Development of Electrospray Laser Chemical Vapour Deposition for Homogenous Alumina Coatings

Electrospray,as a liquid source supply system,has been applied to chemical vapour deposition（CVD）.In thermal CVD,the microstructure of the obtained films changes from dense to coarse granular because of the decreasing surface temperature during deposition.Using the electrospray laser chemical vapour deposition method,we prepared homogenous alumina coatings.We found that laser irradiation was effective in compensating the surface temperature decrease,and an alpha-alumina coating with dense columnar microstructures was obtained at a deposition rate of 200 μm/h using 200 W Nd：YAG laser irradiation.

Synthesis and characterization of carbon-coated cobalt ferrite nanoparticles

Cobalt ferrite nanoparticles（CFNPs） were prepared via a reverse micelle method. The CFNPs were subsequently coated with carbon shells by means of thermal chemical vapor deposition（TCVD）. In this process, acetylene gas（C2H2） was used as a carbon source and the coating was carried out for 1, 2, or 3 h at 750℃. The Ar/C2H2 ratio was 10：1. Heating during the TCVD process resulted in a NP core size that approached 30 nm; the thickness of the shell was less than 10 nm. The composition, structure, and morphology of the fabricated composites were characterized using X-ray diffraction, simultaneous thermal analysis, transmission electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, and selected-area diffraction. A vibrating sample magnetometer was used to survey the samples＇ magnetic properties. The deposited carbon shell substantially affected the growth and magnetic properties of the CFNPs. Micro-Raman spectroscopy was used to study the carbon coating and revealed that the deposited carbon comprised graphite, multiwalled carbon nanotubes, and diamond-like carbon. With an increase in coating time, the intensity ratio between the amorphous and ordered peaks in the Raman spectra decreased, which indicated an increase in crystallite size.

A novel coated-particle design and fluidized-bed chemical vapor deposition preparation method for fuel-element identification in a nuclear reactor

Particle coating is an important method that can be used to expand particle-technology applications. Coated-particle design and preparation for nuclear fuel-element trajectory tracing were focused on in this paper. Particles that contain elemental cobalt were selected because of the characteristic gamma ray spectra of 60Co. A novel particle-structure design was proposed by coating particles that contain elemental cobalt with a high-density silicon-carbide （SiC） layer. During the coating process with the high-density SiC layer, cobalt metal was formed and diffused towards the coating, so an inner SiC–CoxSi layer was designed and obtained by fluidized-bed chemical vapor deposition coupled with in-situ chemical reaction. The coating layers were studied by X-ray diffractometry, scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy techniques. The chemical composition was also determined by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry. The novel particle design can reduce the formation of metallic cobalt and prevent cobalt diffusion in the coating process, which can maintain safety in a nuclear reactor for an extended period. The experimental results also validated that coated particles maintain their structural integrity at extremely high temperatures （～1950 °C）, which meets the requirements of next-generation nuclear reactors.