Investigation of (110)Mo, (110)W monocrystals and Nb polycrystal implanted by oxygen ions and used as TEC electrodes

Book · Sun Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:187905

Tsakadze, L M

In an effort to improve efficiency of a thermionic energy converter (TEC), converting thermal power into electric power, there were investigated collectors made of (110)Mo and (110)W monocrystals, and Nb polycrystal, all being implanted by oxygen ions with fluence of 1*10{sup 18} cm{sup {minus}2}. For emitters there were used (110)Mo and (110)W monocrystals, and Nb polycrystal implanted by oxygen ions, respectively. The performance of TEC with implanted electrode material is compared with this of TEC having electrodes of non-implanted materials. It is demonstrated that for emitter temperature range of 1,473 to 1,873 K employment of (110)Mo and (110)W monocrystals, implanted by oxygen ions, for TEC collector allows to increase the specific output power of a converter approximately by a factor of 1.6, and employment of implanted Nb for electrodes -- to increase this value approximately by a factor of 3, as compared with non-implanted electrode materials. The upgraded performance of TEC with implanted electrode materials is caused by the increase of minimum values of the collector working function by {approximately}0.15--0.2 eV as compared with non-implanted collectors, as well as by improvement of emitter emissive and adsorption properties due to oxygen supply from collectors at operating temperatures.

• OSTI ID: 187905
• Report Number(s): CONF-950729--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION
ELECTRODES
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
ION IMPLANTATION
MATERIALS
MOLYBDENUM
NESDPS Office of Nuclear Energy Space and Defense Power Systems
NIOBIUM
PERFORMANCE
THERMIONIC COLLECTORS
THERMIONIC CONVERTERS
TUNGSTEN
WORK FUNCTIONS