Electron microscopy characterization of some carbon based nanostructures with application in divertors coatings from fusion reactor

Abstract

Nanostructured carbon materials have increasingly attracted the interest of the scientific community, because of their fascinating physical properties and potential applications in high-tech devices. In the current ITER design, the tiles made of carbon fiber composites (CFCs) are foreseen for the strike point zone and tungsten (W) for other parts of the divertor region. This choice is a compromise based mainly on experience with individual materials in many different tokamaks. Also Beryllium is the candidate material for the First Wall in ITER.In order to prepare nanostructured carbon-tungsten nanocomposite for the divertor part in fusion applications, the original method thermionic vacuum arc (TVA) was used in two electronic guns configuration. One of the main advantages of this technology is the bombardment of the growing thin film just by the ions of the depositing film.The nanostructured C-W and C-Be films were characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM). The C-W films were identified as a nanocrystals complex (5 nm average diameter) surrounded by amorphous structures with a strong graphitization tendency, allowing the creating of adherent and wear resistant films. The C-Be films are polycrystalline with mean grain size about 15 nm. The friction coefficients (0.15 -0.35) of the C-W coatings was decreased more than 3-5 times in comparison with the uncoated substrates proving excellent tribological properties. C-W nanocomposites coatings were designed to have excellent tribological properties while the structure is composed by nanocrystals complex surrounded by amorphous structures with a strong graphitization tendency, allowing the creating of adherent and wear resistant films.

Thermionic Vacuum Arc—A Versatile Technology for Thin Film Deposition and Its Applications

“…The small hydrogen content, around 5%, in the DLC films was explained by dissociation of water molecules that desorbed from chamber walls during deposition. The influence of nitrogen co-deposition in ITER relevant mixed layers on retention and release dynamics of deuterium was studied in situ in [209]. Nuclear Reaction Analysis (NRA) and thermodesorption spectroscopy were used for analysis of W:Al and W:Be mixed layers deposited by thermionic vacuum arc (TVA) method.…”