Corrosion behavior of magnetron sputtering Fe31Cr20Al17Ti16Nb16 high entropy coating in liquid lead-bismuth eutectic with different oxygen concentration at 500 °C

The major concern of the structure integrity of lead cooled reactor is the corrosion behavior of fuel cladding and other core internal materials. Magnetron sputtering technology is adopted as an surface coating method to improve the corrosion resistance of nuclear fuel cladding exposed to liquid lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE). Fe31Cr20Al17Ti16Nb16 high entropy alloy (HEA) coatings were prepared on tubular ferritic/martensitic (F/M) steel which is the candidate fuel cladding material, and the corrosion behaviors of Fe31Cr20Al17Ti16Nb16 coatings in LBE are investigated in this work. F/M steel specimens with Fe31Cr20Al17Ti16Nb16 coatings were exposed to 500 °C stagnant liquid LBE with oxygen concentration of Co ≈ 1 × 10−4 wt% and Co ≈ 1 × 10−7 wt% for 1000 h respectively. The primary findings suggest that the oxygen content of LBE mainly affects the morphology of duplex oxide layers generated during corrosion process, which resulting from the different inward diffusion flux of oxygen. In oxygen-saturated (Co ≈ 1 × 10−4 wt%) LBE, the overall oxide layer exhibits bulging and incompact morphology and infiltration of Pb is probed at inner Cr2O3 oxide layer, larger-sized cavities (the observed maximum dimension reaches 233.5 nm) distribute close to the outer Fe3O4/FeCr2O4 layer; In oxygen-depleted (Co ≈ 1 × 10−7 wt%) LBE, duplex oxide layer presents relatively dense and uniform state, tiny cavities (observed maximum dimension is 38.3 nm) dispersing at the internal of oxide areas. Corrosion rates of the Fe31Cr20Al17Ti16Nb16 coatings under two oxygen situations are 2 orders of magnitude lower than uncoated F/M steel under same exposure condition, the oxide layers with better uniformity and density produced in Co ≈ 1 × 10−7 wt% LBE indicating the better application advantage of Fe31Cr20Al17Ti16Nb16 coatings in oxygen-depleted LBE.