Atom Probe Tomography Investigation of Clustering in Model P2O5-Doped Borosilicate Glasses for Nuclear Waste Vitrification

KLUPS, P, SKERRATT-LOVE, Katrina, KRUGER, Albert, GEORGE, Jaime, BELL, Anthony, BINGHAM, Paul, MOODY, M and BAGOT, Paul (2024). Atom Probe Tomography Investigation of Clustering in Model P2O5-Doped Borosilicate Glasses for Nuclear Waste Vitrification. Microscopy and Microanalysis.

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Abstract

Atom Probe Tomography (APT) has been utilised 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. 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 shows homogeneous microstructures, while raising the content to 4.0 mol% initiates formation of phosphorus-enriched nanoscale precipitates. This study confirms expected inhomogeneities and phase separation of these glasses, and offers routes to characterising these at near-atomic scale resolution using APT.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	0204 Condensed Matter Physics; 0601 Biochemistry and Cell Biology; 0912 Materials Engineering; Microscopy; 3101 Biochemistry and cell biology; 4016 Materials engineering
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Elements
Depositing User:	Symplectic Elements
Date Deposited:	19 Jun 2024 14:17
Last Modified:	19 Jun 2024 14:30
URI:	https://shura.shu.ac.uk/id/eprint/33856

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