Atom probe tomography investigation of clustering in model P₂O₅-doped borosilicate glasses for nuclear waste vitrification
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Klupś, Przemyslaw
Skerratt-Love, Katrina
Kruger, Albert A
George, Jaime
Bell, Anthony Martin Thomas
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Atom probe tomography (APT) has been utilized to investigate the microstructure of two model borosilicate glasses designed to understand the solubility limits of phosphorous pentoxide (P2O5). This component is found in certain high-level radioactive defence wastes destined for vitrification, where phase separation can potentially lead to a number of issues relating to the processing of the glass and its long-term chemical and structural stability. The development of suitable focused ion beam (FIB)-preparation routes and APT analysis conditions were initially determined for the model glasses, before examining their detailed microstructures. In a 3.0 mol% P2O5-doped glass, both visual inspection and sensitive statistical analysis of the APT data show homogeneous microstructures, while raising the content to 4.0 mol% initiates the formation of phosphorus-enriched nanoscale precipitates. This study confirms the expected inhomogeneities and phase separation of these glasses and offers routes to characterizing these at near-atomic scale resolution using APT.
Date Issued
2024-12-01
Date Acceptance
2024-06-18
Citation
Microscopy and Microanalysis, 2024, 30 (6), pp.1083-1090
ISSN
1431-9276
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Start Page
1083
End Page
1090
Journal / Book Title
Microscopy and Microanalysis
Volume
30
Issue
6
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Microscopy Society of America. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
License URL
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2024-07-08