ACS Appl Mater Interfaces
January 2023
The growth of advanced energy technologies for power generation is enabled by the design, development, and integration of structural materials that can withstand extreme environments, such as high temperatures, radiation damage, and corrosion. High-entropy alloys (HEAs) are a class of structural materials in which suitable chemical elements in four or more numbers are mixed to typically produce single-phase concentrated solid solution alloys (CSAs). Many of these alloys exhibit good radiation tolerance like limited void swelling and hardening up to relatively medium radiation doses (tens of displacements per atom (dpa)); however, at higher radiation damage levels (>50 dpa), some HEAs suffer from considerable void swelling limiting their near-term acceptance for advanced nuclear reactor concepts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMicrographs of multiple nuclear graphite grades were captured using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), complementing the data contained in the related manuscript, "A multi-technique image library of nuclear graphite microstructures of historical and modern grades." The SEM micrographs show the differences among filler particles, binder, and thermal cracks contained in nuclear graphite. This library of microstructures serves as a baseline of as-received material and enables understanding the phases and differences between nuclear grades.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis manuscript provides optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy micrographs that show the microstructure of three superfine nuclear graphite grades IG-110, 2114 and ETU-10. This collection of microstructural data showcases the microstructure of these materials and helps to differentiate the most important features or phases of these graphite grades. In particular, the microstructural data illustrate the filler and binder morphology of these grades.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe data presented in this article is supplementary to the research article "Phase instabilities in austenitic steels during particle bombardment at high and low dose rates" (Levine et al.) [5]. Needle-shaped samples were prepared with focused ion beam milling from a 304L stainless steel that was irradiated with fast neutrons (E 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAtom probe tomography (APT) and scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) techniques were used to probe the long-time thermal stability of nm-scale Mn-Ni-Si precipitates (MNSPs) formed in intermediate and high Ni reactor pressure vessel steels under high fluence neutron irradiation at ≈320 °C. Post irradiation annealing (PIA) at 425 °C for up to 57 weeks was used to determine if the MNSPs are: (a) non-equilibrium solute clusters formed and sustained by radiation induced segregation (RIS); or, (b) equilibrium G or Γ phases, that precipitate at accelerated rates due to radiation enhanced diffusion (RED). Note the latter is consistent with both thermodynamic models and x-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements.
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