Structural changes of Ti3SiC2 induced by helium irradiation with different doses

Abstract

In this study, the microstructure changes of Ti3SiC2 MAX phase material induced by helium irradiation and evolution with a sequence of different helium irradiation doses of 5×10 15 , 1×10 16 , 5×10 16 and 1×10 17 cm-2 at room temperature (RT) were characterized with grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD) and Raman spectra analysis. The irradiation damage process of Ti3SiC2 can be roughly divided into three stages according to the level of helium irradiation dose: (1) for a low damage dose, only crystal and damaged Ti3SiC2 exit; (2) at a higher irradiation dose, there is some damaged TiC phase additionally; (3) with a much higher irradiation dose, crystal TiC phase could be found inside the samples as well. Moreover, the 450°C 5×10 16 cm-2 helium irradiation on Ti3SiC2 has confirmed that Ti3SiC2 has much higher irradiation tolerance at higher temperature, which implies that Ti3SiC2 could be a potential future structural and fuel coating material working at high temperature environments.

Defect behavior and radiation tolerance of MAB phases (MoAlB and Fe2AlB2) with comparison to MAX phases

“…The surface roughness is also smoother than in the 150 °C, high dose sample. Even though the irradiation dose was relatively high, no obvious phase transformations were found in either Ti2AlC or Ti3SiC2, which have been observed in some parts of ion irradiated MAX phase materials in earlier studies [43][44][45]. However, partial phase transformation might have occurred in some areas and may require higher magnification TEM or HRTEM to detect.…”

Helium effects and bubbles formation in irradiated Ti3SiC2

“…There have been several studies on the He irradiation of Ti 3 SiC 2 [18][19][20], however, most of them are at RT. The only high-temperature study was at 450 °C, in which the irradiated Ti 3 SiC 2 was analyzed by grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD) [19]. The results showed smaller anisotropic swelling and less damage as compared to those at RT.…”

“…However, the morphology and distribution of He bubbles were not studied in Ref. [19]. Some He irradiation studies at elevated temperatures have been reported for other MAX phases.…”

In situ He+ irradiation of the double solid solution (Ti0.5,Zr0.5)2(Al0.5,Sn0.5)C MAX phase: Defect evolution in the 350–800 °C temperature range

“…The MAX phases are steadily gaining attention for select envisaged nuclear applications, and a number of He irradiation studies on the MAX phases have already been reported in the open literature -for example on Ti3AlC2 [5,[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16], Ti2AlC [17][18][19], Ti3SiC2 [6,[20][21][22], Cr2AlC [23,24], V2AlC [25], and Ti4AlN3 [19]. Overall, the He irradiation of MAX phase compounds tends to result in He atoms residing preferentially in the A-layer, thereby dislocating A-elements from their original sites [6,10,12,13,18,20,21].…”