Carbides for Future Fission Environments

Name: Dr Eugenio Zapata-Solvas

Supervisor: Prof Bill Lee

Sponsor: EPSRC

           The aim of this project is to develop new Zr-based carbides, including Zr-based MAX phases, for coating Zr-alloys cladding in fission reactors of future nuclear power plants. He is responsible for the synthesis, sintering by hot press and spark plasma sintering and microstructural characterization by XRD, SEM and TEM of the different Zr-based carbides. The research has been focused on the effect of processing and impurities in the synthesis of sub-stoichiometric ZrC_1-x, and Zr_n+1AlC_n and Zr_n+1SiC_n MAX phases, being able to synthesize Zr₃AlC₂ with the highest yield reported till date.