abstract
Ti-foils are currently used as a spallation target material to produce radioisotopes for physics research at the ISOLDE facility at CERN. However, radioisotope production rates often decrease over time due to material degradation from high operation temperatures. Due to enhanced release rates, porous nanomaterials are being studied as spallation target materials for isotope production. TiC is a material with a very high melting point making it an interesting material to replace the Ti-foils. However, in its nanometric form it sinters readily at high temperatures. To overcome this, a new processing route was developed where TiC was co-milled with graphite, carbon black or multi-wall carbon nanotubes in order to hinder the sintering of TiC. The obtained nanocomposite particle sizes, density, specific surface area and porosity were characterized and compared using ANOVA. All carbon allotropes mixed with the TiC, were able to successfully stabilize the nanometric TiC, hindering its sintering up to 1500 degrees C for 10 h. 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.
keywords
NUCLEAR-REACTION PRODUCTS; TITANIUM CARBIDE; MECHANICAL-PROPERTIES; COMPOSITES; RELEASE; POWDERS; ISOLDE; TARGET; BEAMS; NANOPARTICLES
subject category
Materials Science
authors
Ramos, JP; Senos, AMR; Stora, T; Fernandes, CM; Bowen, P
our authors
Ana Maria de Oliveira e Rocha Senos
Collaborator
Cristina Maria da Silva Fernandes
CollaboratorGroups
G2 - Photonic, Electronic and Magnetic Materials
G3 - Electrochemical Materials, Interfaces and Coatings
acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge Carlos Morais for the technical expertise with the attrition milling, Filipe Oliveira, for lending the dilatometer equipment and Prof. Jacques Lemaitre for the ANOVA - analysis of variance - calculation tools and interesting discussions. We would like to acknowledge as well Orion Engineered Carbons, S.A. for supplying the carbon black for this study as well as CERN and EPFL for funding this research project.