Marshall, J. M., Tang, F., Han, Y., Bagot, P. A. J. and Moody, M. P. (2022) Multi-scale microscopy of Reactive Sintered Boride (RSB) neutron shielding materials. Nuclear Materials and Energy, 33 . 101285. doi:10.1016/j.nme.2022.101285 ISSN 2352-1791.

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Abstract

Protecting superconducting magnets from neutron irradiation is critically important when demonstrating the utility of spherical tokamaks. Reactive Sintered Borides (RSBs) are promising radiation-dense materials and excellent attenuators of slow (< 10 keV) neutrons. No experimental radiation data yet exists on RSBs, hence the need to establish a baseline of RSB microstructure prior to studies on radiation response and aging of RSBs in an active fusion environment.

This work investigates the structure and composition of RSB materials over 5 orders of magnitude. SEM, TEM-EDX, atom probe tomography (APT) and XRD were evaluated the microstructure of a selection of RSB compositions. Sintered RSBs were observed to be dominated by FeWB/FeW2B2 bodies, mixed tungsten borides and WC as the key hard phases present. TEM and SEM detected a complex Fe-rich alloy with near-pure Fe interstitial phases. Key findings from this work are that (i) carbon balance is as significant as boron content when considering microstructure and phase presence;(ii) FeWB/FeW2B2 growth is highly temperature dependant and (iii) dense, coherent RSB formation is contingent on the total boron and carbon atomic percentage (B + C)at% is 40% < x ≤ 50%.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	Q Science > QC Physics
Divisions:	Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Physics Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Engineering > WMG (Formerly the Warwick Manufacturing Group)
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Shielding (Radiation) , Nuclear fusion, X-ray diffraction imaging, Tomography
Journal or Publication Title:	Nuclear Materials and Energy
Publisher:	Elsevier
ISSN:	2352-1791
Official Date:	21 October 2022
Dates:	Date Event 21 October 2022 Published 2022 UNSPECIFIED 20 October 2022 Accepted 26 July 2022 Submitted
Volume:	33
Article Number:	101285
DOI:	10.1016/j.nme.2022.101285
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Open Access (Creative Commons)
Date of first compliant deposit:	24 October 2022
Date of first compliant Open Access:	24 October 2022
RIOXX Funder/Project Grant:	Project/Grant ID RIOXX Funder Name Funder ID EP/T033592/1 [EPSRC] Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000266

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