Radiation Damage in Nanoporous Nuclear Materials

核反应堆中的材料受到中子的轰击。这可能导致原子被撞离晶格位置，产生晶体缺陷，并发生嬗变事件，从而产生氦原子。这些过程会导致材料的物理性能恶化。为了使核反应堆安全运行，至关重要的是要有能够在这些极端条件下工作的材料。此外，了解材料对辐射的反应背后的物理机制对于预测它们在使用中的行为和开发新技术也很重要。控制中子辐照产生的缺陷和氦的一种方法是设计一种具有安全储存它们的功能的材料。完美的这种特征是一个表面，因为它永远不会饱和。纳米多孔材料具有类似纳米级海绵的结构，因此具有非常高的表面积与体积比。最近，纳米多孔材料已被证明具有非常好的耐辐射性，因此已被提出作为核应用的候选材料。但是，迄今为止的研究仅限于不适用于核反应堆的材料。本研究项目将对纳米多孔铁、镍、锆、钼、钨、碳化硅和碳化锆进行研究。这些材料都有特性，这意味着它们可以用于核反应堆。为了探索辐照的影响，将使用哈德斯菲尔德大学的材料研究显微镜和离子加速器（迈阿密）设施。迈阿密设施包括一个透射电子显微镜，可以在纳米级上观察材料，以及一个离子加速器，因此可以同时照射样品。这些实验将结合计算机模拟，以帮助解释基本原子学方面的结果。从实验和计算机建模中获得的知识和理解将允许设计出非常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.