Microstructural and nanomechanical studies of PVD Cr coatings on SiC for LWR fuel cladding applications
Abstract
The microstructure and nanomechanical properties of pure Cr coatings deposited on SiC with various physical vapor deposition (PVD) methods have been investigated for the mitigation of hydrothermal corrosion of SiC-SiCf (SiC fiber-reinforced SiC matrix) composite fuel cladding in light water reactors (LWR). Cr coatings (4–7 μm thick) were deposited on unbiased SiC substrates using six variants of magnetron sputtering processes: (i) standard (S-DCMS), (ii) pulsed (P-DCMS), (iii) ion-assisted (I-DCMS), and (iv) pulsed ion-assisted direct current magnetron sputtering (PI-DCMS), (v) high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS), and (vi) bipolar HiPIMS (B-HiPIMS). Microstructural characterization and nanoindentation testing were used to evaluate effects of deposition technique on coating microstructure and nanomechanical properties. The application of positive reverse pulses to the sputter target induced coarsening of the columnar grain structure, while ion bombardment of substrates during deposition promoted densification of the coating microstructure. Both effects are exemplified in B-HiPIMS deposition, resulting in a high-density microstructure with compressive residual stress. Material pile-up around nano-indents and plastic work during nanoindentation were analyzed to understand deformation behavior of the coatings. Finally, the results suggest the B-HiPIMS process to be among the promising methods for the deposition of Cr coatings on SiC-SiCf for LWR cladding application.
- Authors:
-
- Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE); National Science Foundation (NSF)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1977678
- Grant/Contract Number:
- NE0008800; DMR-1720415
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Surface and Coatings Technology
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 441; Journal Issue: C; Journal ID: ISSN 0257-8972
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; Materials science; Physics; SiC fuel cladding; accident tolerant fuel; DCMS; HiPIMS; nanoindentation; pile up
Citation Formats
Quillin, Kyle, Yeom, Hwasung, Dabney, Tyler, Willing, Evan, and Sridharan, Kumar. Microstructural and nanomechanical studies of PVD Cr coatings on SiC for LWR fuel cladding applications. United States: N. p., 2022.
Web. doi:10.1016/j.surfcoat.2022.128577.
Quillin, Kyle, Yeom, Hwasung, Dabney, Tyler, Willing, Evan, & Sridharan, Kumar. Microstructural and nanomechanical studies of PVD Cr coatings on SiC for LWR fuel cladding applications. United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.surfcoat.2022.128577
Quillin, Kyle, Yeom, Hwasung, Dabney, Tyler, Willing, Evan, and Sridharan, Kumar. Wed .
"Microstructural and nanomechanical studies of PVD Cr coatings on SiC for LWR fuel cladding applications". United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.surfcoat.2022.128577. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1977678.
@article{osti_1977678,
title = {Microstructural and nanomechanical studies of PVD Cr coatings on SiC for LWR fuel cladding applications},
author = {Quillin, Kyle and Yeom, Hwasung and Dabney, Tyler and Willing, Evan and Sridharan, Kumar},
abstractNote = {The microstructure and nanomechanical properties of pure Cr coatings deposited on SiC with various physical vapor deposition (PVD) methods have been investigated for the mitigation of hydrothermal corrosion of SiC-SiCf (SiC fiber-reinforced SiC matrix) composite fuel cladding in light water reactors (LWR). Cr coatings (4–7 μm thick) were deposited on unbiased SiC substrates using six variants of magnetron sputtering processes: (i) standard (S-DCMS), (ii) pulsed (P-DCMS), (iii) ion-assisted (I-DCMS), and (iv) pulsed ion-assisted direct current magnetron sputtering (PI-DCMS), (v) high-power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS), and (vi) bipolar HiPIMS (B-HiPIMS). Microstructural characterization and nanoindentation testing were used to evaluate effects of deposition technique on coating microstructure and nanomechanical properties. The application of positive reverse pulses to the sputter target induced coarsening of the columnar grain structure, while ion bombardment of substrates during deposition promoted densification of the coating microstructure. Both effects are exemplified in B-HiPIMS deposition, resulting in a high-density microstructure with compressive residual stress. Material pile-up around nano-indents and plastic work during nanoindentation were analyzed to understand deformation behavior of the coatings. Finally, the results suggest the B-HiPIMS process to be among the promising methods for the deposition of Cr coatings on SiC-SiCf for LWR cladding application.},
doi = {10.1016/j.surfcoat.2022.128577},
journal = {Surface and Coatings Technology},
number = C,
volume = 441,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 2022},
month = {Wed Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 2022}
}
Works referenced in this record:
Fracture related mechanical properties of low and high graphene reinforcement of epoxy nanocomposites
journal, September 2017
- Alexopoulos, Nikolaos D.; Paragkamian, Zafeiroula; Poulin, Philippe
- Composites Science and Technology, Vol. 150
Microstructure of nanoporous yttria-stabilized zirconia films fabricated by EB-PVD
journal, January 2006
- Jang, Byung-Koog; Matsubara, Hideaki
- Journal of the European Ceramic Society, Vol. 26, Issue 9
Hydrothermal Corrosion of Coatings on Silicon Carbide in Boiling Water Reactor Conditions
journal, November 2018
- Raiman, Stephen S.; Doyle, Peter; Ang, Caen
- CORROSION, Vol. 75, Issue 2
Low energy ion-assisted deposition of metal films
journal, April 1992
- Roy, Ronnen
- Surface and Coatings Technology, Vol. 51, Issue 1-3
$\hbox{CrN}_{\rm x}$ Films Prepared by DC Magnetron Sputtering and High-Power Pulsed Magnetron Sputtering: A Comparative Study
journal, November 2010
- Greczynski, Grzegorz; Jensen, Jens; Hultman, Lars
- IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, Vol. 38, Issue 11
Effects of deposition parameters on the texture of chromium films deposited by vacuum arc evaporation
journal, November 1996
- Gautier, C.; Machet, J.
- Thin Solid Films, Vol. 289, Issue 1-2
Pulsed magnetron sputter technology
journal, December 1993
- Schiller, S.; Goedicke, K.; Reschke, J.
- Surface and Coatings Technology, Vol. 61, Issue 1-3
Cu films prepared by bipolar pulsed high power impulse magnetron sputtering
journal, April 2018
- Wu, Baohua; Haehnlein, Ian; Shchelkanov, Ivan
- Vacuum, Vol. 150
Determination of indenter tip geometry and indentation contact area for depth-sensing indentation experiments
journal, May 1998
- McElhaney, K. W.; Vlassak, J. J.; Nix, W. D.
- Journal of Materials Research, Vol. 13, Issue 5
Hydrothermal Corrosion of First-Generation Dual-Purpose Coatings on Silicon Carbide for Accident-Tolerant Fuel Cladding
journal, February 2021
- Doyle, Peter J.; Ang, Caen; Snead, Lance
- Journal of Nuclear Materials, Vol. 544
Properties of chromium thin films deposited in a hollow cathode magnetron powered by pulsed DC or HiPIMS
journal, December 2017
- de Monteynard, Alexis; Schuster, Frédéric; Billard, Alain
- Surface and Coatings Technology, Vol. 330
A comparative study of CrNx coatings Synthesized by dc and pulsed dc magnetron sputtering
journal, January 2009
- Lin, J.; Wu, Z. L.; Zhang, X. H.
- Thin Solid Films, Vol. 517, Issue 6
Improved film density for coatings at grazing angle of incidence in high power impulse magnetron sputtering with positive pulse
journal, July 2020
- Avino, F.; Fonnesu, D.; Koettig, T.
- Thin Solid Films, Vol. 706
Development and property evaluation of nuclear grade wrought FeCrAl fuel cladding for light water reactors
journal, December 2015
- Yamamoto, Y.; Pint, B. A.; Terrani, K. A.
- Journal of Nuclear Materials, Vol. 467
Unveiling hermetic failure of ceramic tubes by digital image correlation and acoustic emission
journal, October 2019
- Bumgardner, Clifton H.; Heim, Frederick M.; Roache, David C.
- Journal of the American Ceramic Society, Vol. 103, Issue 3
Early studies on Cr-Coated Zircaloy-4 as enhanced accident tolerant nuclear fuel claddings for light water reactors
journal, April 2019
- Brachet, Jean-Christophe; Idarraga-Trujillo, Isabel; Flem, Marion Le
- Journal of Nuclear Materials, Vol. 517
Relationships between hardness, elastic modulus, and the work of indentation
journal, August 1998
- Cheng, Yang-Tse; Cheng, Che-Min
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 73, Issue 5
Investigation on methods for dealing with pile-up errors in evaluating the mechanical properties of thin metal films at sub-micron scale on hard substrates by nanoindentation technique
journal, August 2008
- Zhou, Xiangyang; Jiang, Zhuangde; Wang, Hairong
- Materials Science and Engineering: A, Vol. 488, Issue 1-2
Fabrication and characterization of joined silicon carbide cylindrical components for nuclear applications
journal, February 2015
- Khalifa, H. E.; Deck, C. P.; Gutierrez, O.
- Journal of Nuclear Materials, Vol. 457
Characterization of PVD Cr, CrN, and TiN coatings on SiC
journal, December 2019
- Mouche, P. A.; Ang, C.; Koyanagi, T.
- Journal of Nuclear Materials, Vol. 527
On the relationship between the peak target current and the morphology of chromium nitride thin films deposited by reactive high power pulsed magnetron sputtering
journal, December 2008
- Alami, J.; Sarakinos, K.; Uslu, F.
- Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, Vol. 42, Issue 1
Advanced oxidation-resistant iron-based alloys for LWR fuel cladding
journal, May 2014
- Terrani, K. A.; Zinkle, S. J.; Snead, L. L.
- Journal of Nuclear Materials, Vol. 448, Issue 1-3
Modulated pulse power sputtered chromium coatings
journal, December 2009
- Lin, Jianliang; Moore, John J.; Sproul, William D.
- Thin Solid Films, Vol. 518, Issue 5
Bipolar HiPIMS for tailoring ion energies in thin film deposition
journal, February 2019
- Keraudy, Julien; Viloan, Rommel Paulo B.; Raadu, Michael A.
- Surface and Coatings Technology, Vol. 359
Effects of target voltage during pulse-off period in pulsed magnetron sputtering on afterglow plasma and deposited film structure
journal, January 2013
- Nakano, Takeo; Hirukawa, Norihiko; Saeki, Shuhei
- Vacuum, Vol. 87
Silicon Carbide Oxidation in Steam up to 2 MPa
journal, July 2014
- Terrani, Kurt A.; Pint, Bruce A.; Parish, Chad M.
- Journal of the American Ceramic Society, Vol. 97, Issue 8
Accident tolerant fuel cladding development: Promise, status, and challenges
journal, April 2018
- Terrani, Kurt A.
- Journal of Nuclear Materials, Vol. 501
A review of third generation SiC fibers and SiCf/SiC composites
journal, December 2019
- Wang, Pengren; Liu, Fengqi; Wang, Hao
- Journal of Materials Science & Technology, Vol. 35, Issue 12
Residual stress in ion-assisted coatings
journal, November 1992
- Bull, S.
- Surface and Coatings Technology, Vol. 54-55
Effects of the substrate on the determination of thin film mechanical properties by nanoindentation
journal, January 2002
- Saha, Ranjana; Nix, William D.
- Acta Materialia, Vol. 50, Issue 1
Uncertainty of the X-ray Diffraction (XRD) sin2 ψ Technique in Measuring Residual Stresses of Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) Hard Coatings
journal, August 2017
- Luo, Quanshun; Yang, Shicai
- Coatings, Vol. 7, Issue 8
Effects of sample bias on adhesion of magnetron sputtered Cr coatings on SiC
journal, December 2021
- Mouche, P. A.; Evans, A.; Zhong, W.
- Journal of Nuclear Materials, Vol. 556
High power pulsed magnetron sputtering: A review on scientific and engineering state of the art
journal, February 2010
- Sarakinos, K.; Alami, J.; Konstantinidis, S.
- Surface and Coatings Technology, Vol. 204, Issue 11
Silicon carbide composite for light water reactor fuel assembly applications
journal, May 2014
- Yueh, Ken; Terrani, Kurt A.
- Journal of Nuclear Materials, Vol. 448, Issue 1-3
Adhesion, structure, and mechanical properties of Cr HiPIMS and cathodic arc deposited coatings on SiC
journal, March 2021
- Mouche, Peter A.; Koyanagi, Takaaki; Patel, Deep
- Surface and Coatings Technology, Vol. 410
Dimensional stability and anisotropy of SiC and SiC-based composites in transition swelling regime
journal, February 2018
- Katoh, Yutai; Koyanagi, Takaaki; McDuffee, Joel L.
- Journal of Nuclear Materials, Vol. 499
Si incorporation in Ti1−xSixN films grown on TiN(001) and (001)-faceted TiN(111) columns
journal, October 2014
- Eriksson, A. O.; Tengstrand, O.; Lu, J.
- Surface and Coatings Technology, Vol. 257
On the film density using high power impulse magnetron sputtering
journal, October 2010
- Samuelsson, Mattias; Lundin, Daniel; Jensen, Jens
- Surface and Coatings Technology, Vol. 205, Issue 2
Pile-up/sink-in of rate-sensitive nanoindentation creeping solids
journal, October 2007
- Elmustafa, A. A.
- Modelling and Simulation in Materials Science and Engineering, Vol. 15, Issue 7
Experimental evaluation of direct current magnetron sputtered and high-power impulse magnetron sputtered Cr coatings on SiC for light water reactor applications
journal, December 2020
- Quillin, Kyle; Yeom, Hwasung; Dabney, Tyler
- Thin Solid Films, Vol. 716
Residual stresses and ion implantation effects in Cr thin films
journal, January 1999
- Misra, A.; Fayeulle, S.; Kung, H.
- Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms, Vol. 148, Issue 1-4
An improved technique for determining hardness and elastic modulus using load and displacement sensing indentation experiments
journal, June 1992
- Oliver, W. C.; Pharr, G. M.
- Journal of Materials Research, Vol. 7, Issue 06, p. 1564-1583
Measurement of hardness and elastic modulus by instrumented indentation: Advances in understanding and refinements to methodology
journal, January 2004
- Oliver, W. C.; Pharr, G. M.
- Journal of Materials Research, Vol. 19, Issue 1
Hydrothermal corrosion of SiC in LWR coolant environments in the absence of irradiation
journal, October 2015
- Terrani, K. A.; Yang, Y.; Kim, Y. -J.
- Journal of Nuclear Materials, Vol. 465
Bipolar high power impulse magnetron sputtering for energetic ion bombardment during TiN thin film growth without the use of a substrate bias
journal, October 2019
- Viloan, Rommel Paulo B.; Gu, Jiabin; Boyd, Robert
- Thin Solid Films, Vol. 688
Development of cold spray chromium coatings for improved accident tolerant zirconium-alloy cladding
journal, June 2019
- Maier, Benjamin; Yeom, Hwasung; Johnson, Greg
- Journal of Nuclear Materials, Vol. 519
Physics and technology of magnetron sputtering discharges
journal, November 2020
- Gudmundsson, J. T.
- Plasma Sources Science and Technology, Vol. 29, Issue 11
Experimental investigation on the indentation hardness of precursor derived Si–B–C–N ceramics
journal, November 2013
- Sujith, Ravindran; Kumar, Ravi
- Journal of the European Ceramic Society, Vol. 33, Issue 13-14
Evaluation of the effects of neutron irradiation on first-generation corrosion mitigation coatings on SiC for accident-tolerant fuel cladding
journal, August 2020
- Doyle, Peter J.; Koyanagi, Takaaki; Ang, Caen
- Journal of Nuclear Materials, Vol. 536
Ion–assisted sputter deposition
journal, November 2003
- Colligon, John S.
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Vol. 362, Issue 1814
Influences of pileup on the measurement of mechanical properties by load and depth sensing indentation techniques
journal, April 1998
- Bolshakov, A.; Pharr, G. M.
- Journal of Materials Research, Vol. 13, Issue 4
Stress and adhesion of chromium and boron films deposited under ion bombardment
journal, July 1991
- Barth, M.; Ensinger, W.; Hoffmann, V.
- Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms, Vol. 59-60
Magnetron sputtering: a review of recent developments and applications
journal, March 2000
- Kelly, P. J.; Arnell, R. D.
- Vacuum, Vol. 56, Issue 3