Aluminum-doped U3Si2 composite fuels with enhanced oxidation resistance

Afiqa Mohamad, Tiankai Yao, Bowen Gong, Jason Harp, Adrian R. Wagner, Andrew T. Nelson, Jie Lian

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

Al-doped U3Si2 composite fuels with controlled microstructure were fabricated by spark plasma sintering that display greatly-improved oxidation resistance as compared with monolithic and Al-doped silicides prepared by standard powder metallurgy or arc melting. The effects of Al additives on the thermal-mechanical properties and oxidation resisance of the micron- and nano-sized U3Si2 composites were investigated. A minimal addition of 1.8 at% Al is effective to increase the onset oxidation temperature of as-fabricated U3Si2 pellets to 580 °C, which can be further increased to 610 °C by thermal annealing. The Al-doped U3Si2 composite fuels also display simultaneously higher hardness and fracture toughness than un-doped U3Si2. These results highlight an effective strategy by integrating minimal Al additives, microstructure control and post-thermal annealing to design advanced silicide fuels with excellent oxidation resistance, desired thermal-mechanical properties and maintained high fissile element density.

Original languageEnglish
Article number157319
JournalJournal of Alloys and Compounds
Volume853
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 5 2021

Funding

This work was supported by the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Nuclear Energy under a Nuclear Engineer University Program (award number: DE-NE0008532 ). TEM characterization was supported through a NSUF RTE award ( 19-1691 ) under DOE Idaho Operations Office Contract DE-AC07-051D14517 as part of a Nuclear Science User Facilities Experiments.

Keywords

  • Accident tolerant fuels
  • Al-additive
  • Microstructure
  • Oxidation resistance

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