TY - JOUR
T1 - Radiation Effects in the Crystalline-Amorphous SiOC Polymer-Derived Ceramics
T2 - Insights from Experiments and Molecular Dynamics Simulation
AU - Niu, Min
AU - Gao, Hongfei
AU - Zhao, Zihao
AU - Wang, Hongjie
AU - Su, Lei
AU - Zhuang, Lei
AU - Jia, Shuhai
AU - Navrotsky, Alexandra
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors appreciate the financial support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51772237 and 11905166) and the Basic Research Plan of Natural Science in Shaanxi Province (2020JQ-002). Basic Research Plan of Natural Science in Foundation under grant number 1743701, which assisted in data analysis, interpretation, and manuscript preparation, is gratefully acknowledged.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 American Chemical Society.
PY - 2021/8/25
Y1 - 2021/8/25
N2 - Radiation-tolerant materials are in great demand for safe operation and advancement of nuclear and aerospace systems. Nanostructuring is a key strategy to improve the radiation tolerance of materials. SiOC polymer-derived ceramics (PDCs) are unique synthetic nanocomposites consisting of β-SiC nanocrystals and turbostratic graphite distributed in amorphous SiOC matrix, which are "all-rounder"materials for many advanced structural and functional applications. Radiation effects in the crystalline-amorphous system have been investigated in detail by experiments and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The results indicate that the amorphous SiOC structure retains amorphous accompanied by redistribution of the Si-containing tetrahedra. The graphite is shown to amorphize more easily than β-SiC nanocrystals under the same irradiation condition. The sample richer in oxygen, namely, containing more amorphous SiOC, shows less disordering of graphite, resulting from greater mitigation of radiation damage by the amorphous phase as efficient sinks. This study provides details of the microstructure evolution of SiOC PDCs under ion irradiation, as well as insights for the design and development of advanced ion damage-resistant materials.
AB - Radiation-tolerant materials are in great demand for safe operation and advancement of nuclear and aerospace systems. Nanostructuring is a key strategy to improve the radiation tolerance of materials. SiOC polymer-derived ceramics (PDCs) are unique synthetic nanocomposites consisting of β-SiC nanocrystals and turbostratic graphite distributed in amorphous SiOC matrix, which are "all-rounder"materials for many advanced structural and functional applications. Radiation effects in the crystalline-amorphous system have been investigated in detail by experiments and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The results indicate that the amorphous SiOC structure retains amorphous accompanied by redistribution of the Si-containing tetrahedra. The graphite is shown to amorphize more easily than β-SiC nanocrystals under the same irradiation condition. The sample richer in oxygen, namely, containing more amorphous SiOC, shows less disordering of graphite, resulting from greater mitigation of radiation damage by the amorphous phase as efficient sinks. This study provides details of the microstructure evolution of SiOC PDCs under ion irradiation, as well as insights for the design and development of advanced ion damage-resistant materials.
KW - MD simulations
KW - amorphous SiOC
KW - crystalline β-SiC
KW - graphite
KW - microstructure evolution
KW - radiation effects
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U2 - 10.1021/acsami.1c10917
DO - 10.1021/acsami.1c10917
M3 - Article
C2 - 34383473
AN - SCOPUS:85114032102
SN - 1944-8244
VL - 13
SP - 40106
EP - 40117
JO - ACS applied materials & interfaces
JF - ACS applied materials & interfaces
IS - 33
ER -