Q2. What contributions have the authors mentioned in the paper "Damages induced by heavy ions in titanium silicon carbide: effects of nuclear and electronic interactions at room temperature" ?
Among those studied, the Ti3SiC2 ternary compound can be distinguished for its noteworthy mechanical properties: the nanolamellar structure imparts to this material some softness as well as better toughness than other classical carbides such as SiC or TiC.
Q3. What is the explanation for the amorphisation of Ti3SiC2?
Irradiation induced microstrains seem to be an appropriate explanation since an expansion of the unit cell was also noted for Ti3SiC2.
Q4. What is the effect of the low energy irradiation on the structure of the Ti?
It brings out both a decrease of the peak intensity of the three phases as a function of the Au fluence from 1014 cm-2, and an increase of the baseline.
Q5. What is the effect of the ion fluence on the surface of Ti3Si?
When Se is higher than Seth (threshold electronic stopping power), melting of the cylindrical zone followed by cooling and resolidification lead to the formation of amorphous tracks inside the material.
Q6. What is the effect of the low energy irradiation on the surface of Ti3?
In fact, orientation of the basal planes of the Ti3SiC2 hexagonal close-packed structure perpendicularly to the ion beam would lower the ion channeling effects inside the lattice, and so would increase the sputtering yield; therefore, as a function of the crystallite orientation, the sputtering yield would vary and so lead to this kind of microstructure.
Q7. How many runs of irradiation were performed?
In order to understand the effects of both nuclear and electronic interactions on Ti3SiC2, two runs of irradiation were performed.
Q8. What is the effect of the fluence on the unit cell?
Estimating the parameters of the unit cell as a function of the fluence (Fig. 6), an expansion of the unit cell along the c axis without significant variation of the unit volume may be underlined.
Q9. What is the effect of the ion fluence on the Ti3SiC2?
This phenomenon, which is more important at the near surface (where Se is maximum), leads to high stresses and strains that would result in a flow of matter to form one hill by each ion.
Q10. What is the reason for the formation of hills?
On the other hand, electronic interactions induce the amorphisation of only Ti3SiC2, expansion of the Ti3SiC2 unit cell along the c axis, and the formation of “hills”, the latter of which remains misunderstood yet.
Q11. What are the results of the synthesis of Ti3SiC2?
At the beginning of the '90s, Pampuch et al. [3,4] and Lis et al. [5-7] led works on the pure bulk Ti3SiC2 synthesis; their best results were compounds with 80-90 % purity, impurities being TiCx and TiSi2.
Q12. What are the main characteristics of the GIF?
These systems are characterised by an increased security level, better economic competitiveness, and an ability to recycle all the fuel in order to upgrade to a fissionable material and minimize longlived waste production by transmutation.
Q13. What is the effect of the diffraction plane on the surface of Ti3Si?
the authors can notice a modification of the unit cell of this compound; the peak initially located at 40.9°, relative to the (00l) diffraction planes, is shifted to lower 2θ as a function of the fluence.
Q14. What is the XRD angle of the Ti3SiC2?
The XRD analysis was realised under a 3° incidence angle (Fig. 5), which corresponds to an X-ray penetration depth of 720 nm in Ti3SiC2.
Q15. What is the purpose of this study?
the aim of this study is a better knowledge of the behaviour under irradiation of Ti3SiC2, whose otherwise outstanding properties allow its consideration it as a cladding material for future fuels.
Q16. What is the reason for the bumps?
Nevertheless these explanations are not valid in their case: first, the density of hills is about 105 lower than the fluence, so thermal spikes cannot account for the bumps; second, this type of relief are only noted from 1015 cm-2 (not at lower fluences), so bumps are not due to agglomeration.
Q17. What did they find out about the ternary Ti3SiC2?
like Goto et al. [8] some years before, they noted that the hardness of this carbide decreases as the applied load increases; this property led them to qualify Ti3SiC2 as a “ductile ceramic”.
Q18. What are the reasons for the amorphisation of Ti3SiC2?
Amorphisation can be explained by several processes such as the formation of amorphous tracks by thermal spikes, irradiation induced microstrains in the unit cell, or a drop-off of the crystallite size.