EAPSI: The Interfacial Relationship of Graphene and Silicon Carbide in Mitigating Radiation Damage

Arreguin Shelly A, Richland WA

Investigators

Abstract

Nuclear reactors release zero greenhouse gases in the production of electricity and they may reduce society's dependence upon natural gas and oil. However, insights from the Fukushima incident revealed the need to develop more accident damage tolerant materials. The feasibility of next generation nuclear reactors depends upon the development of new material systems with increased lifetimes and accident damage tolerance (a long-term objective of this work). The opportunity to pursue this research at the University of Queensland (UQ), Center for Microscopy and Microanalysis (CMM) with Professor John Drennan, an expert in the field, will give great insight to the low-temperature limit (point defect swelling) and high-temperature lifetime for the design window of molecularly designed Silicon carbide (SiC) ceramics. This research will contribute to current priorities in designing new materials for the next generation of nuclear power plants that are anticipated to have increased efficiency, minimal waste, decreased risk of proliferation and increased accident damage tolerance. A novel class of SiC based nanocomposites have been developed and bombarded with ions to explore their functionality in mitigating radiation damage. These ceramics have microstructures and interfaces that are systematically controlled through tailoring of the molecular architecture of the starting pre-ceramic polymer. The nanostructured grain boundaries and interfaces will be explored in their ability to function as sinks for radiation-induced point defects. At UQ, Small Angle X-ray Scattering will be utilized to determine the size distribution and densities of the defect clusters associated with the irradiated SiC. The nature of the radiation-induced defects is only visualized through transmission electron microscopy analysis, specifically the weak-beam method will allow for observation of defects and their plane of origin. Professor John Drennan, and his staff are experts in determining microstructure/physical property relationships in a wide variety of ceramics using electron microscopy. This research will allow an atomic level understanding of the relationship of processing with microstructure properties from radiation damage. This NSF EAPSI award is funded in collaboration with the Australian Academy of Sciences.