Tungsten coatings electro-deposited on CFC substrates from oxide molten salt

Tungsten is considered as plasma facing material in fusion devices because of its high melting point, its good thermal conductivity, its low erosion rate and its benign neutron activation properties. On the other hand, carbon based materials like C/C fiber composites (CFC) have been used for plasma facing materials (PFMs) due to their high thermal shock resistance, light weight and high strength. Tungsten coatings on CFC substrates are used in the JET divertor in the frame of the JET ITER-like wall project, and have been prepared by plasma spray (PS) and other techniques. In this study, tungsten coatings were electro-deposited on CFC from Na2WO4–WO3 molten salt under various deposition parameters at 900 °C in air. In order to obtain tungsten coatings with excellent performance, the effects of pulse duration ratio and pulse current density on microstructures and crystal structures of tungsten coatings were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD, Rigaku Industrial Co., Ltd., D/MAX-RB) and a scanning electron microscope (SEM, JSM 6480LV). It is found that the pulsed duration ratio and pulse current density had a significant influence on tungsten nucleation and electro-crystallization phenomena. SEM observation revealed that intact, uniform and dense tungsten coatings formed on the CFC substrates. Both the average grain size and thickness of the coating increased with the pulsed current density. The XRD results showed that the coatings consisted of a single phase of tungsten with the body centered cubic (BCC) structure. The oxygen content of electro-deposited tungsten coatings was lower than 0.05%, and the micro-hardness was about 400 HV.