K.; Tseng, Kuo-Pin; Thevuthasan, Suntharampillai; Devaraj, Arun

doi:10.1038/s41529-020-00133-6

Rapid assessment of structural and compositional changes during early stages of zirconium alloy oxidation

Journal Article · Fri Sep 25 04:00:00 EDT 2020 · npj Materials Degradation

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41529-020-00133-6· OSTI ID:1695771

^[1]; ^[1]; ^[1]; Kovarik, Libor ^[1]; ^[1]; ^[1]; Senor, David J. ^[1]; Liu, Yi-Sheng ^[2]; Battu, Anil K. ^[3]; Tseng, Kuo-Pin ^[4]; Thevuthasan, Suntharampillai ^[1]; ^[1]

Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Univ. of Texas, El Paso, TX (United States); Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States)

A multimodal chemical imaging approach has been developed and applied to detail the dynamic, atomic-scale changes associated with oxidation of a zirconium alloy (Zircaloy-4). Scanning transmission electron microscopy, a gas-phase reactor chamber attached to an atom probe tomography instrument, and synchrotron-based X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy were employed to reveal morphology, composition, crystal, and electronic structure changes that occur during initial stages of oxidation at 300 °C. Oxidation was carried out in 10 mbar O₂ gas for short exposure times of 1 and 5 min. A multilayered oxide film with a cubic ZrO adjacent to the oxide/metal interface, a nanoscopic transition region with a graded composition of ZrO_2-x (where 0 < x < 1), and tetragonal ZrO₂ in the outermost oxide were formed. Partitioning of the major alloying element (tin) to the oxide/metal interface and heterogeneously within the oxide accompanied the development of the layered oxide. Our work provides a rapid, high-throughput approach for detailed characterisation of initial stages of zirconium alloy oxidation at an accelerated time scale, with implications for several other alloy systems.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-76RL01830

OSTI ID:: 1695771

Report Number(s):: PNNL-SA--150333

Journal Information:: npj Materials Degradation, Journal Name: npj Materials Degradation Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 4; ISSN 2397-2106

Publisher:: SpringerCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
Transmission electron microscope (TEM)
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Rapid assessment of structural and compositional changes during early stages of zirconium alloy oxidation

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