Superior radiation-resistant nanoengineered austenitic 304L stainless steel for applications in extreme radiation environments
Abstract
Nuclear energy provides more than 10% of electrical power internationally, and the increasing engagement of nuclear energy is essential to meet the rapid worldwide increase in energy demand. A paramount challenge in the development of advanced nuclear reactors is the discovery of advanced structural materials that can endure extreme environments, such as severe neutron irradiation damage at high temperatures. It has been known for decades that high dose radiation can introduce significant void swelling accompanied by precipitation in austenitic stainless steel (SS). Here we report, however, that through nanoengineering, ultra-fine grained (UFG) 304L SS with an average grain size of ~100 nm, can withstand Fe ion irradiation at 500°C to 80 displacements-per-atom (dpa) with moderate grain coarsening. Compared to coarse grained (CG) counterparts, swelling resistance of UFG SS is improved by nearly an order of magnitude and swelling rate is reduced by a factor of 5. M₂₃C₆ precipitates, abundant in irradiated CG SS, are largely absent in UFG SS. This study provides a nanoengineering approach to design and discover radiation tolerant metallic materials for applications in extreme radiation environments.
- Authors:
-
- Texas A & M Univ., College Station, TX (United States); Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Texas A & M Univ., College Station, TX (United States)
- Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL (United States)
- Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
- Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE; NSF-DMR-Metallic Materials and Nanostructures Program
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1193789
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC07-05ID14517
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Scientific Reports
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 5; Journal Issue: 3; Journal ID: ISSN 2045-2322
- Publisher:
- Nature Publishing Group
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
Citation Formats
Sun, C., Zheng, S., Wei, C. C., Wu, Y., Shao, L., Yang, Y., Hartwig, K. T., Maloy, S. A., Zinkle, S. J., Allen, T. R., Wang, H., and Zhang, X. Superior radiation-resistant nanoengineered austenitic 304L stainless steel for applications in extreme radiation environments. United States: N. p., 2015.
Web. doi:10.1038/srep07801.
Sun, C., Zheng, S., Wei, C. C., Wu, Y., Shao, L., Yang, Y., Hartwig, K. T., Maloy, S. A., Zinkle, S. J., Allen, T. R., Wang, H., & Zhang, X. Superior radiation-resistant nanoengineered austenitic 304L stainless steel for applications in extreme radiation environments. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep07801
Sun, C., Zheng, S., Wei, C. C., Wu, Y., Shao, L., Yang, Y., Hartwig, K. T., Maloy, S. A., Zinkle, S. J., Allen, T. R., Wang, H., and Zhang, X. Thu .
"Superior radiation-resistant nanoengineered austenitic 304L stainless steel for applications in extreme radiation environments". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep07801. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1193789.
@article{osti_1193789,
title = {Superior radiation-resistant nanoengineered austenitic 304L stainless steel for applications in extreme radiation environments},
author = {Sun, C. and Zheng, S. and Wei, C. C. and Wu, Y. and Shao, L. and Yang, Y. and Hartwig, K. T. and Maloy, S. A. and Zinkle, S. J. and Allen, T. R. and Wang, H. and Zhang, X.},
abstractNote = {Nuclear energy provides more than 10% of electrical power internationally, and the increasing engagement of nuclear energy is essential to meet the rapid worldwide increase in energy demand. A paramount challenge in the development of advanced nuclear reactors is the discovery of advanced structural materials that can endure extreme environments, such as severe neutron irradiation damage at high temperatures. It has been known for decades that high dose radiation can introduce significant void swelling accompanied by precipitation in austenitic stainless steel (SS). Here we report, however, that through nanoengineering, ultra-fine grained (UFG) 304L SS with an average grain size of ~100 nm, can withstand Fe ion irradiation at 500°C to 80 displacements-per-atom (dpa) with moderate grain coarsening. Compared to coarse grained (CG) counterparts, swelling resistance of UFG SS is improved by nearly an order of magnitude and swelling rate is reduced by a factor of 5. M₂₃C₆ precipitates, abundant in irradiated CG SS, are largely absent in UFG SS. This study provides a nanoengineering approach to design and discover radiation tolerant metallic materials for applications in extreme radiation environments.},
doi = {10.1038/srep07801},
journal = {Scientific Reports},
number = 3,
volume = 5,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Jan 15 00:00:00 EST 2015},
month = {Thu Jan 15 00:00:00 EST 2015}
}
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