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. 2022 May 11;12(10):1642.
doi: 10.3390/nano12101642.

Isostatic Hot Pressed W-Cu Composites with Nanosized Grain Boundaries: Microstructure, Structure and Radiation Shielding Efficiency against Gamma Rays

Daria I Tishkevich  1   2 , Tatiana I Zubar  1   2 , Alexander L Zhaludkevich  1 , Ihar U Razanau  1 , Tatiana N Vershinina  3   4 , Anastasia A Bondaruk  1 , Ekaterina K Zheleznova  1   5 , Mengge Dong  6 , Mohamed Y Hanfi  7   8 , M I Sayyed  9   10 , Maxim V Silibin  11 , Sergei V Trukhanov  1 , Alex V Trukhanov  1   2   12
Affiliations

Isostatic Hot Pressed W-Cu Composites with Nanosized Grain Boundaries: Microstructure, Structure and Radiation Shielding Efficiency against Gamma Rays

Daria I Tishkevich et al. Nanomaterials (Basel). .

Abstract

The W-Cu composites with nanosized grain boundaries and high effective density were fabricated using a new fast isostatic hot pressing method. A significantly faster method was proposed for the formation of W-Cu composites in comparison to the traditional ones. The influence of both the high temperature and pressure conditions on the microstructure, structure, chemical composition, and density values were observed. It has been shown that W-Cu samples have a polycrystalline well-packed microstructure. The copper performs the function of a matrix that surrounds the tungsten grains. The W-Cu composites have mixed bcc-W (sp. gr. Im 3¯ m) and fcc-Cu (sp. gr. Fm 3¯ m) phases. The W crystallite sizes vary from 107 to 175 nm depending on the sintering conditions. The optimal sintering regimes of the W-Cu composites with the highest density value of 16.37 g/cm3 were determined. Tungsten-copper composites with thicknesses of 0.06-0.27 cm have been fabricated for the radiation protection efficiency investigation against gamma rays. It has been shown that W-Cu samples have a high shielding efficiency from gamma radiation in the 0.276-1.25 MeV range of energies, which makes them excellent candidates as materials for radiation protection.

Keywords: gamma rays; isostatic hot pressing; microstructure; radiation shielding; structure; tungsten–copper composite.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic view of the isostatic hot pressing (A), sample preparation container with graphite heating element and W–Cu samples (insert) (B), radiation shields based on W–Cu composite with a 2.0 × 2.0 cm2 size and different thicknesses (C), and a schematic view of the sintering process (D).
Figure 2
Figure 2
The scheme of radiation protection efficiency evaluation.
Figure 3
Figure 3
SEM images of the initial W powder (A), Cu powder (B), mixed and milled W–Cu powder (C), and corresponding grain size distribution (D–F). Inserts: EDX maps of elemental distribution.
Figure 4
Figure 4
SEM image (A) and EDX map (B) of the W–Cu composite sample.
Figure 5
Figure 5
SEM images of the W–Cu composite samples of I type obtained in different sintering conditions and corresponding enlarged images: A–C—Sample 1, D–F—Sample 2, G–I—Sample 3, J–L—Sample 4, M–O—Sample 5, and P–R—Sample 6. Insert: SEM image of the initial copper powder used for the sample preparation.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Distribution of the Cu phase sizes of the W–Cu samples of the I type: (A)—Sample 1, (B)—Sample 2, (C)—Sample 3, (D)—Sample 4, (E)—Sample 5, and (F)—Sample 6.
Figure 7
Figure 7
XRD patterns of W–Cu composite samples obtained in different sintering conditions.
Figure 8
Figure 8
The dependence of effective and relative densities of the W–Cu composite on temperature (A) and pressure (B) values.
Figure 9
Figure 9
The variation of ln(I0/I) with the thickness (x, cm) of the W–Cu composites at different incident gamma photon energies.
Figure 10
Figure 10
RPE values of the W–Cu composite with different thicknesses depending on the incident gamma photon energy.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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