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Crystals
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Microstructure Evolution, Property and Characterization of Crystalline Materials after Ion...
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Microstructure Evolution, Property and Characterization of Crystalline Materials after Ion Irradiation

A special issue of Crystals (ISSN 2073-4352). This special issue belongs to the section "Inorganic Crystalline Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 November 2022) | Viewed by 12609

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Min Liu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Sino-French Institute of Nuclear Engineering and Technology, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai 519082, China
Interests: irradiation damage; dislocations; He bubble; alloy; silicon carbide
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Hefei Huang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Materials Research, Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China
Interests: reactor structural materials; irradiation damage effect; defects evolution; microstructure characterization; mechanical property degradation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Huaican Chen

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Science, Dongguan 523000, China
Interests: neutron diffraction; ion irradiaiton; strcructure and properities of amorphous materials

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Crystalline materials including alloys, ceramics and composites have been widely used in nuclear reactors. Irradiation damage is a critical issue for crystalline materials, as it influences their structure stability. Neutrons produced by nuclear reactions can knock out the atoms at the normal crystal lattice positions and cause collision cascades, inducing vacancies and self-interstitial atoms, which can evolve into more complicated defects. Additionally, neutrons react with the material to form various fission and transmutation products. For example, He atoms have low solubility in crystalline materials and are trapped by vacancies to form He bubbles. Meanwhile, these energetic products can also induce displacement damage. The microstructure evolution caused by neutron irradiation significantly influences the thermal properties, mechanical properties, corrosion resistance and other properties. Fundamental research on the mechanism of the hydrogen and helium ion radiation of materials seems particularly important. Ion irradiation can effectively introduce neutron-irradiation-induced displacement damage and fission/transmutation products without inducing radioactivity in materials. Considering the importance of the fundamental research on the effect of ion irradiation on crystalline materials, we are putting forward this Special Issue on “Microstructure Evolution, Property and Characterization of Crystalline Materials after Ion Irradiation”.

This Special Issue aims to characterize the various defects induced by ion irradiation (e.g., voids, dislocation loops, He bubbles) and evaluate the influence of these microstructure changes on the macroscopic properties of crystalline materials using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), nanoindentation and other advanced techniques. Both original research papers and review articles summarizing recent progress in this field are welcome.

Prof. Dr. Min Liu
Dr. Hefei Huang
Dr. Huaican Chen
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Crystals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • ion irradiation
  • microstructural characterization
  • displacement damage
  • irradiation defects dislocation loops
  • helium bubbles
  • helium embrittlement
  • irradiation-induced hardening/softening
  • helium embrittlement swelling
  • synergistic effect between irradiation and corrosion

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

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12 pages, 4780 KiB  
Article
Impact of Natural Graphite Flakes in Mixed Fillers on the Irradiation Behavior of Fine-Grained Isotropic Graphite
by Pengfei Lian, Heyao Zhang, Jinxing Cheng, Qingbo Wang, Ai Yu, Zhao He, Jinliang Song, Yantao Gao, Zhongfeng Tang and Zhanjun Liu
Crystals 2022, 12(12), 1819; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst12121819 - 14 Dec 2022
Viewed by 1711
Abstract
Two forms of fine-grained isotropic graphite, derived from mixed fillers by the isostatic pressing method, NG (filler with 100% natural graphite flake) and 75N25C-G (mixed filler with 75 wt.% natural graphite flake and 25 wt.% calcined coke) were prepared and irradiated with 7 [...] Read more.
Two forms of fine-grained isotropic graphite, derived from mixed fillers by the isostatic pressing method, NG (filler with 100% natural graphite flake) and 75N25C-G (mixed filler with 75 wt.% natural graphite flake and 25 wt.% calcined coke) were prepared and irradiated with 7 MeV Xe26+ to investigate its irradiation behaviors. Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction and Raman spectra show that the initial graphitization degree of 75N25C-G is lower than that of NG, but the crystallite sizes are larger due to calcined coke in the filler particles. After irradiation, the stacking height of crystallite sizes along c-axis directions (Lc) of NG increased, and Lc of 75N25C-G decreased. This can be attributed to irradiation-induced catalytic graphitization of calcined coke, and is also the reason that the dislocation density of 75N25C-G increases slower than that of NG. After irradiation, the crystallite sizes along a-axis directions (La) of NG and 75N25C-G reduced, but this trend was more obvious in irradiated 75N25C-G; this was closely related to the change of the surface morphology. The results show that the effect of the content of natural graphite flakes in the filler on the initial graphitization degree determines the difference in microstructure evolution caused by irradiation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microstructure Evolution, Property and Characterization of Crystalline Materials after Ion Irradiation)
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10 pages, 27790 KiB  
Article
Microstructure Evolution of Reactor Pressure Vessel A508-3 Steel under High-Dose Heavy Ion Irradiation
by Xianfeng Ma, Qiang Zhang, Ligang Song, Wenqing Zhang, Meng She and Fei Zhu
Crystals 2022, 12(8), 1091; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst12081091 - 04 Aug 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1439
Abstract
The microstructure evolution of nuclear reactor pressure vessel A508-3 steel irradiated by heavy ions up to 1.5 dpa was studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). According to the TEM analysis, black dots were widely distributed in the irradiated A508-3 steel, with a high [...] Read more.
The microstructure evolution of nuclear reactor pressure vessel A508-3 steel irradiated by heavy ions up to 1.5 dpa was studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). According to the TEM analysis, black dots were widely distributed in the irradiated A508-3 steel, with a high density of 1.782 × 1022/m3. A large number of dislocations with Burgers vectors <100> were formed in the irradiated A508-3 steel and tangled together, leading to the formation of dislocation networks. The number density of black dots at 1.5 dpa was 3.5 times higher than that at 0.08 dpa, and the corresponding average size showed an 8% increase. The higher density of dislocation defects led to a significant increase in hardness from 3.0 GPa at 0.08 dpa to 4.2 GPa at 1.5 dpa. The elastic modulus showed a slight increase and less dependence on the irradiation dose. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microstructure Evolution, Property and Characterization of Crystalline Materials after Ion Irradiation)
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10 pages, 2882 KiB  
Article
Effects of Pre-Annealing on the Radiation Resistance of ZnO Nanorods
by Tengfei Wu, Aiji Wang, Mingyu Wang, Yinshu Wang, Zilin Liu, Yiwen Hu, Zhenglong Wu and Guangfu Wang
Crystals 2022, 12(7), 1007; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst12071007 - 21 Jul 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1172
Abstract
Ion implantation is usually used for semiconductor doping and isolation, which creates defects in semiconductors. ZnO is a promising semiconductor and has a variety of applications, such as for use in transparent electronics, optoelectronics, chemical and biological sensors, etc. In this work, ZnO [...] Read more.
Ion implantation is usually used for semiconductor doping and isolation, which creates defects in semiconductors. ZnO is a promising semiconductor and has a variety of applications, such as for use in transparent electronics, optoelectronics, chemical and biological sensors, etc. In this work, ZnO nanorods were grown on Si (100) substrates by the process of chemical bath deposition and then annealed in an O2 atmosphere at 350 and 600 °C for 1 h to introduce different kinds of defects. The as-grown nanorods and the nanorods that annealed were irradiated simultaneously by 180 keV H+ ions at room temperature with a total dose of 8.0×1015 ions/cm2. The radiation effects of the H+ ions, effects of the pre-existed defects on the radiation resistance, and the related mechanisms under irradiation were investigated. The crystal and optical properties of the ZnO nanorods after H+ ion irradiation were found to depend upon the pre-existed defects in the nanorods. The existence of the appropriate concentration of oxygen interstitials in the ZnO nanorods caused them to have good radiation resistance. The thermal effects of irradiation played an important role in the property variation of nanorods. The temperature of the nanorods under 180 keV H+ ion bombardment was around 350 °C. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microstructure Evolution, Property and Characterization of Crystalline Materials after Ion Irradiation)
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9 pages, 3644 KiB  
Article
Thermal Spike Responses and Structure Evolutions in Lithium Niobate on Insulator (LNOI) under Swift Ion Irradiation
by Xinqing Han, Cong Liu, Meng Zhang, Qing Huang, Xuelin Wang and Peng Liu
Crystals 2022, 12(7), 943; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst12070943 - 05 Jul 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1410
Abstract
Irradiating solid materials with energetic ions are extensively used to explore the evolution of structural damage and specific properties in structural and functional materials under natural and artificial radiation environments. Lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI) technology is revolutionizing the lithium niobate industry and [...] Read more.
Irradiating solid materials with energetic ions are extensively used to explore the evolution of structural damage and specific properties in structural and functional materials under natural and artificial radiation environments. Lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI) technology is revolutionizing the lithium niobate industry and has been widely applied in various fields of photonics, electronics, optoelectronics, etc. Based on 30 MeV 35Cl and 40Ar ion irradiation, thermal spike responses and microstructure evolution of LNOI under the action of extreme electronic energy loss are discussed in detail. Combining experimental transmission electron microscopy characterizations with numerical calculations of the inelastic thermal spike model, discontinuous and continuous tracks with a lattice disorder structure in the crystalline LiNbO3 layer and recrystallization in the amorphous SiO2 layer are confirmed, and the ionization process via energetic ion irradiation is demonstrated to inherently connect energy exchange and temperature evolution processes in the electron and lattice subsystems of LNOI. According to Rutherford backscattering/channeling spectrometry and the direct impact model, the calculated track damage cross–section is further verified, coinciding with the experimental observations, and the LiNbO3 layer with a thickness of several hundred nanometers presents track damage behavior similar to that of bulk LiNbO3. Systematic research into the damage responses of LNOI is conducive to better understanding and predicting radiation effects in multilayer thin film materials under extreme radiation environments, as well as to designing novel multifunctional devices. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microstructure Evolution, Property and Characterization of Crystalline Materials after Ion Irradiation)
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8 pages, 2443 KiB  
Article
The Enhanced Swelling Resistance of W/Cu Nanocomposites by Vacancy-Type Defects Self-Recovery
by Huaican Chen, Yang Hai, Xiaozhi Zhan, Juping Xu, Xingzhong Cao, Tao Zhu and Wen Yin
Crystals 2022, 12(6), 759; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst12060759 - 25 May 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1232
Abstract
In this study, the swelling resistance of W/Cu nanocomposites is investigated after helium irradiation at RT and 400 °C. The results show that W/Cu nanocomposites with interface structure present better resistance to helium swelling as compared with W monolayer. The PAS results reveal [...] Read more.
In this study, the swelling resistance of W/Cu nanocomposites is investigated after helium irradiation at RT and 400 °C. The results show that W/Cu nanocomposites with interface structure present better resistance to helium swelling as compared with W monolayer. The PAS results reveal that the unique interfacial structure of W/Cu nanocomposites effectively improves the recovery of vacancy-type defects under He+ irradiation, which results in good resistance to irradiation swelling. This result shows that introducing interface structure can effectively enhance the swelling resistance of materials and sheds light on the design of radiation-tolerant materials for advanced nuclear reactor applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microstructure Evolution, Property and Characterization of Crystalline Materials after Ion Irradiation)
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8 pages, 3134 KiB  
Article
Fabrication and Irradiation Effect of Inverted Metamorphic Triple Junction GaInP/GaAs/InGaAs Solar Cells
by Jing Xu, Kunjie Yang, Qingguo Xu, Xiaofang Zhu, Xin Wang and Ming Lu
Crystals 2022, 12(5), 670; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst12050670 - 06 May 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1926
Abstract
Inverted metamorphic triple junction (IMM3J) GaInP/GaAs/InGaAs solar cells have the advantages of high efficiency, excellent radiation resistance, lightweight and flexible properties, especially suitable for space application. In this paper, we first fabricate the IMM3J GaInP/GaAs/InGaAs solar cell, which has a short circuit current [...] Read more.
Inverted metamorphic triple junction (IMM3J) GaInP/GaAs/InGaAs solar cells have the advantages of high efficiency, excellent radiation resistance, lightweight and flexible properties, especially suitable for space application. In this paper, we first fabricate the IMM3J GaInP/GaAs/InGaAs solar cell, which has a short circuit current density of 16.5 mA/cm2, an open circuit voltage of 3141.8 mV, a fill factor of 84.3%, and an efficiency of 32.2%. Then, the IMM3J solar cell is irradiated by 2 MeV protons with different fluences from 2 × 1011 cm−2 to 2 × 1012 cm−2. Finally, the output electrical properties of IMM3J solar cells at the beginning of life and end of life are analyzed by current-voltage characterization. The degradation behaviors of each subcell before and after irradiation can also be described by the external quantum efficiency and short circuit current density. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microstructure Evolution, Property and Characterization of Crystalline Materials after Ion Irradiation)
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Review

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43 pages, 8424 KiB  
Review
The Structure, Property, and Ion Irradiation Effects of Pyrochlores: A Comprehensive Review
by Yuhao Wang, Chong Jing, Zhao-Ying Ding, Yun-Zhuo Zhang, Tao Wei, Jia-Hu Ouyang, Zhan-Guo Liu, Yu-Jin Wang and Ya-Ming Wang
Crystals 2023, 13(1), 143; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst13010143 - 13 Jan 2023
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2877
Abstract
Since the beginning of the use of nuclear energy, humans have been faced with the problem of radionuclide disposal. At present, a large amount of waste is stored in pools or dry tanks at reactor sites. With the development of the nuclear power [...] Read more.
Since the beginning of the use of nuclear energy, humans have been faced with the problem of radionuclide disposal. At present, a large amount of waste is stored in pools or dry tanks at reactor sites. With the development of the nuclear power generation industry worldwide, the high storage cost (including building, maintaining, and operating storage pools) is overwhelming and serious, and urgent radionuclide disposal problems have become increasingly difficult. Safe and economical strategies are urgently needed for long-term storage and disposal of nuclear waste, which has become among the core issues in the utilization of nuclear energy. Pyrochlore ceramics are able to immobilize a variety of radionuclides and have excellent irradiation stability, so they have received extensive attention as hosts of radionuclides waste. This review summarizes the structure, composition, synthesis process, properties, and irradiation stability of pyrochlore ceramics, focusing on the ion irradiation effect of pyrochlore. In general, the cation radii ratio rA/rB is a key parameter related to various properties of pyrochlores. Zirconate pyrochlore is more easily transformed from pyrochlore to defective fluorite, and leads to better irradiation resistance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microstructure Evolution, Property and Characterization of Crystalline Materials after Ion Irradiation)
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