Irradiation studies on carbon nanotube-reinforced boron carbide

Radiation response of carbon nanotube (CNT) reinforced boron carbide composite has been studied for its application as a structural component in nuclear engineering. The composite was bombarded by 140 keV He ions at room temperature to a fluence ranging from 1 × 1014 to 1 × 1017 cm−2. Two-dimensional Raman mapping shows inhomogeneous distribution of CNTs, and was used to select regions of interest for damage characterization. For CNTs, the intensities ratio of D–G bands (ID/IG) increased with fluence up to a certain value, and decreased at the fluence of 5 × 1016 cm−2. This fluence also corresponds to a trend break in the plot of FWHM (full width at half maximum) of G band vs. ID/IG ratio, which indicates amorphization of CNTs. The study shows that Raman spectroscopy is a powerful tool to quantitatively characterize radiation damage in CNT-reinforced composites.