Energetic, crystallographic and diffusion characteristics of hydrogen isotopes in iron

Energetic, crystallographic and diffusion characteristics of various interstitial configurations of H atoms and their complexes with self-point defects (SIA - self-interstitial atom, V - vacancy) in bcc iron have been calculated by molecular statics and molecular dynamics using Fe-H interatomic interaction potential developed by Ramasubramaniam et al. (2009) and modified by the authors of the present work and Fe-Fe matrix potential M07 developed by Malerba et al. (2010). The most energetically favorable configuration of an interstitial H atom is tetrahedral configuration. The energy barrier for H atom migration is 0.04 eV. The highest binding energy of all the considered complexes “vacancy - H atom” and “SIA - H atom” is 0.54 and 0.15 eV, respectively. The binding energy of H atom with edge dislocations in slip systems 〈1 1 1〉{1 1 0}, 〈1 1 1〉{1 1 2}, 〈1 0 0〉{1 0 0}, 〈1 0 0〉{1 1 0} is 0.32, 0.30, 0.45, 0.54 eV, respectively. The binding energy of H atom in VHn complexes (n = 1 … 15) decreases from 0.54 to 0.35 eV with increasing of n from 1 to 6. At n > 6, it decreases to ∼0.1 eV. The temperature dependences of hydrogen isotopes (P, D, T) diffusivities have been calculated for the temperature range 70-1800 K. Arrhenius-type dependencies describe the calculated data at temperatures T < 100 K. At T > 250 K, the temperature dependencies of the diffusivities DP, DD, DT have a parabolic form. The diffusivities of H isotopes are within 10% at room temperature. The isotope effect becomes stronger at higher temperatures, e.g., ratios DP/DD and DP/DT at 1800 K equal 1.23 and 1.40, respectively.