The message of my PhD Thesis in one picture

As you well know, my PhD thesis is now online for public consulting. It took me a lot of time to get this thesis (gooosh!) in a good shape and I am very proud of the final result. I hope you guys also enjoy the reading.

This afternoon I was thinking about a picture within my PhD Thesis that has the potential to express the full message of my PhD work. In fact this image exists!

What you see in figure 7.18 is the example of how energetic particle irradiation can induce different responses in materials.

Row 7.18(a–b) shows the microstructural evolution of a high-entropy alloy thin film (HEATF) as a function of the irradiation dose whilst row 7.18(d–f) shows the microstructural evolution of conventional titanium nitride (TiN) thin films as a function of the irradiation dose. Both coatings were subjected to similar irradiation conditions.

A notorious result can be noticed: the Xe bubbles are extraordinarily big in the TiN when compared with the HEATF, which can barely be seen. Of course, under the experimental conditions tested in my PhD work, TiN thin films were not resistant to energetic particle irradiation bombardment: the reason for this was the discovery of radiation-induced segregation that occurs within the TiN matrix as a result of the crystal dissociation. Nevertheless, TiN thin films were part of a big USA-sponsored project on Accident Tolerant Fuels which aimed at to make zirconium alloys within nuclear reactors safer when under loss-of-coolant accident conditions (i.e. high-temperatures).

Full coverage of these results are available in the respective papers:

M.A. Tunes et al. Energetic particle irradiation study of TiN coatings: are these films appropriate for accident tolerant fuels? Journal of Nuclear Materials, Volume 512, 2018, Pages 239-245. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2018.10.013

M.A. Tunes et al. A candidate accident tolerant fuel system based on a highly concentrated alloy thin film, Materials Today Energy, Volume 12, 2019, Pages 356-362. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtener.2019.03.004