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Hydrogen embrittlement of tungsten induced by deuterium plasma: Insights from nanoindentation tests

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 September 2018

Xufei Fang*
Affiliation:
Structure and Nano-/Micromechanics of Materials, Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH, Düsseldorf 40237, Germany
Arkadi Kreter
Affiliation:
Institut für Energie- und Klimaforschung – Plasmaphysik, Partner of the Trilateral Euregio Cluster (TEC), Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich 52425, Germany
Marcin Rasinski
Affiliation:
Institut für Energie- und Klimaforschung – Plasmaphysik, Partner of the Trilateral Euregio Cluster (TEC), Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich 52425, Germany
Christoph Kirchlechner
Affiliation:
Structure and Nano-/Micromechanics of Materials, Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH, Düsseldorf 40237, Germany
Steffen Brinckmann*
Affiliation:
Structure and Nano-/Micromechanics of Materials, Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH, Düsseldorf 40237, Germany
Christian Linsmeier
Affiliation:
Institut für Energie- und Klimaforschung – Plasmaphysik, Partner of the Trilateral Euregio Cluster (TEC), Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich 52425, Germany
Gerhard Dehm
Affiliation:
Structure and Nano-/Micromechanics of Materials, Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH, Düsseldorf 40237, Germany
*
a)Address all correspondence to these authors. e-mail: x.fang@mpie.de
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Abstract

Hydrogen exposure has been found to result in metal embrittlement. In this work, we use nanoindentation to study the mechanical properties of polycrystalline tungsten subjected to deuterium plasma exposure. For the purpose of comparison, nanoindentation tests on exposed and unexposed reference tungsten were carried out. The results exhibit a decrease in the pop-in load and an increase in hardness on the exposed tungsten sample after deuterium exposure. No significant influence of grain orientation on the pop-in load was observed. After a desorption time of td ≥ 168 h, both the pop-in load and hardness exhibit a recovering trend toward the reference state without deuterium exposure. The decrease of pop-in load is explained using the defactant theory, which suggests that the presence of deuterium facilitates the dislocation nucleation. The increase of hardness is discussed based on two possible mechanisms of the defactant theory and hydrogen pinning of dislocations.

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Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2018 

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References

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