This article described the protective properties of Cr coatings with a barrier layer composed of ZrO2/Cr multilayers deposited onto E110 zirconium alloy. The coatings with a ZrO2/Cr multilayer thickness of 100, 250, and 750 nm and single-layer (1.5 µm) ZrO2 barrier were obtained by multi-cathode magnetron sputtering in Ar + O2 atmosphere. Then, cracking resistance and oxidation behavior were studied under conditions of thermal cycling (1000 °C) in air and high-temperature oxidation at 1200–1400 °C in a water steam. The role of the ZrO2/Cr multilayers and multilayer thickness on cracking resistance of the experimental coatings and oxidation resistance of the coated E110 alloy was discussed. It was shown that the coatings with more quantity of the ZrO2/Cr multilayers have higher cracking resistance, but such types of samples have a large amount of coating spallation under thermal cycling. The high-temperature steam oxidation (1200–1400 °C) demonstrated that interfaces of the ZrO2/Cr multilayers can act as a source of cavities formed by the Kirkendall mechanism that results in accelerating Cr–Zr interdiffusion for Cr-coated E110 alloy.
This paper presents the results of the study of resistance to corrosion of zirconium fuel element cladding fragments protected with nichrome and chrome coatings. Experiments were conducted on coatings deposition on fuel element claddings by cathodic arc deposition and electrochemical deposition methods. Argon ion beam pretreatment of the cladding surface is shown to have a beneficial effect on coating adhesion. Studies of resilience of the coatings were conducted in the atmosphere of super-heated steam at 900 °C and with an exposure of up to 10000 seconds. It has been shown that the coatings deposited impede formation of ZrO2 oxide layer at the outer surface and reduce the depth of oxygen penetration into the metallic sublayer as compared with the samples in their original condition.
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