TY - JOUR
T1 - Helium ion irradiation effects on microstructure evolution and mechanical properties of silicon oxycarbide
AU - Devendhar Singh, Sanjay Kumar
AU - Bawane, Kaustubh
AU - Hu, Zhihan
AU - Yang, Liuqing
AU - Chen, Youxing
AU - Shao, Lin
AU - Lu, Kathy
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Office of Nuclear Energy of Department of Energy (grant no. DE-NE0008807 ). The irradiation and TEM characterization were supported by the Nuclear Science User Facility, Office of Nuclear Energy under contract DE-AC07-051D14517 . The authors thank Fei Teng, Miles Cook, Jayson Bush, and Jeffery Bailey at Idaho National Laboratory for their invaluable assistance.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l.
PY - 2022/6/1
Y1 - 2022/6/1
N2 - In this study, silicon oxycarbide (SiOC) was fabricated by pyrolysis of a polysiloxane precursor at 1000 °C and 1500 °C in an Ar atmosphere and evaluated as a new nuclear fuel coating material. The 1000 °C pyrolyzed SiOC is fully amorphous while the 1500 °C sample contains crystalline β-SiC nanodomains, a turbostratic carbon network, and an amorphous SiOC matrix. After 100 keV He ion irradiation, no detectable microstructural changes are observed for the 1000 °C pyrolyzed SiOC. However, the 1500 °C pyrolyzed SiOC shows amorphization of crystalline phases. Neither sample has He bubbles, elemental segregation, or voids after irradiation. Irradiation induced hardening is observed for all the samples. Both hardness and elastic modulus values increase with irradiation. These high temperature stable and amorphous phase dominant SiOC materials are promising systems for the development of irradiation-tolerant fuels for advanced nuclear reactors.
AB - In this study, silicon oxycarbide (SiOC) was fabricated by pyrolysis of a polysiloxane precursor at 1000 °C and 1500 °C in an Ar atmosphere and evaluated as a new nuclear fuel coating material. The 1000 °C pyrolyzed SiOC is fully amorphous while the 1500 °C sample contains crystalline β-SiC nanodomains, a turbostratic carbon network, and an amorphous SiOC matrix. After 100 keV He ion irradiation, no detectable microstructural changes are observed for the 1000 °C pyrolyzed SiOC. However, the 1500 °C pyrolyzed SiOC shows amorphization of crystalline phases. Neither sample has He bubbles, elemental segregation, or voids after irradiation. Irradiation induced hardening is observed for all the samples. Both hardness and elastic modulus values increase with irradiation. These high temperature stable and amorphous phase dominant SiOC materials are promising systems for the development of irradiation-tolerant fuels for advanced nuclear reactors.
KW - Amorphization
KW - He ion irradiation
KW - Irradiation temperature
KW - Nano-indentation
KW - Silicon oxycarbide
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85125113723
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/ba92f76a-193a-355d-976d-827aa9c94d28/
U2 - 10.1016/j.ceramint.2022.02.152
DO - 10.1016/j.ceramint.2022.02.152
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85125113723
SN - 0272-8842
VL - 48
SP - 16063
EP - 16071
JO - Ceramics International
JF - Ceramics International
IS - 11
ER -