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Uranium Hydride Formation Study as Observed by Scanning Surface Potential Imaging

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2011

Marilyn E. Hawley ,
Mary Ann Hill ,
Yongqiang Wang  and
Roland K. Schulze
Marilyn E. Hawley
Affiliation:
hawley@lanl.gov, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Materials Science and Technology, P.O. Box 1663, Bikini-Atoll Rd, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, United States
Mary Ann Hill
Affiliation:
mahill@lanl.gov, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Materials Science and Technology Division, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, United States
Yongqiang Wang
Affiliation:
yqwang@lanl.gov, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Materials Science and Technology Division, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, United States
Roland K. Schulze
Affiliation:
rkschulze@lanl.gov, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Materials Science and Technology Division, Los Alamos, NM, 87545, United States
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Abstract

Uranium is an extremely important material for commercial and military applications (i.e. nuclear power, nuclear weapons, conventional weapons, and armor systems) and, like a number of other materials, is vulnerable to corrosion by environmental gases that affect their properties, leading to component degradation, shortened lifetimes and materials failure. For uranium this is particularly true in the case of corrosion by hydrogen. A fundamental understanding of the corrosion process at the nucleation stage is of critical importance. The goal of this work is to study the role of common chemical impurities in uranium with initiation sites for the formation of destructive hydride blisters. Samples were implanted with various ions, annealed under vacuum at 200°C, than exposed to one atm of ultra-pure hydrogen. Scanning force microscopy surface potential imaging was used to characterize the structure and corresponding electrical properties of polycrystalline uranium surfaces that resulted from the implantation of different suspect atoms after exposure to hydrogen gas. Surface potential images revealed features related to different oxide structures and hydride spots/blisters as well as other features not obvious in the corresponding topograph. In the surface potential images, blisters appear as bright (higher potential) features in sharp contrast to the uranium oxide background. Often a possible inclusion was observed in the center of a blister. Blister formation did not appear to correlate with implantation of any specific specie, however, distinct differences were seen between implanted and non implanted sides of the same sample.

Keywords

actinidecorrosionion-implantation
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 986: Symposium OO – Actinides 2006 – Basic Science, Applications and Technology , 2006 , 0986-OO05-06
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2007

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