Radiation Damage in Nanoporous Nuclear Materials

核反应堆中的材料受到中子的轰击。这可能导致原子从其晶格位置被击落，造成晶体缺陷，并导致可能产生氦原子的变形事件。这些过程可能会导致材料的物理性能恶化。为了安全地运行核反应堆，拥有能够在这些极端条件下运行的材料是至关重要的。此外，重要的是要了解材料对辐射响应背后的物理原理，以便预测它们在使用中的表现并开发新技术。控制中子辐射产生的缺陷和氦的一种方法是设计一种具有安全存储功能的材料。完美的这种特征是曲面，因为它永远不会饱和。纳米多孔材料具有像纳米海绵一样的结构，因此具有非常高的比表面积与体积比。最近，纳米多孔材料被证明具有很好的抗辐射能力，因此被建议作为核应用的候选材料。然而，到目前为止，研究一直局限于不适合用于核反应堆的材料。这个研究项目将研究纳米孔铁、镍、锆、钼、钨、碳化硅和碳化锆。这些材料都有特性，这意味着它们可以用于核反应堆。为了探索辐射的影响，将使用哈德斯菲尔德大学的显微镜和材料调查(迈阿密)离子加速器设施。迈阿密的设施包括一个可以在纳米尺度上观察材料的透射电子显微镜和一个离子加速器，这样就可以同时照射样品。这些实验将与计算机模拟相结合，以帮助解释基本原子学方面的结果。从实验和计算机模拟中获得的知识和理解将使我们能够设计出最适合用于核应用的纳米多孔材料。

Materials in nuclear reactors are bombarded by neutrons. This can result in atoms being knocked off their lattice sites creating crystalline defects and in transmutation events which can create helium atoms. These processes can cause the physical properties of the material to deteriorate. In order to run a nuclear reactor safely it is vital to have materials which can perform under these extreme conditions. Furthermore, it is important to understand the physics behind the response of materials to radiation in order to predict how they will behave in-service and to develop new technologies.One way to control the defects and helium which are created by neutron irradiation is to engineer a material with features which are designed to safely store them. The perfect such feature is a surface because it can never become saturated. Nanoporous materials have a structure like a nanoscale sponge and so have very high surface-area-to-volume ratios. Recently, nanoporous materials have been shown to have very good radiation tolerance and so have been proposed as candidates for use in nuclear applications. However, research so far has been limited to materials which are not suitable for use in nuclear reactors.This research project will investigate nanoporous iron, nickel, zirconium, molybdenum, tungsten, silicon carbide and zirconium carbide. These materials all have properties which means they can be used in nuclear reactors. In order to explore the effects of irradiation, the Microscope and Ion Accelerator for Materials Investigations (MIAMI) facility at the University of Huddersfield will be used. The MIAMI facility incorporates a transmission electron microscope which allows materials to be observed on the nanoscale and an ion accelerator so the sample can be irradiated at the same time. The experiments will be combined with computer simulations to help explain the results in terms of the fundamental underlying atomistics.The knowledge and understanding acquired from the experiments and the computer modelling will then allow nanoporous materials to be designed which are ideally suited for use in nuclear applications.