Hydrogen isotope exchange in tungsten irradiated sequentially with low-energy deuterium and protium ions

Hydrogen isotope exchange in tungsten was investigated at various temperatures both after sequential exposure to low-energy deuterium (D) and protium (H) plasmas and after sequential irradiation with low-energy D and H ions. The methods used were thermal desorption spectroscopy, and the D((3)He, p)(4)He nuclear reaction at (3)He energies varied from 0.69 to 4.0MeV, allowing the determination of the D concentration at depths of up to 6 mu m. It was found that a major portion of the deuterium initially accumulated in the D-implanted W is released on subsequent exposure to H plasma or irradiation with H ions. Depth profiling of D without and with subsequent H implantation shows strong replacement close to the surface near room temperatures, but extending to all analyzable depths at elevated temperatures

Saturation of deuterium retention in self-damaged tungsten exposed to high-flux plasmas

Polycrystalline, annealed tungsten targets were bombarded with 12.3MeV W4+ ions to various damage levels. Deuterium was implanted by high-flux plasmas in Pilot-PSI (>10(24) m(-2) s(-1)) at a surface temperature below 525 K. Deuterium retention has been studied by nuclear reaction analysis and by thermal desorption spectroscopy. We found that deuterium retention is strongly enhanced by the tungsten bombardment and that saturation occurs at a W4+ fluence of about 3 x 10(17) m(-2). The maximum deuterium concentration in the damaged region was measured to be 1.4 at.%. This is in accordance with other experiments that were carried out at much lower fluxes. We therefore conclude that the saturation behaviour and the maximum retention are not affected by the high fluxes used in our experiments. A simple geometric model is presented that assumes that the saturation solely originates in the tungsten irradiation and that explains it in terms of overlapping saturated volumes. The saturated volume per incident MeV ion amounts to 3 x 10(4) nm(3). From our results, we are able to obtain an approximate value for the average occupation number of the vacancies

Spark Ablation for the Fabrication of PEM Water Electrolysis Catalyst-Coated Membranes

Proton-exchange-membrane (PEM) electrolyzers represent a promising technology for sustainable hydrogen production, owing to their efficiency and load flexibility. However, the acidic nature of PEM demands the use of platinum-group metal-electrocatalysts. Apart from the associated high capital costs, the scarcity of Ir hinders the large-scale implementation of the technology. Since low-cost replacements for Ir are not available at present, there is an urgent need to engineer catalyst-coated membranes (CCMs) with homogeneous catalyst layers at low Ir loadings. Efforts to realize this mainly rely on the development of advanced Ir nanostructures with maximized dispersion via wet chemistry routes. This study demonstrates the potential of an alternative vapor-based process, based on spark ablation and impaction, to fabricate efficient and durable Ir- and Pt-coated membranes. Our results indicate that spark-ablation CCMs can reduce the Ir demand by up to five times compared to commercial CCMs, without a compromise in activity. The durability of spark-ablation CCMs has been investigated by applying constant and dynamic load profiles for 150 h, indicating different degradation mechanisms for each case without major pitfalls. At constant load, an initial degradation in performance was observed during the first 30 h, but a stable degradation rate of 0.05 mV h-1 was sustained during the rest of the test. The present results, together with manufacturing aspects related to simplicity, costs and environmental footprint, suggest the high potential of spark ablation having practical applications in CCM manufacturing

Saturation of deuterium retention in self-damaged tungsten exposed to high-flux plasmas

Polycrystalline, annealed tungsten targets were bombarded with 12.3MeV W4+ ions to various damage levels. Deuterium was implanted by high-flux plasmas in Pilot-PSI (>10(24) m(-2) s(-1)) at a surface temperature below 525 K. Deuterium retention has been studied by nuclear reaction analysis and by thermal desorption spectroscopy. We found that deuterium retention is strongly enhanced by the tungsten bombardment and that saturation occurs at a W4+ fluence of about 3 x 10(17) m(-2). The maximum deuterium concentration in the damaged region was measured to be 1.4 at.%. This is in accordance with other experiments that were carried out at much lower fluxes. We therefore conclude that the saturation behaviour and the maximum retention are not affected by the high fluxes used in our experiments. A simple geometric model is presented that assumes that the saturation solely originates in the tungsten irradiation and that explains it in terms of overlapping saturated volumes. The saturated volume per incident MeV ion amounts to 3 x 10(4) nm(3). From our results, we are able to obtain an approximate value for the average occupation number of the vacancies