Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Characterization of fluidized bed chemical vapor deposition ZrC coatings on PyC/YSZ kernels deposited under differing conditions

Journal Article · · Journal of Nuclear Materials

In this study, coated fuel particle architectures with ZrC coatings are candidate fuels for advanced power reactors and space nuclear propulsion (SNP) concepts. Owing to its relevance to SNP, the composition, microstructure, and mechanical properties of eight ZrC coatings prepared by fluidized bed chemical vapor deposition were evaluated. Evaluation by SEM and EBSD showed that all grains were columnar. Across the various examined samples, minor axis diameters varied between 0.3 and 1.1 μm, and major axis diameters varied between 0.4 and 2.3 μm. Major and minor diameters increased with thickness particularly at higher deposition temperatures in which the major grain axis (from an ellipse fit to the grain shape) increased by 2.5 μm over the entire coating. Coatings with higher reactive gas flows and Zr/C concentrations closer to 1 were observed to contain nanocrystalline graphite deposits. Reactive gas flow doubling led to increases in coating thickness from around 10–15 μm to around 22–27 μm.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
2329609
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 2333042
Journal Information:
Journal of Nuclear Materials, Vol. 594, Issue 1; ISSN 0022-3115
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (34)

Handbook of SiC properties for fuel performance modeling journal September 2007
Measurement of the fracture properties of brittle solids by hertzian indentation journal November 1978
Thermodynamics of the production of condensed phases in the chemical vapor deposition of ZrC in the ZrCl4–CH4–H2–Ar system journal May 2014
Hardness and elastic properties of Ti(CxN1−x), Zr(CxN1−x) and Hf(CxN1−x) journal September 2000
Damage production in carbide single crystals irradiated with MeV heavy ions journal July 2013
Properties of zirconium carbide for nuclear fuel applications journal October 2013
Irradiation Experiment on ZrC-Coated Fuel Particles for High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactors journal June 2000
Formation and characterization of carbon at the interface by oxidation of ZrC single crystals journal January 1998
Redistribution of radionuclides in irradiated AGR-1 UCO TRISO fuel after 1800 °C safety testing journal December 2020
Low‐Temperature Elastic Properties of ZrC and TiC journal September 1966
Large grain polycrystalline Si thin films by nucleation-controlled chemical vapor deposition using intermittent source gas supply journal September 2005
Influence of SiC grain boundary character on fission product transport in irradiated TRISO fuel journal May 2016
Electron microscopy study of Pd, Ag, and Cs in carbon areas in the locally corroded SiC layer in a neutron-irradiated TRISO fuel particle journal September 2018
Raman microspectroscopy of soot and related carbonaceous materials: Spectral analysis and structural information journal July 2005
Associations of Pd, U and Ag in the SiC layer of neutron-irradiated TRISO fuel journal May 2015
Microstructure and mechanical properties of heat-treated and neutron irradiated TRISO-ZrC coatings journal September 2015
Quantification of silicon carbide grain structure in TRISO fuel by BSE image analysis journal May 2020
The preparation and characteristics of ZrC and TaC single crystals using an r.f. floating-zone process journal October 1981
Microstructure of TRISO coated particles from the AGR-1 experiment: SiC grain size and grain boundary character journal January 2013
Understanding the CVD process of (Si)–B–C ceramics through FTIR spectroscopy gas phase analysis journal May 2007
Co-deposition of zirconium with carbon by the bromide process journal January 1976
On the stoichiometry of zirconium carbide journal April 2020
SiC layer microstructure in AGR-1 and AGR-2 TRISO fuel particles and the influence of its variation on the effective diffusion of key fission products journal November 2016
Raman spectroscopy of amorphous, nanostructured, diamond–like carbon, and nanodiamond
  • Ferrari, Andrea Carlo; Robertson, John
  • Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Vol. 362, Issue 1824 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2004.1452
journal September 2004
Temperature dependency of the LPCVD growth of ZrC with the ZrCl4–CH4–H2 system journal November 2008
Zirconia growth on zirconium carbide single crystals by oxidation journal July 2005
Raman spectroscopy of hydrogenated amorphous carbons journal August 2005
Raman investigation of ion irradiated TiC and ZrC journal September 2019
Raman spectroscopy on amorphous carbon films journal July 1996
Elastic properties of zirconium carbide journal January 1966
Samarium and europium beta”-alumina derivatives characterized by XPS journal December 2016
Microstructure evolution of a ZrC coating layer in TRISO particles during high-temperature annealing journal October 2016
Characterization of zirconium carbides using electron microscopy, optical anisotropy, Auger depth profiles, X-ray diffraction, and electron density calculated by charge flipping method journal October 2012
Coating Microspheres with Zirconium Carbide-Carbon Alloy by Iodide Process journal June 1974