A high-throughput investigation of Fe–Cr–Al as a novel high-temperature coating for nuclear cladding materials

Abstract

High-temperature alloy coatings that can resist oxidation are urgently needed as nuclear cladding materials to mitigate the danger of hydrogen explosions during meltdown. Here we apply a combination of computationally guided materials synthesis, high-throughput structural characterization and data analysis tools to investigate the feasibility of coatings from the Fe–Cr–Al alloy system. Composition-spread samples were synthesized to cover the region of the phase diagram previous bulk studies have identified as forming protective oxides. The metallurgical and oxide phase evolution were studied via in situ synchrotron glancing incidence x-ray diffraction at temperatures up to 690 K. A composition region with an Al concentration greater than 3.08 at%, and between 20.0 at% and 32.9 at% Cr showed the least overall oxide growth. Subsequently, a series of samples were deposited on stubs and their oxidation behavior at 1373 K was observed. The continued presence of a passivating oxide was confirmed in this region over a period of 6 h.

Molten chloride salts for next generation concentrated solar power plants: Mitigation strategies against corrosion of structural materials

“…Such kinds of alloys including the alumina-forming austenitic (AFA) steels and ferritic Kanthal alloys have been successfully developed for high-temperature thermal applications [40,47]. Besides, these alloys with a high Al content can be considered not only as structural materials but also as coating materials [48][49].…”

Assessment of a High-Throughput Methodology for the Study of Alloy Oxidation using AlxFeyNi1–x–y Composition Gradient Thin Films

“…It appears that these considerations should make combinatorial screening an ideal approach for studying alloy passivation by Al 2 O 3 scale formation. However, despite the recent proliferation of combinatorial and high-throughput methods applied to a wide variety of other problems in materials science, we are aware of only a handful of studies by other authors ,− that have attempted to apply such methods to the study of Al-alloy oxidation.…”

High‐throughput methods using composition and structure spread libraries

“…The study of gas phase alloy oxidation can also be accelerated using high throughput methods . Ni/Al alloys are commonly referred to as superalloys because they maintain structural integrity at temperatures up to 80% of their melting points.…”