Special Issue "Advanced Characterization Techniques on Nuclear Fuels and Materials"
A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Advanced Materials Characterization".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 December 2023 | Viewed by 2667
Special Issue Editors
2. Center for Advanced Energy Studies, Idaho Falls, ID 83401, USA
Interests: nanoscale structural and chemistry characterization achieved by the combination of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atom probe tomography (APT) techniques; material design, synthesis, property analysis; nanoscale structure and chemistry characterization; establishing critical connections between structure, chemistry and behavior at nanometric to atomic level through combinational TEM and APT techniques in a large range of various material systems from nanostructured magnetic materials, semiconductors, ceramics, quasicrystals, carbon nanotubes, and nuclear materials
2. Center for Advanced Energy Studies, Idaho Falls, ID 83401, USA
Interests: nuclear materials for extreme environment; radiation damage; electron microscopy; mechanical properties; advanced manufacturing
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleages,
The advancement of characterization techniques drives the fundamental understanding of materials science. Innovative techniques can reveal information that cannot be observed or lost in conventional methods. The application of modern techniques provides unique microstructural and chemical information down to the atomic scale. For nuclear application materials, the extreme environment in a nuclear reactor possesses significant challenges for characterization due to the combination of stress, corrosion, high temperature, and radiation. Therefore, research on nuclear fuels and structure materials requires advanced characterization techniques to investigate the material properties and verify the material performance in a nuclear reactor. This Special Issue highlights the world-leading capabilities and application of state-of-the-art characterization and micro-scale mechanical testing techniques to explore nuclear fuels and materials, including but not limited to advanced transmission electron microscopy, atom probe tomography, focused ion beam, nanoindenter and in situ testing techniques.
Contributing papers are solicited in the following areas:
- Nuclear fuels and structure materials;
- Microstructure characterization on non-irradiated and irradiated materials (ion-, proton- and neutron-irradiated);
- In situ irradiation and post-irradiation examination (PIE) utilizing advanced characterization techniques, including but not limited to transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM), high-resolution TEM (HRTEM), high-resolution STEM (HRSTEM), monochromated, probe-corrected, image-corrected (S)TEM, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS), energy-filtered TEM (EFTEM), precession electron diffraction (PED), atom probe tomography (APT), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), focused ion beam (FIB), electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), etc.;
- In situ mechanical testing combined with TEM and/or SEM techniques, e.g., picoindenter;
- Ex situ mechanical testing techniques, e.g., nanoindentation, microhardness testing.
Dr. Yaqiao Wu
Dr. Ching-Heng Shiau
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. Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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
- nuclear fuels
- nuclear structure materials
- irradiation
- post-irradiation examination
- advanced microstructure characterization techniques
- (scanning) transmission electron microscopy ((S)TEM)
- atom probe tomography
- in situ/ex situ mechanical testing
Planned Papers
The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.
Title: Characterization of crystal structure evolution in U-2wt.%Zr using neutron diffraction with particular focus on the beta-uranium phase
Authors: Sven C. Vogel; Mike Benson; Yi Xie; Jason Harp; Sven Rudin; Walter Williams
Affiliation: LANL, INL, ORNL, Purdue
Abstract: Studies of the U-Zr phase diagram are motivated by alloys such as U-10wt.%Zr being leading fuel candidates for sodium-cooled fast reactor due to high fissile density, high thermal conductivity, ease of fabrication, and good compatibility with coolants. In the Zr-lean part of the phase diagram, the occurrence of beta-uranium, with its large tetragonal unit cell containing 30 atoms, is reported. However, experimental characterizations of such alloys with diffraction methods are very rare. Here, we present results on thermal cycling of U-2Zr characterized by time-of-flight neutron powder diffraction, during which the beta-uranium phase was observed. The data is compared with results from U-0.5Ti, an analog to pure uranium with the addition of titanium atoms preventing the otherwise inevitable grain growth, inhibiting accurate characterization with diffraction methods.
