Great structural stability of irradiated graphite after testing in molten Li2BeF4 salt

One IG-110 graphite sample was irradiated with 2 MeV Xe20+ ions to a fluence of 2.4 × 1015 ions/cm2. Then the irradiated sample and one un-irradiated sample were tested in molten Li2BeF4 salt at a pressure of 0.3 MPa for 20 h, in order to investigate irradiation's effects on graphite-Li2BeF4 salt compatibility. For both samples, the intruded salt have round surfaces and spherical salt particles with sizes <2 μm were shown on samples' surface, indicating that irradiation did not change the non-wettability of Li2BeF4 salt to graphite. Besides, testing in molten Li2BeF4 salt did not have obvious effects on graphite's surface morphology and Raman peaks, indicating that chemical attack did not happen to irradiated graphite. Therefore, irradiated graphite has a great structural stability in molten Li2BeF4 salt.