The effect of grain size on bubble formation and evolution in helium-irradiated Cu-Fe-Ag

Michael Wurmshuber, David Frazer, Mehdi Balooch, Inas Issa, Andrea Bachmaier, Peter Hosemann, Daniel Kiener

Publikation: Beitrag in FachzeitschriftArtikelForschungBegutachtung

2 Zitate (Scopus)
152 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Nanostructured metals are a promising candidate for future applications in irradiative environments, such as nuclear energy facilities, due to a conceivable tolerance against radiation damage. As the presence of helium irradiation is frequently unavoidable, e.g. in nuclear fusion facilities, the effect of helium on the properties of nanostructured materials is of immanent interest. In this work, ultra-fine grained (UFG; 100 nm grain size) and nanocrystalline (NC; 20 nm grain size) Cu-Fe-Ag samples have been implanted with various fluences of helium and were investigated regarding helium-induced modifications using atomic force microscopy, nanoindentation and transmission electron microscopy. While for these nanostructured materials a tolerance against radiation damage has been reported earlier, we find that the influence of helium on swelling and mechanical properties is not negligible. The increased amount of closely spaced interfaces in the NC material provides swift diffusion paths of helium, thereby facilitating bubble nucleation in the early stages of irradiation. For high fluences of helium, however, the smaller grain size and larger amount of nucleation sites in the NC composite restrict the growth of individual bubbles, which has a positive effect on swelling and counteracts mechanical property degradation compared to UFG and conventional coarse-grained materials. As such, our investigations on immiscible Cu-Fe-Ag nanocomposites pave a promising strategy for designing novel highly radiation enduring materials for irradiative environments.

OriginalspracheEnglisch
Aufsatznummer110822
FachzeitschriftMaterials characterization
Jahrgang171
Ausgabenummer171
DOIs
PublikationsstatusVeröffentlicht - Jan. 2021

Bibliographische Notiz

Funding Information:
The financial support by the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation and the Montanuniversit?t Leoben, Austria is gratefully acknowledged. The authors also acknowledge funding by the European Research Council, European Union under Grant numbers: 771146 (MW, II, DK) and 757333 (AB). Instrument access was provided in part through the Biomolecular Nanotechnology Center (BNC) at UC Berkeley. Additional support was provided by NSF-DMR Program, USA number 1807822. The authors thank Dr. Verena Maier-Kiener for validation measurements using her G200 nanoindenter.

Funding Information:
The financial support by the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation and the Montanuniversität Leoben , Austria is gratefully acknowledged. The authors also acknowledge funding by the European Research Council , European Union under Grant numbers: 771146 (MW, II, DK) and 757333 (AB). Instrument access was provided in part through the Biomolecular Nanotechnology Center (BNC) at UC Berkeley. Additional support was provided by NSF-DMR Program , USA number 1807822 . The authors thank Dr. Verena Maier-Kiener for validation measurements using her G200 nanoindenter.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Author(s)

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