PNNL

Abstract

Grain growth studies of nanograined metals under both thermal and ion irradiation conditions has been studied extensively [1-2]. Oxides, on the other hand, have not been studied as extensively, especially under irradiation. Some studies have focused on nanograined oxide grain growth on ZnO under thermal conditions [3] only and on SnO2 and CeO2 using 250 keV Ar2+ and 3 MeV Au+ ions at 300 K [4-5], respectively. There does not appear to be any studies on grain growth of nanosized oxides which are commonly found to form under light water reactor conditions. Oxides such as magnetite (Fe3O4), hematite (a-Fe2O3), maghemite (?-Fe2O3), and wustite (FeO) are examples of common oxides which have not been studied. This study focused on the grain growth of nanograined Fe3O4 under both thermal and ion irradiation conditions in situ inside a Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) to better understand the kinetics of grain growth of oxides.