title: In situ heavy ion irradiation studies of nanopore shrinkage and enhanced radiation tolerance of nanoporous Au.
abstract: High energy particle radiations induce severe microstructural damage in metallic materials. Nanoporous materials with a giant surface-to-volume ratio may alleviate radiation damage in irradiated metallic materials as free surface are defect sinks. Here we show, by using in situ Kr ion irradiation in a transmission electron microscope at room temperature, that nanoporous Au indeed has significantly improved radiation tolerance comparing with coarse-grained, fully dense Au. In situ studies show that nanopores can absorb and eliminate a large number of radiation-induced defect clusters. Meanwhile, nanopores shrink (self-heal) during radiation, and their shrinkage rate is pore size dependent. Furthermore, the in situ studies show dose-rate-dependent diffusivity of defect clusters. This study sheds light on the design of radiation-tolerant nanoporous metallic materials for advanced nuclear reactor applications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3123, USA.
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3123, USA.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.affiliation: MPA-CINT, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
authors.forename: Q
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.|Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3128, USA.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.|Department of Mechanical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3123, USA.
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang