Grain growth inhibition in tungsten diboride radiation shielding via boron particle reinforcement
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Tungsten diboride is a candidate neutron shielding material for compact fusion reactors. The material’s tolerance for radiation induced swelling may be improved by refining the grain size. In this work, we have stabilised fine grain structures by reinforcing the WB2 matrix with a minor volume fraction of free boron particles. The particles restricted the average grain size to 1–2 μm below 2100 °C. Above this, the boundaries decoupled from the particles and the grain size became bimodal, with abnormally large and highly elongated grains (30–80 μm in diameter). The grain growth degraded hardness and indentation toughness, e.g. from 40 to 30 GPa at 0.1 kg load, and from 7.5 to 5.2 MPa m1/2 respectively. By contrast, it increased room temperature thermal conductivity from 36 to 51 W m−1 K−1 due to decreased phonon-boundary scattering. The study provides a design pathway for stabilising fine-grained materials that may have improved radiation damage tolerance.
Date Issued
2026-03-01
Date Acceptance
2025-09-29
Citation
Journal of the European Ceramic Society, 2026, 46 (3)
ISSN
0955-2219
Publisher
Elsevier
Journal / Book Title
Journal of the European Ceramic Society
Volume
46
Issue
3
Copyright Statement
© 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
License URL
Identifier
10.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2025.117862
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
117862
Date Publish Online
2025-09-30